Visual Resources Association in Toronto

Last Wednesday I took a train to a plane to a bus and ended up at my hotel in Toronto. I had a little bit of time before I had to be at my first session, so I headed out to the Art Gallery of Ontario. It was a pretty nice day and the museum was full of kids because it was Canada's March Break. I ended up getting a little tour of their prints and photographs division (they were having an open house) and then on the recommendation of the curator there I headed up to the top floors for their great collection of contemporary art and then to the Galleria Italia, seen here:

It's part of the interior of the newly designed Frank Gehry building and it's really beautiful. It's about one city block long, very narrow, light and airy and just a nice place to sit (they had really comfortable chairs) and take in the art or the view out the windows of quirky victorian homes across the street. It was a lovely way to start my time in Toronto.

One of the best parts of this conference was that I got to catch up with colleagues from my old job at Harvard. I split my hotel room with my former boss, Spruill, and I had got to hang out with Bill and Shana, too. One of my favorite restaurants that I tried was called the Queen Mother Cafe, where Bill and Shana and I had a great meal on Wednesday night. The menu was eclectic, the clientele was eclectic, the decor was eclectic (although very Queen-themed) and the drinks were delicious! I got a local brew on draught: Amsterdam Dutch Amber.

Bill and Spruill and I squeezed in an afternoon visit to the Bata Shoe Museum:

It really is a museum of footwear. One of the funniest parts of the museum was this area they had where you could try on some different types of shoes. Here I am in a fancy pair of heels (with my socks on), Spruill clicking her heels in Ruby Slippers and Bill was a good sport and tried on the leopard print platform shoes.

And none of us could believe how big this boot was! Most of the museum was actually historic and educational, but there were a few examples of goofy footwear. In addition to this crazy boot, we also got to see a pair of "roller clogs". If you can imagine wooden clogs from Holland as a pair of quad skates, you get the general idea. It was such a fun afternoon!

I also went to the Gardiner Museum which focuses on ceramics and pottery, and that was also very interesting. Oh, and I went to the whole conference, too. There were some great sessions on new(er) technologies, a plenary session on copyright, interesting debates about cataloging images (yes, that can happen), a lunch for new professionals (that's me!) and many references to "surviving in a bad economy". It's great to see that places are still doing innovative and interesting things even in the face of budget cuts (and sometimes because of budget cuts). It will be interesting to see how this profession weathers the storm these days.

This is the view from my hotel room of the CN tower. I didn't get to go up in it because it's pretty expensive and I opted for museums instead.

It was also interesting to see how into Obama Canadians can be. This was a sign for a shop on Queen Street:

And while walking through Kensington Market on Saturday morning before I left I noticed many different Obama t-shirts for sale. It's awesome to see that people all over the world (or at least in North America) are interested in American politics in a positive way.

Overall, I had a great trip to Toronto. Coming home made me realize how much I miss living in a city environment where everything is walkable or there is public transportation to get you there. Not to mention the plethora of choices for food, live music, shopping, etc... Princeton seems even tinier after visiting such a great city!