Faculty Club 60th Anniversary Calendar

November 1, 2019

The Faculty Club of the University of Toronto

Natalie Bohm-McQuaig

In celebration of their 60th Anniversary, the University of Toronto’s Faculty Club has created a 2019-2020 calendar featuring 12 beautiful works by several of the Group of Seven members. The Faculty Club has produced this calendar to celebrate the achievements and contributions of its members, and to provide members a chance to view some of the prolific Group of Seven art work generously donated by Barker and Margaret Fairley to the Faculty Club in 1983. This calendar celebrates the contributions of the members in relation to their support of Canadian art work through their membership. Additionally, the Faculty Club hopes that the calendar can be sold as part of fundraising efforts to raise money for a new elevator in the Faculty Club’s building. Funds from the calendar may even go towards a scholarship for University of Toronto students.

Primary Stakeholder: Leanne Pepper

Additional Project Support: Heather Pigat
 
The primary intended audience of the calendar is the Faculty Club’s members. However, we hope and expect that the calendars will be re-distributed as gifts by the members to their friends, family members, and colleagues.
 
The start of planning for the calendar took approximately three months for completion, from October 2018-December 2018. This stage included deciding on which works would appear in the calendar, writing a pre-emptive bibliography, and setting up expectations for what needed to be done with Heather and Leanne.

Research and writing the rough interpretive text for the 12-month calendar occurred from November 2018-March 2019. Corrections to the material were made between March – April 2019. I will incorporate any of their final corrections to the text which will be completed in April 2019.

The release date for the calendar will be November 1, 2019.

Since October 2019, Leanne has been discussing the possibility of presenting the Group of Seven art work and the interpretive material through a calendar format. As of April 4, 2019, however, the possibility of selling them as cards has also arisen and been discussed by Leanne, Heather, and myself. It is undecided at this point if they will be sold as calendars, given the short shelf-life of this format. Cards would be sold throughout the year, however, the final decision for the format of the deliverables is still unconfirmed as of April 4, 2019. Regardless, the format for the presentation of information and art work needs to be considered before printing. Many strategic design choices will need to be made in order to best and accurately represent the art work and to provide enough space for interpretive material as well. I will work with the graphic designer Sam Mogelonsky, Heather Pigat, and Leanne Pepper to figure out the best and final format for the calendar and/or the cards.
 
As of now, the only promotion of the project is through the official Exhibitions poster for the MSL4000 class of 2019. However, more promotion for the calendar and/or cards could likely occur closer to the release of the calendar, around the Fall of 2019. Members of the Faculty Club and members of the public will need to be informed of its availability through the appropriate mediums.
 
Ideally, each member of the Faculty Club would purchase at least one calendar, or one set of cards once released. This may result in 1800 calendars sold based on the number of Faculty Club members there presently are. Preferably, however, members of the Faculty Club will purchase more than one copy of the calendar or set of cards for family members and friends. If enough copies of the calendar or cards are sold, the hoped-for outcome would be that the Faculty Club can afford to construct a new elevator in their building. Additionally, Leanne has discussed the possibility of contributing the funds from the deliverables to a scholarship for University of Toronto students.
 
I would like to acknowledge the Faculty Club for providing me with the opportunity to work with them on this project. Working on this project has been an excellent and valuable learning experience that I will take with me for the rest of my career. Special thanks to Leanne Pepper and Heather Pigat for providing me with the necessary support, feedback, and assistance that I required in order to successfully complete the requirements for this project.

Calendar

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