ARCA is launching a national advocacy campaign to move our sector from instability to growth following the recent announcement of the 2025 Federal budget.
We commend the government on supporting the arts and implementing the new Artist’s Resale Right as a vital step toward economic justice and artists’ rights. Minimal stability, however, is not growth or sustainability. Chronic underfunding strains the artist-led sector, limiting equitable artist compensation and the Canada Council for the Arts’ (CCA) ability to fully execute its mandate.
“The average salary for staff within ARCs is radically below those of their peers in parallel sectors, and at times are below the poverty line. How can ARCs attract new generations of arts workers when they cannot even offer them a living wage?“
— Clayton Windatt, Executive Director, ARCA (Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference)
We are urgently calling for a significant, permanent increase to the CCA’s base budget, focused on three pillars:
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Stabilizing artist-run centres: Secure operational funding to offer fair compensation to artists and staff as the research and development core of contemporary art.
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Accelerating Equity: Provide the necessary funding to fully resource historically under-represented groups and organizations (Indigenous, Black, Racialized, Deaf and disability, 2SLGBTQI+ artists).
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Strengthening Peer Assessment: Arts funding requires peer assessors that are subject matter experts holding knowledge critical to reviewing the applications in the arts.
Our strategy involves working with the Visual Arts Alliance and the Canadian Arts Coalition by focusing on MP engagement. We urge arts advocates and artist-run representatives to read and sign the call to action letter below to show their support for this crucial work.
Securing the Future of Canadian Contemporary Art: Urgent Call for Increased Investment in the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) and Canada’s unique network of artist-run Centres
The Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference / La Conférence des collectifs et des centres d’artistes autogérés (ARCA), representing critical cultural infrastructure across your region and the country, welcomes the continued commitment to arts and culture demonstrated in the Liberal government’s 2025 Federal Budget. However, the $2 million annual increase in the CCA’s budget, representing barely 0.5% of its total budget, is considered largely inadequate. This contribution falls well short of the sector’s actual needs, estimated at $140 million by the Canadian Arts Coalition.
We strongly affirm our solidarity with the Canadian Arts Coalition in applauding the decision to maintain baseline funding for the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage. This budget rightly acknowledges the essential role that artists, independent curators, and the artist-run centres (ARCs) that support them play in nurturing Canada’s creative, social, and economic landscape. The importance of the arts in supporting Canada’s unique identities across this great landmass has persevered in the face of ‘international pressures’. Creative cultural hubs across Canada, develop new and strong voices in our communities showing that arts funding is key to bolstering the country against potential threats to our sovereignty.
ARCA celebrates the proposed introduction of an Artist’s Resale Right (ARR). This is a critical and long-overdue measure that recognizes the enduring value of visual artists’ labour and intellectual property. The ARR represents a vital step toward cultural and economic justice, ensuring that artists—many of whom have been supported early in their careers by ARCs—benefit equitably from the future commercial success of their work.
While we are encouraged by renewed investments in cultural programs such as the Canada Arts Presentation Fund and Building Communities through Arts and Heritage, these resources often fall short for many groups, as these funds rarely support contemporary visual arts spaces.
THE ESSENTIAL CALL: FROM INSTABILITY TO GROWTH
While we commend the commitment to funding stability, ARCA must underscore that minimal stability is not growth or sustainability. Chronic underfunding strains the artist-led sector, limiting equitable artist compensation and the Canada Council for the Arts’ (CCA) ability to fully execute its mandate.
Therefore, ARCA is launching this RED ENVELOPE National Advocacy Campaign to urgently call for a significant, permanent increase to the Canada Council for the Arts’ base budget. This investment must focus on three foundational pillars:
1. Stabilizing Artist-Run Centres and Collectives (ARCs)
ARCs operate as the non-profit “Research & Development” branch of the contemporary arts sector. This vital infrastructure is currently operating with chronic under-resourcing, preventing a move toward a living wage for cultural workers. The scarcity of resources prevents ARCs from offering competitive and equitable wages. The average base salary for an Executive Director / General Manager at a small ARC (with an annual budget between $100,000 and $250,000) was reported to be approximately $31,500.1 Increased funding is required to secure operational stability and offer fair compensation to artists, curators, and cultural workers.
2. Accelerating Equity
While the CCA has made great strides in prioritizing equity, the full potential of its mandate cannot be realized without a commensurate increase in the funding envelope. New investment must flow through the CCA to fully resource Indigenous, Black, Racialized, Deaf and disability, and 2SLGBTQI+ artists and organizations. Studies consistently show that racialized artists earn a median income from arts-related activities that is significantly lower (by 20% or more) than that of their non-racialized counterparts, underscoring systemic economic inequity.2 Dedicated CCA funding streams saw $31.8 million allocated to Indigenous artists and organizations and $33.7 million to racialized artists and organizations in the 2020-2021 reporting period.3 This progress must be supported by a larger envelope to achieve true proportional representation and drive cultural cohesion.
3. Strengthening Peer Assessment
The integrity and responsible governance of arts funding depend entirely on a robust system of peer assessment. Arts funding necessitates the selection of peer assessors who are highly qualified subject matter experts, possessing the critical knowledge and experience essential for evaluating applications. The inherent complexity of these applications underscores the need for discipline-specific adjudication and demands enhanced transparency regarding selection processes. We require expanded community consultation concerning the criteria for skills, regional diversity, and community representation in both the process and the final composition of jury members. Substantial increases in funding must be directed toward bolstering this essential democratic process, guaranteeing that assessors are adequately resourced and fairly compensated. This commitment will empower artists from a wide array of backgrounds, geographic locations, and diverse lived and inherent experiences to participate, thereby reflecting a healthy, comprehensive spectrum of Canada’s many cultures and communities.
CONCLUSION
Artist-run centres are uniquely successful in Canada and have played an instrumental role in the career development of Canadian visual, media, performing, and publishing artists. These artists, in turn, have made Canada proud locally and internationally, reflecting our ideas, stories, and innovation. Much of this success is due to early investment in our centres by the Canada Council. As the national voice for the artist-run sector, ARCA remains committed to advocating for accountable and responsive funding frameworks that fully acknowledge and resource the unique, artist-led, non-profit models. We urge the government to view a significant investment in the Canada Council for the Arts not as an expense, but as a direct, high-impact investment in the creative economy and the diverse, innovative cultural identity of Canada.
Endnotes:
- 2017 National Compensation Study, conducted by the Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC) and commissioned by the Canada Council for the Arts.
- Demographic Diversity of Artists in Canada in 2016 (Data from the 2016 Census), published by Hill Strategies Research Inc.
- Departmental Results Report 2020–21, published by Canadian Heritage (Includes Canada Council for the Arts Financial Summary).
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