Arts & Culture in Ottawa 2026
The arts don't just enrich cities; they build them. As we head into the municipal election, we're bringing together artists, cultural workers, organizations, and residents to advocate for the investments and policies needed to support a thriving creative sector and a more vibrant city.
Photo: Noel Szabados
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Arts Ottawa is engaged in strategic conversations with public and private partners in relation to emerging cultural infrastructure development opportunities across the city.
This work focuses on ensuring sector-informed input is considered in broader planning processes by advocating for clear, consistent data collection and evaluation measures to be embedded throughout.
The goal is to build a practical evidence base that helps the sector better understand the logistics and feasibility of opening and sustaining arts-led spaces, including what is realistically achievable for smaller organizations and what conditions support long-term sustainability in independently run arts spaces.
This stream of work supports a longer-term horizon goal of positioning the arts sector to be ready to engage with, respond to, and help shape major civic cultural infrastructure as these opportunities emerge across the city.
Research, Advocacy & Planning
The State of the Arts Map is an evolving research tool designed to strengthen Ottawa’s arts ecosystem by making its assets, resources, and opportunities more visible and connected. The map will identify and document creative infrastructure across the city, like studio spaces, learning environments, and community hubs, while capturing key information about their features, uses, and the resources that flow through them.
By providing a clearer picture of what already exists and where gaps remain, the project helps break down silos, foster collaboration, and improve access to spaces and resources. The result is a more connected, informed, and resilient arts community, better equipped to support growth, advocacy, and long-term sector development.
A collaboration with Memetic Media and Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) Lab.
State of the Arts Map
Learning Cohort
Launching in fall 2026, this Learning Cohort supports people who are working toward creating physical arts and culture spaces. Through mentorship, resources, and peer learning, participants will receive practical support as they take the next steps toward bringing their vision to life.
In exchange, participants will contribute to a shared learning process by documenting key aspects of their journey, helping capture what it actually takes to create and sustain an arts and culture space. Through guided reporting, the cohort will track challenges, costs, timelines, relationships, and decision-making processes involved in developing a space. This information will create valuable knowledge for the sector, helping identify barriers, gaps, and opportunities while strengthening support for future arts and culture space projects.
The 300 Sparks Street Pop-Up is made possible through the generous support of Crown Property Management Inc, who recognize the placemaking and engaging power of artists. This summer activation, led by Cre8, provides artists with a platform to showcase their work as well as bringing more creative life to our downtown.
This pop-up will also serve as a live feasibility study. By observing how the space is used, including foot traffic, visitor engagement, and operational realities, the project will help build a clearer understanding of what it takes to activate and sustain arts and culture spaces in downtown settings. This dual purpose allows the initiative to both animate the street in the present and generate valuable insight to inform future placemaking and space activations.
Sparks Street Storefront
A storefront activation on Bank Street will transform vacant commercial space into a public-facing arts venue. Aligned with the ACE District vision the project will increase the visibility of arts and culture while bringing new energy to the street.
The initiative benefits landlords by activating vacant spaces, creates opportunities for future tenants, and helps revitalize the downtown core by bringing community engagement and restoring energy, creativity, and foot traffic to one of the city’s main streets.
Vacant Storefront activation
Arts Ottawa’s Learning Labs are a key part of our commitment to building capacity across the local arts sector. Through professional development opportunities, knowledge sharing, and collaborative learning, the program supports artists and arts organizations in strengthening skills, expanding networks, and responding to evolving community needs.
By investing in continuous learning, the Learning Labs help build a more resilient, connected, and sustainable arts ecosystem, enhancing the capacity of individual artists, organizations, and Arts Ottawa alike.
Learing Labs
Happening now in Shared Ground:
Arts Matter This Election
Ottawa's artists, cultural workers, and creative organizations are more than contributors to our city's identity. They are a vital part of our economic and social infrastructure.
As Ottawa grows, so does the need for investment in the cultural spaces, programs, and people that help our communities thrive. Arts and culture attract talent, support local businesses, animate neighbourhoods, and create the connections that make Ottawa a great place to live.
This municipal election is an opportunity to ensure arts and culture receive the recognition and support needed to build the city we all want.
A Stronger Voice for Ottawa's Arts Sector
At Arts Ottawa's Community Forum earlier this year, Ottawa's arts community identified three pressing challenges:
Access to affordable and appropriate creative space
Rising costs that continue to outpace available funding
Fragmented information that makes it difficult to navigate opportunities and resources
In response, Arts Ottawa has brought together community priorities and City objectives into a focused set of tangible actions for municipal leaders.
By speaking with one voice, we can advocate for meaningful change and help ensure Ottawa's cultural sector has the support it needs to flourish.
Click here to read the plain text of the actions
3 Key Actions. One United Voice for the Future of Ottawa's Arts & Culture.
The arts don't just enrich cities. They help build them.
The City of Ottawa recognizes culture as the fourth pillar of sustainability, and Ottawa's Official Plan identifies culture as a key component of its vision to become the most livable mid-sized city in North America.
Arts and Culture Are How We Build the City We Planned
Investing in arts and culture is an investment in Ottawa's economic, social, and community well-being.
Arts and culture generated $65 billion for Canada's GDP in 2024, rising to $131 billion when indirect and induced impacts are included.
Ontario's cultural sector contributes $28 billion to GDP, representing 43% of Canada's cultural economy and supporting approximately 458,000 jobs.
Arts and culture tourism generates three times the economic impact of other forms of tourism.
For every $1 invested in the arts, approximately $29 in economic activity is generated.
It's Time for Action
Arts Ottawa is calling on mayoral and council candidates to commit to three key actions that will help deliver on existing municipal commitments and build a more vibrant, prosperous Ottawa through a stronger arts and culture sector.
Action #1: Establish a Cultural Infrastructure Reserve Fund
Outcome: Accessible, affordable, and appropriate space to create and present
Artists and organizations need stable, suitable places to produce and present work. As Ottawa develops, these are the spaces at risk of being priced or planned out of our reach.
What the City can do: Establish a Cultural Infrastructure Reserve Fund. This Fund would be a dedicated, recurring mechanism to fund the renovation, retrofit, and creation of cultural spaces, capitalized through Community Benefits Charges under Ontario's Planning Act. Treating cultural space as a civic asset the City invests in and operationalizes, not a one-off grant.
Action #2: Permanently Increase Cultural Funding
Outcome: Fair pay and scaled investment in the arts
A growing city cannot build its cultural life if creatives are underpaid and unpaid labour. Sustaining and scaling the sector means real operating stability and more room for artists and organizations to be properly compensated for the public value they create.
What the City can do: Commit to a permanent increase to the cultural funding envelope in the city's budget, with increases tied to inflation and population growth, so funding keeps pace with the city rather than eroding against it. A modernized, indexed envelope opens additional operating and project grant opportunities, underwriting fair-work models across the sector.
Action #3: Coordinate Arts and Culture Governance Across City Functions
Outcome: Aligned and helpful guidance for cultural activities
The sector is ready. It has ideas, relationships, and will. What we need is a unified City organized to move with it, instead of fragmented departmental strategies.
What the City can do: Include arts and culture in the 2027 Governance Review. Commit to coordination within and across departments, commit to data sharing and shared frameworks, and finish and release the Municipal Culture Plan.
Join the Mayoral Debate
Hear Where Candidates Stand on Arts & Culture
With Ottawa's municipal election taking place on October 26, Arts Ottawa is bringing mayoral candidates together for an important conversation about the future of arts and culture in our city.
September 29, 2026 Arts Court Theatre, 2 Daly Avenue
6:00 PM Networking
7:00 PM Mayoral Debate
Join artists, cultural workers, organizations, and community members as candidates share their vision for Ottawa and discuss the policies that will shape the future of the cultural sector.
Co-hosted by Arts Ottawa, the Ottawa Festivals Network, and OMIC, and moderated by Marwan Mansour of CreativeMornings.
The Case for Cultural Investment
Arts and culture are essential to delivering the vision outlined in Ottawa's Official Plan. To better understand the opportunities ahead and the impact of strategic cultural investment, explore our research and recommendations.
Read Arts Ottawa's full report and sources here: A Framework for Delivering Ottawa's Official Plan Through Arts and Cultural Investment