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History

A dynamic group of artists includ­ing painters Lawren S. Har­ris and André Biéler, sculp­tor Eliz­a­beth Wyn Wood and poet F.R. Scott came together in the early 1940s with a com­mon vision for the sus­tained growth of the arts and artis­tic expres­sion in Canada. In 1945, this vision fos­tered the estab­lish­ment of a national arts advo­cacy body, the Canada Arts Coun­cil, which later evolved to become the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA).

Artists Con­fer­ence at Kingston, 1941

Con­sul­ta­tion with its mem­bers and oth­ers in the cul­tural sec­tor has always been key to the work of the CCA. Its first major national con­fer­ence, which called for increased fund­ing and sup­port for the arts, was orga­nized in 1961. There­after, national con­fer­ences were held every few years, becom­ing bien­nial events in the 1980s and early 1990s. Issues tack­led included tax­a­tion, sta­tus of the artist, new tech­nolo­gies, cul­tural fund­ing, and arts and edu­ca­tion.

Joan Chalmers

Dur­ing the sec­ond half of the 1990s, a nation-wide gov­ern­ment pro­gram review was ini­ti­ated, as a result of which fund­ing to the CCA was cut dras­ti­cally and the con­fer­ences were sus­pended.  In 2000, the CCA ini­ti­ated the Chalmers Con­fer­ences (named for phil­an­thropist Joan Chalmers) to pro­vide a much-needed forum for rep­re­sen­ta­tives of arts ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions to dis­cuss issues of inter­est and con­cern, and to pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for advo­cacy and net­work­ing. Since 2001, the CCA’s National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence has been an annual event, pro­vid­ing national forums for stake­holder input on a vari­ety of timely and rel­e­vant cul­tural topics.

Since its incep­tion, the CCA has worked cease­lessly on behalf of Canada’s artists and arts orga­ni­za­tions to pro­mote and defend their inter­ests. The need for advo­cacy has not decreased with time.

Many issues iden­ti­fied in the early days remain on our radar today. The CCA con­tin­ues to advo­cate for improve­ments for artists on many fronts, including:

  • tax­a­tion and access to social benefits

  • copy­right

  • effects of and access to new technologies

  • pub­lic fund­ing and sup­port for the arts

  • cul­ture and trade

For a detailed time­line of our his­tory, click here.