Advancing arts research in Canada

The new Arts Insights Canada initiative aims to make high-quality, meaningful and practical research about the arts available to Canadian artists and arts workers.

Arts Insights Canada is a partnership between Hill Strategies and three leading foundations engaged in the Canadian arts sector: the Azrieli Foundation, the Rozsa Foundation and the Metcalf Foundation.

Kelly Hill, the founder of Hill Strategies, was inspired to start this project after becoming aware that freely available, practical and actionable research about the Canadian arts sector was severely lacking. After consulting with sector experts, he began the project in March 2021.

An advisory panel comprised of arts leaders from across Canada helped select the research topics and continues to spark conversations around the initiative’s research outputs. The panel members are:

• Parmela Attariwala, PhD: musician, researcher, arts equity advocate
• Reneltta Arluk: Director of Indigenous Arts, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
• Sanjay Shahani: Executive Director, Edmonton Arts Council
• Cynthia Lickers-Sage: Executive Director, Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance
• Kimberley Rampersad: Associate Artistic Director, Shaw Festival
• Laurence D. Dubuc: Ph.D candidate, School of Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal and research agent at ARTENSO

By publishing new content every two weeks, Arts Insights Canada has made numerous briefs, blogs and research summaries widely available on current topics relevant to the arts community. For example, “Green(er) arts?” describes how the arts and the environment are inextricably linked and what might be done to align the arts with climate solutions; and “On precarity in the arts” discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadian artists and the arts sector.

These pieces are important aids to Canadian arts workers, gathering a range of information on a specific subject into one clearly written document. They also make arts research more accessible to new communities.

Read more posts from the Arts Insights Canada series:

• Arts Research Monitor 180 – Deaf and Disability Arts
• Arts Research Monitor 181 – Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization
• Arts Research Monitor 182 – Indigenous Arts
• Organizational stress and resilience in the arts in Canada
• Public engagement in arts emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic: Canadian analysis and regional differences
• Harassment and discrimination: Important aspects of the precarity of women in the arts