A family of artists

Over the past year, our programming has gone digital. While we can’t enjoy the museum in-person, we can gather virtually—in numbers larger than our walls could ever hold! That will be the case as we mark Family Day 2021 with a massive drawing and collage party. It's free, it's streaming live and it's only a click away.

Starting Monday, February 15 at 11 am on the AGO homepage, the Family Day Giant Drawings Party invites you and your loved ones to bring your favourite drawing tools and help create a new collection of art pieces inspired by the work of artist Shuvinai Ashoona. Until 4 pm, artist-instructors Olia Mishchenko, Amanda Arcuri and Jim Hake will guide you as you draw, colour and collage together. All participants should bring a pencil/pen, pencil crayons, one or two large sheets of paper, scissors and a glue stick. Then, you can contribute your drawings to the first-ever AGO online pop-up exhibit of participant work—presented later that day at #AGOmakes. 

The uniquely colourful work of Gershon Iskowitz Prize-winning artist Shuvinai Ashoona is the perfect inspiration for this event. The granddaughter of revered Inuit illustrator Pitseolak Ashoona, Shuvinai is a world-renowned artist in her own right. Daily life morphs into a scene of humour, imagination and memory in her work. Her drawings are filled with the joy of transformation, of surprise meetings, of curious and meddling monsters, and survival. Shuvinai Ashoona’s imagination is rooted in her experience living on the land, where the everyday is populated with otherworldly beings, spirits and unseen forces. This year, her first-ever solo exhibition at the AGO will go on view, featuring 25 primarily new works by the artist—one of which is Curiosity (pictured above), acquired by the AGO at Art Toronto 2020. 

The free AGO Family Day Giant Drawings Party kicks off Monday, February 15 at 11 am and streams live from the AGO homepage until 4 pm.