Friends of the Art Gallery of Calgary

Help us reach our financial goal and ensure the future of the AGC

At the Art Gallery of Calgary, people of all ages are connecting with contemporary art. Dynamic new art exhibitions fill its beautiful galleries every four months. Engaging talks by contemporary artists bring their works to life, offering insight and creative inspiration. Lively programs invite you to revitalize your imagination. Spacious galleries filled with natural light invite you to pause for a moment of quiet reflection.

The Friends of the AGC are a group of philanthropists and business leaders from our community who lend their business expertise and their support to help the Art Gallery of Calgary meet its mission and goals. They know that the AGC exhibitions and programs contribute to the quality of life in the city, province and country.

The Friends of the AGC are dedicated to raising $11 million in endowment funding. The monies raised will help generate a $10 million endowment fund for the Gallery’s long term stability as well as $1 million for the debt retirement of the mortgage on the AGC buildings. We invite you to help ensure the Art Gallery of Calgary’s financial future.

For more information or to lend your support to the Friends of the AGC, please contact

Valerie Cooper
President & CEO
Art Gallery of Calgary
117 – 8 th Avenue SW
Calgary, AB T2P 1B4
T: 403.770.1352
F: 403.264.8077
vcooper@artgallerycalgary.org

Friends of the AGC Committee

Colleen Gray
Co-Chair
Colleen is an energetic, creative marketing specialist with a successful track record of meeting and exceeding sales goals. She graduated from S.A.I.T. as a Registered Respiratory Technologist. Following this, Ms. Gray took on a variety of entrepreneurial endeavours before pursuing professional development in sales and marketing. She has become an expert in her field working for CBC Television as an account executive; The Owen Hart Foundation as public relations manager and co-founder; and with Citytv as an account executive.

Peggy Urlacher
Co-Chair
Peggy Urlacher is a National Sales and Marketing Account Manger at Citytv. She was educated at the University of Saskatchewan and has been actively involved with a number of charities over the past twenty years dong service work in India, Nepal, Peru and Costa Rica. She sat on the board of directors of For the Love of Children of Alberta and for the Saskatchewan Youth Ballet. Ms. Urlacher is currently Vice President of a new charity group called Elevate whose purpose is to generate funds to provide life skills to ten families living in poverty in Calgary.

Pat Borger
Advisor to the Friends of AGC and Royal Bank of Canada Meeting Sponsor
As the Regional Vice President of RBC Financial Group, Ms. Borger currently manages Business Markets, Financial Planning and Retail Network within Calgary and surrounding area. Ms. Borger has an MBA from Dalhousie University, FICB from Institute of Canadian Bankers Association and Personal Financial Planning designation. She also has a degree in Journalism-Advertising.

Jo-Ann Allen
Jo-Ann originally hails from outside the Toronto, Ontario area and had a modeling career that spanned between New York, Montreal and Toronto. She was President of Mental Images where she ran the company and developed proto-type board games and children’s books utilizing Thermochromic Ink. She was heavily involved in the technology industry in Victoria, B.C. Her move to Calgary brought her into the art industry. She worked as a corporate sales person and event planner for Webster Galleries gathering a large database of clients, which she carries with her to this day. Ms. Allen was offered a position as Assistant Gallery Director at Artists of the World where she stayed for a year adding more to here already large database of clients. Ms. Allen is presently CEO for the Ridge Side Retreat that caters to the entertainment industry and executive corporate clients. Ms. Allen also sat on the board for MCNS at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario.

Linda Bellio
Linda is a Consultant with Barnes McInerney Inc., one of the leading capital market communications firms in the country. She recently moved to Calgary from Ontario, where she worked as a senior marketing and communications strategist with some of the country’s most respected companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Zurich Insurance and Suncor. Ms. Bellio is a member of the Canadian Investor Relations Institute and the International Association of Business Communicators.

Donale Gandossi
Donale Gandossi’s community and business leadership provides the AGC’s board with a clear picture of the needs of Calgarians. Currently Account Executive for Direct Cash ATM, Ms. Gandossi has been involved in Calgary’s visual arts community for over twenty years, serving as an art docent at the Glenbow Museum and on the AGC Board of Directors for eight years.

Barbara Ross
Barbara Ross has spent the last twenty years working part time in various areas of real estate development through her firm Delta West. She is currently President of the Board for the Inn from the Cold Society in Calgary and sits on the ten-year Committee to End Homelessness in Calgary. She is passionate about trying to improve the lives of the homeless and those living in poverty. Mr. Ross has organized many fundraisers for non-profit groups and has been a supporter of numerous others. She has served on the boards of various schools, church and political organizations, her community association and has sat on a city task force. Ms. Ross brings her business background and her enthusiasm to all her projects.

Kevin Sullivan
Kevin Sullivan graduated with distinction from Concordia University obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In his career, Mr. Sullivan has expressed his artistic side through architecture. Since receiving his Masters of Architecture from Kogakuin University in Tokyo, he has managed several new building projects from research through to design. His work has taken him around the world from London England, Tokyo, Montreal and Halifax to Toronto. Mr. Sullivan received the Curry Fine Arts Award for his photography and sat on the board of Gallery 1313 in Toronto from 2003 to 2005.

Sharon Marianne Szmolyan
Sharon Szmolyan is enthusiastic about arts and culture and seeks to further its importance in Calgary. She graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature, Comparative Religion and Art for Early Childhood Education. Ms. Szmolyan went on to develop an extensive and diversified skill set while working with different arts and entertainment companies in Asia and more recently in the US. Her passion is for audience development while her expertise lies more so in the area of revenue generation, designing and negotiating sponsorship opportunities, as well as working with private and government grant organization funders.

Jerilyn Wright B.I.D. L.I.D.
Jerilyn Wright is a licensed interior designer with the Alberta Architects Association and the Interior Designers of Canada. With over thirty years in the industry, including being the owner of Jerilyn Wright & Associates since 1984, her firm has completed over twelve million square feet of interior design space. Ms. Wright has built one of the strongest interior design firms in Calgary and her designs have won awards from such varied disciplines as the Architects Association, the Illuminating Engineering Society, as well as Provincial and National interior design awards. Ms. Wright is an active participant in the design and arts community and currently sits as a Board Member of the Ability Society.