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A fusion of the world’s cultures
Canada today is a country in the throes
of an irrepressible ferment, the dynamic product of a harmonious
fusion of the world’s cultures. According to the latest
census data, Canada’s population is now made up of more
than 200 different ethnic groups. Nearly 4 million people are
members of visible minorities - a number that has tripled in
20 years. Artists and arts organizations are at the cutting edge
of this cultural diversity, as a wealth of images, productions
and ideas attests. Indeed, the range and activity of culturally
diverse art belie
the raw statistical numbers.
A microcosm of Canadian society, the Canada Council
for the Arts is evolving and changing as it keeps pace with this
new cultural reality. In the last six
years, Council support to culturally diverse art has grown dramatically. Today,
it stands at almost $10 million. Support to culturally diverse organizations
alone has more than quadrupled in dollar terms while the number of organizations
supported has more than doubled. The percentage of Council personnel who are
members of a visible minority or of an Aboriginal community now exceeds that
of the active population. The same is the case for membership on the Council’s
peer assessment committees.
Future generations will remember that, at the beginning
of the 21st century, Canada embraced the diverse complexity of an enriching
and creative meeting of
cultures, and nourished it … as this issue of For the Arts1 illustrates. 1 The editors wish to thank Soraya Peerbaye, Co-ordinator of
the Canada Council’s Equity Office, for her close collaboration
in the preparation of this issue.
Photo: Ziyian Kwan, Barbara
Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi, in The Believer, Kokoro Dance, choreography
by Jay Hirabayashi (photo: Laurence M. Svirchev)
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