The exhibits themselves are excellent but the staging of the exhibit and the flow of traffic was atrocious.

Right from the start it is ill conceived. 50 or so attendees crammed together listening to a superfluous video preamble by Harrison Ford simply served to create a bottle neck wave of jostling viewers and created an atmosphere akin to P. T. Barnum’s museum of oddities.

Allowing children under the age of 10 in also created an atmosphere of a side show. There is nothing in the exhibit that can appeal to a babe in arms and their fussing and screeching destroys the experience for everyone else.

I know institutions like the AGO feel the pressure to be all inclusive but to do so at the expense of the rest of the paying attendees is just foolish.

The Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at the ROM was far far better organized than this mess at the AGO.

All in all this exhibit’s content was excellent but the AGO simply botched the execution totally.

The exhibits themselves are excellent but the staging of the exhibit and the flow of traffic was atrocious.

Right from the start it is ill conceived. 50 or so attendees crammed together listening to a superfluous video preamble by Harrison Ford simply served to create a bottle neck wave of jostling viewers and created an atmosphere akin to P. T. Barnum’s museum of oddities.

Allowing children under the age of 10 in also created an atmosphere of a side show. There is nothing in the exhibit that can appeal to a babe in arms and their fussing and screeching destroys the experience for everyone else.

I know institutions like the AGO feel the pressure to be all inclusive but to do so at the expense of the rest of the paying attendees is just foolish.

The Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at the ROM was far far better organized than this mess at the AGO.

All in all this exhibit’s content was excellent but the AGO simply botched the execution totally.

As I sat there in front of the animal skin piece on the pole, copying the hieroglyphs meticulously into my sketch pad a gentleman came and sat down beside me. He asked me what I was doing and when I replied and explained, he pointed to the symbols and explained what each one was and it’s significance to the others – their relationship and thus the meaning of the inscription.

I was stunned and in awe of this man who knew all of this off the top of his head. I wanted to be like him, I wanted to be able to read the hieroglyphics more than anything else in the world. He then introduced himself to me as the professor of Egyptology at the U of T. I wanted him to adopt me right then and there. He did the next best thing. He arranged for me to get a copy of the text book they used at the university “Gardiner’s Egyptian Grammar”. We stayed in contact for a little while after I returned home, but lost contact over time.

Unfortunately as the good book says, “Time and unforeseen circumstances befall us all” and so they did in my life also. Family challenges, health and situations did not allow my passion and goals to be achieved and come to fruition. However, I still remain passionate, and cherish the book and the memories. Whenever I’m able to allow myself the luxury of revisiting them I take out the book and my sketch pad and work through the lessons on my own. In my dreams I’m an Egyptology and Hieroglyphic linguist.

Thank you for bringing my memories back to life.

As I sat there in front of the animal skin piece on the pole, copying the hieroglyphs meticulously into my sketch pad a gentleman came and sat down beside me. He asked me what I was doing and when I replied and explained, he pointed to the symbols and explained what each one was and it’s significance to the others – their relationship and thus the meaning of the inscription.

I was stunned and in awe of this man who knew all of this off the top of his head. I wanted to be like him, I wanted to be able to read the hieroglyphics more than anything else in the world. He then introduced himself to me as the professor of Egyptology at the U of T. I wanted him to adopt me right then and there. He did the next best thing. He arranged for me to get a copy of the text book they used at the university “Gardiner’s Egyptian Grammar”. We stayed in contact for a little while after I returned home, but lost contact over time.

Unfortunately as the good book says, “Time and unforeseen circumstances befall us all” and so they did in my life also. Family challenges, health and situations did not allow my passion and goals to be achieved and come to fruition. However, I still remain passionate, and cherish the book and the memories. Whenever I’m able to allow myself the luxury of revisiting them I take out the book and my sketch pad and work through the lessons on my own. In my dreams I’m an Egyptology and Hieroglyphic linguist.

Thank you for bringing my memories back to life.