Abstract
In 1957 Canada became the first country outside the British Isles to adopt and adapt the arts council model, due to the influence of Vincent Massey, who returned to Canada after spending ten years in London as a diplomat. Massey is the ideological and institutional link between Great Britain and Canada, and the chapter examines his arts advocacy in Canada and the influence of American foundations. Massey chaired the Royal Commission that recommended the establishment of the Canada Council; the members of the Royal Commission have been characterized as a ‘Canadian clerisy.’ However, the Canada Council did not duplicate the mission or administrative structure of the Arts Council of Great Britain. The early Canada Council for the Encouragement of the Arts, Letters, Humanities and Social Sciences was an omnibus organization that supported academic research, made grants to artists and arts organizations, distributed capital funds to the universities, and oversaw the country’s cultural diplomacy program.
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Upchurch, A.R. (2016). The Canadian Clerisy and the Canada Council. In: The Origins of the Arts Council Movement. New Directions in Cultural Policy Research. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46163-6_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46163-6_6
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