Matthew Teitelbaum, director and chief executive officer of the
Art Gallery of Ontario
, was on-line earlier today take questions from Globe readers.
The questions and answers will appear at the bottom of this page.
Mr. Teitelbaum was recently profiled as part of the Renaissance City series.
Named one of the people behind the cultural revival in Toronto, Mr. Teitelbaum discussed the Frank Gehry-designed expansion, set to open in 2008. "If we aspire to be a great museum in a great building," Mr. Teitelbaum told Michael Posner, his interviewer, "we can't lose sight of the construction but we have to really imagine and plan the presentations that will sustain it after the opening. The building will come alive, in part, by how we fill it."
Mr. Teitelbaum was born in Toronto in 1956, the son of Ethel Teitelbaum and the late painter Mashel Teitelbaum. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Canadian History from Carleton University and a Master of Philosophy in Modern European Painting and Sculpture from the Courtauld Institute of Art. He has taught at Harvard and the University of Western Ontario, and has lectured across North America.
Mr. Teitelbaum joined the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1993 as Chief Curator and was appointed Director in 1998. Under his leadership, the AGO has become the central repository of works by such contemporary artists as Betty Goodwin, Paterson Ewen and Greg Curnoe, reinforcing the AGO's position as a passionate advocate for Canadian art.
Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.
Note to our readers:
Today's discussion will be set up a bit differently than other, past discussions. Rather than having all of the questions flowing from you, the readers, we will hold more of a round-table talk. Both Mr. Thorsell and Mr. Teitelbaum will each be asked several general questions from Globe and Mail editors to start off the conversation. From there, we will be happy to pose questions from readers to Mr. Thorsell and Mr. Teitelbaum. Feel free to continue sending your questions to Mr. Thorsell right up until 2:30 and to Mr. Teitelbaum right until 3 p.m.
Allison Dunfield, globeandmail.com, writes:Hi, Mr. Teitelbaum. Thank you for agreeing to participate in our on-line discussion today.
With such a major overhaul to an Ontario institution such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, I'm wondering if you could discuss the ways you feel the new Frank Gehry-designed expansion will change the way people experience art at the AGO. What kind of response are you hoping for from both artists and the general public?
Mr. Teitelbaum writes:It's hard for me to talk about the "Frank Gehry designed expansion" without talking about content, and the development of the collection. For me, they are intertwined. The new building will allow us to see works more favourably (more natural light, soaring ceilings) and will of course add space to the building allowing more works to be on view (from 5 per cent of our collection in the "old" AGO, to 17 per cent in the new).
