The Robertson Building

If you have spent any time leafing through the pages of a major newspaper lately you have probably encountered some of the buzz surrounding art collecting in Canada. Fine art is increasingly becoming a popular investment with those who have something to invest and the Canadian Art Foundation’s (Suite 320) Executive Director Ann Webb has kept her eye on this shift in the art market seeing some interesting new possibilities for exposure. When we met in the roof garden on a sunny day in April, a huge painting had just appeared on the front page of The Globe and Mail newspaper. As Ann explained, “granted the article was about the financial and investment side of art, but it was still amazing to find a piece of contemporary art on the front page of a major newspaper.” These shifts in the market are indicative of new wave of public enthusiasm for the art being found in their own backyards and Canadian Art has been instrumental in influencing this transformation in awareness.
 
Canadian Art is all about creating opportunities for exposure and education about, appropriately, Canadian art. One of the primary ways they do this is through a successful magazine now boasts the highest circulation of a visual arts magazine in Canada. With  A circulation of 21,000 going out quarterly in some ways, the magazine is the most public arm of the foundation but they have a lot more on their plate. They operate as a non-profit foundation that was founded in 1991 facilitating an annual fundraising gala, education outreach with schools, collaboration with organizations across the country, and a partnership with the Royal Bank of Canada Canadian Painting Competition. They also recently launched a new website that took a year of development to perfect that provides yet another platform to spotlight and critically comment on creative endeavours from coast to coast.

“We are really like any other charitable, not-for-profit arts organization as far as our funding and operating budget. The production values of the magazine are high quality with full colour images - it is about the visual arts so it can’t be black and white. As a charitable organization, we pull together public and private funding as well as subsription and ad sales to mount our programs and publish the magazine. Everything we do is about finding a way to educate people about art in Canada and the programs and magazine are both ways of achieving this.”

Canadian Art works to cultivate a connection with artists and the visual arts early on by organizing an annual School Hop for high-school students that gives them access to local galleries and artists. A regular feature for seven years, groups of students moving from one gallery to the next at 401 Richmond St. W. lets us know that spring has arrived.

Canadian Art doesn’t just work to cultivate an appreciation for the arts, but an understanding of what a vital role artists play in the vibrancy of culture and the life of a healthy city.

The foundation is always seeking new ways to get people talking about art.  “We have lots of amazing friends in the art world that we collaborate with on different projects. It is really about figuring out the best way to do what we need to do and pulling in the right people to do that.” These projects include the Reel Artists Film Festival, the International Lecture Series in collaboration with art institutions across Canada, Room with a View, and International Art Tours to some of the major art fairs worldwide. And we can’t forget the Gallery Hop fundraiser, two days of celebrations that include a gala dinner and art talks across the city from September 18 and 20 this year.

The organization has already experienced some significant growth. Their move to 215 Spadina last year was in part to manage an increase in staff and provide more physical working space. The role of Executive Director and Publisher has been divided between Melony Ward as Publisher and Ann as the Executive Director. With Editor Richard Rhodes still driving the magazine’s editorial vision there are big plans to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2009, but it’s all still hush, hush!

“I think Canadian Art can just keep growing. There is a new interest in the visual arts and for those of us that have been working in the arts for many years, it seems like people are catching up to what we have been doing for a long time. There is an increased general interest in art and Canadian Artists and I feel like we are just at the tip of what is possible.” www.canadianart.ca

Photo caption: Canadian Art Staff (left to right) Art Director Barbara Solowan, Editorial Intern Gabrielle Moser, Associate Editor Lorissa Sengara, Publisher Melony Ward, Executive Director Ann Webb, Production Manager Rachelle Saevil, Online Copy Editor Leah Sandals, Administrative Assistant Liz Knox, Development and Administrative Coordinator Sara Graham, Gallery Hop Gala Coordinator Popsy Johnstone, Managing Editor Bryne McLaughlin, and Online Production Manager Sasha Havlik.