POWER TO THE ARTS: Reimagining Relationships in the Canadian Creative and Cultural Sector

The goal of this Symposium is to seize the opportunity of Massey College’s 60^th anniversary to convene Canadian artists with government officials and private sector actors mandated with nurturing and promoting Canadian art and artists.

The Symposium and High Table will celebrate a range of artistic disciplines, as well as reimagine the power relationships between arts and culture creators, various levels of government, private sector supporters, and the general public. The Symposium and High Table will therefore position Massey College as a broker of an important national conversation with which it has an historical link through Vincent Massey and the Massey Report; an important national conversation that Massey College can continue to broker as it enters its seventh decade.  

The Symposium will consist of four panel discussions:   

10:00am Panel 1 – Starting Local: Defining Canadian Culture(?) 

John Kim Bell, OC, OOnt 

• Canada’s first Indigenous symphony-orchestra conductor 
• Founder, National Aboriginal Achievement Awards (now Indspire) 
• President & CEO, Bell & Bernard Limited 

Dr. Laurence D. Dubuc 

• Assistant Director General, Association of Professional Acadian Artists, New Brunswick 
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Arts, Culture and Media, University of Toronto 

Peter Raymont 

• Massey College Quadrangle Soceity Member and Filmmaker-in-Residence, 2021-2023 
• Canadian filmmaker and producer 
• President, White Pine Pictures 

Zainub Verjee 

• Senior Fellow, Massey College 
• McLaughlin College Fellow, York University 
• Laureate, 2020 Governor General’s Visual and Media Arts Award  

11:15am Panel 2 – Supporting Artists: Evaluating Public and Private Funding for the Arts in Canada 

Nova Bhattacharya  

• Founder and Artistic Director, Nova Dance 

Douglas Knight, CM 

• Chair & CEO, The Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation 
• Board Chair, Luminato Festival 

Meghan Lindsay 

• Faculty, Carleton University Master in Nonprofit Leadership; PhD Candidate Cultural Studies, Queen’s University
• Researcher and Consultant at the intersection of arts funding, cultural policy, and the performing arts
• Internationally acclaimed performing artist

12:30pm Lunch

1:30pm Panel 3 – Consuming Art: Exploring the Power(s) of the Audience 

Raji Aujla 

• President, Willendorf Cultural Planning 

Claire Hopkinson, MSM 

• Former Director & CEO, Toronto Arts Council 

Mervon Mehta 

• Executive Director of Performing Arts, The Royal Conservatory of Music 

2:45pm Panel 4 – Going Global: Positioning Canada in the International Arts Landscape 

Simon Brault, OC, OQ 

• Former Director & CEO, Canada Council for the Arts 
• Former President, International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies 
• Former CEO, National Theatre School of Canada 

Professor Lynda Jessup 

• Vice Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science, Queen’s University 
• Professor of Cultural Studies and Art History, Queen’s University 
• Director, North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative 

Daniel Roher 

• Canadian documentary film director 
• Winner of the 2023 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film for Navalny 

Max Wyman, OC 

• Writer, arts policy consultant, and one of Canada’s leading cultural commentators 
• Author, The Compassionate Imagination: How the arts are central to a functioning democracy (Cormorant, 2023) 

Please register to attend below.