Year in Review • 2007–2008 Message froM the President and the director/CEO • 2007–2008 Thanks to hard work, discipline and sustained ambition, major international art award this year – the Grange of the 3,000-piece Łódz Ghetto Archives dramatically the newly transformed Art Gallery of Ontario is poised Prize for contemporary photography, the first major enhances the AGO’s holdings in vernacular (or daily life) to welcome the world in November. Our opening art prize to be awarded based solely on public voting. photography with Henryk Ross’s haunting depictions of celebration will become the most recent milestone in The AGO also collaborated with the Gershon Iskowitz life in a Holocaust-era ghetto in Łódz, Poland. Toronto’s unprecedented passage from a good city to a Foundation to rename and bring to the Gallery the When the new AGO opens to the public on November 14, great one – built on the powerful shoulders of culture. Gershon Iskowitz Prize. visitors will discover more than 4,000 artworks on view, This past year – the last full year of construction The AGO’s collection moved into the virtual world almost 40 percent of them never before seen at the – saw the AGO (but not its Gallery School, which is with the launch of Collection X, allowing users to Gallery. As the final stage of transformation concludes, operating at 60 McCaul St.) close its doors to complete curate their own online exhibitions and interact with it is already evident how Frank Gehry’s spaces will flow the expansion project after more than two years of other participants. Later in the year, the AGO launched from one to the next, just as the narratives of the works maintaining public access to the collections. Thanks Citizen AGO, which provides new Canadian citizens on view will encourage a continuous journey through to a special one-time grant of $8.6 million from the with a year’s free access to the Gallery and sets the the collections. Province of Ontario, the AGO was able to offset its stage for an expanded program with five other cultural The past year has been a remarkable chapter in planned operating deficit to March 31, 008 and retire institutions and the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. the AGO’s 108-year history, and soon it will all come its historical operating debt, enabling the transformed The firsts continued with the creation of the AGO together in a celebration of an extraordinary new home AGO to begin its operation from a strong and stable volunteers’ strategic plan, an enduring statement of for the creative force of art. financial position. their commitment and contribution to the Gallery; Building on the vision and generosity of the late Ken Our project continued on schedule, each day the AGO’s participation in the first annual Luminato Thomson, thousands have invested in this remarkable revealing another iconic element of architect Frank – Toronto’s international arts festival; and the continued cultural moment. Private and corporate sectors, Gehry’s celebrated design. Yet, despite our reduced participation in the AGO’s first public portrait project, provincial and federal governments, and the broadest operations and extensive preparations for the opening, In Your Face, attracting well over 0,000 portraits from community participation imaginable, have joined the 007-08 fiscal year produced a remarkable number around the world and sparking a second-generation together to recreate the AGO for generations to come. of firsts and bests. show with the National Portrait Gallery of Canada. The generous support of 4 prominent families from It was a robust year for the AGO’s permanent the Italian community made a powerful statement collection as well. Among the more than 4,800 new about community with their $1 million gift to the acquisitions are gifts of works by Russian painter Transformation AGO campaign. Their commitment was and printmaker Wassily Kandinsky, French painter Charles Baillie acknowledged with the naming of the AGO’s sculpture Pierre Bonnard, Canadian artist and filmmaker President promenade, Galleria Italia. Since then, the campaign Jack Chambers. The AGO also acquired Max Dean’s has reached an unprecedented milestone – achieving interactive robotic piece, As Yet Untitled, and an its original $54 million goal more than five months extraordinary collection of 18 historical Canadian before the new AGO opens. It utilized this momentum to topographical views, bringing the permanent collection increase the goal by $22 million for additional project total to 73,160. Through purchases and gifts, the AGO is features. building on the strength of its collections and continuing Matthew Teitelbaum In partnership with Aeroplan, the AGO launched a to expand into new areas. For example, a gift this year Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO year in review • highlights of the year • April 2007 to March 2008 aPRIL • The final installation of the AGO’s Wallworks series • 3 prominent families from the Italian community make features Toronto-based artist Karen Henderson who a collective $11.5 million gift to the Transformation AGO makes the Gallery itself the subject of a nearly 100-foot- campaign and the Gallery names its sculpture promenade, long photographic mural. Galleria Italia. With the gift, the Transformation AGO cam- paign reaches $225 million nearing its $54 million goal. • The AGO holds its third annual Massive Party at MUZIK, located on the CNE grounds. The fundraiser attracts some 1,500 guests and helps raise over $100,000 (net) for the AGO’s exhibition and education programs. May • AGO Is A GO as volunteers kick off their summer program at the Rosedale Mayfair, helping to keep the AGO front and centre during the construction of the transformed AGO. • Photographer and filmmaker Mark Lewis is recognized by the AGO and the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation for his contribution to the visual arts in Canada. The first recipi- ent of the 007 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO, he receives a $5,000 award and an AGO exhibition in 009. • The AGO launches www.collectionx.museum. Collection X is developed in partnership with the Virtual Museum of Canada (virtualmuseum.ca), an initiative of 3 the Department of Canadian Heritage. This innovative 1 online initiative allows users to explore works from the • The AGO launches Citizen AGO, a program that invites Gallery’s collection to curate their own exhibitions, newcomers to learn about Canada through art. The first • In conjunction with Mayor Miller’s Community generate content and interact with other participants. Cleanup Day, the AGO organizes its fourth annual Grange of its kind in Canada, this initiative provides new citizens Park cleanup. 130 participants collect ten with a year-long family pass to the AGO and becomes the large bags of garbage. catalyst for an expanded program with the Institute for June Canadian Citizenship and Citizenship & Immigration Canada. • The AGO’s Youth Council teams up with guest artist Jeffery McLarnon and creates a work titled Carbon Copy. The materials used to construct this paper forest were collected over a one-month period from the recycling bins at the AGO. The piece explores the impact that waste and consumption have on the environment. 2 4 3 year in review • highlights of the year • April 2007 to March 2008 august • Four exhibitions kick off the AGO’s extraordinary summer Max Dean’s The Roboti Chair, which explores themes of • Artists from three community-based, arts organizations lineup. On view is the recently acquired Bernini sculpture self-destruction and repair. take part in the AGO’s enormously successful In Your Christ Crucified; an exhibition of eleven contemporary Face: The People’s Portrait Project exhibition. Nearly 400 works from emerging Indian artists titled Hungry God; portraits created by the Adelaide Women’s Art Studio, an exhibition of 45 works by Chuck Close, A Couple of ArtHeart Community Art Centre and Sketch are exhibited Ways of Doing Something, that includes daguerreotypes July among the thousands of other submissions on display. and large-scale portraits accompanied by poetry; and 35 • The fourth annual Art in the Park event attracts Following its run at the AGO, a version of the exhibition medieval and Renaissance treasures from the Victoria thousands to Grange Park, as families participate in a is shown in Ottawa by the Portrait Gallery of Canada. and Albert Museum, London. number of free activities, including kite making, designing • Thanks to a generous gift from George Hartman and funky sunglasses, drawing cityscapes and creating a Arlene Goldman, the AGO acquires David Altmejd’s The community quilt. Index, a major piece in contemporary Canadian sculpture. The Index was the star attraction of the Canadian Pavilion at this year’s prestigious Venice Biennale. sePteMber • The AGO-produced book Wallworks: Contemporary Artists and Place is released, documenting works of art that have been part of the Gallery’s Wallworks series over the past two years, including artists Chris Ballantyne, Ingrid Calame, Karen Henderson, Sol LeWitt, Fabian Marcaccio, Julian Opie, Raymond Pettibon, Christine SWINTAK, Denyse Thomasos and Lawrence Weiner. 6 • The AGO throws itself a spectacular going away party as • Treasures of the Tsimshian from the Dundas Collection part of the second annual Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. The opens, featuring 39 objects from the 18th and 19th “End of the Party” Party features cutting edge artists Will centuries created by the Tsimshian First Nations of Munro, “Ina unt Ina” and Ryan G. Hinds. More than 16,000 British Columbia’s Pacific Coast. The collection had been visitors drop by the AGO’s 1-hour celebration. absent from Canada since 1863. The works of art were • Honouring the passing of Canadian artist Ken Danby, the auctioned at Sotheby’s in October of 006 for more than AGO displays his iconic painting At the Crease, one of this $7 million.