Canada Council Art Bank - Contemporary art for canadians

Welcome to the Canada Council Art Bank. We're really happy to be open for Culture Days. It actually overwhelms. It's an absolute testament to the cultural diversity of our country. It's amazing. We have beautiful masterpieces that we must show the public and be proud. I think it's kind of wonderful. It's very moving. It's so beautiful. The exhibition that is currently on view is Spotlight on 40 Years. The collection which is now 17, 000 artworks is a major collection, owned by all Canadians, from which we were able to choose 40 works. I heard of this event on Radio-Canada. There are always Open Doors events, and there's one here this weekend. My teacher told us that this was an amazing place to look at inspirational art pieces. I heard about this event in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, in the Arts section. I found it interesting, an art collection that belongs to the country. We're very excited that the Art Bank is keeping up with technology. We have been offering for the last few years many social networking options. We have a page on the Flickr website. We are also very proud this year to have put together a promotion program for the 40th anniversary and the exhibition on Facebook, Twitter and, of course, on the Canada Council for the Arts blog. How do you feel when your artwork in part if the Art Bank collection? First of all, it's very prestigious for an artist, and it gives us a lot of visibility. One of the great strengths of the Art Bank is that the pieces are not in a museum situation at all, they are out there to be viewed in private and public collections throughout Canada. At any point in time, as much as 40 % of the collection is out on exhibit. The Art Centre programs which we call Scenes - every Scene we collaborate with the Art Bank. Victoria [director of the Art Bank] commissioned me to do a pole for the Art Bank, and they included it in B.C. Scenes. The art is being seen by a whole range of people who might not otherwise go to a gallery or might not have thought about seeing Canadian art when they came to a performance here. It's very much a public space. The Art Bank is an interesting model. It's a model that is emulated in other parts of the world, and it makes art available. It operates in a way that really begs the question: Who are we? It's an extremely crucial tool in nation building. One of the things that I respect about the Art Bank is to see major acquisitions being made from young upcoming artists. I'm so honoured to be part of the caliber of artists that are represented throughout this exhibition and also in the collection at the Art Bank. It's very motivational for me to continue to pursue a professional career in art: validation. We need to see art. We need to touch it, we need to breath it, we need to hear it - all that stuff. We need that.