The word “interactive” — when used in the art and culture context — usually makes me cringe. I instantly picture those small-ish digital screens dotting art exhibits, conspicuously trying to rescue what is lacklustre art. Or those videos continually projected in a tireless 12-minute-loop on side walls at the museum. These are the features we are told make an art exhibit “interactive.” And thankfully, these are precisely the things that 1st Thursdays — the Art Gallery of Ontario’s new late-night art event — is definitively not.
A nod to Frank Gehry’s genius multifunctional space, 1st Thursdays is an impressively well-orchestrated after-hours mish-mash of visual art exhibition openings and tours, live music, free art-making, and fine libations — set to take place every first Thursday of the month.
The October 4, 2012 inaugural event featured internationally-renowned Toronto artist Evan Penny’s life-sized human figure sculpture and photography exhibition, and a talk by the artist himself, alongside Juno- and Polaris Prize-nominee Bahamas, who delivered a solo set in Walker Court throughout the evening. But the real proof of the decidedly “after-hours” feel of 1st Thursdays was the generous champagne bar — to facilitate private nightly wanderings through the galleries, and the inevitable stumble into the life drawing classes (yes, nude!) neatly tucked away in corners of the party.
Kelly McKinley, the AGO’s executive director of education and public programming, says that 1st Thursdays is a new opportunity for Torontonians to “see and make and do and hear as much art as they can” each month.
And the lofty project is off to a notable start. Medina Abdelkader, a design graduate student at Ontario College of Art and Design — and part of the creative professional crowd the AGO is hoping to attract — put it this way:
There’s something about being in a museum at night that feels utterly thrilling, like you’re doing something you’re not supposed to. There was a bit of sensory overload — in the best possible way — that you could easily fall victim to. With drinks flowing, the indulgent treats tables, or the sheer masses of people, it was one of these rare Toronto nights where you felt like the entire city came out. But even with the hordes of folk, there was something incredibly intimate about the whole affair.
Which is all to say that the next installment of the 1st Thursdays series — taking place on November 1, 2012 — is already highly anticipated. The evening will be dedicated to photography, and will feature the announcement of The Grange Prize 2012 winner, live music and the opening of U.K. artist Mark Titchner’s new installation, for what the AGO promises will be an evening worthy of the paparazzi.
What: 1st Thursdays
Where: Art Gallery of Ontario
When: November 1, 2012 — 6:30 to 11 p.m.
Tickets: Regular-priced tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Admission for AGO Members is $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Tickets can be purchased online here.
Maria Gergin is a Toronto-based lawyer.
Photo: ago.net