I have a membership to the Art Gallery of Ontario, and it’s pretty fantastic.  I love art museums, but I find them a bit overwhelming.  I often feel pressured to get “good bang for my buck” and will spend too much time at the museum, overdose on art, and feel dazed afterwards.  That’s why a membership is so great – with my membership, I can visit as often as I want.  I go to the AGO every couple months (usually to see the latest exhibit, but sometimes just to peruse the permanent collection), and I usually leave after about an hour.  Then I feel excited and inspired after visiting – not exhausted!  I think an AGO membership is an awesome gift idea.

Bonus #1 – AGO members get access to the Members’ Lounge in the Grange building.  You can have a bite to eat, and feel like a VIP.

Bonus #2 – if you get (or give) an AGO membership this holiday season, you’ll get VIP access to the Chagall exhibit, which looks fantastic. You can see his Blue Circus, above.

Now this is a great idea.  ROM Moms is a 6-week program at the Royal Ontario Museum for parents and their babies/toddlers.  From the website:

Get out of the house and spend some time as a ROM Mom (or Dad)! Join us for a six-week journey through the ROM’s collections. Enjoy a morning of conversation and adult learning in a baby-friendly atmosphere as you visit the Museum’s galleries and Kinderstudio, all while your little one sleeps, eats, rolls, and plays along with you. Each week includes a gallery tour and lab led by a ROM Instructor, and an opportunity to meet other parents, caregivers and children interested in interactive learning for life!

ROM Moms is on Thursday mornings or Thursday afternoons, and the next sessions start in January.  I won’t be signing up just yet, as it’s right in the middle of Clara’s nap time.  But once she’s a little older and only naps once a day, I know where you’ll find us on Thursday mornings!

If you have older kids, check out the ROM sleepovers for children 5 years old and up.  How cool would it be to go to a slumber party at the museum?!?

[photo of the ROM by flickr user Steven Harris]

Whoa.  Amazing.

See more here.

[via SwissMiss]

A new documentary about Charles & Ray Eames?  Yes please!  You can watch the trailer here.  So far there are no screening dates in Toronto, but the DVD is being released on December 13, so check with your local artsy film rental shop.  Or maybe hope it comes to Netflix.

Random: The film is narrated by James Franco.  That guy is such an anomaly.

 [via kottke.org]

As a fundraiser for the 2012 Olympics, members of the Canadian Gymnastic Team contorted their bodies into the letters of the alphabet (both upper and lower case) in photos taken by Alphabet Photography’s Jennifer Blakeley. Aren’t these images stunning? Apparently the capital G (top) was the hardest letter to make.

See all the photos here, and order prints here.

[via The Toronto Star]

Looking for something to do this weekend?  Pop by the new Arts Market in Leslieville (1114 Queen St East).  Kinnon will be there selling some of her prints, including pieces from her awesome Toronto’s My Home series (which you might remember from this), and her travel/food illustrations (which you might remember from this).  Arts Market is on from 10am – 7pm Saturday and Sunday.  I’ll be there on Sunday!

I was pretty pumped to see illustrator Tad Carpenter’s home featured on Design*Sponge a while ago (I have a Tad Carpenter print hanging in my living room).  For the feature, he was asked to finish the sentence “What I love most about my home is…”.  Of course, since he’s awesome, he didn’t just finish the sentence… he turned it into a print.  Which is now available for sale in white or brown on his website.  I would love to have this for the entryway to my home.

Aren’t these photographs by Toronto artist Barbara Cole amazing?  They remind me of one of my all-time favourite photos.  Seems I have a thing for underwater shots.

Kinnon has been working on a rad series of illustrations titled Toronto’s My Home… And I’ll Be Here All Weekend Long.  You can order 11 x 17″ prints from her for $45 each.  That’s an insane deal for some great-looking original art.  I’d love to frame and hang them gallery-style along my upstairs hallway.

Click here to see the whole series and contact Kinnon here.

Don’t you love this series of airplane drawings that Marc Johns did for a Newsweek article?