Annual Report 2008-2009 - National Gallery of Canada

Making the Grade Anew
Extensive and ambitious
review of schools and
adult programs
“We’re looking at what’s really
happening in the galleries versus
what should be happening”
One of Brueghel’s nicknames was “Velvet.” Chagall often
painted scenes from his dreams. Joseph Cornell never travelled,
and Louise Bourgeois’ spider sculpture Maman weighs
six tonnes, as much as an elephant.
These are some of the intriguing facts revealed in the popular
new self-guided tour, Animals at the Gallery, one of three new
activities introduced this year as part of the relaunch of
Artissimo, the family programming kiosk in the Great Hall. The
dynamic re-imagining of Artissimo – three additional new
activities are planned for next year thanks to the generous
support from TELUS – was the result of an extensive research
and evaluation process undertaken by Gallery staff.
Now that same creative, critical eye has turned to educational programming for schools and adults in a year-long review
undertaken by staff in early 2008. This ambitious, holistic evaluation targeted every aspect of programming, from content and
learning objectives to cost, delivery and use of space. The process involved establishing standardized fact sheets describing
each and every public program, from curatorial lectures to art studio workshops to school tours such as “Stories in Art” and “The
Science of Art”; conducting nationwide surveys of teachers; collecting data from guides, interpreters, docents and tour participants;
and observing tours directly as they move through the Gallery.
The goals: to hone and simplify the menu of 61 school programs, which was overwhelming for teachers and unwieldy for
staff; and to redesign adult programming to respond to the needs and interests of an active and aging population with means
and leisure time and a commitment to lifelong learning. The main results will be seen in 2009–10, but a new adult program was
piloted in this period, while school tours were pared down. A new promotional poster, featuring a large-scale reproduction of
J.E.H. MacDonald’s The Tangled Garden with “looking strategies,” was designed to drive traffic to a new schools website that
allows teachers, for the first time, to plan and book their visits online.
Amid this, accessibility programming, funded generously
by The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, continued apace,
with the Gallery’s accessibility education officer conducting
outreach sessions with sister institutions, including the
Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, PEI. A national
web survey of college and university professors was conducted
as the first step toward developing new, post-secondary educational
programming.
Louise Bourgeois,
Maman (detail), 1999, cast 2003.
NGC. © Louise Bourgeois
14 Highlights and Achievements