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Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge that our offices are on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Today, many Indigenous communities continue to be denied the opportunity and resources to make and experience their traditional art on this land. We pledge to make justice and reconciliation a priority through our work by amplifying Indigenous voices and their experiences.
Arts Ottawa is committed to meaningful reconciliation, not only in words, but in actions. We are dedicated to amplifying Indigenous voices within Ottawa’s arts and culture sector, creating space for Indigenous artists and communities to lead, shape, and define the work we do together. We acknowledge that this commitment requires ongoing learning, deep listening, trust-building and accountability to the communities whose stewardship of this land we honour.
The Indigenous People of the Ottawa Valley are Algonquin
By Aimee Bailey, Algonquin Citizen
Who We Are
Arts Ottawa was established through the 2025 merger of the Ottawa Arts Council (est. 1982) and Arts Network Ottawa (est. 1980)—two organizations that individually shaped the city’s cultural landscape for decades. Together, as Arts Ottawa, we carry forward a combined legacy of over 80 years of service to artists, arts workers, and arts organizations across the region.
Arts Ottawa operates from a foundational belief: that the arts are not a luxury or a cultural add-on, but a form of civic infrastructure, as essential to a functioning, vibrant city as transit, housing, or public green space has been. Our theory of change holds that when artists and arts organizations are well-resourced, well-connected, and well-represented in civic decision-making, the entire city benefits through stronger communities, a more resilient economy, and a more inclusive public life.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
796
total participants across 32 labs, events, meetups, and collaborative sessions.
31
sector leaders, experts, and knowledge holders contributed as speakers and facilitators.
27
volunteers supported program delivery and community activities.
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Total Audience & Engagement Reach (2025)
DIGITAL REACH & COMMUNITY GROWTH
6,219
Social Media Followers
336
Members
316,112
Social Media Views
2,684
Email Subscribers
125
Artist Talk Subscribers
14,862
Website Views
Total Audience & Engagement Reach (2025)
DIGITAL REACH & COMMUNITY GROWTH
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316,112
Social media views
6,219
Social media followers
2,684
Email subscribers
336
Members (CAMs)
125
Artist Talk subscribers
14,862
Website views
INVESTMENT IN ARTISTS & CREATIVE PRACTICE
Total Financial Distribution to Artists:
$201,163 total distributed across programs and supports
ARTicipate Project Grants and Shenkman Arts Centre Resident Arts Partners
Artist in Residence in Government (AIRG) Program
Photography/Videography Production
Arts Correspondents & Writing Contributions
Arts Ottawa Awards Performances and Production
Social Impact Evaluation Prototypers
Artist and Community Member Stipends
Instagram Artist Takeovers
Speakers and Facilitators
12
Shared Ground
Advisors and Leaders
33
Arts Ottawa Awards
CAM Advisory Group
11
Social Impact Evaluation
in the Arts Advisors and Leaders
36
Community
Consultation
Session
Participants
LEADERSHIP CIRCLE & COMMUNITY ADVISORS
Total Leadership Circle Participation: 92
Advocacy for Systems Change
Community Voices
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Our Work
In 2025, Arts Ottawa organized its programs and initiatives around four interconnected pillars, each reinforcing the others in service of a single goal: a stronger, more equitable arts sector in Ottawa. The work Arts Ottawa delivered in 2025 can be mapped across six core areas of focus:
Building Community Power
Learning and Knowledge Sharing
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Arts as Civic Infrastructure
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Recognition and Celebration
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Our Work
In 2025, Arts Ottawa organized its programs and initiatives around three interconnected pillars, Physical, Economic, and Knowledge Infrastructure, each reinforcing the others in service of a single goal: a stronger, more equitable arts sector in Ottawa.
The work Arts Ottawa delivered in 2025 can be mapped across six areas of focus in relation to these pillars: Building Community Power, Learning and Knowledge Sharing, Arts as Civic Infrastructure, Recognition and Celebration, Community Voices, and Advocacy for Systems Change.
BUILDING COMMUNITY POWER
Through a series of Learning Labs and Co-Creation Labs held between January and April, we invited sector leaders, artists, arts workers, and community members to help us prototype what a truly community-driven organization could look like. The process was iterative, at times messy, and deeply generative.
By July, we had arrived at a governance structure that reflects the genuine priorities and values of the people it serves. The result is a circle-based leadership model built around three interlocking components: Co-Leadership Circles, Community Advisory Members and Action Labs.
ARTS OTTAWA AS A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
A central conviction of Arts Ottawa’s work is that the expertise needed to strengthen Ottawa’s arts sector already exists within the community, and that our role is to convene it. In 2025, our Learning Labs series gave form to that conviction.
Across 5 sessions spanning governance models, advocacy strategies, artist leadership, trust-building, and cross-sector collaboration, the Learning Labs brought together 142 sector professionals and community members to learn from one another.
ARTS AS CIVIC INFRASTRUCTURE
If there is a single issue that defined Arts Ottawa’s first year of advocacy, it is space. Access to affordable, accessible, and stable space is the single largest constraint facing Ottawa’s arts community, and in 2025, Arts Ottawa stepped forward to lead a sector-wide response.
Shared Ground, our first Action Lab dedicated to cultural space, launched in June with a focus on reimagining vacant and underused spaces in downtown Ottawa as vibrant cultural hubs. Conversations continued throughout the year, generating new models and new coalitions through events including the (Un)Common Grounds Community Living Rooms.
The Artist in Residence in Government (AIRG) program represented another dimension of Arts Ottawa’s civic engagement, embedding an artist within a City of Ottawa department to apply creative practice to a concrete civic challenge.
Recognition, Celebration & Sector Visibility
In its inaugural merged year, Arts Ottawa’s Awards program was reimagined through a 28-member Community Advisory Group, which led a process to rethink recognition and centering accessibility, inclusion, and sector representation. Launched in November, the refreshed awards reflect the diversity of Ottawa’s arts community.
The ARTicipate Project Grants program continued to provide direct support to artists and arts organizations, distributing $ 29,200 across 10 grants in 2025.
The Artist Takeover series showcased individual artists across Arts Ottawa’s digital platforms, offering insight into creative practice and reaching a wide online audience. 4 artists participated in 2025, collectively reaching a social media audience of 17,598.
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The Giving Circle launched as a new donor engagement model, inviting supporters to help guide funding decisions and strengthening the connection between donors and the community while supporting a more sustainable funding approach.
Community Voices
The most meaningful measure of Arts Ottawa’s impact is the experience of the community we serve. Here, in their own words, are the people who make this work matter.
“These shared conversations are an important reminder of the collective strength of our creative community and the value of coming together to shape the future of the arts.”
- Jennifer Prevost
What stood out most was the energy in the room — ideas shared, frameworks discussed, and stories brought forward [...] a powerful reminder that governance isn't just about policy—it's about people, passion, and purpose.”
- Zoha Khalid
Advocacy & Systems Change
In 2025, Arts Ottawa advanced a focused advocacy agenda, participating in and contributing to some of the most consequential civic conversations shaping Ottawa's cultural future.
Through Shared Ground, Arts Ottawa led a community-driven response to one of the sector's most pressing challenges: access to affordable and stable cultural space.
Arts Ottawa also joined the City of Ottawa’ Nightlife Council, bringing an arts and culture lens to conversations about Ottawa's evening economy and the conditions that allow creative communities to thrive.
Through years of sustained advocacy, Arts Ottawa helped lay the groundwork for the City of Ottawa's upcoming Culture Plan, ensuring that the priorities of artists, arts workers, and arts organizations are embedded in the policy framework.
And through formal City Council Delegations, we ensured that the arts sector's perspective was heard directly by elected decision-makers at critical moments in the city's planning and budgeting processes.
These initiatives reflect an organization that is actively shaping the civic decisions that matter most to the community it serves.
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Looking Ahead:
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2026 Priorities
The foundation we built in 2025 exists to be built upon. As we look toward 2026, Arts Ottawa is focused on deepening the impact of our inaugural year while expanding our reach and influence across Ottawa’s arts and culture sector.
The goal is a sector that is better equipped to measure, articulate, and advocate for its own value.
Stay Connected and follow along:
Vision:
Arts Ottawa is accountable to the community and to the public trust. The following summary reflects the organization’s financial activity in 2025, highlighting the sources of support that made our work possible and the areas where those resources were invested.
These figures reflect Arts Ottawa’s commitment to directing the majority of its resources toward programs and community impact.
Financial Summary
THANK YOU
Arts Ottawa’s work in 2025 was made possible by the generosity, partnership, and dedication of a remarkable community of funders, donors, board members, staff, members, volunteers, and partners. We are grateful to each of them.
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Our Community Advisory Members
Your lived experience and sector expertise shaped every program, priority, and decision Arts Ottawa made in 2025.
Our Funders
Your investment made it possible to build a unified, community-driven organization with the capacity to advocate, convene, and lead on behalf of Ottawa's entire arts sector.
Giving Circle Members & Individual Donors
By investing directly in Ottawa's arts community and participating in the decisions about where that investment goes, you helped us model a new kind of relationship between donors and the sector they support.
Board of Directors
Your governance leadership through a year of significant organizational transformation provided the stability and strategic direction that made everything else possible.
Staff Team
You built Arts Ottawa from the ground up in a single year: the programs, the relationships, the governance structures, and the community trust that now define this organization.
Key Partners & Collaborators
Your willingness to show up at the table, in the room, and in the work gave Arts Ottawa's programs the depth, credibility, and reach that no single organization could achieve alone.