2020 has been a rough year. For artists, for festivals, for everyone who loves a live performance, 2020 has seen our collective experience of art taken away. Feeling defeated, disappointed, or even hopeless, would only be expected.

However, even through these constraints, artists and art organizations are adapting and coming up with all kinds of new hybrid offerings that are inspiring us to move forward.

Without knowing what the COVID situation will be in June 2021, we’re committing to a festival that will be live, local, and free. Because in the face of disappointment and difficulty, we’ve made a bold decision to choose optimism.

Recently, our CEO Celia Smith joined Steve Paikin on TVO’s The Agenda to speak in depth about this bold choice and the 2021 festival. Definitely worth watching!

How do we plan a live festival of art and ideas when we're not even sure anyone can attend?

That's our challenge. And we're up for it.

This year is purely an experimentation year. You can't see it any other way given the current conditions. Everything we know about how we do what we do in the live performing arts is being challenged and constrained. So, we're going to do things differently. We are going to try all kinds of things and I would challenge anyone to say, oh, that isn't what you do, that's not how we do it. [...]

Through constraints people are coming up with all kinds of new hybrid offerings. So I think you have to see it that way. It's a choice. Optimism is a choice because the alternative is the easier route.

~ Celia Smith

Finally, as National Philanthropy Day approaches, we want to thank you for supporting not-for-profit arts organizations. Your belief, and investment, in the power of art means Canadian arts and culture will thrive into the future.