This records group contains curatorial files from the offices of the curator, director and council president of the Art Museum of Toronto and Art Gallery of Toronto. It documents the activities of mounting exhibitions, acquiring art, and displaying the gallery’s permanent collection.
The Art Museum of Toronto hosted its first exhibition, Pictures by Glasgow Painters, in 1906 at the galleries of the Ontario Society of Artists (at 165 King Street West, Toronto). The next exhibition, by the Canadian Art Club, was not held until 1909 at the Public Reference Library building (at College and St. George Streets, Toronto). The Museum took possession of the Grange House in 1913, and held the first exhibition on that premises in June, featuring the collection of the donors and former occupants Harriet Dixon-Smith and Goldwin Smith. From that time until the present day, temporary exhibitions have been hosted at the Gallery.
From the founding of AMT until the 1960s, the gallery was an important space for hosting the annual exhibitions of many Canadian artists’ societies such as the Ontario Society of Artists, the Royal Canadian Academy and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. The Gallery also held multiple exhibitions of the Group of Seven and the Canadian Group of Painters.
By the mid-twentieth century, the Gallery had hosted three important international exhibitions: Art Treasures from the Vienna Collections in 1951, Dutch Painting, the Golden Age in 1955 and British Painting in the Eighteenth Century in 1958. In 1964, the Art Gallery of Toronto exhibited the first-ever Canadian exhibition of Pablo Picasso, Picasso and Man. Through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s the gallery expanded its focus on international contemporary art and hosted major retrospectives and memorial exhibitions of Canadian artists.
The first curator, Mr. Edward Ruthven Greig, was hired in 1912 and worked as curator until 1928. He was replaced by Frederick Stanley Haines (1928-1932). Martin Baldwin became curator in 1932 until 1948 when he was appointed to the new position of Director of the Art Gallery of Toronto. Prior to Baldwin’s appointment as the first director, the curator also acted as the administrative head of the Museum/Gallery.
In 1948, Sydney James Key replaced Mr. Baldwin as curator, followed by William Scott Abell Dale (1957 to 1959), Dr. Jean Sutherland Boggs (1962 to 1964) and David Stopford Brooke (1965 to 1968).
In the 1960s, staff began to be assigned to specific curatorial areas. In 1966 Brydon Smith became the first curator of Modern Art, and in 1970 Joan Murray became the curator of Canadian Art.
In 1968 curatorial was established as a branch with four sections: Exhibitions and collections; Registrar; Library; and Conservation.
By 1976 there were four curators (Contemporary, Canadian Historical, Moore Centre, and Prints & Drawings) in addition to the chief curator. Other areas that reported to the chief curator were Registration, Conservation, Preparation, Traffic, Library, Photographic Services, and Publications.
In 1981 Extension Services, which organized art exhibitions and educational programmes throughout the province, became part of the Curatorial Branch.
In 1988-89 the functions of Registration & Traffic, Conservation, Photographic Services, Technical Services, and Publication & Design became a separate division – Art Support.
Art Gallery of Ontario