page_title: Art Gallery of Ontario
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Art Gallery of Ontario / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Art Gallery of Ontario sculpture court. Toronto, Canada.
context_page_description: The Art Gallery of Ontario is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beverley streets. The museum's building complex takes up 45,000 square metres of physical space, making it one of the largest art museums in North America. In addition to exhibition spaces, the museum also houses an artist-in-residence office and studio, dining facilities, event spaces, gift shop, library and archives, theatre and lecture hall, research centre, and a workshop.
  Established in 1900 as the Art Museum of Toronto, and formally incorporated in 1903. It was renamed to the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1919, before it adopted its present name, the Art Gallery of Ontario, in 1966. The museum acquired the Grange in 1911 and later undertook several expansions to the north and west of the structure. The first series of expansions occurred in 1918, 1924, and 1935, designed by Darling and Pearson. Since 1974, the gallery has undergone four major expansions and renovations. These expansions occurred in 1974 and 1977 by John C. Parkin, and 1993 by Barton Myers and KPMB Architects.
context_section_description: The museum was founded in 1900 as the Art Museum of Toronto by a group of private citizens and members of the Toronto Society of Arts. The institution's founders included George A. Cox, Lady Eaton, Sir Joseph W. Flavelle, J. W. L. Forster, E. F. B. Johnston, Sir William Mackenzie, Hart A. Massey, Prof. James Mavor, F. Nicholls, Sir Edmund Osler, Sir Henry M. Pellatt, George Agnew Reid, Byron Edmund Walker, Mrs. H. D. Warren, E.R. Wood, and Frank P. Wood. 
  The museum's incorporation was confirmed by the Government of Ontario three years later by legislation, An Act respecting the Art Museum of Toronto in 1903. The legislation provided the museum with expropriation powers in order to acquire land for the museum. Before the museum moved into a permanent location, it held exhibitions in rented spaces belonging to the Toronto Public Library near the intersection of Brunswick Avenue and College Street.
  The museum acquired the property it presently occupies shortly after the death of Harriet Boulton Smith in 1909, when she bequeathed her historic 1817 Georgian manor, The Grange, to the gallery upon her death. However, exhibitions continued to be held in the rented spaces at the Toronto Public Library branch until June 1913, when The Grange was formally opened as the art museum. In 1911, ownership of The Grange, and the surrounding property was formally transferred to the museum. Shortly afterwards, the museum signed an agreement with the municipal government of Toronto to maintain the grounds south of The Grange as a municipal park.
  In 1916, the museum drafted plans to construct a small portion of a new gallery building designed by Darling and Pearson in the Beaux-Arts style. Excavation of the new facility began in 1916. The first galleries adjacent to The Grange were opened in 1918. In the next year, the museum was renamed the Art Gallery of Toronto, in an effort to avoid confusion with the Royal Ontario Museum. In 1920, the museum also allowed the Ontario College of Art to construct a building on the grounds. The museum was expanded again in 1924, with the opening of the museum's sculpture court, its two adjacent galleries, and its main entrance on Dundas Street. The museum was expanded again in 1935 with the construction of two additional galleries. Portions of the 1935 expansions were financed by Eaton's. 
  In 1965, the museum saw its collection of European and Canadian artworks expand, with the acquisition of 340 works from the Canadian National Exhibition. During the mid-1960s, the director of the museum, William J. Withrow, pushed to have the museum designated as a provincial museum, in an effort to gain further provincial funding for the institution. In 1966, the museum changed its name to the Art Gallery of Ontario, in order to reflect its new mandate to serve as the provincial art museum.
  In the 1970s, the museum embarked on another expansion of its gallery space, with its first phase completed with the opening of the Henry Moore Sculpture Centre on October 26, 1974. Although the museum planned on expanding its Canadian exhibits in its second phase of expansions, the creation of a centre dedicated to a non-Canadian artists drew criticism from Canadian Artists' Representation, and threatened to protest the opening of the centre.
  The museum was expanded again in 1993, which saw the 9,290.3 square metres (100,000 sq ft) of new space and 17,651.6 square metres (190,000 sq ft) of renovations—usable space, increasing the preexisting floorspace by 30 per cent. The expansion saw the renovation of 20 galleries, and the construction of 30 galleries. In 1978, the museum's staff was unionized under the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
  During the 1990s, the museum drafted plans that would have saw the development of a pedestrian mall from University Avenue to the art gallery. However, conflicting developments on adjacent properties, lack of support from the City of Toronto government, and the eventual development of another renovation plan by Frank Gehry saw the museum's plans for a pedestrian mall abandoned in the early 200
caption: View of Walker Court in 1929, several years after it opened.
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