Fonds consists of the administrative records of A Space Gallery from its founding until approximately 1990, including artist files, gallery/organization files, grant applications, proposals received, and other administrative records.
A Space
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
This records group consists of records generated by the Gallery’s Design department and its various iterations since it was first formally established in the early 1970s. The majority of records are textual and graphic, and include final design products as well as associated drafts, mockups, and textual documents, such as memos, notes and project descriptions. Common design projects include the creation of promotional material (such as brochures, flyers and posters), paper ephemera (such as tickets, stationary and invitations), administrative documents (such as forms, receipts, and ID Cards), and Gallery signage. Additionally, the records group includes records related to publications projects from the period of time that Publications was amalgamated with the Design department, between the 1970s and early 2000s. This includes records relating to the production of catalogues, newsletters, and various Gallery publications, including Annual Reports, The Gallery, and AGO News.
Also included are some records from design and publications projects prior to the 1970s, which were completed without the assistance of a formal department. These include a competition to design a seal for the Art Museum of Toronto in 1918, publications from the Women’s Committee, and other general design projects to support exhibitions, events, and other Gallery activities.
Contains series:
Art Gallery of Ontario
Collection contains photographs of the Art Gallery of Ontario and its programs, exhibitions, building, staff, volunteers, and donors. Contents include photographs of exhibitions (called installation photographs) and exhibition openings, programs at the gallery school, staff photographs, and photographs of the building and grounds.
Coverage is most complete after the establishment of the Photographic Services department in 1973.
Art Gallery of Ontario
Collection contains posters for AGO exhibitions, events, and programs.
Art Gallery of Ontario
AGO Prints and Drawings Curatorial Department Records
Series contains records relating to the work of the Prints and Drawings department at the Art Gallery of Ontario. These files document the work of acquiring and maintaining works for the AGO’s Prints and Drawings collection; planning, researching, organizing exhibitions; producing catalogues; and hosting exhibition openings.
Art Gallery of Ontario
AGO Women's Committee and Junior Women's Committee records
Record series contains records generated by the Women’s Committee and Junior Women’s Committee and subsequent Volunteer Committee and Junior Volunteer Committee
Women's Committee of the Art Gallery of Ontario
Fonds consists of drawings, watercolours and designs of A. H. Howard produced in Toronto between 1880 and 1914, especially in the sketchbooks in which Howard drew Ontario landscapes and towns, flowers, trees, human figures, factory interiors and other subjects. Similar drawings and watercolours are contained in two albums and a portfolio. Also included are examples of his decorative and calligraphic work from illuminated presentation addresses, certificates, bookplates and other materials.
Contains series:
Howard, Alfred Harold
Angela Grigor-Arthur Lismer collection
The collection consists of research files created by Angela Grigor in preparation for her book Arthur Lismer: visionary art educator (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002). Materials in Series 1,2 and 3 are primarily photocopies from original periodicals, pamphlets and exhibition catalogues found in institutions in Canada, the United States and England. The collection contains Angela Grigor’s correspondence with these institutions and with Arthur Lismer’s daughter, Marjorie Lismer Bridges, and her daughter, Janet Cauffiel. A number of interviews are documented, including recordings of two interviews with Arthur Lismer for the CBC, and the many interviews Angela Grigor conducted with former students, fellow teachers and other associates of the artist. Fonds is comprised of the following series: 1. Historical background research files 2. Arthur Lismer’s published and unpublished writings 3. Miscellaneous Arthur Lismer files 4. Angela Grigor’s correspondence 5. Interviews
Grigor, Angela Nairne
Collection consists of audio recordings of interviews carried out by Anita Aarons with a number of Canadian art world figures active in the 1970s and 1980s, including Ron Bloore, Graham Coughtry, Dorothy Cameron, Guido Molinari, Yves Gaucher, Ted Bieler, Gordon Rayner and Jack Pollock.
Aarons, Anita