Students will experience:

• Special full-day programs at the AGO: Up to 500 high-priority TDSB classes will visit the Gallery in the 2011-12 school year;
• The AGO’s installation of 13 key paintings from the TDSB’s art collection in the Weston Family Learning Centre;
• Specialized curriculum and resources for teachers and students online and at the AGO; and
  Free access to the Weston Family Learning Centre for students, teachers, parents and the community.

“This historic partnership is an incredible opportunity for our students, teachers and school communities,” said Chris Spence, TDSB Director of Education. “We truly believe the arts have an overwhelmingly positive impact on student achievement. Our fine art collection helps tell the story of who we are, as a school board, and as a city.”

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Canadian fashion icon shares personal collection of artwork

(TORONTO – Nov. 15, 2011) The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) launches the second annual Art Rental + Sales Gallery Collector’s Series exhibition in collaboration with one of Canada’s top fashion influencers, and host of CTV’s FashionTelevision, Jeanne Beker. Launched in 2010, this year’s exhibition in the series offers a rare glimpse into Beker’s private art collection including paintings, photography, and sculptures. Opening Tuesday, Nov. 29, the Collector’s Series runs until Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 at the AGO’s Art Rental + Sales Gallery, located on the ground floor of 481 University Ave.

Opening night reception, hosted by AGO and featuring an appearance by Beker, takes place on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 6 p.m. at the Art Rental + Sales Gallery. The event offers performances by Juno Award-winning jazz artist Richard Underhill as well as Beker’s daughter, musician Joey O’Neil.

The Collector’s Series shines a spotlight on the personal art collections of notable Canadians, offering rare opportunities to share their own treasured pieces, as well as to select favourite pieces from the holdings of the Art Rental + Sales Gallery to be featured in the space. These selected works are available to the public for purchase or for rent.

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(TORONTO – Nov. 3, 2011)

Situated in the Signy Eaton gallery, the exhibition is presented within four central themes, each anchored by a representative keystone piece in rooms themed “Light,” “Spirit,” “Time,” and “Place”. More than 100 works in various media make up the exhibition, including 40 paintings, 58 drawings, five films, four prints, as well as archival photos, process materials,  notebooks and letters from the AGO’s Special Collection. Featured paintings include Meadow, 401 Towards London, McGilvary County, and Lunch. A room in the centre of the space will display a selection of Chambers’ influential films including Mosaic, R34, Hybrid, Hart of London and Circle.

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(TORONTO/MONTREAL – Nov. 1, 2011) After an eight-week public vote, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and Aeroplan are proud to announce that Delhi-based artist Gauri Gill is the winner of The Grange Prize 2011. The $50,000 prize is Canada’s largest photography prize, also granting $5,000 and an international residency to each of the runners-up, and is the only major Canadian art prize to have its winner chosen by the public.

Gill is an Indian photographer born in 1970 and based in Delhi, India, whose body of work includes a decade-long study of people living in marginalized communities in Rajasthan, India. Her photographs “often address ordinary heroism within challenging environments,” says a statement on behalf of the nominating jury, “depicting the artist’s often-intimate relationships with her subjects with a documentary spirit and a human concern over issues of survival.”

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Gauri Gill (Indian), Sunita, Nirmala and Sita, from the series Balika Mela Portraits, 2003, archival pigment print, 76 x 102 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Nature Morte Gallery. © 2011 Gauri Gill.

(TORONTO – Oct. 5, 2011) Artworks from two special collections at the Art Gallery of Ontario – Prints and Drawings, and the Edward P. Taylor Reference Library and Archives – are showcased in Constructing Utopia: Books and Posters from Revolutionary Russia, 1910–1940. Opening Oct. 8, 2011, the exhibition runs until Jan. 15, 2012.

Using the major AGO exhibition Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris as a departure point, Constructing Utopia examines the era of revolution in the Russian empire as the tsarist autocracy was deposed and replaced by a Communist government that enlisted the people in the construction of a utopian Soviet society. This all-encompassing political and social project is reflected in the striking art and design of the times.

Curated by Medeine Tribinevicius, AGO Gelber Intern, Prints and Drawings, and Donald Rance, AGO Reference Librarian, the exhibition brings into dialogue two exciting branches of graphic design: futurist and constructivist books, which speak to the formative artistic years of the avant-garde; and large-scale, dramatic posters, which demonstrate the impact of this ground-breaking art movement on the everyday visual culture of Soviet Russia.

The AGO’s collection of Russian posters is the finest public compilation of revolutionary posters in North America. The rare books are a recent Gallery acquisition (donated anonymously in 2009), and this marks the collection’s first public showing. Comprising over 100 works, the books and posters focus on portrayals of political figures and momentous events, as well as propaganda supporting the changes to mass education and literacy campaigns in the early years of the Soviet Union.

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(TORONTO – Oct. 4, 2011) The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) celebrates the long-standing patronage of Joey and Toby Tanenbaum with an exhibition comprising highlights from the masterworks the couple has donated to the Gallery over almost four decades. Featuring 28 Old Master paintings and five sculptures, From Renaissance to Rodin: Celebrating the Tanenbaum Gift is currently on view in the Walter C. Laidlaw and E.R Wood Galleries and Walker Court.

“The AGO is fortunate to have been the beneficiary of the Tanenbaums’ generosity over the years, and to be entrusted as the custodian of such an extraordinary collection of works,” said Matthew Teitelbaum, the Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO. “Joey and Toby’s ongoing support of their hometown art museum and the spirit that drives their love of art have had a considerable effect in guiding the shape and scope of the Gallery.”

The Tanenbaums’ love of rich imagery and visual depth, high drama and narrative tone is evident in the works of the exhibition. Spanning from the 15th to the 20th century, paintings by artists including Jan Victors, Artus Wolfort, Luca Giordano, Antoine Coypel, Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet and Thomas Lawrence capture mainly Classical and biblical themes.

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The Government of Canada recently introduced the Canadian Children’s Arts Tax Credit, giving parents the opportunity to claim the 15 per cent non-refundable Canadian Children’s Arts Tax Credit on qualifying expenses up to $500 starting in 2011 for each child who is under the age of 16 at the beginning of the tax year. The age limit is 18 for children eligible for the Disability Tax Credit and an additional amount of $500 will be provided in those instances. The credit will go towards fees paid that contribute to the development of a child’s creative skills or expertise in artistic or cultural programs.

Here at the AGO,  the Children and Family Programs and Youth Studio offer an exceptional learning environment where children and youth are given the opportunity to do just that. Along with access to AGO’s galleries, collections, and new Weston Family Learning Centre, children and youth are presented with a variety of ways to learn and create.

* One-day family workshops, courses that are complimentary with admission, and programs that are part of school curriculum are not eligible for this tax credit.

To Qualify Classes Must Be:

• Ongoing (either a minimum of once a week for at least eight weeks’ duration) or five consecutive days;
• Supervised;  and
• Suitable for children.

What Parents Need To Know

• fees paid for the cost of memberships, registration, administration, instruction, and the rental of equipment is also included as an eligible expense.
• Parents will receive an electronic receipt in January that will list: organization’s name and address, eligible program, fees paid and date received, full name of payer, full name of child and the child’s year of birth.

Please see the Canadian Revenue Agency website for more information.

For full details about learning opportunities at the AGO and in our new Weston Family Learning Centre please visit http://www.ago.net/learning

(TORONTO – Sept. 21, 2011) The Art Gallery of Ontario brings the magic and wonder of modern painter Marc Chagall to Toronto next month with a major exhibition organized by the world-renowned contemporary art museum, Centre Pompidou. Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris is on view from Oct. 18, 2011 to Jan. 15, 2012, and includes 32 vivid and imaginative works by Marc Chagall and eight pieces by Wassily Kandinsky, alongside pieces from other visionaries of Russian modernism such as Kasimir Malevich, Natalia Goncharova, Sonia Delaunay, and Vladimir Tatlin. A total of 118 works belonging to the collection of the Centre Pompidou comprises a broad array of media including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography and film.

Early-bird tickets for the exhibition are on sale now and include a 20 per cent discount if purchased online before Oct. 18. Regularly priced tickets range from $16.50 for youth and student visitors to $25 for adult admission. Admission is free for children ages 5 and under. Tickets can be booked online.

AGO members enjoy FREE admission to Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde, and are invited to attend a special members’ preview of the exhibition on Sunday, Oct. 16, 10 am – 8:30 pm, and on Monday, Oct. 17, 10 am – 5:30 pm. Members of the Curators’ Circle can enjoy an exclusive talk and preview on Monday, Oct. 17 at 6:30 pm.

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Butler to host an all-night painting competition for Nuit Blanche and exhibit new work in the AGO’s Toronto Now series.

(TORONTO – Sept. 14, 2011) The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) launches a new artist-in-residence program this month, including a dedicated studio in the newly built Weston Family Learning Centre. The program, the first of its kind at a major Canadian art museum, will host up to six artists each year for eight-week terms. Paul Butler is the AGO’s first artist-in-residence, and kicks off the program with an all-night event at the Learning Centre during Nuit Blanche on Oct. 1.

Butler is also the latest artist to be featured in the AGO’s Toronto Now series
with his installation The Greg Curnoe Bicycle Project, which pays homage to influential Canadian artist Greg Curnoe. Opening Sept. 17 and guest curated by Tatiana Mellema, the installation features photographic and video elements documenting Butler’s rides around London, Ont. with the late artist’s friends and family and members of the arts and cycling communities in London. The installation also includes a custom-built replica of Curnoe’s bicycle, which Butler built with Mike Barry, a friend of Curnoe’s and the owner of Mariposa Cycle in Toronto.

“Paul Butler is an artist whose keen interest in community and institution building makes him well suited to be the first artist-in-residence at the AGO,” says Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO’s Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO. “The Artist-in-Residence Program is designed to spark connections between our visitors and the artist community, and the events and programs Paul has planned are an ideal fulfillment of the program’s terrific potential.”

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(TORONTO/MONTREAL – August 30, 2011) Four photographers — two each from Canada and India — have been shortlisted for The Grange Prize 2011, Canada’s largest cash prize for photography. The winner of the $50,000 prize is chosen by public vote, which opens today and continues through October 23 at www.thegrangeprize.com. The winner will be announced at a gala reception hosted by presenting partners Aeroplan and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) on November 1.

The finalists for The Grange Prize 2011 are:

• Gauri Gill, an Indian photographer born in 1970 and based in Delhi, India, whose work documents narratives of ordinary heroism within challenging environments and includes a decade-long study of people living in marginalized communities in Rajasthan. Gill’s photographs address the twinned Indian identity markers of class and community and document the artist’s often-intimate relationships with her subjects.

• Elaine Stocki, a Canadian photographer born in 1979 in Winnipeg, who works with subjects from a range of social conditions to create compositions that explore issues of race, class and gender. Her images challenge the limits of documentary photography by utilizing its techniques and conventions to express constructed, fictive narratives.

• Althea Thauberger, a Canadian photographer born in 1970 and based in Vancouver, who has garnered attention over the past decade for photographs, films and video that explore her engagements and collaborations with groups of people, most often distinct social enclaves, resulting in performances of identity and self-definition that are strikingly and powerfully documented by the artist.

• Nandini Valli, an Indian photographer born in 1976 and based in Chennai, India, whose carefully constructed, cinematic images of her subjects, often costumed as mythologized heroes and gods and photographed in contemporary settings, have placed her at the forefront of the emerging performance-based photography movement in India.

The four finalists were selected by a nominating jury comprising AGO acting curator of Canadian art Michelle Jacques; Wayne Baerwaldt, the acting vice president of research and academic affairs at the Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary; Gayatri Sinha, a Delhi-based art critic and curator; and Sunil Gupta, a photographer, writer and curator born in India and living in New Delhi and London, UK.

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