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A Space is an artist-run centre located in Toronto.

A formal Design Unit was first established at the Gallery in 1974. Prior to this, design projects that provided visual identity for the Gallery and promoted exhibitions and events were completed without the assistance of a formal department, often with assistance from external contracts. The Design Unit was established shortly after Scott Thornley joined the institution as Head Designer, and was at first separate to the Publications Department that was established in 1972. In 1981, however, these two departments were amalgamated as Publications & Design, a division of the Public Affairs branch. This department was responsible for all print and graphic material produced by the Gallery, including catalogues, posters, brochures, postcards, banners, and signage.

The department went through a series of name changes in the 1980s, becoming “Promotion” in 1983, “Graphic Design & Production” in 1986, and “Publication & Design” in 1989. The heads of the department between 1981 and 1990 included Denise Bukowski, Normand Terry, and Alan Terakawa. The Publications and Design department became a part of the Exhibitions division in the early 1990s, where it remained until the early 2010s.

During this period (1990-2010), there were a number of additional Designer roles established in different divisions, separate to the Publications and Design department. This included a Designer in the Marketing division.

In approximately 2011, the Publications and Design departments separated, with Publishing and becoming a part of the Curatorial division after briefly being moved to the Digital division. As of 2024, the Design Studio is a part of the Brand and Business division and Publishing remains within Curatorial.

The Prints and Drawings department was established in 1975 to collect and curate exhibitions of works on paper. Katharine A. Lochnan (nee Jordan) was the first curator of the Prints and Drawings department, having worked at the gallery as a curatorial assistant since 1969.

From 1912 to the 1960s, curatorial work at the AGO was not divided by area or department. The Curator (later Chief Curator) and Assistant Curators worked on exhibitions in all media, including prints and drawings.

The Prints and Drawings collection now includes more than 20,000 prints, drawings, and watercolours, housing works on paper from the 1400s to the present day. These works intersect with many of the AGO’s collecting areas, including European, Canadian, Inuit, Modern, Contemporary, and Photography, and are available for public reference in the Marvin Gelber Print and Drawings Study Centre.

The Prints and Drawings department regularly curates exhibitions at the AGO under the leadership of Alexa Greist, who has been the Curator & R. Fraser Elliott Chair, Prints and Drawings since 2016.

The Art Directors Club, Toronto (active 1947–1993), now the Advertising and Design Club of Canada, was a trade organization the first aim of which was “to promote the use of better art as applied to commerce and industry.” Its membership, initially around 25 and limited in 1958 to 90 members, consisted chiefly of art directors, commercial artists, photographers and typographers. After its charter was granted in January 1948, the club elected Robin Cumine, Leslie Trevor, John Belknap, O.K. Schenk and Eric Heathcote as officers for 1948–1949. Harry Caverhill, Charles Comfort, Stanley Cooper and Leslie Wookey served on the first executive committee. Presidents of the Art Directors Club, Toronto mentioned in club correspondence were Leslie Trevor and Gerald Moses. Similar organizations existed in Vancouver, Montreal, New York and elsewhere.
The first Art Directors Club, Toronto (ADCT) exhibition was held at Eatons Fine Art Galleries in Toronto in April 1949. In that year, the club first published reproductions of submissions to the exhibition in its Annual of advertising and editorial art (1949–1964). Issues of the annual included lists of artists in the exhibition and names of members of the club.
The club also administered the Oscar Cahén Memorial Award for accomplishment in the art of industry and commerce, named after Canadian painter (member of the Painters Eleven) and illustrator Oscar Cahén (1916–1956).
During the 1950s, ADCT exhibitions of advertising and editorial art were held at the Art Gallery of Toronto, now the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

Located in Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) stands as one of the largest art museums in North America, attracting approximately one million visitors annually. The Gallery was first incorporated as the Art Museum of Toronto in July 1900, with the goal of establishing a public facility dedicated to the collecting and exhibiting of art both historical and contemporary, foreign and Canadian (Art Gallery of Ontario : selected works, pg. 12). This initial name was changed to the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1919, as it was thought that the term “Museum” conflicted with the Royal Ontario Museum, founded in 1912. The current name of the Gallery took effect on July 8, 1966 to reflect the rapidly growing role the Gallery played not only in Toronto but across the province.

Before finding its current location, the Gallery operated from several temporary sites. The first exhibition hosted by the Art Museum of Toronto, Pictures by Glasgow Painters, was held in 1906 at the Ontario Society of Artists’ galleries at 165 King Street West. The AMT made its first purchase that same year, acquiring The Captive Butterfly by Glasgow painter Edward Atkinson Hornel from the loan exhibition. The Gallery found its first permanent home in the Grange House, which it officially took ownership of in 1911 and occupied starting in 1913. (See The Grange records group). Shortly thereafter, construction began on new gallery spaces adjacent to the historic house, with the first of these new wings opened in 1918. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, additional gallery spaces were constructed with the aid of various benefactors. Some of these spaces, such as Walker Court, remain part of the AGO today, while others have been replaced to accommodate new expansions.
The Gallery’s building has undergone numerous periods of major growth and change as its audience and art collection have continued to grow and evolve. In 1968, planning began for three major renovation and expansion projects, known as Stage I, Stage II, and Stage III. All together, these projects significantly improved the Gallery’s capacity to host major touring exhibitions and provided new offices, storage, and other operational facilities. In the mid-2000s another ambitious architectural project was initiated, called Transformation AGO. This project was led by renowned architect Frank Gehry and was completed in 2008. These significant architectural changes have also often been accompanied by changes to the AGO’s brand identity, with Transformation AGO being accompanied by its own temporary branding and the Gallery’s relaunch in 2008 coinciding with the launch of a new brand and visual identity.
A new expansion project is currently underway to establish the Dani Reis Modern and Contemporary Gallery, expected to open in 2027. This addition will increase the museum’s gallery space by 40,000 square feet, with at least 13 new galleries across five floors, enhancing the AGO’s total display space by 30%.

From its founding until the 1960s, the Gallery was an important venue for annual exhibitions of various Canadian artists’ societies, such as the Ontario Society of Artists. In addition to Canadian artists, major international exhibitions were also hosted, such as Picasso and Man in 1964, which was the first-ever Canadian show of Pablo Picasso. Throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the Gallery expanded its focus to include international contemporary art and hosted major retrospectives and memorial exhibitions of Canadian artists.
The Gallery's curatorial practices have evolved significantly over time, along with the Gallery’s operational structure. In its early days, the Curator was also the administrative head for the Gallery, until the position of Director was created in 1948. By 1968, the Curatorial Branch was structured into four sections: Exhibitions and Collections, Registrar, Library, and Conservation. The number of curators continued to expand in the 1970s, reflecting the growing complexity of the Gallery’s operations and collections.
Today, the AGO's collection spans a diverse array of art forms and periods, including Modern and Contemporary, Canadian and Indigenous, Inuit, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, Prints and Drawings, European, and Photography. The Gallery's collection exceeds 120,000 works, encompassing cutting-edge contemporary pieces to significant historical works by Canadian, Indigenous, and European artists.

Education has been a core function of the AGO since 1926, when the Educational Committee was established. Arthur Lismer was hired as Educational Secretary in 1927 and later became Educational Supervisor. The committee's initiatives included Saturday morning classes for children, public school visits, lectures, and musical evenings. In 1943, the AGO began circulating exhibitions to bring art to various institutions, such as universities, schools, and community centers across the province. A weekly Open Nights program was introduced in 1945, which included activities such as tours, lectures, and films, intended to help reconnected with audience lost during WWII and as a community service. The Extension Program, officially initiated in 1949, further expanded outreach by offering loan exhibitions, talks, films, and art classes across the Toronto area and later the province. This function of circulation was taken over by the Art Institute of Ontario from its incorporation in 1952 until it was disbanded in 1968, at which point its programs were taken over by the Education and Extension Services branch.
By the mid-1970s, the Education and Extension Services had evolved into distinct departments, each becoming a separate division. Extension Services later became a department with the Curatorial Branch in 1981. Today, the AGO's education initiatives continue to serve the public, with year-round public programming, school programs, camps, Artist-in-Residence programs, and initiatives emerging from the Dr. Anne Tanenbaum Gallery School.

The structure of governance of the AGO has also undergone some changes over the course of the Gallery’s history. Initially governed by a Council from its founding until 1966, the institution then transitioned to a Board of Directors, which evolved into the Board of Trustees in 1968. This structure remains in place today, with a 27-member Board, including a President, presiding over the Gallery’s operations. Volunteers have also played a significant role in the Gallery’s operations, with bodies such as the Women’s Committee (later the Volunteer Committee) taking an active role in fostering interest in the gallery, promoting membership, and hosting fundraising activities starting in 1945.

The Art Institute of Ontario (AIO) was officially incorporated in 1951 to organize and circulate exhibitions, lectures, and instructional programmes throughout the province of Ontario with the help of its institutional members. The AIO’s founding members were the Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Art Gallery of London, Hart House, the London Public Library and Art Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, The Ontario Association of Architects, The Ontario Society of Artists, The Royal Ontario Museum, and The Willistead Art Gallery of Windsor. A proposal to form the AIO was originally put forward as early as September 1948 by the Art Gallery of Toronto, which had begun circulating exhibitions. However, funding was not formalized until 1951 when a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Education made it possible to sponsor an exhibition circulating throughout the province. In later years the AIO would also receive funding from the Atkinson foundation, Canada Council (since its founding in 1957), and the Province of Ontario Council for the Arts.

Harold C. Walker (President of the AGT from 1948-1950) originally served as the AIO’s Chairman while Martin Baldwin (Director of the AGT from 1948-1960) was its Director until 1964, when Paul Bennett took over the role (Baldwin stayed on as President). Bennett had previously been hired as the AIO’s first Field Director in 1959, serving as Director until the institute was absorbed into the AGO’s Extension Services in 1968.

The Baldwin Street Gallery of Photography, also known as Baldwin Street Gallery, was Canada's first independent photography gallery and was founded by John F. Phillips (1945-2010) and Laura Jones (1948-) in June, 1969. Its first location was at 23 Baldwin St. in Toronto, a house Phillips and Jones rented after immigrating to Canada from the United States during the Vietnam War. In 1968, Phillips and Jones had opened their home as an informal daycare and photography school for neighbourhood children, called the Baldwin Street Club. The couple were volunteers of the Company of Young Canadians which funded the educational project alongside the National Film Board. After a year and a half, the club became a gallery for the exhibition of independent photography, though they continued to teach children's photography courses throughout the lifespan of Baldwin Street Gallery. Jones and Phillips ran the Gallery on the first floor of the house, lived on the second floor, and offered a women's only darkroom in the basement in response to the number of men's only darkrooms in Toronto.
Jones and Phillips dedicated much of their own photography towards documenting the everyday lives of those who lived on Baldwin Street, which at the time was comprised largely of immigrants such as themselves. Notably, the couple photographed and were involved with the 1970 Hydro Block Protests during which the community successfully blocked a proposal for an 18 story hydro transformer station to be built on Baldwin Street. The Gallery was an extension of their own socially concerned photography, and was dedicated to supporting and exhibiting the work of documentary photographers that served to further honest expression, rather than to profit or exploit. The Gallery curated photography exhibits of primarily Canadian photographers such as Barbara Astman, Pamela Harris, Jeremy Taylor, and Marian Bancroft though it also featured travelling exhibits from American photographers such as Barbara Morgan and Nikolaus Walter. In addition to being a key space for exhibition, the Gallery also became an essential meeting place for photographers, a center that carried information about the photography field at large, a bookstore and library, and an informal photography school offering educational workshops and courses.
In 1972, after Phillips began teaching photography full-time at York University and left his role as co-director, the Gallery was run co-operatively run by the Women in Photography Co-op, comprised of June Greenberg, Judy Holman, Laura Jones, Pamela Harris, Liz Maunsell, Lynn Murray, Linda Rosenbaum, and Lisa Steele. Frustrated by sexism in the photography industry and the lack of representation of women photographers, the Women in Photography Co-op curated the exhibit "Photographs of Women by Women" for the University of Toronto's Festival of Women. In response to a call-out for photographs by women about women, the Co-op received over 1,500 photographs from women in Canada and the United States of which they selected 230 for the exhibit.
In 1973, with many of the members of the Co-op pursuing other projects, the Gallery was run primarily by Laura Jones with occasional assistance from other members. In 1974, the landlord of 23 Baldwin Street sold the property and served Jones and Phillips an eviction notice which forced the gallery to close. The gallery continued to function in various pop-up locations and in 1978 was situated at 38 Baldwin Street for a year. After the final closure of the Gallery, due to economic pressure, its emphasis shifted towards the creation of photography exhibitions for other galleries and institutions and the sale of photographs for publication.

On March 15, 1900, Mr. George Agnew Reid, then President of the Ontario Society of Artists, convened a meeting of representatives from various top educational, government, business and arts organizations, as well as prominent citizens to discuss the organization of a public art gallery. The meeting was chaired by Sir (Byron) Edmund Walker and included representation from the Ontario Government, Canadian Institute, Public Library Board, Public School Board, High School Board, University of Toronto, Trinity University, Ontario Society of Artists, Board of Trade of Toronto, City Council, Guild of Civic Art, Women’s Art Association, Ontario Association of Architects, Canadian Club, Women’s Historical Society, and Central Ontario School of Art and Design. A group of approximately 50 representatives from this initial meeting met again on March 31, 1900 where they elected the first Provisional Council and agreed upon the first articles of incorporation. The Ontario Legislature passed the Act of Incorporation July 4, 1900, forming the Art Museum of Toronto.

In order to recognize the importance of its role in hosting art exhibitions, and it help distinguish the Art Museum of Toronto from the Royal Ontario Museum, the Council passed an amendment to change the name of the institution to the Art Gallery of Toronto. A Statute Law Amendment Act 1919 reflecting this name change was assented to April 24, 1919. Later, due to its rapidly expanding role throughout the province, the Art Gallery of Toronto became the Art Gallery of Ontario by an act of Parliament in July 1966. The Gallery has remained a private institution with a governing body of appointed and elected Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees was briefly named the Board of Directors from 1966 to 1968.

Canada Packers, Inc. (now Maple Leaf Foods, Inc.) was a Toronto-based meat packing and processing company.

The company was formed out of a succession of mergers with predecessor companies. These include the William Davies Company, Ltd. (est. 1854), the Canadian Packing Company, Ltd. (est. 1868 as the George Matthews Company), Gunns Ltd. (est. 1876), and the Harris Abattoir Company, Ltd. (est. 1896). These firms merged in 1927 to form Canada Packers, Ltd., which became Canada Packers Inc. in 1980. In 1990 Canada Packers Inc. merged with British based Maple Leaf Mills, Ltd. to form Maple Leaf Foods, Inc.