New AGO marks start of a new arts era for Toronto

The AGO appears to be an instant hit. People lined up for blocks on the opening weekend to get a first look at what $276 million and superstar architect Frank Gehry, who grew up near the gallery, could create.

On the outside, they saw:

a glass-and-douglas fir façade on Dundas Street, meant to evoke the lines of a canoe
a gleaming blue titanium addition with an eye-catching, curved external staircase
a wood spiral staircase inside
New skylights to allow in natural light

"What I hope people will feel when they literally walk in is a sense of welcome," said Matthew Teitelbaum, director and CEO of the AGO, on Nov. 13.

"A sense that this is a building that embraces you, whether it's the light, wood, whether it's the procession straight into Walker Court -- but that there is a sense that we as an institution want you here and want to embrace you."

The latest expansion of the AGO, a 108-year-old institution, came about as a result of a massive donation of 2,000 artworks by the late Kenneth Thomson. The Thomson family also donated $100 million to the renovation's cost. The AGO will have 4,000 works on display in 110 galleries.

Gehry, who calls Los Angeles home, said he didn't know the power of Canadian art before he worked on this project. "And now that I see it in this setting, in all its glory, it makes you realize that this could be a big deal for future generations," he said.

However, time will tell how the public ultimately accepts the new AGO.

In June 2007, the Royal Ontario Museum's Crystal addition opened. A year later, Toronto Life published an article saying the jagged $320-million addition towering above Bloor Street was a bust on the inside and had done little to boost the museum's attendance.

Hume disagreed with the article and said objections to the Crystal are likely due to "the shock of the new."

Still, the gallery's revitalization had Hume call this one of Toronto's best architectural years ever.

With the AGO, the ROM, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Arts and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts all being either built or renovated in the past two years, the rebuilding of Toronto's cultural infrastructure is complete.

The Royal Conservatory of Music also mostly completed a renovation this year, he said.

But now, Toronto does have a suite of world-class cultural facilities, even though some have utilitarian rather than interesting architecture, Hume said.

"This has been an important process for the city. In addition to ending up with a series of first-rate buildings, we've gone through an exercise of Toronto learning who it is. It's been an entirely positive thing -- in spite of all the griping about the ROM," he said.

Other arts notes:

Luminato, the June festival of arts and creativity, continued to grow in 2008.
Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Nuit Blanche, the night-long festival of contemporary art, in October
The Toronto International Film Festival continues to be one of this city's major events and among the top film festivals in the world. But grumbling started to appear as ticket prices reached $24 for a single ticket and donors were given preferential treatment in placing advance orders (the Toronto International Film Festival Group is under pressure to generate revenue for its permanent home, the Bell Light Box, at King and John Streets). The winner of the festival's People's Choice award was Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire." Paul Gross's "Passchendaele," centred around one of Canada's most horrific battles in the First World War, opened the festival.
Toronto got its name in a film title. "Toronto Stories" -- four interlinked short stories in one film by four local directors -- opened in December.
Dusty Cohl, who helped co-found TIFF, died in January 2008 at age 78 of cancer.
Canada's theatrical community mourned the passing of Richard Monette, the longtime artistic director of the Stratford Festival in Stratford. The Order of Canada-holder died on Sept. 9 at age 64. "The single most important thing he will be remembered for is that he saved this theatre," actor Christopher Plummer said in 2007.
Blues guitarist Jeff Healey died in March of cancer. He had lost his sight at a young age to a rare eye disease, but went on to a succesful recording and performing career.
A Toronto punk bank named Holy F--- and a film made in Toronto entitled Young People F---ing figured into the debate over censorship and federal Conservative cuts to arts funding
Toronto artists rallied in October to call for support to the cultural sector, saying they are a major business in this country and that the $45-million in funding cuts announced by the Conservatives would hurt the smallest companies that provide a training ground for the big-league operations. However, new Heritage Minister James Moore said after the Oct. 14 federal election that he wouldn't work to reverse the cuts.
Speaking of Holy F---, it was a finalist for the Polaris music prize. However, Caribou (Dan Snaith), a Dundas, Ont. artist, took the $20,000 prize -- and promptly donated half to Ecojustice and the other half to the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
Toronto novelist Gil Adamson won the $7,500 First Novel Award. Her book, set in 1903, is about a 19-year-old widow trying to escape her brothers-in-law after killing her husband in the Rocky Mountains.
Toronto writer Nino Ricci's The Origin of Species won the $25,000 Governor General's Literary Award for English fiction. It was his second win.
Toronto-based Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford won the non-fiction prize for her book Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death From Inside the New Canadian Army.