RESPONDING TO COVID AT THE AGO

(Fun)draising | Samantha Summers

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When COVID-19 closures began back in March, the GLAM community had to quickly evaluate how it approached philanthropy. With Canadians increasing their giving to front-line workers and directing it away from the arts, GLAM institutions had to put serious thought into what their needs were and how to support their donor community. I sat down with AGO Chief Development Officer Kate Halpenny to learn more about how the AGO acted quickly to address our new normal.

The AGO at dusk. (Source)

I’d love to hear more about how you’ve tackled the pandemic.


It hasn’t been easy, for sure. I think we all feel like this is the great leadership challenge of our careers. Hopefully we’re rising to it. I don’t know how other organizations are tackling it, but right from the get-go the AGO senior leadership team really shifted gears to work very closely together on a daily basis, to tackle every issue coming our way. It’s a very large organization and museums are very complex environments to work in. It’s been really great that the museum sector has a very strong network between the directors of the museums, and they’ve been on regular calls together to figure out strategy. In Toronto there’s been quite a strong connectivity between all the arts organizations, because we’re all facing similar situations.


How has this impacted development, specifically? I imagine there are opportunities and challenges created by this.


Yet to be determined. It’s an evolving question. What we found in the first months of the severe lockdown of the pandemic was that there was a shift amongst philanthropists to the front-line, with incredibly generous support to hospitals, poverty organizations, etc. It was a wonderful thing, and I think in the arts we all recognized early on that was not the point in time to be asking for gifts. It was the time to be there for our donors, be empathetic to their individual circumstances and what they’re going through, because everyone is going through this in a different way. We focussed on connectivity with our donors, so we were not just communicating with them, but engaging them with all that we are as an institution. Interestingly, our fiscal year ends March 31st, so we were pretty concerned that we weren’t going to be able to achieve our goals. We were very, very pleased and grateful that our donors really stuck with us, and everybody that had an outstanding commitment was able to meet that. We’ve done multiple budgeting scenarios. Things change. We found our major corporate partners have been amazing, really supportive. I think that on the corporate side, people are hanging on right now, but given the length of time this is going on there’s a potential for more job loss, potentially companies going bankrupt, they’re very tenuous in terms of future commitments. I wonder if the reverberations of the pandemic will be felt in the next fiscal, even, and not just this fiscal. Time will tell. The other softness will be in our annual giving. Those are gifts where people might be on a tighter budget, versus a major foundation that has to carry on with their giving. It’s changed our perspective on things. Definitely new strategies, and we have some projections but we don’t have a clear sense of whether it’s going to be possible. 

Interior shot of the AGO. (Source.)

And the same issues are playing out at every level in the sector.


We have to be really careful in what we’re asking right now and be super sensitive to the situations people are finding themselves in. We can’t assume that just because someone gave over the past few years they can this year, we need to be having those conversations. We’re just now going out to start doing major gifts requests, we’ve put a pause on them for a while, so it’ll be interesting over the next couple of months to see what happens from there.


This is the time to care, then.


I believe, particularly in the arts, the donor community is a real community. The communities that come together around art forms are really passionate. They’re people who are committed over long periods of time. This is a time to say thank you for all of that long-standing commitment.


You’ve touched on how the goal posts and the plans change every day. Seeing all of this play out, has it impacted or changed how you see or understand development in the sector?


It’s been a bit of a shake-up. I think we’ve had a couple of decades now in Canada where we have been very focused and reliant on major gifts, and really reliant on a very small segment of philanthropists in our city to be giving. I feel like right now we really need to have a more robust strategy. It can’t just be focussed on that. The whole fundraising pyramid, the whole goal has always been to bring people in at the bottom and bring them up, and the resources are focussed on major gifts. We need to look at how to expand our donor bases a lot more. The most interesting aspect of the time we’re in right now is that we have the pandemic, but layered on top of that we have this significant social change that’s happening, and the AGO certainly feels quite connected to that change. That’s begging many questions as well around the way we sustain ourselves through philanthropy. I think we’re all going to be reshaping our business. Like glitzy events. The arts are quite famous for incredible events, but maybe we can have another kind of special event. 

Interior shot of the AGO staircase. (Source.)

The AGO is coming out with endless social media materials, which have been really impressive.


That was a seismic shift, moving online that quickly. We really went for it. We wanted to shower people with content and to carry people through that time when everyone was at home and couldn’t go anywhere. As we look forward to the rest of this fiscal [year], the online piece is going to be much more significant than the in-person piece. I think we will always now have an online component to our work that engages people. We want them to come to the museum, but they can also engage from home.


What’s your favourite thing that has been achieved through your work at the AGO?


The AGO is an incredibly dynamic organization. There’s so much Toronto art history at the AGO, but it’s also so forward-thinking and progressive. We have a vision right now that’s all about opening up our doors and being as relevant to the Toronto that is now and will be in the future and everybody who lives here. Also, trying to lead more global conversations that can happen through art. That’s powerful. For me, as a development person, I’m most attracted to a really strong vision. There are so many brilliant people who are doing fascinating things at the AGO. To have so many voices at the table all the time to figure out what we’re doing is pretty rich. For all the people on our fundraising team, they would probably say the same thing. There’s never a dull moment, and we feel like we’re fundraising for exhibitions, for collections, for programming, but really? We’re fundraising for our art to be the voice of our time and to be this central meeting ground for people to be inspired by the power of art, but also to dialogue with each other and to figure out our world and how we’re going to respond to it. What better case for support can you have as a fundraiser? I get to think about that every day.

FREE UPCOMING TALKS AND EVENTS THAT ARE (SHOCKINGLY) ONLINE

 Friday Special | Erika Serodio

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Lately, I’ve been trying to think about those things that were hard in a pre-pandemic world and are easier now. Things like commuting to class in the morning, spending all afternoon working in the library, and then really dreading that evening workshop or lecture I had previously added to my agenda. Sometimes I would just call it a day and go home instead of attending. I promise myself that when this is all over, I’m never going to be home again. Catch me at every social engagement, evening lecture, etc. etc., forever, for the rest of my life, cross my heart and hope to die. But until then, I’m telling myself, isn’t it nice that after a long day of sitting at my desk, I can curl up on my couch with a bowl of popcorn (glass of wine) and attend a lecture with outstanding museum professionals from all over the world? A past version of myself would have loved this. Current me – a silver lining. 

A Silver Lining | Source

Anyway, join me in making the most of this twisted world. And remember that if you make it to that zoom lecture, and you decide that A. you've been zooming enough lately, or B. it's not your thing, oops!  Technical difficulties! Back to Netflix. But I do hope you find something in this list that you enjoy. And I invite you to link to any other interesting events in the comments section. 

ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home

Start your Friday night off right with the Met’s resident string quartet playing live in your living room:

Friday, October 23, 2020 (& every Friday for the rest of 2020)
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM EST
Free admission


Becoming Public Art: Working Models & Case Studies for Art in Public

Spend your Tuesday afternoons learning from industry experts on the forces shaping public art making today. Presented by the City of Markham and ART+PUBLIC UnLtd. 

October 13 to December 8, 2020
Every Tuesday from 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM EST
Free admission, Registration required


Rayyane Tabet / Alien Property: In Light of What We Know Now

Sit in on a conversation between Met curators and contemporary artist Rayyane Tabet as they consider how their perspectives on an exhibition have changed with respect to global events this past year. 

Wednesday, October 28, 2020
6 PM EST
Free admission, Registration required


ART CONNECTS | Fall Reading Session With Indigenous Brilliance

Join Afuwa, Emily Dundas Oke, Jónína Kirton, and Michelle Sylliboy for a poetic and artistic response to the Vancouver Art Gallery's current exhibition: Uncommon Language. 

Thursday, October 29, 2020
7 PM EST (4 PM PST)
Free admission

Innovate: Public Spaces with Silo Studio

Visit with a curator from the Victoria & Albert Museum and two London-based designers who focus on designing for community spaces. 

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

12 PM EST (5 PM UK)

Free admission

AGO Live: Brendan Fernandes: The Left Space

This choreographed performance will use the grid formation of zoom to connect a team of dancers from their homes around the world, while engaging with the language of protests in our current time of global political uprisings. An interview between the artist and curator will follow.

Friday, November 6, 2020
7 PM EST
Free admission, Registration required

THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF THE AGO

Weekend Edition | Jessica Lanziner

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The Art Gallery of Ontario reopened to visitors with annual passes on July 2nd and is reopening to the public on July 23rd. I was at the AGO on the last day it was open, nearly 4 months ago on March 13th, frantically rushing to get in and gather enough information on an exhibit in order to finish a class assignment before the shutdown. And while that day feels like a lifetime ago, the AGO is still there and it is just the same. . . but also different.

I have been going to the Art Gallery of Ontario for as long as I can remember – but my return visit on July 5th was unlike any other visit I had experienced before. There were no funky modern seating options in any exhibition spaces, no children in the AGO summer camp, and no "Pop Up On the Dot" tours. What there was, however, was a plentiful number of masked visitors. Before the City of Toronto implemented a mandatory mask bylaw, the AGO had already announced that masks would be mandatory for all visitors upon the reopening. And I can confirm, I did not see even one person without a mask – or even wearing a mask improperly – for my entire visit. Every visitor services associate, security personnel, child (over the age of two), and adult, was wearing a mask of some kind. All the new rules are outlined by a unique ad campaign, featuring modified versions of some of their most famous art works.

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It’s hard to believe it’s been more than three months since we last saw you at the AGO. We’re beyond thrilled to announce that we’re re-opening on July 2 to AGO Members and Annual Pass Holders and on July 23 to everyone purchasing single tickets. Members will be able to book timed-entry tickets starting June 25 and Annual Pass Holders starting June 26. Timed-entry single tickets can be purchased starting July 16. We‘re taking our advice from health officials and will be implementing some new health and safety measures and strict capacity limits so that we can all stay safe while seeing our favorite art again. • Here’s what you need to know about visiting the AGO during this period: ⏰ We will be open Thursday through Sunday, from 10:30 AM to 5 PM 👥 Only AGO Members and AGO Annual Pass Holders can visit starting July 2. We open to the public on July 23. If you’re not a Member or Annual Pass holder, it’s not too late to sign up! 💻 Timed tickets must be booked in advance. Tickets will NOT be available onsite. 😷↔️😷All staff and visitors are required to wear a mask and adhere to social distancing. 🤒 If you are feeling unwell - please stay home. Staff will do the same. 🧼We have increased our cleaning schedule and will be disinfecting high touch and high traffic areas multiple times a day. ❤️ We cannot wait to welcome you back - we’ve missed you!

A post shared by Art Gallery of Ontario (@agotoronto) on Jun 23, 2020 at 9:08am PDT

To visit the AGO, you now must book a timed entry ticket online through their website in advance, then download it to a device, or print out the ticket to bring with you. Upon arrival, visitors are greeted at the Dundas Street entrance with the banners bearing some incredible “AGO From Home” recreations of famous artworks.  Behind the banner posts is a spotted line of 6-foot spaced, social-distancing stickers – the same ones that we see in every store, sidewalk, and public indoor space. The line leads to one opened doorway, monitored by a staff member wearing a face shield. Inside, you follow the stickers to a staff member behind plexiglass, scan your own ticket under the machine, and enter the gallery. 

Photograph courtesy of Jessica Lanziner.

Once inside, you are barraged by a floor covered in directional stickers, with hand sanitization stations at every turn. The stairs are one way up, one way down, the elevators speckled with social distance stickers and hand sanitizer stations, and every single gallery has a panel sticker at the entrance that informs visitors of how many people are permitted in that gallery space. The special exhibitions, Diane Arbus:Photographs 1956-1971 and Illusions: The Art of Magic, are monitored by a staff member, who counts and limits the total number of visitors in the space. The magic shows in the Illusions exhibit are cancelled, leaving a hauntingly empty curtain where the magic shows used to run. Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room is likewise closed, which while understandable, seems like a missed opportunity for an addition of masked-selfies to the visitors’ camera rolls.  

While odd, it was a welcome glimpse back to what I have been missing for months. Familiar faces and scenes looked out from frames across the galleries, remaining exactly where I remembered them to be. They remain unchanged, continuing to exist in a completely normal state, despite the lack of normalcy in the world beyond their frames. The whole experience was a breath of fresh (but mask-filtered) air. It was quiet, calm, and exactly as I remember the AGO being on a quiet day – a small number of visitors, soaking in text panels and a diverse range of art in almost complete silence. 

Photograph courtesy of Jessica Lanziner.

Once in a while, though, I couldn’t help but snap back into reality – remembering my masked self, in a room full of masked visitors, in the AGO – in the current era, perfectly normal. In my life overall, incredibly out of the ordinary.  If you want to visit yourself, you can book your tickets through the AGO’s website. Or if you want a more distanced, yet still rather different experience of it, you can watch their video that they made with the Toronto Zoo, where two tortoises demonstrate how to navigate the renovated space. I can attest, it is quite accurate to the real experience – slow and weird, yet somehow, familiar.  

Snapshot from the AGO's walk through video. 

FRANK GEHRY: UNIQUE TO SAY THE LEAST

Walk of Fame | Martin Bierens

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I find that perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of a visitor’s experience to the museum is the building itself. People may go to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, or the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone, but are they not also there to be in the space itself? After all, would the Louvre be the same without I. M. Pei’s Pyramid or the grand columns of the British Museum?

In a round-about way, Toronto actually has had a massive influence on museum architecture of the last half-century. Toronto is the birthplace of world-famous architect Frank Gehry, granted he now lives and works in California (but hey, so does Neil Young and we still claim him).

Frank Gehry (Source)

Frank Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg in 1929. He spent his childhood in the city and even as a child he showed a propensity for architecture. Young Gehry would use everyday material such as chain-link fencing, plywood, and corrugated steel to make small structures at his grandfather’s hardware store. Gehry’s use of steel is an aspect of his work that has persisted and has become one of the defining characteristics of his work.

It is somewhat difficult to put into words Gehry’s architectural style, his work has long been touted to defy categorization. Personally, as someone who has no academic background in architecture the best way, I would describe Gehry’s buildings as melting, flowing, futuristic, behemoth, spaceship-like structures. Once you become familiar with Gehry’s work it is very easy to identify that it could only be made by one man.

Guggenheim Bilbao (Source)

Some of his most prominent buildings are museums. He designed the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, arguably his most famous structure along with the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Other museums include the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, France, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, the Biomuseo in Panama City, Panama, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, the MARTa Herford Museum in Herford, Germany, and the upcoming Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

AGO, Galleria Italia (Source)

Those of us in Toronto are most familiar with his large-scale redesign of the Art Gallery of Ontario. The redesign of the AGO is actually not typical of Gehry’s work. Rather than his typical steel structures, the AGO features mostly laminated wood and glass as its main architectural components. The only typical Gehry-esque feature is the exterior staircase on the south side of the building. The atypical design is in part a result of the AGO’s goal, the museum did not want to construct a new building, rather expand on an existing building that had previously been expanded on six times since the 1920s. Gehry had the difficult task of combining a patchwork of structures into a cohesive whole.

This was achieved through a few additions to the building. The most prominent is the new façade of the building, the 200-metre Galleria Italia along Dundas Street. Other notable areas are the staircase in the Walker Court and the entrance along Dundas. Gehry moved the entrance to this location in order to help with the symmetry of the building, this area also features the unique wheelchair ramp from street level toward the ticket area.

Over his career Gehry’s work has generally received much critical acclaim, the AGO was no different. The Toronto Star called the redesign, “the easiest, most effortless and relaxed architectural masterpiece this city has seen,” while The New York Times' architecture critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff, wrote of the AGO as, “Rather than a tumultuous creation, this may be one of Mr. Gehry's most gentle and self-possessed designs. It is not a perfect building, yet its billowing glass façade, which evokes a crystal ship drifting through the city, is a masterly example of how to breathe life into a staid old structure.”

Rendering of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (Source)

Even though Gehry is now 91 years old, he is still involved in his practice at Gehry Partners LLP. Though due to his age it is likely that the planned Guggenheim Abu Dhabi may be his final museum. If this is the case, the scale and grandiosity of the structure will be a fitting end to an illustrious career.

BUT IS IT ART? ILLUSIONS: THE ART OF MAGIC AT THE AGO

Exhibition Reviews | Mary Wallace

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Detail of Strobridge Lithographing Co.'s Kellar - Levitation, 1900. (Photograph courtesy of Mary Wallace.) 

A good magician has be adept at so many elements of performance while simultaneously appearing as though they are not performing any of them. They must be able to win the trust of the crowd despite explicitly being there to fool them; they must be able to handle their props gracefully and naturally, pretending that a hollow prop is solid or pretending that an envelope laden with secret pockets is perfectly ordinary. Most of what makes good sleight of hand, like good design, must be completely invisible.

In the AGO’s Illusions: The Art of Magic the curator’s hand is often more heavy than sleight but I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing.


The Art of Magic is dramatic from the get-go; one enters through a velvet curtained hallway where turn of the century vaudeville tunes play softly. Inside the walls are painted a dark, velvety green, reminiscent of a pool table. The style of the exhibition space is appropriately theatrical; pieces are lit by spotlights in the dark exhibition space. Section labels are equipped with lenticular prints so thematically appropriate images “appear” as you walk past, however, the effect is somewhat hindered by the low lighting.

There are also several interactive elements in the show. Visitors may look through small peep holes in the walls to view tricks being performed or archival footage from the turn of the century. At about the halfway point of the show there is a station to “design your own magic poster” using various elements from the posters featured in the show.

Take a Peek! Featuring a video demonstrating some sleight of hand. (Photograph courtesy of Mary Wallace.)

The kitschy aesthetic brought back memories of flipping through Ripley’s Believe it or Not books in the school library, which is not a memory I ever thought I’d associate with the AGO. I had fun at The Art of Magic and I’d recommend it to others but I at several points I found myself thinking “I can’t believe I’m in an art gallery right now”. For all the times I’ve written essays railing against The White Cube and reviews complaining about galleries taking themselves too seriously, I was confronted with the fact that maybe I like white cubes more than I’d like to admit and that there was a small part of me that thought this show was too fun.

A lovely assistant hovers above the exhibition. (Photograph courtesy of Mary Wallace.)  

It’s not like the exhibition is unintelligent or shallow. With every successive room I thought to myself “I hope they have more information on this” and lo and behold there it would be. For instance, I was really taken with the incredible skill with which the posters were designed and printed. Most of the posters of this time were made with a process called “chromolithograph”, a precursor to modern CKMY printing, in which posters are successively printed with primary colours which layer to create depth. When you consider the technology of the time, the quality of images achieved is absolutely amazing, I was particularly struck but the sensitivity with which this portrait of Harry Kellar was rendered, rivalling that of any oil painting. Of course, very few of the artists behind these works are named but at least two text panels are devoted to explaining the printing process and acknowledging that the collaborative nature of producing these works would make naming an individual artist almost impossible.

Detail of Strobridge Lithograohing Co's Kellar, The Great Magician, 1894. (Photograph courtesy of Mary Wallace.)

Another aspect of this art form that I had hoped would get some attention in this show was the orientalism that pervaded early magic acts. In the very first room, a poster from around 1915 advertises Chung Ling Soo and his Ten Assistants, in which a man in a Chinese inspired costume holds up ten fingers. Later in the exhibition there is an entire selection devoted to Chung Ling Soo and other similar characters played by white men that were meant to capitalize on the fascination with Asian art and aesthetics. This section is accompanied by a short interview with Julie Eng, executive director of Magicana and a magician herself, as she discusses her experiences confronting these stereotypes in her own career.

James Upton Ltd.'s Chung Ling Soo and his Ten Assistants, around 1915. (Photograph courtesy of Mary Wallace.) 

Ultimately, I thought the objects on display were both interesting and aesthetically pleasing but more than that the exhibition pulled back the curtain just enough to add depth to the spectacle and make it more than just an amusing trick.

Detail of Strobridge Lithograohing Co's Kellar, 1899. (Photograph courtesy of Mary Wallace.) 

The AGO is unfortunately closed until April 5 but once it reopens, Illusions: The Art of Magic will be on until May 18, 2020.

WHAT WE NEED IS A STORY: RE-FRAMING INTERPRETATION IN ART GALLERIES

GLAM Guide | Madison Carmichael

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Just before the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s grand re-opening in 2017, Chief Content Officer Chad Coerver posited that the wall label wasn’t enough for the average visitor. Instead, he argued: 

“...what visitors really need is a story – a memorable way to connect with a fundamentally foreign object.”

In advocating for more appealing and accessible art stories in the SFMOMA, Coerver echoed almost a decade of transformation in art interpretation, wherein museum staff across departments worked to shift the visitor’s conceptualization of art as well as their experience of it. 

From 2002 to 2010, three art galleries in particular in North America engaged in interpretive transformations: the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA), the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). These three art institutions also share similar mission statements that can be boiled down to: engage people with art and help them to make meaning from it. 

The Detroit Institute of Art did indeed pilot a new model of interpretation in the early 2000s. (Source)

The DIA undertook a major re-installation project from 2002 to 2007. This endeavor was guided by an interpretive approach that emphasized experiences with art rather than lessons in art history, and the objective was to support visitors’ efforts to engage with art by telling stories and making connections with universal human concerns. In a study conducted at the DIA to evaluate the efficacy of this new interpretive strategy, evaluators found three main ways for visitors to find meaning: discovering something familiar or something to which they could make a personal connection, learning or discovering something new, or (less frequently) expressing a preference for the subject or medium of the artwork. 

On the whole, the evaluators discovered that the most common way visitors found personal meaning in the galleries was to relate first to the visual aspects of the art through their own experience and then to utilize the museum’s provided interpretation to go further with their understanding. As such, it was important for the interpretation to provide relevant, meaningful information about the artworks that would support personal meaning.

The AGO re-displayed the majority of its collections in an effort to position art as political, using them to discuss issues and ideas facing visitors currently. (Source)

The AGO also launched a redevelopment project in 2002, which culminated in their reopening with a newly extended building and fully re-displayed collections in 2008. The transformation at the AGO was oriented around questions posed by Judy Koke, Deputy Director of Education and Public Programming: why is the visitor here, and what do they need out of their visit? 

Interpretation at the AGO located the answer to those questions in personal meaning and connection. At the time, the AGO abandoned the practice of displaying art by historical chronology and instead displayed their collections through issues and ideas. This was a fascinating departure from conventional practice, as it necessitated that the artworks on display needn’t be the most prestigious or most famous but rather those that best illustrated the ideas and issues posed in that particular space. 

This approach served the AGO’s purposes quite neatly, for – much like the DIA – they hoped not only to develop an understanding of art historical chronologies but to inspire personal connections with art. Artworks were designed to function as departure points for exploring the broader story within a gallery space. 

The MFA situated art as socio-objective. As such, they explore how any given artwork functioned or else represents a facet of society or social practices. (Source)

Most recently, the MFA opened the Art of the Americas wing of their institution in 2010. The wing itself was imposing: it comprised of four floors and forty-eight galleries, as well as four “Behind the Scenes” galleries. The brochure detailing this portion of the museum implored visitors to design their own path according to their own interests and needs. Furthermore, visitors were encouraged to make use of the central gallery on each floor, which were designed to provide a broad brushstroke of the level’s theme and contents. 

Barbara T. Martin, Alfond Curator of Education at the MFA, noted that museum staff had begun to realize that the visitor needed a way in. To the notion that objects speak for themselves, unfortunately prevalent in museums, she said: “when you say that the object speaks for itself, usually you’re someone with a PhD who has read a lot of words to get to the point where the object can talk to you.” This is not, as you might imagine, a very easy point to get to, nor a very accessible one! As such, the MFA rather appropriately took a more informal and conversational tone with their interpretation. 

The goal, according to Benjamin Weiss, Head of Interpretation, was not for visitors to read the walls, but for the walls to speak to visitors. The MFA didn't aim to change what they said: it was to re-frame the questions – changing “what is this thing? to “why am I looking at this thing?” It was to ask – and to answer – why we should care. 

The point, Martin stated, was for visitors to feel empowered to engage with the artworks on display by giving them the tools to do so. But more crucially, it was important that visitors know that “there isn’t some mysterious practice that you’re supposed to know if you’re in this kind of place.” 

The SFMOMA similarly re-evaluated the interpretation of their collections between 2013-2017, when they underwent massive physical and programmatic transformations. They too found a need for personal connection in their galleries. (Source)

Much like Coerver, these institutions found a need for stories: stories written and told by the institution but also those brought into the gallery space by visitors. The DIA, the AGO, and the MFA embraced the necessity of re-framing how visitors experienced art, and they did so through museum interpretation that emphasized the relevance of art and the personal connections that visitors can make to any number of artworks. So, the question is: in re-interpreting, re-displaying, and re-framing art, do we make art galleries more appealing and accessible spaces for those of us who may find art to be fundamentally foreign? Maybe, maybe not. But it certainly offers visitors a new way to engage with art on display, and that is not an insignificant thing. 

VISITOR AS INVESTIGATOR IN THE CITY OF BROKEN WINDOWS

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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A spine tingling array of sounds greet you as you enter The City of Broken Windows installation at the AGO. It’s hard to decipher whether the noise is coming from the sweet blowing noise of wind chimes or something fragile breaking into a million pieces. This general feeling of duality stayed with me while I tried to understand the different parts of this work.

The City of Broken Windows. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio.

Two competing storylines are written on the walls of the large room, one above the other in a single line each. This forces the visitor, if they are intent on reading both storylines, to make two 360 degree rotations of the room. I was so intent on reading that I nearly bumped into another visitor who was doing the same. An uneasy dance ensued as we all looked over our shoulders before turning slightly here and moving there to get closer to the words we needed next. The required focus on the words is heightened by the two short films playing on opposite sides of the room. The physical screens obscure the words on the wall, forcing you to move around them to read everything, but also forcing you to tune out their competing audio. And yet the room seemed to shift quietly.

"An uneasy dance ensued as we all looked over our shoulders before turning slightly here and moving there to get closer to the words we needed next."

A secret ritual to paint. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio

The City of Broken Windows is part of a current AGO exhibition of work by Hito Steyerl. Adelina Vlas, the AGO’s Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, says that “visitors can expect to be led on a series of often-hallucinatory, always illuminating, investigative journeys into the truth about technology and our everyday lives.”

An investigative journey flawlessly describes my experience with this installation. I walked into the room, and immediately chose where to start – with the words on the wall. But I noticed others around me walked first towards the film screens. Each short film is reflective of one of the storylines. I felt impelled to put the pieces together. There is an underlying story beneath; footnotes are at work throughout the installation both adding and distorting information. I took snapshots of the references to Frédéric Bastiat’s economic theory – something to look up later at home. This installation provided a topic I had never truly considered and when I left my mind was engulfed by that topic.

Footnoted. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio

The City of Broken Windows made me feel like I was an active part of it. I could see the layers beneath the ideas and read deeper into them as needed. Even though the subject was a little confusing and complex, I felt empowered to figure it all out. Placing the visitor as an investigator can provide unexpected moments of surprise and delight. In so many of our classes in the Museum Studies program we touch on the importance of making visitors active participants in meaning-making. In The City of Broken Windows, Hito Steyerl has positioned the visitor to do just that. 

This city is cutting edge. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio.

Hito Steyerl: This is the future runs from October 24, 2019 to February 23, 2020, free with the price of admission (completely free if you bring your OMA card).

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Breaking the Glass Case | Alexandra Forand
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Titles. We would all agree are important. It is important to keep in mind titles, like the institutions they reside in, are not neutral. Titles are often given to pieces of artwork after the piece of artwork has come into a collection—not by an artist, but by that institution or a previous one. The name given to the piece of artwork, is then perpetuated throughout the showing of this piece and becomes the “accepted” title.

Photo courtesy of Carly Wolowich.

This phenomenon is often heightened when discussing collections of Indigenous artwork. The title that is given to the painting or an object is endemic of the time period and reflects the colonial language of when it entered a collection.

Art galleries do not exist within isolation and museum professionals are shining a light on these objects that were titled in the past and tackling the process of trying to change them for the present audiences. In a post Truth and Reconciliation commission world, institutions are working hard to involve Indigenous communities that are affected by the harmful language of the past. The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) are slowly implementing the 94 calls to action outlined in the TRC executive summary, and making changes not only to how artwork is displayed, but what these works are called based on consultation

In 1920, while tilling his field in the Fraser Valley, Arvo Skytte found an object that resembled a bowl under a Douglas fir tree. The “Skytte Bowl,” as the object was called at the time was donated to the Museum of Vancouver and was eventually transferred to the National Gallery of Canada (NGC). According to Jaime Koeble Morris (Michif) the curators at the NGC sought to break the cycle of treating Indigenous artworks as nameless, unimportant anthropological specimens. The NGC established two Indigenous Advisory Committees to counsel the institution on how to respectfully collect new artwork, how to best display, and how to care for artwork already in the NGC’s collection. As per the committee’s recommendation the NGC performed welcoming ceremonies.

Qelemteleq at the NGC. Every night the curator covers his case with a blanket so he can rest. Source.

In 2016, the “Skytte Bowl” was officially welcomed into the NGC’s collection. With consultation from the Katzie and Kwantlen First Nations of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia the “Skytte Bowl” was renamed “Qelemteleq,” and the digital records and labels regarding “Qelemteleq” were updated to reflect that he was not a bowl, but a seated stone figure with a living spirit.

In 1929, Emily Carr travelled up the west coast of Vancouver Island by steamer to Yuquot, the territory of the Nuu-chah-nulth people. It was there, in a summer village of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht people, where Carr painted an old white, windowless church, standing starkly against the background of rich green foliage In the 1930’s, the painting was shown extensively in American art galleries and dubbed “I*dian Church.” In 1970, Charles Shaw Band bequeathed “I*dian Church,” to the AGO, where it has since resided on and off of display for many years. Emily Carr’s painting currently hangs on the wall of the AGO is Gallery 126 Richard Barry Fudger Rotunda. Despite being surrounded by equally striking works, this painting has received immense attention from artists, museums professionals, and the international media. In May of 2018, the Art Gallery of Ontario, as part of their broader effort to eliminate offensive language in the museum, Carr’s painting, which up until this point had been known as “I*dian Church” was retitled “Church in Yuquot Village.”

The infamous, Church at Yuquot Village by Emily Carr, at the AGO. Source.

The discussion around this retitling effort has mainly focused on the idea of whether this is an act of the institution’s corrective art history practises or if it is the AGO’s attempt to censor and erase history. While this discussion is timely and merited, I believe it is more productive to explore how this change in the title of the painting by the AGO came about.

The village where Emily Carr painted the church. Friendly Cove, British Columbia. Source.

The AGO’s decision to consult the Mowachaht/Muchalaht community is a landmark event. By changing the name of Carr’s painting and removing the word “I*dian,” the AGO they are no longer going to be a part of propagating the hate of the word “I*dian thereby, connecting the Mowachaht/Muchalaht community to Ontario and placing them in the middle of the conversation.

Changing the name of artwork has not been done without criticism from audience, scholars, and artistic professionals, who make the argument that this is censorship at best, and erasure of history at worst. I argue that this decision to retitle offensive artwork is necessary as a larger act of reconciliation. This decision to consult Katzie, Kwantlen, and Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations is powerful because it works to restore the communities’ roles in the creation of the item, the institution, and within the tradition of the visual arts.

What are your thoughts? I really want to know! Leave a comment or if Twitter and Instagram are more your speed my handle on both is @Ally_but_online.

A GIFT GUIDE FOR MUSEUM PEOPLE

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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As our first semester comes to a close, many of the first year Museum Studies students have remarked on the joy of being surrounded by so many like-minded people in our program. There are obvious characteristics that draw people to this field. If you’re reading this blog, you probably have Museum People in your life. And if you need a gift for that special someone, you should keep in mind that we like cultural experiences, we have an affinity for the tactile, and we are drawn to aesthetics. Read on for a few gift ideas for your new (or old) museum friends.

EXPERIENCES

Museum people love to take part in cultural activities. We enjoy watching eclectic films (note the use of the word films, not movies) and we like to do so in old elegant theatres like the newly opened Paradise on Bloor. A gift card for a night out at the theatre would be a real treat this winter. Or better yet – just buy tickets and drag your museum friend to the show you want to see!

Paradise Theatre on Bloor | Source 

An annual pass to a museum like the AGO would be a great gift for the museum people in your life. But the museum people in your life might already have a pass… in which case you should get tickets for one of the many talks and events put on by some of the great institutions in your city. Who wouldn’t want to spend an evening at the ROM learning about The Human History of the Mosquito?

TACTILE

Museum people prefer flipping pages to scrolling. Encourage this tactile habit with a subscription to an arts and culture magazine like Canadian Art or Frieze!

Photograph courtesy of Erika Serodio.

Should we keep our agendas on our phones and laptops like the rest of our technologically advanced society? Maybe. But museum people tend be old school and impractical. We write down our plans on paper. And the crowd favourite in museum studies classrooms seems to be the Moleskine.

After we manually check off every item on this week's to-do list, museum people return to flipping pages for pleasure. An artsy coffee table book would be much appreciated! I recently gifted one from this gift guide in a Museum Studies gift exchange. Each book on this list is recommended by an artist, collector, gallerist, or curator.

ART 

And last, but not least, museum people do not have blank walls. Add to their personal collection with something aesthetically pleasing.

The Champs by Stephanie Cheng | Source 

Stephanie Cheng is a Toronto-based designer with designs that are infused with local landmarks and people. You can buy from her online store or from one of several shops who stock her work.

Mass by Annie Axtell | Source

Annie Axtell is a printmaker and artist who works out of Vancouver. She makes some seriously sublime art. You can buy her prints online or pick up one of her infamous lunar calendars at this shop in Toronto.

One last thing to remember about museum people is that they value the intangible just as much as the tangible. The gift of your time is never wasted on them. You could take your museum people to free events like this gallery party at the Power Plant or go an adventure in mental spelunking at the new Architecture and Design Gallery. Whether you're shopping or not this season, be sure to spend some time with your museum people. 

FEMINIZING COLLECTIONS? LOOKING AT WOMEN'S PLACES IN ART COLLECTIONS IN TORONTO AND BEYOND

She's My Muse | Joanna Wreakes

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Wall text from Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noir at the AGO this past winter. Photo courtest of Joanna Wreakes.

Recently, the Baltimore Art Museum has made headlines for this announcement - they will only acquire work by women artists in 2020. The decision came following the disappointing results of the survey done by artnet News, which showed only 11% of all acquisitions and 14% of exhibitions at 26 prominent American museums over the past decade were works by female artists. These stats get even worse when we consider intersectionality - African American woman artists made up only 3.3% of the women artists who's works were acquired by these American institutions (source)

Disappointing but not surprising, right?

Accurate depiction of me reading the artnet survey results. Source.

The director of the Baltimore Art Museum, Christopher Bedford, addressed the announcement with this quote: “You don’t purchase one painting by a female artist of color and hang it on the wall next to a painting by Mark Rothko. To rectify centuries of imbalance, you have to do something radical.” On top of this collections decision, the Baltimore Art Museum is also focusing the exhibition programming on women artists and women-centric exhibitions.

Guerrilla Girls’ Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum? (ca. 1989). Source.

This got me thinking, what are local institutions here in Toronto doing to address this imbalance?

Exhibition view of Femmes Noir at the AGO.
Photo courtesy of Joanna Wreakes.

In the spring of 2019 the AGO announced that they would be deaccessioning and auctioning off 20 works by Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson. This caused enough of a stir in the public that the CBC actually published an article explaining deaccessioning and some reasons why the practice is carried out by museums and cultural institutions - it’s a great read for anyone who’s not familiar with the practice! The article also quotes curator of Canadian and Indigenous Art, Georgiana Uhlyarik discussing what the AGO would do with the money from auctioning off these pieces - it is designated for the purchase of new works for the Canadian and Indigenous collection. Ideally, these new purchases will reflect a more diverse collection for the AGO with works by women and particularly women of colour, but only time will tell.




I am hopeful that the AGO is on their way to including more women in both their permanent collection and feature exhibitions though. Last year the gallery hosted the first large-scale solo exhibition in Canada by American Artist Mickalene Thomas - Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noirs. Currently, there are two feature exhibitions showing the work of local and international women artists - Hito Steyerl: This is the Future and Sandra Brewster: Blur. Never mind the recent acquisition of “Let’s Survive Forever”, an iconic infinity room by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

Results of the survery undertaken by artnet News and In Other Words. Source.

Just a few blocks north of the AGO, the Gardiner Museum is also putting a focus on women artists. This month the International Ceramic Art Fair focused on showcasing “outstanding Canadian women-identified artists”. Also currently on display in the museum’s lobby is Kali Spitzer: Sister (in conjunction with Cannupa Hanska Luger: Every One). The two works address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, queer, and trans community members.

What examples have you seen here in Toronto (and beyond!) of feminizing museum collections? What is the next step museum professionals and visitors alike can take to continue to address this inequality in our collections and programming?