Canada Council

The Canada Council for the Arts (French: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.[1] It funds Canadian artists and encourages the production of art in Canada. The current board chair of the Canada Council is Pierre Lassonde.

Canada Council for the Arts
Formation1957
TypeCrown Corporation
Legal statusactive
Purposeadvocate and public voice, educator and network
HeadquartersOttawa, Ontario
Region served
Canada
Official language
English, French
Chairperson
Jesse Wente
AffiliationsArt Bank
Websitewww.canadacouncil.ca

Organization

The Canada Council is an arms-length agency based in Ottawa, Ontario, that reports to the Crown through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Its endowment income is supplemented by annual appropriations from parliament, donations, and bequests. Its main duty is allotting grants to Canadian artists based on the merits of their applications. The council also funds and administers many of Canada's top arts awards, including the Governor General's Literary Awards.

The council has six main divisions. Each of these co-ordinates grant-giving to a different area of the arts:

These are complemented by three groups that work with all the sections:

  • Aboriginal Arts Secretariat, which fosters First Peoples art in all media
  • Equity Office, which encourages diversity in arts funding
  • Inter-Arts Office, to deal with proposals that combine or transcend traditional artistic disciplines

Activities

Art Bank
This article is about the Canadian Art Bank. For the Australian equivalent, see Artbank.

The Canada Council has supervisory authority over the Art Bank.[2] The Art Bank is a division of the Canada Council for the Arts whose mandate is to rent works of art to public and private sector offices.[3] It has the largest collection of contemporary Canadian art in the world.[3] The collection includes some 18,000 artworks, 6,400 of which are currently rented to more than 200 government and corporate clients.

Established in the 1970s and developed by Canada Council Visual Arts Officer Suzanne Rivard-Lemoyne,[4] the Art Bank buys art from notable Canadian artists through a system of peer review juries. The bank is completely self-funded, earning its money from renting out works in its collection. The Bank continues to expand its collection by buying works in accord with its annual purchasing budget.[5] The vast majority of its art is rented by the Federal government, with less than ten percent being rented to the private sector. Works of art are rented out for two-year periods. The rental rate is generally 20% of the piece's market value. Although the Art Bank is located in Ottawa, Ontario it services its clients across the country. Its collection has been appraised to be worth over 71 million dollars.[6]

In 2002 the Canada Council Art Bank began to purchase Aboriginal art to enhance its collection as part of its 45th anniversary.[7]

Musical Instrument Bank

The Council also operates a Musical Instrument Bank. Established in 1985, the Instrument Bank has acquired many valuable stringed instruments that are loaned mainly to Canadian musicians. The loans are often made to musicians as a result of juried competitions.[8] The creation of the instrument bank was championed by Canadian cellist Denis Brott.[9]

Awards supervised

The Council promotes public awareness of the arts through its communications, research and arts promotion activities. The Council administers the Killam Program of scholarly awards, the Governor General's Literary Awards and the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.

Other supervised bodies

The Canadian Commission for UNESCO and the Public Lending Right Commission operate under the Council's aegis.

Grant awards

Each year the council receives some 16,000 grant requests, which are reviewed by panels of artists set up by each division of the council. In 2006-07, the Council awarded some 6,000 grants to artists and arts organizations and made payments to more than 15,400 authors through the Public Lending Right Commission. Grants and payments totaled more than $152 million.

Funding

The Canada Council is called from time to time to appear before parliamentary committees, particularly the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Its accounts are audited by the Auditor General of Canada and included in an Annual Report to Parliament.

Chairs of the Canada Council
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See also

References
  1. Jocelyn Harvey (March 4, 2015). "Canada Council for the Arts". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
  2. "About the Art Bank". Art Bank. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  3. "Mandate of Art Bank". Archived from the original on 2013-04-10. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  4. Allen, Jan (1992). "The Anatomy of Excellence: The Canada Council Art Bank Collection, 1972-1983". Queen's University Dissertations: 8 – via Proquest.
  5. Purchase Program Archived 2013-05-24 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Value of Collection Archived 2013-04-02 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "{Turtle Island Native Network} • View topic - Opportunity for Aboriginal Artists - Art Bank Purchase". www.turtleisland.org. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  8. "Instrument Bank grants rare violins, cellos to young artists". cbc.ca. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  9. Festival, Montreal Chamber Music. "404 - Montreal Chamber Music Festival". www.festivalmontreal.org. Retrieved 1 March 2018.

Further reading
  • Granatstein, J.L. 1986. "Culture and scholarship: The first ten years of the Canada Council." Canada 1957-1967: Years of Uncertainty and Innovation. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart. Pgs. 139–168.
  • Klages, G. 2011. "By Artists, for Artists? Creating the Saskatchewan Arts Board and Canada Council." Saskatchewan History 64/1 (Spring/Summer), pgs. 38–49.
  • Mailhot, L., and Melançon, B. 1982. Le Conseil des arts du Canada, 1957-1982. Montreal, PQ: Lemeac.
  • Ostry, B. 1978. The Cultural Connection. Toronto, ON: 1978.
  • Woodcock, G. 1985. Strange Bedfellows: the State and the Arts in Canada. Toronto, ON: Douglas & McIntyre.


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