Corporate Information

The Canada Council for the Arts is Canada’s national, arm’s-length arts funding agency. Our main areas of activity are:

Grants: We provide funding to individual professional artists and arts organizations through a peer assessment process.

Endowments and Prizes: Each year we award fellowships and prizes to some 200 artists and scholars.

Research, communications and arts promotion activities also further our mandate to support, promote and celebrate the arts. 

The Canada Council Art Bank, the Killam Program, the Public Lending Right Program and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO are all administered through the Canada Council.

Background

ASL video

The Canada Council was created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) to foster and promote the study, enjoyment and production of works in the arts, and operate at “arm’s length” or independently of government.

Since then, the Canada Council has evolved into a dynamic organization that is Canada’s leading supporter of the arts. We are proud to have contributed to the lively cultural life and abundance of exceptional art that we now enjoy in Canada.

The Canada Council's fundamental values

The evolution of the Canada Council's support of the arts

The current environment for the arts and the Canada Council

Donor information