Speeches from the Canada Council for the Arts’ 2025 Annual Public Meeting

Speeches by Jesse Wente, Chair, and Michelle Chawla, Director and CEO

Jesse Wente’s Speech at the 2025 Annual Public Meeting

As many of you know, this will be my last annual public meeting, as I complete my five-year mandate as the chair of the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts in July.

It has been a great privilege to serve artists, arts organizations, and the entire community as the chair and, before that, as a member of the board.

I’m proud to be the first Indigenous chair of the Canada Council. Firsts are important, almost entirely because of their capacity to lead to seconds, thirds, fourths and so on. And so, to my broader community of First Nations, Inuit and Métis folks, I want to say: take up these roles. It’s hard work, but it’s meaningful work. We need our people on both the inside and outside of these organizations to transform them and to transform this place. Let’s continue this work.

In my time as chair, the arts experienced significant challenges. At the start of my mandate, we were in the early days of the COVID pandemic. Now, at the end of my time here, we’re experiencing intense unpredictability. 

Through it all, the Council has been a steadfast support for the arts—and I know it will continue to play this vital role.

I’m proud of the many things we’ve accomplished together.

I’m thinking, for example, of the work we undertook to serve communities in every corner of the country. This is about upholding the Council’s mandate as a national funder that supports the arts from coast to coast to coast. 

Notably, the Council has deepened its relationship with the North over the last five years. We co-hosted the Arctic Arts Summit in 2022. The Summit brought together participants from across the circumpolar region to discuss and collaborate on topics of shared interest. And we have now passed the baton on to Sweden to host the next summit in 2026.

Three co-delivery partnerships came out of the Summit we hosted, one each with the Inuit Arts Foundation, the Government of Yukon, and the Government of the Northwest Territories. These partnerships have ushered in a new way of working for the Council, centered on meeting the unique needs and priorities of the region as they articulate them.

Put simply, this grounds our work in community perspectives and ensures we work together for a strong arts sector in all parts of the country.   

I’m also pleased to see the Board now holding a meeting every year in a community outside of Ottawa. Last June, we had an insightful meeting in Newfoundland and Labrador. And this will continue in future years. In fact, the Board will meet in Alberta later this year. Through these meetings, we’re able to connect with and hear from folks in the community, making important connections between our work on the board and what’s happening across the country.

I look forward to watching the Council deepen its connections with the arts community further, ensuring its relevance all over Canada.

I want to congratulate Cheryl Hickman on being named the next chair of the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts. Cheryl and I started on the Board at the same time, and it has been a pleasure working with her these past several years. She will provide important strategic oversight and continuity for the Council as chair.

I also want to thank the employees of the Canada Council for the Arts, who bring much dedication, intelligence, and care to their work every day.

And I want to extend my thanks to Michelle Chawla for her important leadership as the director and CEO of the Council. It has been a privilege to work with you, Michelle.

And on that note, I will now turn it over to Michelle for her remarks.

Michelle Chawla’s Speech at the 2025 Annual Public Meeting

The annual public meeting is an important opportunity to have a conversation with the arts community about the Council's work. But this isn’t the only opportunity. Instead, I see it as part of an ongoing conversation we have with the community.

As director and CEO, it’s been my priority over the last year and a half to deepen the Council’s engagement with the arts community. More than that, it’s been my priority to deepen our engagement in all parts of the country. This past year, I met with many of you in your communities. So far, I’ve held meetings with artists, arts leaders, arts workers, arts funders, and more across the country.

From our engagements, we heard about and came to understand more fully the state of the arts right now. But we needed data and information to back up our understanding, to provide a comprehensive overview. So, this past year we undertook a national survey of the arts. Many of you shared thoughtful responses. Over 7,000 artists and organizations responded. These responses came from all artistic disciplines and all provinces and territories.

From the survey of the arts community that we did last year, we were able to develop an evidence-based portrait of the state of the arts. We published it on our website. The research is there to help you tell decision makers in your communities about the impact of your work, the challenges you face, and why public investment in the arts is so critical.

The survey revealed many important findings. For example, the majority of respondents indicated financial security has been unstable the past two years. And respondents unanimously agreed that public funding is crucial to adapting how they work for greater sustainability.  

To address the challenges facing the arts, we know we have a leadership role to play. This includes bringing the arts community together to develop shared solutions. That’s something we did last fall, hosting a two-day meeting at the Council with arts services organizations, and provincial, territorial, and municipal funders. We will continue to bring the arts community together to meet today’s challenges.

The stakes are high right now. The arts support and grow the Canadian economy, as well as local economies across the country. They strengthen our sense of belonging and improve our mental health and well-being. They represent our identities and embody Canadian values.

In this moment, Canadians are looking to the arts—perhaps now more than ever. They’re looking to the arts because they help us understand ourselves better, to exchange ideas and create connections between us. The arts also strengthen our sense of belonging, despite our vast geography.

We must now use this important opportunity to tell our story about the benefits of public investment in the arts.

Through our engagement with the arts community, we also heard about what we can do better to serve you. In particular, we heard about two areas for improvement. First, about the importance of feedback on your applications. Second, about the importance of artistic disciplinary expertise on peer assessment committees.

We’ve already started making changes to address both these areas. For example, we have been piloting a process where feedback on applications is given in a group setting. And we will strengthen the use of artistic disciplinary expertise where evaluation of artistic criteria is key to the result. More efforts to address your concerns are on the way. If you haven’t already, you can sign up on our website to receive our newsletters and e-bulletins. This is something we launched this past year to share the latest news about the ways we’re responding to what you tell us. 

Whatever the future holds for the arts or for our country, the Council is committed to continuing to work with you to fully understand the situation on the ground, its evolution, and to find solutions adapted to your realities.

To close, I want to thank the Council’s employees for their dedication to supporting the arts in Canada.

I also want to thank the Board for their important work.

Thanks also to Jesse Wente for his dedication to the Council through his years of service as the chair.

Finally, I want to thank the artists and people working in the arts: for sharing your talents, hard work, and creativity with us. At a time when Canadians have an important opportunity to come together and decide where we want to go next, you give expression to the ideas, hopes, and dreams that can guide our country. You inspire us. You make us proud on the world stage. And you unite us, in all our vibrant diversity, to create the future together.