Coming alive after five

Did you know the AGO is open until 9 pm every Friday? That means an extra four hours to check out all our galleries, listen to music or a talk and visit the critically acclaimed Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition. Here are some of the talks and summer concert series we have coming up in June and July.

Curator’s Talk: Georgia O’Keeffe
Friday, June 16
6 pm, Baillie Court
$17 for public, $15 for AGO Members

Join the AGO’s Georgiana Uhlyarik, curator of Georgia O’Keeffe at the AGO, for a discussion about O’Keeffe’s life, work and legacy. The exhibition is organized by Tate Modern in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario and Bank Austria Kunstforum.

RPM Indigenous Music Showcase: Other Worlds
Friday, June 16
7:30 pm, Walker Court
FREE with general admission

The AGO Summer concert series launches with a collaboration with RPM (Revolutions Per Minute), showcasing two contemporary Indigenous artists. The New York-based White Mountain Apache composer and violinist Laura Ortman will perform a set of bold, melodic and experimental music. Ortman will be joined by Toronto-based Anishinaabe singer-songwriter Ansley Simpson, who recently won the inaugural BullsEye Music Competition for emerging Indigenous musical talent presented by Slaight Music and the imagineNATIVE Film & Video Festival, performing songs from her haunting and poetic debut album, Breakwall.

Revolutions Per Minute is a global new music platform, creative collective, and record label dedicated to promoting Indigenous music from across Turtle Island and around the world.

Vivek Shraya and the Queer Songbook Orchestra 
Friday, July 7
7 pm, Walker Court
FREE with general admission

Join Toronto-based artist, writer and musician Vivek Shraya for a performance with the Queer Songbook Orchestra, a 12-piece chamber pop collective of queer and allied musicians. This performance marks the launch of Shraya’s album Part-Time Woman, which poses the question: What defines woman? Shraya sees the album as an offering to those misgendered, those made to feel not feminine enough, and those who struggle to find home in a gender language that resists complexity.

Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber
Friday, July 21
7 pm, Walker Court
FREE with general admission

This historic New York band brings together a large group of musicians and musical genres to Toronto. Spanning from jazz to hip-hop and back, these artists have been playing together for almost two decades. The band was originally conceived as a forum for New York improvisational musician to compose, record and perform material reflecting the cultural diversity of American music in the 21st century.

Founded by Village Voice icon Greg “Ionman” Tate & co-led with bassist Jared Michael Nickerson since 1999, New York City’s Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber is a "multiracial jam army that freestyles with cool telekinesis between the lustrous menace of Miles Davis’s On The Corner, the slash-and-om of 1970s King Crimson, and Jimi Hendrix’s moonwalk across side three of Electric Ladyland” (Rolling Stone).

AGO Members enjoy Friday Nights for free! For more information about becoming a Member, visit us here.

Need the perfect warm-up for your visit? The AGO’s FRANK restaurant hosts a daily Cinq-à-Sept from Tuesday through Friday between 4 pm and 7 pm. A range of unique cocktails are available starting from $4, and a tapas menu is on offer from $7. AGO Members enjoy a 10 per cent discount on food items, alcohol excluded.

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