Learning Resources for Everyone

Discover art making and learning activities that are inspired by artworks in our collection. Find the activity that suits your style and interest. Some are fun to do together or on one's own; others offer a means to slow down and enjoy colour and mark making at one's own speed and skill level; and others will provide new insights into familiar and less familiar work. Enjoy and share your work with us in the gallery below! Also check out Learning Resources for Teachers and Families.

COLOURING CARDS

Here is a selection of line drawing interpretations of artworks in the AGO collection. Use your imagination to reinterpret these works with new colours of your own.

Line drawing of La Soupe by Pablo Picasso

Sharing a Bowl of Soup

Draw or colour your favourite meal!

This artwork is part of the exhibition Pablo Picasso: Painting the Blue Period (on view until January 16, 2022). While sketching is not permitted in the exhibition, please enjoy this activity card before or after you visit.

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line drawing of Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom

Dress Up!

We invite you to explore a drawing card inspired by the painting, Lady with the Orange Blossom.

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ART MAKING VIDEOS

AGO Makes: Inspired by the AGO Collection

Amanda Arcuri is leading an art-making activity with camouflage

Camouflage like animals do!

Calling all cape-loving friends: join AGO art instructor Amanda Arcuri on an art-making mission to hide in plain view using nature-inspired colours.
(3 minute video)

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Black and white photographic work by Sandra Brewster

Semi-transparent collage

Inspired by Sandra Brewster’s Blur wall work, AGO artist/instructor Amanda Arcuri invites you to create your own composition using a simple layering technique with see-through components.
(6 minute video)

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Valérie Blass, Ceux qui ne demandent rien

Composition of Shoes

Inspired by Valérie Blass’s sculptural artwork, follow AGO artist/instructor Jim Hake and create your own composition using an array of shoes.
(7 minute video)

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Kim Smith

Boxes, Boxes, Boxes!

Watch illustrator Kim Smith bring characters to life as she reads from her book, Boxitects, and shows us how boxes of all shapes and sizes can lead to many creative adventures.
(49 minute video)

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still from Folding Mobile Art with Amanda Arcuri

Folding Mobile Art

Inspired by Haegue Yang’s installation, Woven Currents – Confluence of Parallels (2020) at the AGO, artist-instructor Amanda Arcuri shows us how to create a hanging mobile that fills any room with movement, colour, pizazz, and a great conversation about art in intimate rooms or spaces.
(4 minute video)

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looking at the 3D landscape

3D Landscape

Watch AGO artist/instructor Melissa Pauw create a 3D landscape, inspired by Shuvinai Ashoona’s artwork called Composition (Cube). Grab a box, container, white gesso or paint, and your pencil crayons to make your own sculptural landscape.
(5 minute video)

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drawings and pencil crayons

Drawing Larger Than Life

Watch AGO Artist Instructor Amanda Arcuri create a drawing inspired by Annie Pootoogooks drawing Composition (Drawing of My Grandmother's Glasses). Find an object at home, grab a BIG sheet of paper and try drawing larger than life!
(5 minute video)

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animal masks made of paper, watercolour and pastels

Watercolour Masks

Watch AGO Artist Instructor Amanda Arcuri create masks inspired by Beatrix Potter's stunning watercolour study of a bat. Grab some oil pastels or crayons, watercolour paints, get creative and transform yourself!
(6 minute video)

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hands drawing on back of paper plate

Tiny Floating Worlds

Watch AGO Artist Instructor Melissa Pauw create teeny tiny floating worlds using nothing but a plate, dry erase markers and some water. Create your own tiny drawings and watch them come to life!
(6 minute video)

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A circle of rocks

Land Art

Get outside and use the land around you to create an awesome work of art! Sticks, rocks and fallen leaves become your materials and the land is your canvas. Watch AGO Artist Instructor Amanda Arcuri make land art in a park and at the beach. Where will you make your land art?
(6 minute video)

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AGO Artist Instructor Melissa Pauw

Hanging Flower Garden

Watch AGO Artist Instructor Melissa Pauw use strips of paper to create a beautiful hanging garden. Make loops, teardrops, swirls and zigzags. You can keep it simple, or go WILD and fill your home with flowers!
(4 minute video)

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Three examples of body sculpture

Body Sculpture

Get moving and turn your body into a living sculpture! Watch AGO Artist Instructor Amanda Arcuri use household objects to create sculptures that only exist while you get creative and strike a pose.
(5 minute video)

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Melissa Pauw displays her print

Play with Printmaking

Who likes stamps? We do! And we bet you'll love playing with printmaking too. Watch AGO Artist Instructor Melissa Pauw use household objects to create your very own art prints with your family and friends.
(9 minute video)

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Paola Poletto stream-of-consciousness writing

Stream-of-Consciousness Writing

Inspired by Paul Klee's Hard and Soft drawing, Paola Poetto, Director of Engagement & Learning takes a moment to relax her mind with a simple writing exercise using pencil on paper. 
(2 minute video)

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Watch Tiana Roebuck, AGO Associate Curator, Learning & Studio Programs, make paper-cut shadow puppets using recycled materials found at home.

Shadow Puppets

Watch Tiana Roebuck, AGO Associate Curator, Learning & Studio Programs, make paper-cut shadow puppets using recycled materials found at home.
(19 minute video)

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Tiana talks about soft sculpture

Soft Sculpture

Watch Tiana Roebuck, AGO Associate Curator, Learning & Studio Programs, make her own soft sculpture inspired by Claes Oldenburg's Floor Burger.
(13 minute video)

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Creating a grid

Tonal Painting

Watch AGO Manager of Strategic Projects Deborah Nolan make her own tonal painting inside a grid, using the colours blue and red inspired by Agnes Martin's The Rose.
(2 minute video)

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ART MAKING ACTIVITIES

These activities inspire us to dance, strike a pose, draw, paint, make and reimagine our landscapes and urbanscapes through direct observation.

Nanaimo bar collage by artist Meech Boakye

Food as Art

Join Madelyne Beckles, the AGO Curatorial Assistant, Youth & Engagement, and artist Meech Boakye for a conversation about food as art in celebration of the launch of Meech's recipe for great New Year's Eve Nanaimo bars! 

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Drawing of My Grandmother's Glasses by Annie Pootoogook

Drawing Larger Than Life

Learn more about Annie Pootoogook and get inspired to draw BIG and make all kinds of meta art, which is artwork that features you - the artist!

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Beatrix Potter, Study of the head of a bat, full face

Like a Bat!

Let’s get inspired by Beatrix Potter’s striking watercolour Study of the head of a bat, full face and learn how to make watercolour mask and a hanging wire sculpture!

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Melissa Pauw displays her print

Play

Learn how to play with printmaking, challenge yourself with a “spot the difference” game, stretch yourself like artist Evan Penny, make Surrealist Artist Trading Cards, transform a cardboard box, build your own playground and so much more!

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Three examples of body sculpture

Found

Look around you and get inspired by what you find! These awesome activities are all about transforming things that may not seem like art materials...but add a bit of creativity and wow! Use your body to make a sculpture (strike a pose!), build structures big and small using unconventional materials and more!

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A circle of rocks

Land

Go beyond the traditional and invent new ways of seeing the land around us. Capture sidewalk shadows, make maps of smells and sounds, create paper flowers, collage, make art using land as your canvas and so much more!

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drawing of mouse on the left and elephant on the right

Opposites

When opposites combine you get a burst of new and exciting ideas! Let's make art that's fast and slow, big and small, light and dark, inside and outside!

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CLOSE LOOKING

This series invites us to consider artworks through current themes and ideas, unique materials or ground-breaking art techniques and artists.

Kathleen Jean Munn. Untitled (Portrait of a Seated Woman)

Close Looking: Kathleen Munn

Join Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art and author of Kathleen Munn: Life and Work, with Stephanie Barnes, 2018/2019 Koerner Conservation Fellow, for a close look at recent acquisition Untitled (Portrait of a Seated Woman) by Kathleen Munn (1887-1974).

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Painting of a white rabbit sitting in snow under bushes

Close Looking: Slow Looking

As part of the AGO’s ongoing Close Looking series, join us for a slow looking experience. We will explore Clarence Alphonse Gagnon's Study of a Hare in Winter, 1922.

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Agnes Fitzgibbon (1833-1913), “Nymphaea Odorata and Nuphar Advena” from Canadian Wild Flowers, John Lovell, 1868. Gift of Larry Pfaff in memory of Janet E. Hutchison, 2017

Close Looking: Canadian Wild Flowers

Amy Furness, Rosamond Ivey Special Collections Archivist and Head, Library & Archives, discusses the AGO’s early editions of Catharine Parr Traill’s Canadian Wild Flowers (1868 and following).

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Uvularia amplexifolia (Streptopus distortus Michx.) from Flora Danica

Close Looking: Flora Danica

Alexa Greist, Associate Curator and R. Fraser Elliot Chair, Prints & Drawings, explores nine hand-coloured engravings of flowers, fungi and lichens that were gifted to the AGO in 2019.

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Gustave Caillebotte, Blue Irises, Garden at Petit Gennevilliers

Close Looking: Gustave Caillebotte

Take a close look at French Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte's painting Blue Irises, Garden at Petit Gennevilliers, and explore what he and fellow artist Claude Monet saw as the interconnectedness of art, life, and gardening. 

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Photomicrograph detail of George Theodore Berthon

Close Looking: Microscope Monday

Conservators use microscopes to improve their understanding of how artworks were made and the extent of any damages or deterioration that have occurred over time. Join Meaghan Monaghan, Conservator of Paintings, as she closely examines several paintings from the Indigenous and Canadian Collection under the microscope.

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Helen Galloway McNicoll, Interior, c. 1910. Oil on canvas, overall: 55.9 x 45.9 cm. Purchase, 1976. © Art Gallery of Ontario, 75/100.

Close Looking: Mary Hiester Reid and Helen McNicoll

Join author Molly Peacock and curator Renée van der Avoird as they discuss historical Canadian artists Mary Hiester Reid and Helen McNicoll.  Two of the first women to achieve success as professional artists in Canada, Hiester Reid and McNicoll radically broadened traditional concepts of femininity, domesticity and the potential for women to pursue careers as artists.

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Photograph of a ship model shaddow

Close Looking: Salty Language

Slush fund, fudge the numbers, and son of a gun: we often use words and phrases in everyday conversations and may not realize their origin. Gillian McIntyre, Interpretive Planner and Sherry Phillips, Conservator, will engage in a conversation about language inspired by the Thomson Collection of Ship Models at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

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Pietro Testa Allegory of Autumn, ca. 1642-44 Etching on laid paper Sheet: 49.4 × 71.4 cm (19 7/16 × 28 1/8 in.) Purchase, with funds from the Trier-Fodor Fund, 2020 2019/2351

Close Looking: Pietro Testa's Allegory of Autumn

Join Alexa Greist, Associate Curator and R.. Fraser Elliott Chair, Prints & Drawings as she discusses a large 17th century etching by the Italian artist Pietro Testa. This newly acquired print, "An Allegory of Autumn" (ca. 1642-44) is part of a rare series of 4 etchings that are some of the most ambitious prints made by this enigmatic artist. 

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Henry Briggs, 'Ira Aldridge as Othello' c. 1830, The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. and Peter Brathwaite's recreation

Close Looking: Learning about Peter Brathwaite's Black Portraiture

AGO Curator Adam Levine meets Peter Brathwaite, a British opera singer who has spent much of his quarantine researching and recreating historical depictions of Black people in art. Adam and Peter discuss the celebrated project and the power of such paintings, including our own Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom.

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Franz Kline, Cupola

Close Looking: Franz Kline's Cupola

Chris Luginbuhl, Multisensory Designer, and Melissa Smith, AGO's Assistant Curator of Community Programs, discuss their co-creative process of translating an abstract artwork by Franz Kline, entitled Cupola, into a multimodal object that is intended to create a more embodied and inclusive gallery experience for blind and vision impaired visitors to the Gallery.

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Lawren Harris, Algoma Country

Close Looking: Harris and Houle

Renee Van der Avoird, Assistant Curator of Canadian Art and Nadia Abraham, Assistant Interpretive Planner. discuss Lawren Harris’ Algoma Country and Robert Houle’s Premises for Self-Rule: Constitution Act, 1982.

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Robert Houle. The Pines, 2002-2004 thre panels, flaking right is turqoise and flanking left is indigo blue. in the middle both colours are used to depict a forest floor

Close Looking: Robert Houle Creative Audio Description

Monday, April 11, 11:00 am

Close looking is an online discussion series that invites people to spend time with a single work from the AGO Collection - observing its details, discussing its creation, its history and the artist’s intention through multiple senses and perspectives.

Natalka Husar. Torn Heart, 1994. Table with draping table cloths piiled with dishes, shoes drawings. a pastiche of four female figures and dear overlayed

Close Looking: Natalka Husar's Torn Heart

Monday, February 14, 11:00 am

On this Valentine’s Day, join Renata Azevedo Moreira, Assistant Curator, Canadian Art, as she unveils the pictorial experience of the oil on linen Torn Heart, by Canadian artist Natalka Husar.

detail of the book of job, a leather bound and embossed figure with wings

Close Looking: The Book of Job

Monday, January 24, 11:00 am

Join Erin Rutherford, Collection Development Librarian, as she discusses The Book of Job (1902) from the Collection of the E. P. Taylor Library and Archives. This short talk will focus on the book’s fine binding, offer a glimpse into the life and work of its creator, Annie S.

Lawren Harris and Theaster Gates depictions of icebergs, once painted in group of seven style, the other a rhinestone sculpture

Close Looking: Lawren Harris’ and Theaster Gates’ Icebergs

Monday, December 27, 11:00 am

What can these two very different works, whose creation is separated by an 85-year gap, possibly have in common? The icebergs, of course! As we smoothly land into winter, few other symbols of the northern Canadian landscape are as majestic as the iceberg.

Pablo Picasso. La Soupe, 1903 A woman hunches over holding a bowl of steaming soup as a child reaches up towards it

Close Looking: Picasso Creative Audio Description

Monday, January 10, 11:00 am

Join Assistant Curator of Community Programs, Melissa Smith, as she shares an audio description of an artwork, one of the techniques used during our Multisensory Program to help remove barriers to our collections.

three women's faces blended together under tree tops

Close Looking: Elizabeth Catlett’s American Women Unite

Monday, September 13, 11:00 am

The first work by the African American artist Elizabeth Catlett to enter the collection of the AGO joins numerous other works of protest and resistance in the collection of Prints & Drawings. Association Curator and R.

Two large forms, sculpture by henry moore in grange park surrounded by trees and blue skies

Close Looking: Henry Moore in Grange Park

Monday, August 23, 11:00 am

Now situated in Toronto’s Grange park, Henry Moore’s monumental bronze, Large Two Forms, is discussed by the AGO’s sculpture conservator, Lisa Ellis and John Williams, mount maker. They will share insights about how the artwork was made and point out tell-tale vestiges of the manufacturing process visible on its surface

city scape with black and white canadian flag in the centre

Close Looking: Christiane Pflug

Monday, August 16, 11:00 am

Join Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator, Canadian Art, and Maria Sullivan, Head, Conservation, for a close look at Christiane Pflug’s series of paintings, Cottingham School.

rendering of an open courtyard filled with sculptures

Close Looking: Art Museum in Sculpture Court (Leonard Rotunda)

Monday, August 9, 11:00 am

Join Adam Harris Levine, the AGO's Assistant Curator of European Art as he examines an artwork that is currently on display in his exhibition "European Art on First Nations Land". The watercolour architectural rendering comes from the AGO's own archives, and offers a fascinating glimpse at the museum's past.

Andy Warhol. Elvis I and II, 1964. 4 Figures stand holding a gun out in front of them

Close Looking: Andy Warhol Creative Audio Description

Monday, July 26, 2021 11:00 am

Join Assistant Curator of Community Programs, Melissa Smith, as she shares an audio description of an artwork, one of the techniques used during our Multisensory Program to help remove barriers to our collections.

Ron Benner, Anthro-Apologies (And the trees grew inwards – for Manuel Scorza), 1979-80

Close Looking: Ron Benner’s Anthro-Apologies

Monday, June 14, 11:00 am

Join Sjoukje van der Laan (Assistant Conservator, Contemporary Art) and Nadia Abraham (Interpretive Planner) in a conversation about Canadian artist Ron Benner’s Anthro-Apologies (and the trees grew inwards – for Manuel Scorza) (1979-1980), where they will talk about the conservation challenges around this contemporary art installation.

Beheaded head of a man with a beard

Close Looking: Faith and Fortune Creative Audio Description

Monday, September 5, 11 AM

Close looking is an online discussion series that invites people to spend time with a single work from the AGO Collection - observing its details, discussing its creation, its history and the artist’s intention through multiple senses and perspectives.

A large crowd of people jostling about in a wooded area

Close Looking: I Am Here Creative Audio Description

Monday, June 6, 11:00 am

Close looking is an online discussion series that invites people to spend time with a single work from the AGO Collection - observing its details, discussing its creation, its history and the artist’s intention through multiple senses and perspectives.

Light brown hardcover book titled 'A Lovable Crank' by Barbara Yechton

Close Looking: A Book-Cover Design by Alice C. Morse

Monday, July 4, 11:00 am

Close looking is an online discussion series that invites people to spend time with a single work from the AGO Collection - observing its details, discussing its creation, its history and the artist’s intention through multiple senses and perspectives.

Four black and white photographs on a black background, each featuring various figures, male and female

Close Looking: The Jack Pollock fonds

Monday, December 5, 11 am

Close looking is an online discussion series that invites people to spend time with a single work from the AGO Collection - observing its details, discussing its creation, its history and the artist’s intention through multiple senses and perspectives.

White chariot with white spherical bulb and long arm extending forward

Close Looking: Tim Whiten’s After Phaeton

Monday, November 7, 11 am

Join us to see the ways art reveals and shapes the world in which we live. Close looking is an online monthly series that invites people to spend time with artworks from the AGO Collection - observing their details, discussing its creation, its history and the artist’s intention through multiple senses and perspectives.

Soft sculptural work with face of boy and other paraphernalia embedded

Close Looking: Microscopic Monday Joyce Weiland

Monday, August 1, 11:00 am

Close looking is an online discussion series that invites people to spend time with a single work from the AGO Collection - observing its details, discussing its creation, its history and the artist’s intention through multiple senses and perspectives.

Virtual Seniors Social

AGO launches Virtual Seniors Social, connecting with older adults through videos showcasing art, conversation, and artmaking.

Bertram Charles Binning. Ghost Ships

Line Drawings

In this program, we discuss Bertram Charles Binning's nautical world, looking at his representations of riggings and lines on sailing ships. Binning's artistic practice was inspired by his everyday encounters. Known as an excellent draughtsman, he recorded his experiences in intricate line drawings.

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linocut on paper print of weeping tree, Green and Gold by Mary E. Wrinch

Painting with tones

In this program, we will explore artwork by Mary Wrinch. Wrinch was a prominent figure in the early Toronto art scene and was among the first women in the city to make a living from her art.

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Mary Hiester Reid, A Garden in September

Drawing a still life with Shadows

In this program we will explore cultivated gardens, picked flowers and two of the first women to achieve success as professional artists in Canada, Mary Hiester Reid and Helen Galloway McNicoll.

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LEARNING RESOURCES

Book cover for It Feels Good to be Yourself

A Pride Book List

This curated selection of books may provide an appreciation and social consciousness about LGBTQ2+ members of your communities.PDF

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Galleria Italia

How to Talk About Anti-Black Racism: Part 2

Part two of a round table discussion on how to talk about anti-black racism. This conversation will question what happens after the solidarity statement and how do we ensure wellness during these times of ground breaking change?

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#AGOmakes

Show us your AGO Makes artwork and join our online gallery!

 

 

What does your final composition look like? What would you try if you did it again? Share it with us at #AGOmakes @AGOToronto

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