The 2025 Toronto Blue Jays have become the most talked about Canadian team in professional sports. Starting with their first playoff win in almost a decade, the Jays embarked on an epic postseason run, landing them back in the World Series. For fans old enough to remember the ‘90s, recent headlines have sparked a strong nostalgia for the team’s back-to-back World Series championships of 1992 and 1993. The SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) had just opened three years prior, revealing what would become one of its most defining, fan-favourite exterior elements: Canadian artist Michael Snow’s (1928 – 2023) sculpture, The Audience (1989).   

Installed at SkyDome, Michael Snow, The Audience,1989. Michael Snow fonds, Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of the Estate of Michael Snow, 2024. © Estate of Michael Snow. Photo: AGO.

The iconic public artwork is installed in two six-meter parts, towering 15 meters above ground level, and depicts 15 diverse and exuberant Jays fans cheering on the team. The gold-painted figures – made from steel, foam and fibreglass – are located on the northeast and northwest sides of the stadium, meeting hordes of fans as they arrive over the Rob Robbie Bridge. Snow’s work on the Toronto landmark took upwards of a year and required the collaboration of a team of technical experts. A comprehensive trove of preparatory works and images documenting the fabrication and installation process of The Audience is part of the AGO’s Michael Snow archive – the only one of its kind in existence.  

Fabrication process for element of Michael Snow, The Audience, 1988. Michael Snow fonds, Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of the Estate of Michael Snow, 2024. © Estate of Michael Snow. Photo: AGO.

Snow’s multidisciplinary practice included painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, film, video projection, sound art, bookmaking and even experimental jazz. His rich history with the AGO dates to 1970, when the gallery produced his first retrospective exhibition. Snow’s relationship with the AGO evolved in the decades that followed, through numerous exhibitions and collaborative projects. In the years 1992, 1996 and 2016, he gifted the AGO the majority of his personal archives, which contained a variety of his textual records, photos, posters, prints, sketches and ephemera. Within the archives are exclusive preliminary works that help illuminate the creative process for Snow’s widely known public artworks, such as Flight Stop (1979) in Toronto’s Eaton Centre and The Audience.

George Farmer, project manager (left) and Michael Snow (right) with a maquette for The Audience, c. 1989. Michael Snow fonds, Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of the Estate of Michael Snow, 2024. © Estate of Michael Snow. Photo: AGO.

“The Michael Snow fonds [a body of records from a single source] is the largest artist’s archive in the AGO’s Special Collections holdings, and it offers a fascinating look into the making of his large-scale public artwork, The Audience,” explains Camille McDayer, Processing Archivist at the AGO. “An array of unique records, including photographs, correspondence, notes and sketches, shows the depth of thought and effort behind [The Audience]. These records allow us to understand The Audience not just as a finished work, but as the result of the artist's thoughtful and engaged creative process. A letter in which Snow considers adding eyelashes to a winking figure, complete with a penned sketch, reveals both his meticulous and even playful attention to detail. The archives also highlight the collaborative effort behind this project, giving a fuller sense of how Snow's vision for the sculpture was realized with support from people like Project Manager, George Farmer, pictured with Snow in front of an element of the work during fabrication.  

Preserving and facilitating access to the Michael Snow fonds allows us to trace how The Audience moved from an idea to the iconic Toronto landmark that it is today.” 

Maquette for The Audience being moved through the snow, 1989. Michael Snow fonds, Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of the Estate of Michael Snow, 2024. © Estate of Michael Snow. Photo: AGO.

Although the Blue Jays fell just short of a 2025 World Series championship win, their epic playoff run has ignited a new wave of support from fans across the country. It seems like a guarantee that every game next season will be sold out with droves of diehard fans looking up at The Audience with pride on their way to Rogers Centre.