ABSTRACT
This chapter, using as a case study the Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario), advocates for the inclusion of volunteer women’s committees in the histories of art museums. From the early days of art museums in North America, women’s committees have been vital in the social life of their institutions and in building relations with various communities. Women’s committees created extension and loan programs, bringing art to communities located outside of the city center; they organized art education initiatives; they fundraised and purchased art for museums; and they developed culinary events. The chapter presents one area of action, emphasizing volunteer women’s strategies for negotiating agency and power in hierarchical and paternalistic institutions. At the same time, the chapter speaks to the privileged positioning of the women running these committees, who were white, middle and upper class, with a good social standing and strong networks. Women’s committees remain invisible in museum studies literature, and this absence obscures some of art museums’ most daring and creative initiatives. It also limits understanding of the activist roles that advisory committees representing marginalized groups may perform today.
