During a special showing of the AGO's Alfred Eisenstaed exhibit Rupert Duchesne , President and CEO of Aeroplan, announced the launch of a new annual photography award in partnership with the AGO. The $50,000 "Grange Prize" as the award will be known, will be awarded to one of five short-listed photographers each year. Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO's CEO, says the prize is meant to advance the careers of artists.

Formerly the exclusive territory of slow-moving, government sponsored arts agencies, these public-private funding sponsorships work to further engage a dialogue between the corporate sector and the arts. While you might argue that the two worlds are two solitudes, the wealthy have long been patrons of the arts -- ask the Medicis. In fact, one of the great values art offers outside the pleasure of the performance, idea or object is its ability to act as a social solvent between generations and between classes of people. As a young and desperately poor art student in London, Ontario, I remember how surprising it was to have access to that city's social elite through the sub-culture of arts and artists I was part of. That experience opened a world of possibilities for me because I became aware that many people, in spite of radically different backgrounds, share certain things in common. A primordial relationship with art is one of them.