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The Canada Council was created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 with a very broad mandate - “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.” Originally funded by the revenues from an endowment fund, it began receiving annual appropriations from Parliament in the late 1960s. Today, Parliament provides the majority of the Council’s resources.

The Canada Council for the Arts Act did not specify what kind of organization the Council should be or how it should carry out its mandate. Among the most crucial decisions the Council made in its early years was that it would focus on professional artists and arts organizations and operate primarily as a granting organization.

Over the years the Council has significantly evolved as it adapted to new ways in which art was being created, produced and disseminated and to changes in Canadian society.

• In the Council’s early years, it frequently discussed whether its priority should be to lift standards of excellence by responding to the best in the arts or distribute its resources more broadly and democratically (“to raise” or “to spread,” as the Council put it). In the early years, the Council generally preferred the former option. It devoted much of its energy and most of its resources to developing a professional arts infrastructure in both official languages, principally in urban areas.
• The late 1960s and early 1970s marked the arrival of the first generation of artists and arts managers trained and developed in Canada. It was a period of social change and ferment, with citizens calling for more democratic public institutions and one federal minister responsible for culture (Gérald Pelletier) announcing a policy of “democratization and decentralization”. The Canada Council began to be much more active in bringing the arts to people. It improved access to its programs for new artists, expanded the disciplines it funded, and launched special initiatives to address underserved regions. Examples included the creation of the Touring Office, the Explorations program, the Block Grant program for book publishers, and the Art Bank in the 1970s. Special measures were taken to address the under-representation of Council funding in the Atlantic provinces and to reach out to artists in the North. The early 1970s also saw the end of peer assessment committees made up exclusively of men.
• From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, the Council recognized Canadian work as an important priority. It began supporting a new stream of creator-based organizations and encouraged repertoire-based arts organizations to present new Canadian works. It also put a special focus on grants to individual artists. These changes responded to the emergence of new arts organizations, some of them led by young people initially funded through federal youth-work grants, and the emergence of new creative voices, including those of women and francophone artists outside Quebec. In addition to incentives for new Canadian work, the Council provided support to artist-run centres, alternative theatres, contemporary dance companies, arts magazines, new music groups and small classical music ensembles. It also made grants available to a substantially larger number of organizations and, in the early 1980s, set up the Media Arts Section. Over this decade, arts funding by the provinces expanded significantly.
• During the 1970s and 1980s, recognizing that as a national agency it had sources of  information and insight that could help strengthen the arts community, the Council began expanding its support by providing services and tools (such as workshops, showcases and professional development opportunities) to artists and arts organizations. It put a new emphasis on disseminating research and information on the arts.
• In the 1990s, in response to calls for action from the culturally diverse and Aboriginal arts communities, the Council acknowledged that its programs, committees and staff did not reflect the face of modern Canada. With the advice of committees for both racial equity and Aboriginal arts, it made an active commitment to Aboriginal and culturally diverse arts practices and to equity as a corporate goal. The Equity Office and the Aboriginal Arts Secretariat were established and their respective advisory committees constituted. In this decade, the Council also established the Inter-Arts Office as a means of responding to shifting disciplinary boundaries and new artistic practices. The Council began giving operating grants on a multi-year basis, and it greatly expanded its prizes and awards for artists. Across the country during this period, some municipalities were becoming much more active in arts funding.
• Internal changes in the 1990s included an increased communications capacity and a greater emphasis on reaching the arts community, the public, government, members of Parliament and the media in multiple ways, including the Council’s website.
• In the mid-1990s, during a period of federal program review, the Council experienced dramatic internal changes. To cope with financial cutbacks, it reduced its staff by 50% and eliminated or consolidated a number of programs. The Council’s goal with these measures was to prevent reductions in its grants budget.
• In the current decade (since 2000) the Council has received a series of new funds from the federal government. To encourage greater stability among arts organizations, it has emphasized capacity building and long-term organizational health. With its most recent increase from government, the additional $20 million in 2006-07 and $30 million in 2007-08 announced in the May 2006 federal budget, it provided additional support to arts organizations receiving operating grants, including significant funding for large institutions. In response to the new ways in which artists are working, the Council has also introduced several changes that make its programs more flexible, increased its support for project grants, and made its Artists in Community Collaboration program permanent. It also developed projects that bring artists together with other sectors of society such as science.
• In the current decade, responding to the continuous growth in the number of artists, a high rate of applications, and the advent of new technologies, the Council has introduced an online process for grant applications. It has filled a gap in its planning processes by adopting three-year corporate plans, and it is paying greater attention to evaluation and accountability issues. Acknowledging that the funding landscape has shifted dramatically and that it is no longer the only or even the largest public funder in many regions of Canada, the Council has fostered the creation of a collaborative network of provincial and territorial arts funders. It has also increased its work in arts promotion, in recognition of the need to engage the public more deeply in the arts. Finally, in this decade the Council has expressed a desire to assume a more proactive leadership role in the arts, by contributing to an improved federal framework for arts support and sharing its national knowledge of the arts more broadly with others.

The growth of the Canadian arts community since the Council was created in 1957 has been so extraordinary that comparisons are almost impossible. But two differences stand out above all others:

• The sheer difference in quantity and scope of professional artists and arts organizations in Canada: In 1957, the Council funded 29 arts organizations, most of them repertoire companies in the performing arts, and two individual artists. Today it funds over 2000 organizations and 2000 artists annually in a wide variety of disciplines and arts practices, and more than 900 of the organizations receive operating support. Nearly 16,000 applications are received each year and some 6000 grants awarded. In 2005-06, the Canada Council awarded more than $120.5 million in grants:
  • close to $102.3 million through 4,068 grants to organizations; and
  • close to $18.3 million through 2,122 grants to individuals.

While final data is not yet available, this amount will increase in 2006-07 as a result of the $50 million in new money provided to the Council in the federal budget of May 2, 2006. These funds were over two years: $20 million in 2006-07 and $30 million in 2007-08.

• The diversity and maturity of the arts community: In its early years the Council helped to foster and develop the professional arts infrastructure of Canada. Today the arts community, while still lacking adequate financial resources, is mature and well-developed, diverse in its practices and forms of expression, and recognized for its quality across the country and internationally.

In preparing for this strategic planning process, the Council analyzed the current trends it needs to think about as it plans for the future. This analysis looks at trends in the arts and in society as a whole, and it includes:

• Demographic and social change
• Changes in public attitudes and society at large
• Changes in the arts community
• Changes in governments and among public sector arts funders
• Changes brought about by internationalism/globalization

An overview of the key trends in each of these areas can be found in the current environment for the arts and the Council, and further research is available on the Council’s web site.

August 2007