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The institution was established in 1880. In 1913, the Government of Canada passed the National Gallery Act, formally outlined the institution's mandate as a national art museum. In 1988, the museum was relocated to its present location. The museum's permanent collection includes over 93,000 works from European, American, and Asian, Canadian, and indigenous Canadian artists. In addition to exhibiting works from its permanent collection, the museum also organizes and hosts a number of travelling exhibitions.

The Gallery was first incorporated in July 1900 as the Art Museum of Toronto. The name was changed to the Art Gallery of Toronto by a statute law amendment act, assented to 24 April 1919. It was thought that the word “Museum” conflicted with the Royal Ontario Museum which was founded in 1912. The current name of the Gallery took effect July 8, 1966 when The Art Gallery of Ontario Act, 1966 received royal assent. The name change was designed to acknowledge the rapidly growing role the Gallery played across the province.

Extension Services’ primary responsibility was to coordinate and circulate exhibitions, lectures, and instructional programs throughout Ontario, as a part of the AGO’s mandate to support and advance visual arts across the province.
Extension Services began in 1968, when the Art Institute of Ontario disbanded and its programs were taken over by the Education and Extension Services Branch, with Alan Toff as Extension Services Officer. In 1969, Claire Haggan (later Watson) assumed the role of Extension Officer and later Coordinator of Extension Services. Gene Butt replaced Claire Watson as Coordinator of Extension Services in 1974, with Nancy Hushion taking over the role in 1975.
In 1976, Extension Services became its own division. Nancy Hushion continued as head of Extension Services until 1979 when Penny-Lynn Grossman assumed the role of division head.
In 1981 Extension Services became a department within the Curatorial Branch, with Glenda Milrod now as department head and Marcie Lawrence joining as Program Coordinator.
In 1992/1993, Extension Services became a department in the newly formed Education, Outreach, and Public Programming Division. Glenda Milrod remained as head of the department and Marcie Lawrence continued as Program Coordinator.
Extension Services disbanded in 1995/1996 when the Education, Outreach, and Public Programming Division became part of the Curatorial Division.

General Idea was a collective of three artists, Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson, who were active from 1967 to 1994.

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

Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) was founded in September, 1966 as a not-for-profit organization to promote cooperation among artists, engineers and industry on projects involving both art and technology. Members included Billy Klüver, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Whitman, Fred Waldhauer, among many others. In 1977 the documents of E.A.T. were assembled, reproduced, and distributed to several libraries and museums throughout the world.

The Gershon Iskowitz Foundation was started by artist Gershon Iskowitz in 1985, with the mandate of awarding the Gershon Iskowitz Prize to a mature practising artist; since 2007 the Foundation has partnered with the Art Gallery of Ontario to administer the Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO.

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.

The Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers (CPE) was founded in 1916 as a successor to the short-lived Association of Canadian Etchers, founded in 1885. The Society began holding annual exhibitions in 1919 at the Art Gallery of Toronto. Usually these were part of larger exhibitions. The Society held exhibitions in other locations in Toronto from 1933 to 1959. The Society was formally incorporated on 1935. Between 1960 and 1974 the Society's annual exhibitions were each held in a different city in Ontario. The Society merged with the Canadian Society of Graphic Art in 1976 to form the Print and Drawing Council of Canada.