Department of Art Library, University of Toronto

11/26/2025

Prof. Stephanie Azzarello () brought her FAH480H1: When You Wish Upon a Star: How medieval abs Renaissance art influenced Disney to the Rare Books library this semester for a special guest talk with Special Collections and Outreach Librarian, John Shoesmith! 📚

students went to the to explore items related to the course topic and from its collection, Shoesmith pulled out wonderful examples such as a pop-up Pinocchio book from the 1930s; a UK first edition of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”; medieval books on magical creatures & the amazing ‘Book of Beasts’! 🐉

—

As one of the leading research libraries in North America, the mandate of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is to foster the search for knowledge by supporting research and learning across all disciplines taught at

11/20/2025

11/20/2025

11/18/2025

NEWS: Two teachers have won the Inaugural 2025 Pedagogy Award with the Universities Art Association of Canada () ! Join us in celebrating Prof. Jess Mace and Samantha Chang for their outstanding achievements in the classroom! 👏

Established in 2025, the UAAC–AAUC Teaching Excellence Award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated sustained excellence in the teaching of art, art history and/or visual culture at a Canadian university, college, or post-secondary institution.

Congratulations Jess and Samantha! 👩‍🏫👩‍🏫

Read more at uaac-aauc.com/awards/teaching-award/

11/18/2025

Congratulations!

NEWS: Two teachers have won the Inaugural 2025 Pedagogy Award with the Universities Art Association of Canada () ! Join us in celebrating Prof. Jess Mace and Samantha Chang for their outstanding achievements in the classroom! 👏

Established in 2025, the UAAC–AAUC Teaching Excellence Award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated sustained excellence in the teaching of art, art history and/or visual culture at a Canadian university, college, or post-secondary institution.

Congratulations Jess and Samantha! 👩‍🏫👩‍🏫

Read more at uaac-aauc.com/awards/teaching-award/

09/20/2025

In the early 1930s, as the world approached and then entered war, a group of British artists banded together to create the Artists International Association. AIA’s various initiatives involved organizing artists, making art affordable through prints and lithographs, and even staging an exhibition inside a London Underground station so it would be more accessible to the public: these were efforts, within their scope of influence, to improve how things were typically done. Such efforts represent the positive side of the desire for normalcy—for a future worth the struggle.⁠
⁠
Beyond the political alarms the group sounded, AIA stands out for its commitment to art as an activity that humans just plain enjoy, as well as its commitment to bettering the conditions facilitating that activity.⁠
⁠
As artists coalesce around new ways to resist reactionary power, perhaps AiA’s biggest lesson isn’t about how to exercise individual or collective agency in the face of vast political forces; “but about how strong the desire for normalcy can be, especially during unusual times,” Louis Bury writes.⁠
⁠
Read more about AIA, and a new book about their efforts, here: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/artists-resisted-fascism-comrades-in-art-andy-friend-1234752655/

09/19/2025

Join the The Architectural History Working Group (AHWG)at for ‘Art Textile Architecture: Fabric and the City’ by Basile Baudez, Associate Professor at !

WHEN: TOMORROW September 19, 2025, 4:00–6:00 PM
WHERE: Sidney Smith Hall, rm. SS 6029 (Art History Common Room)

Fabrics or wares produced by weaving, knitting, felting, or stitching manifest themselves in an urban context from flags and banners to laundry hung out to dry a curtain blowing through a window, or the clothes passersby wear. Studying urban textiles helps to link different disciplinary fields that are usually thought separate: architecture, urbanism, painting, fashion, legal, political, and economic history. Textiles create space, but spaces that, by their ephemeral and dynamic nature, are always subject to question. They help blur the rigid demarcation between private and public, between inside and outside, between obfuscation and revelation. They introduce ambiguity and fluidity in the real of urban architecture.

—

The Architectural History Working Group (AHWG) at the University of Toronto explores the history of architecture across temporal and geographic contexts. The AHWG welcomes all members of the University of Toronto scholarly community.

An updated schedule of topics and presenters is available at the link in bio!

For more, follow

09/09/2025

Welcome back, Everyone!

Due to the reduction in provincial funding, we now have a very small number of student assistants. As a result, the library's hours of operation have been reduced to 12pm to 6pm, Mondays to Fridays, inclusive. We are searching for alternative sources of funding.

08/15/2025