DIRECTOR'S NOTE
ROM BUILDS BACK
Last year, we made it our mission to build back our audience. And on June 9, amid a buzzing audience of journalists, staff, and supporters, we made that goal official, announcing our Free Main Floor summer program and our bold new brand platform, ROM Immortal. Just two days later, we launched Fantastic Beasts™: The Wonder of Nature, an exhibition fusing Wizarding World fantasy with natural history.
Combined, these initiatives helped drive a substantial return of our audiences, marking the beginning of ROM's recovery. From there, we built on that momentum with new exhibitions like Kent Monkman: Being Legendary and popular programs like ROM After Dark. Last year also saw the return of daily gallery tours and summer camps, a significant rise in Membership sales, and a $50-million donation from the Hennick Family Foundation—the single largest cash donation to the Museum, ever.
By now, this much should be clear: our audience is returning, momentum is building, and ROM is embracing its role as a 21st-century museum.
Much of this progress is thanks to the support of our ROM community, including staff, volunteers, partners, stakeholders, donors, and visitors. So, let me end by simply saying thank you.
Sincerely,
Josh Basseches
Director & CEO
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Dr. Justin Jennings, ROM's Senior Curator of American Archaeology, made headlines with a paper claiming "Ancient Peruvians... spiked their beer with hallucinogens to win friends."
Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron, the Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology, helped solve the "mystery of an ancient alien goldfish" by identifying a tooth-covered tongue in several fossils at the Museum.
Dr. Kim Tait, the Teck Curator of Mineralogy, joined the elite Mars Sample Return Campaign Science Group, which will try to answer questions about Mars that have intrigued humanity for generations.
Dr. Nathan Lujan (Associate Curator of Fishes) published "the first comprehensive list of Guyana's freshwater fishes."
Scientists studying a 328-million-year-old fossil at ROM discovered a "new species of extinct vampire-squid-like cephalopod"—and named it after President Joe Biden.
A new study, to which Dr. David Evans (Co-Chief Curator, Natural History & Temerty Chair in Vertebrate Paleontology) contributed, found that Zuul's bone-shattering tail may have been used to fight fellow ankylosaurs for territorial dominance and even woo potential mates.
ROM co-published Made for the Eye of One Who Sees, which outlines the important contributions Canada—and ROM in particular—is making to scholarship on Islamic art, architecture, and archaeology.
EXHIBITIONS HIGHLIGHTS
Swapnaa Tamhane: Mobile Palace (March 12, 2022 to August 1, 2022), was a gorgeous, meditative exhibition in which layered fabric compositions rippled like waves and soared along the ceiling.
Fantastic Beasts™: The Wonder of Nature (June 11, 2022 to January 8, 2023) explored the links between the magical creatures of the Wizarding World and the remarkable animals in ours.
Kent Monkman: Being Legendary (October 8, 2022 to April 16 2023), which depicts how deeply Indigenous knowledge is embedded in the lands of Turtle Island, was praised by the Toronto Star as a "marveling feat" and a "beacon for the ROM's rebrand."
Wildlife Photographer of the Year (November 12, 2022 to April 23, 2023), a visitor favourite, captures the extraordinary beauty of the natural world with unmatched precision and pathos.
Canadian Modern (December 3, 2022 to July 30, 2023), "charts the emergence of a uniquely Canadian craft and design sensibility shaped by the country’s diverse peoples and its vast, awe-inspiring geography."
EVENTS HIGHLIGHTS
On October 6, 2,000 guests attended the opening preview of Kent Monkman: Being Legendary, which the Toronto Star's Shinan Govani hailed as "the biggest art opening of the season."
After a two-year hiatus, ROM After Dark—the beloved 19+, after-hours event series—roared back to life, selling out multiple nights.
Over the holiday season, ROM hosted daily hands-on programming for visitors of all ages inspired by Earth’s annual journey around the sun.
INNOVATION TO KEEP VISITORS SAFE
We are all very conscious of what we touch in our day-to-day lives, and you may notice a new safety measure as you explore ROM galleries!
Recently, objects in ROM’s collection went to work through the real-life application of an abundant element found in our mineralogy galleries: copper. ROM is the first Canadian museum to install antimicrobial copper surfaces, which continuously kill bacteria. The copper may not have come from ROM’s display cases, but it’s the same material that thousands of people marvel at every year in the Museum’s Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth’s Treasures.
In partnership with Teck Resources Limited, high-touch items such as door handles and washroom stall latches were outfitted with copper. The substance is effective in eliminating up to 99.9% of harmful bacteria within two hours of contact.
“Copper has this amazing ability to release these charged ions, so that when bacteria or viruses land on its surface, it actually attacks the cells, including the RNA and DNA,” explains Dr. Kim Tait, ROM’s Teck Endowed Chair of Mineralogy. “It’s almost like a bullet going into the inner structure of the cells. Whereas, with stainless steel, some microbes can sit there for days, and then we touch it and pass it along.”
In addition to this innovative installation, Teck’s generous gift is also funding a digital education program to explain the health benefits of copper and the important role it plays today and for the low-carbon future. This will become part of ROM’s curriculum-based programs.
SIX MORE HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2022
- Growing Back Attendance: ROM is steadily building back attendance to pre-pandemic levels, and we are on target to achieve our goal of 900,000 visitors by the end of March.
- Acquisitions: Thanks to the expertise of Dr. Sarah Fee (Senior Curator, Global Fashion & Textiles) Dr. Fahmida Suleman (Curator, Islamic World), and Laura Fox (Technician, West Asian & Egyptian Collections), ROM acquired 595 exceptional objects and textiles from the highly sought-after Widad Kawar Collection of Arab Dress and Heritage Arts. This important acquisition helps affirm ROM’s status as a world leader in the presentation of Islamic art and culture.
- Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience: ROM welcomed Ontario back to culture with a rare opportunity to view one of the most renowned statues in Greek antiquity: Kore 670. In celebration of 80 years of Canadian-Greek diplomatic relations, the Acropolis Museum in Athens loaned Kore 670 to ROM, where it spent the summer. The statue has only left Greece two other times.
- Touring Exhibitions: Two ROM original exhibitions travelling to other museums opened within one week of each other in October: Global Threads: The Art and Fashion of Indian Chintz, at the Saint Louis Art Museum, and Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story, at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton.
- Brand Voltage: The ROM Immortal brand launch made headlines across the country back in June and has been receiving recognition in major advertising and film award shows in Canada, Europe, and the US. Notably, ROM Immortal was named "Campaign of the Year" by Strategy Magazine, won Gold at the Advertising & Design Club of Canada, named top 13 in the world by UK-based LBBOnline, and crowned "Best in Show" by the OneScreen Film Festival in NYC."
- Distance Discount: This year, in an effort to attract even more visitors beyond the Greater Toronto Area, ROM launched a two-month postal code-based discount, so the further families travelled, the more they saved.
THANK YOU
Without our donors, volunteers, staff, and the support of the Government of Ontario, none of this would be possible.
For a full donor list, click here.
Image Credits: Cover: Kent Monkman (b. 1965). Battle of the piyêsiwak and the misipisiwak, 2022, Acrylic on Canvas, 51" x 72". Image 1: Saty + Pratha © Royal Ontario Museum, 2022. Image 2: Lisa Milosavljevic, © Royal Ontario Museum. Image 3: Photograph by Yale Joel / The LIFE Picture Collection. Image 4: Paul Eekhoff, © Royal Ontario Museum. Image 5: Wanda Dobrowlanski, © Royal Ontario Museum.