Academic Outreach

The DMG offers academic and experiential learning opportunities to departments across the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. Gallery staff work with faculty to support student engagement with: exhibitions, off-site projects, the collection, and the gallery sector; facilitating in-class lectures or artist-led programs, and developing specialized course modules. Gallery visits and programs create dialogue and complement faculty teaching, often providing the structure for class assignments.

For faculty members interested in working with gallery staff to develop a session, please complete the curricular engagement booking form.

SELECT EXAMPLES

Course Module for VPHC54: Art Writing
Students had the opportunity to develop and practice the specialized art writing skill of artwork condition-reporting through a hands-on workshop developed and led by members of the DMG team. Students were given access to works-on-paper in various states of condition from the DMG permanent collection and asked to participate in an exercise of careful-looking, honing their observational skills and requiring an almost meditative approach to seeing and accurately describing. With guidance from the DMG team, students learned about the process, terminology, and applications of condition reports as an industry standard. The provision of direct engagement with artworks from the collection meant that students were able to practice newly learned skills and gain insight into practical, professionalized experience.

Artist-led program for ESTB03: Land
Students participated in a two-part program led by Art Farm exhibiting artist Shannon Gerard. On the first visit, Gerard delivered an artist talk and led a discussion that addressed food and print production and distribution, small-scale farming, land stewardship, and countercultural farming and printmaking. As a group, the class considered on how these topics related to content in their course syllabus. Building on the knowledge gained in the first visit, in the second part of the program, Gerard held a workshop on various printmaking techniques. Collaboratively, students created a zine using these techniques, responding to the themes they discussed earlier with Gerard and reflecting on their own relationships with the land.

Exhibition tour for WSTD03: Feminist Perspectives on Sex, Gender, and the Body
The DMG team led an exhibition tour and discussion around the exhibition Theo Jean Cuthand: Love + Numbers. With many intersections between the course and exhibition content, the tour focused on the ways in which Cuthand explores and examines mental health, sexualities, representations and constructions of gender, and Indigeneity. After giving students time to watch and engage with the Cuthand’s videos, the DMG team led a guided discussion, using prompts and questions designed to encourage critical thinking and relate to the themes of the course. Readings were assigned in advance, to provide students with context and another access point to the works. As an outcome, students were asked to write a reflection piece about the exhibition and their experience, to be submitted as part of the course.