about
The Founding of Art Canada
HISTORY
Launched in 2013 as a not-for-profit educational organization and registered Canadian charity, the Art Canada Institute (ACI) is the only national online resource dedicated to learning about this country’s art and artists. We promote an inclusive, multivocal study of Canada’s art and history to as broad an audience as possible, in both English and French, across Canada and internationally. We work with the country’s leading art historians, curators, and visual culture experts to create authoritative original content on the people, themes, and topics that have defined the visual arts in Canada.
Before ACI, it was hard to find accessible and authoritative information on the lives and work of Canadian visual artists. We created this digital resource to tell the world about this country’s most important works and the artists who made them. Today, ACI is a digital art library, teacher resource centre, and interactive Canadian art encyclopedia—an indispensable source of information on Canada’s visual heritage.
OUR MISSION
We believe that Canada’s art should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their knowledge of the subject or their access to bricks-and-mortar museums. We make this possible through the ever-growing content on this website, which offers audiences around the world a paywall-free way to discover and learn about Canada’s art and history.
“Redefining the conversation about Canadian art history.”
“A comprehensive, multi-tiered resource”
“The best news in Canadian art in a long time.”
“Breathing digital life into Canadian art”
Land Acknowledgement
Meryl McMaster, Bring Me to This Place, 2017. Featured in Ottawa Art & Artists: An Illustrated History.
The Art Canada Institute acknowledges that the land where we live, work, and create has been the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, and the Huron-Wendat. Today, this meeting place remains home to many Indigenous Peoples from across Turtle Island, and we are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and create here.
ACI offers virtual programming to audiences across the country and operates as a fully remote organization, with staff and contributors living and working in many places across Turtle Island / Canada. We acknowledge the opportunity to live and work in these places, which are the traditional lands of Indigenous Peoples and home to many different First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities.
We recognize the enormous diversity of Indigenous art practices across Turtle Island and Inuit Nunangat and their deep connections to the land, and we are honoured to have the opportunity to learn about these practices. We respect the teachings of Indigenous communities, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers about the land, and we are grateful for every opportunity to collaborate in presenting Indigenous programming.
ACI is committed to actively working towards reconciliation with Indigenous communities. We strive to learn more about Indigenous worldviews; develop and sustain right relations with Indigenous advisers, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers; and celebrate the work of Indigenous artists. With this land acknowledgement, ACI expresses its deep respect for Indigenous Peoples and their communities, art traditions, and artists.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
At the Art Canada Institute, we are committed to integrating the following principles in our work:
Diversity, a principle of respecting differences among people, valuing the lived experience of minoritized people, and fostering a plurality of perspectives and voices. We acknowledge that many people have experienced and continue to experience systemic discrimination in Canada. We must actively and consciously address barriers created by ableism, genderism, heterosexism, racism, and sexism. We will take purposeful steps to create more opportunities for people who are Indigenous, Black, people of colour, 2SLGBTQQIA+, nonbinary, gender non-conforming, Deaf, living with disabilities, and women.
Equity, a principle and process of ensuring that everyone can participate meaningfully in our work and our programming (at the time of writing, the Art Canada Institute offers virtual programming only). At ACI, we recognize that not everyone has equal access to resources and opportunities, and we are committed to adapting our processes and adopting appropriate practices and tools to help ensure that individuals with different requirements have equal access to opportunities and programming. We also recognize the role that socio-economic disadvantage plays in creating barriers to opportunities for many artists and communities.
Inclusion, a principle of welcoming everyone to participate in our programming by adapting our behaviours, communication, and practices to create a respectful space that embraces diversity. To promote inclusion, we recognize and respect different worldviews, behaviours, customs, and ways of interacting. We are committed to building our individual and collective cultural competencies and creating avenues for authentic engagement. We acknowledge that inclusion requires honouring diverse perspectives and addressing power imbalances to foster a sense of belonging.
Shuvinai Ashoona, Audience, 2014. Featured in Shuvinai Ashoona: Life & Work.
Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion requires ongoing learning and work. We are committed to equitable processes and respectful relationships as we engage diverse staff and stakeholders and include as wide a population as possible in our programming and initiatives. We aspire to celebrate Indigenous artists and art historians, knowing that Indigenous people are the original people of this land, and to recognize Canadian artists and art historians of all backgrounds, to ensure that their work is known and that audiences have digital access to it.
The Art Canada Institute has the privilege of a unique opportunity to represent the art and tell the stories of artists across Canada through our programming, and it is part of our mandate to promote the study of an inclusive multi-vocal art history to as broad an audience as possible. We strive to reflect and represent the diversity of art makers in Canada throughout the history of this country, cognizant of the fact that many did not, and do not, have support, platforms, or recognition for their practices. Therefore, we strive to work with artists and art historians who are Indigenous, Black, Racialized, Living with Disabilities, and Women, and those who identify as one or more of the identities with in the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community. We are committed to working actively towards a future of reconciliation and social justice.
We welcome your questions and comments.
Please feel free to write us at info@artcanada.com.