Syrian refugees

Working together
Welcoming refugees to Canada

March 14, 2016
Photograph by YOUSSEF SHOUFAN

The initiative that we announced in December, The Arts and Culture Welcome Refugees, was officially launched today. While modest in itself ($200,000 in total), this pilot initiative is part of the wider government and civic movement to welcome Syrian refugees.

Art counts in our communities. It plays a vital role of integration and socialization. Our initiative offers arts organizations currently receiving Council funding the means to reach out to new Canadians in their communities who are refugees from Syria.

The beauty of synergy

Obviously, the initiative might seem like a drop in the vast ocean of refugee needs – and from a purely quantitative perspective, it is. But it builds onto many others. It adds to the generous contributions made by our citizens, to the neighbourhood gatherings that in the middle of winter proclaimed ‘we’re waiting for you’ with such warmth, to programs for integrating the workforce or the education system, and to countless other gestures aimed at helping Syrian refugees make a new home for themselves and become part of our vast and welcoming family.

We know that every citizen should have access to the arts. And we are convinced of the benefits of the arts on our development as individuals and as societies. We’ll be following the stories that arise out of this initiative, and reporting back on them. We want to see what works and what doesn’t, since this will help us create other occasions for bringing the arts our lives. Our promise, our engagement, is to keep on dreaming of projects that make lives better through the arts and culture.

Isabelle Hudon, Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly and Simon Brault​
Isabelle Hudon, Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly and Simon Brault​

Focus on the arts and culture

The Canada Council for the Arts and Sun Life Financial are not making this announcement today to draw attention to their initiative. The focus is not on us. We simply want to say that we are here to support arts organizations that want to open their doors to Syrian refugees, and that we also be here to celebrate acts of generosity that pave the way to integration through the arts.

About the initiative

The Arts and Culture Welcome Refugees is a complementary initiative to Canadian Heritage’s strategy for welcoming Syrian refugees. The initiative, which will run from April 1st, 2016 to March 31, 2017, will enable arts organizations currently receiving operating funding from the Canada Council to offer Syrian refugees free access to their activities. The total budget for the initiative is $200,000: the Council has budgeted $150,000, and Sun Life Financial has agreed to contribute up to $50,000.

Isabelle Hudon is Sun Life Financial’s Quebec president and a member of the Board of Directors of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Portrait - Simon Brault 2014
Simon Brault, O.C, O.Q.

Director and CEO

Simon Brault is the Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts. Author of No Culture, No Future, a collection of essays on the rise of arts and culture on public agendas, he has participated actively in initiatives such as the Agenda 21C de la culture au Québec. An initiator of Journées de la culture, he was also a founding member and chair of Culture Montréal from 2002 to 2014. In 2015, he received the Quebec CPA Order’s prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award for bringing together “two worlds that were once disparate – the arts and business – an alliance that significantly benefits society at large.” Follow Simon Brault on Twitter: @simon_brault

Publisher : Canada Council for the Arts

Tagged As Announcements