The Canadian government has pledged to invest nearly CAD 1.9 billion (~USD 1.4 billion) in the nation’s arts and culture over the next five years to promote Canadian creativity both at home and abroad. As laid out in the recently released annual budget — the first of newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — the new measures are sweeping, earmarking funds for the visual arts, radio, film, historic sites, and science and technology.
The Canada Council for the Arts, which will receive nearly 30% of the funds by 2021, lauded the budget announcement as “an unprecedented commitment to Canadian arts and culture.
“This once-in-a-generation reinvestment permeates beyond the walls of the Canada Council,” the organization wrote in a statement. “It is a resounding acknowledgement that arts and culture function today as a robust social infrastructure in Canada.”
The new funds will double the budget of the 59-year-old government organization, which is charged primarily with distributing grants to Canadian artists and supervising many of the nation’s top cultural awards. It will soon release a Strategic Plan that will lay out how it will use the new funds.