Extending the Conversation

Over the dozen or so years of its existence the Artist in Residence (AiR) program at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has brought numerous emerging and established artists into the daily workings of the museum, inviting resident artists to explore and engage with the AGO’s collections, staff and public programs as they develop their projects. Support for a process of research-creation is fundamental to the opportunity offered by the residency. As a foundational component of the museum’s research infrastructure, the AGO’s Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives has played a key role in the residency program, allowing strategies of reading, citation and documentation to emerge as central themes in the cumulative body of residency projects, and allowing in turn for the possibility of project documentation to enter the archival record of the museum. Drawing on interviews with selected past artists in residence, this paper will provide an account of how the involvement of librarians and archivists, and the availability of library and archival resources in the museum have shaped the trajectory of the AiR program at the AGO.