Art, to the Power Of
“Art made in Canada is a portrait of Canada. It reflects where we’ve been and where we might go. It makes you feel part of your tribe—there’s an important sense of belonging, comfort and safety there.”
— Guy Maddin
When Peggy Baker was 16, she won an award that set her course in life.
“I got a $100 prize for acting, and I used it to go to a month-long workshop outside my school, and that’s how I discovered the world of movement,” she explains.
From that pivotal moment, Peggy went on to build her remarkable career as an acclaimed artistic director, choreographer and dancer.
Photo by Von Tiedemann, courtesy of Peggy Baker
It’s a journey marked by many more awards, but perhaps more importantly, by support from other artists like Patricia Beatty, a seminal figure on Canada’s emerging modern dance scene back in the 1970s.
“My life in the arts has been full of people who encouraged me at crucial moments,” says Peggy. “It made me see how important relationships are.”
That’s something Peggy carries forth today in her work as a mentor with the Canadian Artists Network, an organization that supports senior artists as they age, pursue their careers and mentor younger artists.
“We offer several programs to senior artists across Canada,” explains the Network’s Executive Director, Scott Walker.
“Our mentoring program is a key part of what we do—it’s about empowering the next generation of Canadian artists.”
Peggy is certainly not the only award-winning mentor with a lifetime of talent and experience who provides lucky Network mentees with expertise that goes well beyond what can be learned in school.
“When I first started out, I reached out to experienced filmmakers,” explains celebrated Canadian screenwriter and director—and now mentor—Guy Maddin, who has had a long career crafting internationally acclaimed avant-garde films.
“There were always a few people who were patient enough to answer my questions, enthusiastically support me, give me their opinions or even warn me when I was getting decadent,” adds Guy.
“I like teaching, so it seemed natural, now that I’m older, that I might be as useful to an aspiring filmmaker. It feels good to help and to be there for someone in those inevitable moments of insecurity.”
As both artists contemplate the support they’ve received across their own careers, the importance of receiving it from public arts funders doesn’t go unmentioned.
“I don’t need it now, but in the first 15 years of my career, I just wouldn’t have been able to move forward making films without public arts funding,” says Guy.
“My work has been supported by different kinds of public arts funding over the years,” adds Peggy.
“Any money I got helped support artistic studies, my dance practice and even training I delivered across Canada. […] The investment has been crucial, not just for sustaining my own work, but for building a dance scene across Canada over decades that’s now a part of our national identity.”
Photo by Lebruman, courtesy of Guy Maddin.
A story of Canada
Today, looking back on their professional artistic journeys, both Peggy and Guy share a deeper understanding of the important role of the arts in Canada.
“When I started, I didn’t want to make ‘American’ or ‘Canadian’ things, I just wanted to make my own thing. But everything I’ve done reflects where I’m from: Winnipeg,” explains Guy.
“I have a world view and a kind of temperament of this geopolitical place, and my artistic work reflects that. It’s a culturally representative story, in the same way Irish literature, British pop music or Russian art is.”
“Art made in Canada is a portrait of Canada. It reflects where we’ve been and where we might go. It makes you feel part of your tribe; there’s an important sense of belonging, comfort and safety there.”
“Imagine if Gordon Lightfoot had never sung a song,” muses Scott. “I think it’s important to think of the arts as a multiplier, and not just in terms of money,” he explains. “Even if someone hasn’t seen Peggy dance or a movie by Guy, they’ve very likely seen something inspired by them.”
“[E]very dollar spent on the arts […] generates more dollars. But it also generates something else that’s harder to measure: a sense of self, and glue that keeps communities together. And that glue is especially strong in Canada because the arts here are more connected to communities.”
For Peggy, who still cherishes the letter for that first arts prize in high school, it all comes down to celebrating personhood.
“We all bring things to society. We need physicians. We need construction workers. And we need artists, too, because we’re all struggling to understand ourselves sometimes,” she explains.
“We can’t all go through what the characters in a novel or a film do, but we can learn through them. Art lifts us up. It helps us understand who we are as people, in all our head-to-toe vulnerability. And a society without culture is a burned-out city or a prison camp—it’s the worst possible way to be living.”
“All citizens deserve to have art and culture.”
The Canadian Artists Network is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2011 to support senior professional artists across Canada. It offers networking, mentoring and learning opportunities. It also advocates to remove ageism-related barriers so that artists can continue to pursue their professional careers. The Network has previously used Canada Council funding to raise awareness of its opportunities for artists in underrepresented areas like Western Canada.
To find out more about the Network or to join it—or even to make a donation—visit www.canartnet.ca.