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

Pleasure Dome (active 1989– ), also operating as Artists Film Exhibition Group (Ontario), is an exhibitor of experimental and independent motion pictures and video recordings in Toronto, administered by an artistic collective. The original collective, comprising Jonathan Pollard, Barbara Sternberg, Gary Popovich, Phil Hoffman and Michael Hoolboom, presented its first program 22 Sept. 1989 at the Euclid Theatre in Toronto. Since then, Pleasure Dome has presented as many as 17 exhibitions per year, with works varying in length from less than 5 minutes to over an hour.
While it was in principle a requirement of the provincial government that publicly-exhibited motion pictures be approved by a board of examiners, the collective nonetheless declined to submit films and videos to the Ontario Film Review Board (previously the Ontario Censor Board) for approval as a matter of policy.
Annual membership subscriptions for Pleasure Dome events were introduced in the third season (1991–1992). Film and video exhibitions and associated lectures have been held in various locations in downtown Toronto apart from the Euclid Theatre (which closed ca. 1994), including chiefly Cinecycle, but also Latvian House, Jackman Hall at the Art Gallery of Ontario and others.

Nellie Olive Curnoe (née Porter, 1909-1999) was the mother of Canadian artist Greg Curnoe (1936-1992). She married Gordon Charles Curnoe (1909-1985) in 193- and had three children: Greg, Glen (b. 1939) and Lynda (b. 1943). For biographical information on Greg Curnoe, see the finding aid to the Greg Curnoe fonds at this library, or Judith Rodger’s chronology in the 2001 Art Gallery of Ontario catalogue Greg Curnoe: Life & Stuff.

Judith Rodger is a freelance curator and art historian based in London, Ontario. Rodger was chief curator of the London Regional Art & Historical Museum, and was personally acquainted with Greg Curnoe. She contributed the chronology and bibliography to the catalogue of the exhibition Greg Curnoe: Life and Stuff (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2000). For a biographical sketch of Greg Curnoe, please see Greg Curnoe fonds.

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.

J.A. Wainwright (1946- ) is a writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction; and an emeritus Professor of English at Dalhousie University. He published Blazing Figures: A Life of Robert Markle (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press) in 2010.