Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar hosted more than 100 artists and arts professionals to stimulate dialogue about the arts community at the Ottawa Arts Summit Saturday.
The group examined how governments, both federal and municipal, interact with the arts community. The discussion took place through panel presentations and group dialogue at the Churchill Seniors Recreation Centre in Westboro.
“We know that the arts are important,” Dewar told the group. “The question is: how do we support the arts at the local level and how do we get governments engaged?”
Susan Annis, chair of the Ottawa Arts Court Foundation, and Peter Honeywell, executive director of Council for the Arts in Ottawa, spoke about the history of local arts support.
“This is a very cool gathering,” Annis said. “I’m so much in awe of it all.”
The participants then broke into groups to consider the main challenges facing the arts community and solutions.
Themes discussed included expanding arts education, tax breaks for artists and government support for the arts community, especially at the municipal level.
Dewar recently initiated a multi-partisan arts caucus, consisting of members of Parliament and members of the arts community. The problems and solutions brought up at this summit will be presented to the caucus at an upcoming meeting, according to an organizer of the event.