After 30 years of unsung service to Ottawa’s arts community, John Jackson is stepping out from the wings to accept a Business Recognition Award from the Council for the Arts in Ottawa (CAO).
Jackson, 72, is a chartered accountant who has kept the books for myriad arts organizations in Ottawa. He received the award on Feb. 10 at the 20 th Annual Sweetheart Lunch for the Arts, hosted at City Hall.
“I was speechless when I heard that I was receiving it, and that’s quite unusual for me,” Jackson jokes. “Just ask my wife and kids.”
Jackson was operating his own independent practice until last year, when he decided “the time had come” to close up shop. But he has made a name for himself within Ottawa’s arts community and isn’t about to give up on it that easy.
“I don’t have any particular talent in the arts itself,” Jackson says. “It’s just something I love and felt part of.”
Because he never uncovered his own artistic flare, Jackson decided to give back in a different way. He began his career in Montreal, helping the Montreal Playwrights Workshop get their first government grant. When he moved to Ottawa in 1974, he became the treasurer of Gallery 101. Shortly after, he and his wife, artist Kareen, founded Stage Repertoire Ottawa, or Standing Room Only.
To many organizations, Jackson’s recognition is long overdue.
Peter Honeywell, the executive director of the CAO, estimates Jackson has done more than 100 years’ worth of audits. He worked with both Saw Gallery and Gallery 101 for 30 years, as well as a handful of other organizations in the city like the Canadian Film Institute and Salamandre Theatre.
He is the treasurer of the Ottawa Jazz Festival, and sits on the board of Odyssey Showcase, a charity that promotes education about Canadian arts and culture.
“It’s a remarkable contribution,” Honeywell says. “He is an amazing guy. I see him out at events, he volunteers with different organizations. He’s just one of those very genuine people who is really a part of the community.”
For Jackson, the arts are just a part of his life. He said he grew up attending music clubs and theatres, and visited New York with his family once a year. He remembers seeing Kirk Douglas and Gene Wilder in the 1964 Broadway production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and attending concerts by major stars of the time, like Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland and nearly every member of the Rat Pack.
“It was normal,” Jackson says. “It’s not that my parents had money or anything, this was just how they focused their lives . . . We never had a car. It’s just the way my life unwound.”
But Jackson’s involvement with the arts is far from over.
“Unfortunately, my dad cursed me with joie de vivre,” Jackson says. “It’s very expensive, but it kept me involved all my life.”