The Canada Council for the Arts is Canada's national, arm's-length arts funding agency. Its main areas of activity are:

Grants: provide funding to individual professional artists and arts organizations through a peer assessment process.

Endowments and Prizes: award annual fellowships and prizes to some 200 artists and scholars.

Research, communications and other activities further its mandate to support, promote and celebrate the arts. 

 The Canada Council Art Bank, the Killam Program, the  Public Lending Right Commission and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO are all administered through the Canada Council.

The Canada Council Art Bank

With some 18,000 paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures by over 2500 artists, The Canada Council Art Bank is home to the largest collection of contemporary Canadian art. All are available for rent by corporations, institutions, government departments and agencies.

As a self-sufficient organization, it supports Canadian artists by purchasing work from its earned revenues through a system of peer assessment.

From its inception, the Art Bank was created to supplement the income of artists whose works are purchased and to bring large numbers of Canadians in direct contact with contemporary Canadian art. It is also intended to provide stimulus to commercial galleries.

As one of three Art Consultants at the Art Bank, I serve eastern Canada: the National Capital Region, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.