Series LA.AGOR004.S04 - Wednesday Open Nights

Education for children and adults has been an important function of the Art Gallery of Ontario since the 1920s. In 1918, the Art Museum of Toronto put on the exhibition Small Children’s Exhibition and more than 5000 children attended. The Educational Committee (later Education Committee) was established in 1926 to oversee all educational work, including preparing plans for cooperation with schools, for public lectures on art, and on “such other work as may properly come within the scope of the Committee.” In 1927, the Educational Committee hired Arthur Lismer as the Educational Secretary, and in 1929, he became the Educational Supervisor. His assistant was Norah McCullough, who took over the role of Educational Secretary in 1934.

Saturday morning art classes for children began in February 1930. These classes were financed by the Gallery and led by a team of five instructors (mostly young art students from the OCA and Central Tech), increasing to eight instructors by October 1930. Lismer taught older children, while Grace Johnston taught younger ones. Regular visits of children from public schools in the city also commenced in February 1930, with 25,000 children attending annually. Educational activities and opportunities for children further increased with the development of the Children’s Art Centre in 1933.

In 1945, the Wednesday Open Night program was established to expand the Gallery’s reach to visiting groups and the public. Thursday evenings were later added to support these activities. From 1951 to 1968, the Art Institute of Ontario (AIO) also supplemented the work of the Extension Services department by circulating exhibitions, lectures, and instructional programs with the help of galleries across Ontario. When the AIO disbanded in 1968, its programs were officially taken over by the Education and Extension Services Branch on July 1. It was not until 1976 that the Education and Extension functions of the Gallery became separate divisions, each managed by a Head. By 1977, several separate departments were established or redefined within the Education Services branch: Elementary Tours, Secondary Tours, Activity Centre (Gallery School), Adult Academic Program, Performance Program, Media (Film) Program, Audio-Visual Centre, Media Productions, Scheduling, and Training.

Stage III in 1993 helped centralize the Activity Centre (Gallery School) by expanding dedicated workshop rooms to handle the influx of weekend adult courses, professional training for educators, and specialized community art-making seminars and workshops that ballooned after the 1977 departmental splits.

In 2006, the Youth Council was founded as a peer-led, one-year term model that met weekly to address social issues relevant to youth through contemporary art and community building. Building on this framework, the AGO also established a national Youth Advisory in 2021.

The 2010s saw an increased emphasis on interpretive planning. Led by notable figures like David Wistow and Douglas Worts, this shift allowed educators to offer input in exhibition layouts and exhibition storytelling, frequently bringing in historically marginalized and community perspectives into permanent collection re-installations and major exhibitions. The department also expanded its focus on classroom education by launching specialized teacher development programs and resource kits, which included pre- and post-visit classroom materials, thematic lesson plans, and frameworks to integrate visual literacy directly into the provincial curriculum.

The Weston Family Learning Centre also launched in 2011, and with it, the Dr. Mariano Elia Hands-On Centre, which serves as a dedicated hub for children’s artmaking and creative family learning. These new spaces led the development of diverse entry points to art, such as multi-sensory labels, multilingual interpretation, and specialized guided experiences for visitors of varying ages and abilities. The Artist-in-Residence program also started in 2011 with the aim of providing institutional support, access to facilities, and a stipend for artists who create and develop works presented at the Gallery. From October 2012 to November 2018, the Gallery introduced First Thursdays, which was a program that offered monthly late-night artist talks, exhibition openings and tours, free artmaking, and performances.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a shift to virtual programs. In 2020, Virtual School Programs offered free live-streamed art workshops and conversations with AGO Art Educators to kindergarten to Grade 12 students. The Inner Space web series was also officially initiated in January 2022, where AGO staff and the Inner Space Youth Advisory highlighted emerging, diverse Canadian artists to provide personal tours of their private studios.