Toronto — Artists from three Toronto art-based community organizations are contributing 400 portraits to the Art Gallery of Ontario's In Your Face exhibition. This collaboration allows inner-city youth and adults living in poverty to connect with the Gallery and have their art displayed in the AGO.

"Our goal is to bring these artists into the Gallery, to see their own contributions on display and feel a connection to this place. By providing these art-based organizations with AGO memberships, we hope the artists will return again and again to explore other parts of the Gallery," says Bev Carret, the AGO's manager of government and community relations, who also conceived the partnership.

The three community organizations - Adelaide Women's Art Studio, ArtHeart and Sketch - provide studio space, workshops and a safe environment to those interested in making art. They have made it possible for various groups, such as women who have experienced homelessness, street kids and the Regent Park community, to participate in creating the portraits on display.

Among the AGO's most popular installations, In Your Face is a collection of personal portraits created by the public and exhibited at the Gallery. Nearly 20,000 submissions have been received since the exhibit opened in August 2006. Over 4,000 portraits remain on display, featuring such unusual items as tinfoil, human hair, modelling clay, fabric, wood, papier mâché, rug-hooking, crayon, magic marker, photography and collage.

In Your Face runs until October 7, 2007.