Introduction

What follows are the expressions of six new Canadian writers responding to the kaleidoscope that is the Art Gallery of Ontario, an institution long ago founded by a group of community leaders we now do not know, an institution encouraged and molded by hundreds of staff and thousands of volunteers, an institution home to great and inspiring works of art from many countries. It is a building sometimes empty, sometimes chock full, sometimes quiet with the aura of a sanctuary, sometimes kinetic with the excitement of school children; it is a building used to teach art, experience art and celebrate art. When it really works, the Gallery connects art, through our experience of it, to the larger world of visual culture and the world of images in which we live. It is a powerful and confusing place, challenging and nurturing at one and the same time.

Six writers have joined together in this publication to express something of their experience in this real space of the Gallery. They have spent considerable time here, looking behind doors and into closed spaces. They have strolled the galleries. In a word, they have become familiar with it, knowing something of the experiences that makes this a real space for those who share its pleasures.

Their words soar, pierce, caress and attack: they do what all good writing does, reflect through depth of feeling, a common experience, a reflection that yields new insights.

We are grateful to Reza Baraheni, Cecil Foster, Martha Kumsa, Ismael Sambra, Goran Simic and M.G. Vassanji for their commitment to this project. It is important to us to open the Gallery to new points of view, particularly if such expression leads us to think in new ways. I want to thank Judith Mastai, the Gallery's Head of Education, who conceptualized and developed this project and brought it to realization. And I want to welcome all of you, our readers, our visitors, in the hope that you will enjoy the Art Gallery of Ontario in a new and invigorating way through this truly wonderful publication.

Matthew Teitelbaum Director, Art Gallery of Ontario