AGO hits $1M fundraising goal ahead of signature gala

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has reached its goal of raising a million dollarsahead of its signature fundraising event of the year, with its director sayingphilanthropy now plays a larger role in how the gallery is funded.

This year's Art Bash gala will feature live music, art installations and a live painting demonstration, all meant to push this year's theme of colour.

A table of 10 people at the sold-out gala comes witha price tag of $25,000. With 400 philanthropists expected to arrive, the gallery says the money will be used to support its collections, exhibitions and access programs.

"It's expensive to run a museum with 600 people on staff. And this just goes right to support what we do," said Stephan Jost, the AGO's director and CEO.

The gala will feature an installation calledMoments in Modernism to celebrate the gallery's collection of modern art and the role colour plays within it, including collections from artists like Mark Rothko and Ellsworth Kelly, and more installations from Toronto artists.

Different times bring a changing budget

The event comes after a tumultuous year for the gallery a strike by unionized workers closed its doors for a month this past spring. Among many gains, the strike ended with an 11.4 per cent wage increase for full-time and part-time workers.

Meanwhile, the gallery is also undergoing an expansion project it says will increase the total space available to display art, with at least 13 new galleries across five floors.

Thechanges are happening at a time where the funding model has shifted in the face of inflation, according to Jost, who said philanthropic funding now represents about a third of the gallery's budget.

In the early 90s, approximately 85 per cent of the gallery's funds came from the public sector, says Jost.

But with provincial funding not catching upwith rising prices, public money now makes up around a third ofthe gallery's budget roughly the same as the gallery earns from its donors. The rest comes from the sale of tickets, food, drinks and other traditional revenue streams, he said.

With the world becoming more polarizing, Jost says art is increasingly a place to find connection.

"Whether it's TIFF or Hot Docs or the ROM or the AGO, we help build social cohesion, right? You can walk in and you can see something totally new," he said.

"And it's hard to do, but it's really important that we have strong institutions that bring people together."

Local artists, performers honoured

CBC Toronto dropped by the gallery Monday, where artist Sean Weisgerberwas hard at work finishing his installation. The piece featureshundreds of colourful stickers on the gallery's walls with messages such as, "5 of you paid my artist fee," and "sell your soul &buy my work."

Weisgerber said that in a world where artists normally question institutions, the words on the stickers are meant to represent an artist's role within them, in his case doing an installationfor an event to raise money for the gallery.

"There have been some heated debates around the institution in the last couple of years. And I think this is a really nice way to be playfully engaging those ongoingquestions around that," he said.

In another room, artist Scott Everingham was mounting a piece stretching roughly 305 centimetrestall and 610 centimetres wide, named The Vibration for the big gala. It's the largest painting he said he's ever made, he says.

Everingham, who regularly visits the AGO, sayshe got the idea for the large piece from a friend who encouraged him to make the most out of the opportunity.

"He just said, 'Do the biggest damn painting you can,'" Everingham said.

"It's always been an institution that I can come to and just experience some fantastic things. So to have even just a single painting exhibited at this art bash is exciting."

To Mony Zakhour, an artist and art curator who will be doing a live art demonstrationat the gala, it's also about the platform the event gives to local artists.

"Growing up, who doesn't want to be part of the AGO?" he said. "It's always great to spotlight Canadian artists and even more so local artists within the city."

The gala after-party will feature a performance by drag queen Tynomi Banks, who said they're excited for a chance to hype up the crowd in a tribute to the art gallery they visited as a little kid growing up in the GTA.

"I've always been raising money, doing things for the community... and I'm going to make sure they know that I will not let them down in this performance as well," they said.