Year in Review 2012–2013 Message from We opened up to a larger audience demographic with a new program—First Thursdays— a once-a-month art evening that offers a different the President themed-based program each time, with music performances, artmaking activities, artist and curator tours. First Thursdays has been an instant success, and the Director with overflow crowds for each event. We firmly believe that art is for everyone and continue The fiscal year 2012-13 was a period of substantial to work with our partners in the government, corporate change and achievement for the Art Gallery of Ontario. and community sectors to ensure that every individual We embarked on our new strategic plan with two main has the opportunity to interact with the great works objectives: to grow our audiences and to become the of art in our collection. Visitors may come on our free arts and culture destination in Toronto. Thanks to a Wednesday evenings and secondary level students strong program of exhibitions and activities that truly visit our Free After Three programs. Organizations resonated with the public, the AGO welcomed 846,829 serving financially and socially challenged sectors visitors, one of our largest annual attendance figures bring their clients through our community access in almost 20 years. Our membership increased to programs; for many it’s their first visit to an art 92,050 members, our highest membership number in museum. AGO history. We are very proud that with the introduction of so ... the AGO welcomed 846,829 many new and exciting programs, the AGO was able to maintain its fiscal prudence, completing the year with “ visitors, one of our largest a surplus of $750,000, which will be used to invest in future programming. annual attendance figures in As we complete a very successful 2012-13 year, almost 20 years.” we want to thank the many AGO donors from the corporate and private sectors who support our This remarkable year reinforced that art is at the organization. Our sincere thanks also go to the centre of all we do. Our exhibition program brought Province of Ontario as our major government partner masterpieces by 20th-century icons Pablo Picasso, and to the City of Toronto and the Canada Council for Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera to the people of Toronto. their ongoing support in ensuring that we make art We showcased rare 14th-century Florentine works accessible to all citizens. that had never travelled outside of Italy. We celebrated internationally renowned Canadian artists, with major exhibitions by Michael Snow and Evan Penny. Tony Gagliano, Emerging Toronto-based and international artists were President profiled in our Toronto Now exhibition series and our artist-in-residence program. We introduced more interactive experiences for visitors of all ages. People were invited to talk and create works with artists; observe and question Matthew Teitelbaum, conservators as they undertook restoration work; and Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO make their own works of art, including skateboards! We became one of the first institutions in Canada to allow visitors to photograph and video for personal use in our collection galleries. Interactive went online with the AGO becoming the first Canadian art gallery to join the Google Art Project. Public reaction was overwhelmingly positive to all these initiatives, reinforcing our underlying belief that each individual enjoys making a truly personal connection with art. 2 Highlights of the Year The exhibition, co-organized by the Musée National Picasso, Paris, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, is a APril 1, 2012 – MArcH 31, 2013 major success, drawing 308,582 visitors during its 17-week run and ranking as the fourth-highest April 2012 attended exhibition in the AGO’s history. • The new David Milne Centre opens, making an important part of the AGO’s collection even more • Incense and memory pervade the Gallery with the accessible to the public. Combining art with archives, opening of Zhang Huan: Ash Paintings and Memory the centre is an innovative first for the AGO with a Doors, which features recent works by acclaimed display of 31 works by the artist, along with archival contemporary Chinese artist Zhang Huan. The exhibi- materials ranging from letters, photographs, diaries tion, organized by the AGO, is part of a city-wide and sketches to a paint box and a painter’s coat. celebration of the artist and his first solo exhibition in Toronto in more than a decade. 1 • Canadian artist Max Dean undertakes a new performance project entitled Album, organized by the AGO as part of the Contact 2012 Photography Festival. Throughout the month of May, the artist gives away 400 photo albums at various locations throughout the city. The project includes the involvement of local Toronto District School Board schools, with 21 of the albums created by elementary-level students. • Fifty new Canadians receive their citizenships in a special community ceremony held at the AGO, a partnership between Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and • The Toronto Now exhibition series kicks off the the AGO. year with The Fortune Teller, an installation by Toronto-based artist Annie MacDonell, in partnership June 2012 with the 25th Images Festival. • shopAGOkids opens a brand-new on-site retail space offering art-inspired and design-conscious toys and • The extraordinary generosity of one of the AGO’s products for children. The shop provides a fun and great donors is marked by the exhibition Ayala Zacks interactive place for families to shop, enjoy a meal or 1912–2011: A Tribute. Ayala and Sam Zacks gave more take a break. than 300 works of European and Canadian modern art to the AGO in the 1970s. • The AGO teams up with Blyth Academy to offer Summer School in the City, enriched, accredited • The AGO becomes the first Canadian art gallery to secondary school art courses. The program enables join the Google Art Project—a collaboration between students to work alongside educational and Google and a select group of international art partners. curatorial staff, offering a transformative and exciting This unique online art experience allows users to educational experience. explore a wide range of artworks at brushstroke-level detail and build their own collections to share. JulY 2012 MAY 2012 • The work of Michael Snow, one of Canada’s most internationally celebrated artists, is highlighted • Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National with the exhibition Objects of Vision. The exhibition Picasso, Paris, opens at the AGO, marking the features Snow’s abstract sculptural work, along with only Canadian stop on its world tour and cover- the invitation to the public to sit in them, touch them ing virtually every phase of the modern master’s and, at times, approach with caution. unceasingly radical and diverse career. 3 Highlights of the Year 3 APril 1, 2012 – MArcH 31, 2013 2 septeMber 2012 • The AGO Youth Council is recognized by the Ontario Association of Art Galleries with an Art Publication of the Year Award for Do You Read Me?, their collaboration with the Oakville Gallery’s Youth Council, and a Public Program Award for their participation in the collaborative project The Awakening with Humberto Velez, Art Gallery of York University, • The AGO introduces Idea Lab, inviting visitors to Monkey Vault Gym and the Mississaugas of the New explore ongoing research into five works of art from the Credit Youth. Thomson Collection of European Art. The installation illustrates how AGO curators and conservators • The exhibition Evan Penny: Re Figured opens, closely examine the works, comb through documents welcoming home internationally renowned and deploy scientific technologies, such X-rays, CT Toronto-based sculptor Evan Penny and featuring scanning and radiocarbon dating, to gain a deeper more than 25 of the artist’s larger-than-life sculptures. understanding of these works and the history of human Organized by the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany, creativity. in association with the Art Gallery of Ontario, the exhibition is shown in Germany, Austria and Italy, • The AGO’s FRANK Restaurant celebrates before ending its tour Summerlicious, Toronto’s city-wide, 17-day culinary in Toronto. festival, with Picasso-themed prix-fixe meals. • Artist-in-residence Heather Goodchild works in August 2012 collaboration with artists Naomi Yasui, Josh Hall and • As part of the Toronto Now series, Toronto artist musician Doug Paisley to present the large-scale Lisa Meyers, in collaboration with Albuquerque-based installation Made it Then, Make it Again for Scotiabank artist Autumn Chacon, present the sound and video Nuit Blanche. This 12-hour, one-night performance installation Noise Cooking. The exhibition, which involves more than 100 participants producing examines issues around ancestry, perseverance and uniforms, ceramic mugs, aluminum stools and screen- celebration, is part of the Planet IndigenUS festival of printed posters. global Indigenous culture. OctOber 2012 • The AGO’s Summer Art Camp completes another • The AGO profiles a significant element of its successful season, with more than 400 campers photography collection with the exhibition Josef from ages six to 18 taking part in programs over a Sudek: The Legacy of a Deeper Vision. This is Canada’s two-month period. first retrospective of the artist, with more than 175 photographs by the legendary Czech photographer spanning his entire career. 4 Highlights of the Year • Proceeds from the Art Toronto 2012 opening night preview gala enables the AGO to purchase works by APril 1, 2012 – MArcH 31, 2013 Canadian artists Julia Dault, Stephen Andrews and Itee Pootoogook, with added assistance from the • Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting opens Dr. Michael Braudo Canadian Contemporary Art Fund at the AGO. This major survey of masterworks by two and the Joan Chalmers Inuit Art Fund.