—Ukraine!

The recent invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces has led to an astonishing array of creative works throughout the world, from cartoons and memes, to poems and songs, to paintings and graphic designs including one by our own member, Derwyn Goodall, RCA. Derwyn’s two-colour design, in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, is an eloquent gesture which acknowledges this tragedy.

—New Governor General’s Visual and Media Arts Laureates

On Friday, December 8, 2023, the ‘Covid cohort’, of 2021, 2022, and 2023 Governor General’s Visual and Media Arts Laureates, were inducted by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, at Rideau Hall. This group of distinguished artists, designers and craftspersons included members Brigitte Clavette, Luc Courchesne, FASTWÜRMS, Germaine Koh, Lou Lynn, and Anna Torma. We congratulate all winners on their career achievements.

—New RCA members, scholarship winners and medalists

We’re pleased to announce that at this year’s Awards Dinner on October 28, 2023 we inducted ten new members, awarded two CD Howe Scholarships, one Ernest Annau Travel Study Scholarship, one Arthur Erickson Travel Study Scholarship and two RCA Medals. Our new members are Diyan Achjadi, visual arts; Vanessa Eckstein, graphic design; Catherine Heard, sculpture and installation; Germaine Koh, visual arts; Kelly Lycan, photography and installation; Myfawnwy MacLeod, sculpture and installation; Cindy Mochizuki, visual arts; Vincent Morisset, media arts; Jennifer Small, set decor/sculpture; and Charlene Vickers, drawing and painting. Our CD Howe Scholarship winners this year are Kevin Semann, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University; Quinton Qiu, School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University; and Sandra Gorska, Ottawa School of Art. We have one Ernest Annau Travel Study Scholarship winner this year, Beatriz Martins, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Calgary. And our Arthur Erickson Travel Study Scholarship winner is Jordan Brussière, also of School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Calgary, who will travel to Japan to do an extended study of seniors housing. We awarded a RCA Medal to Stephen Rosenberg, of Rosenberg Smith & Partners Chartered Accountants LLP, our chartered accountant, who has selflessly worked on our annual audit for over twenty years, much of it voluntarily. As such he is one our most generous benefactors in recent years. We also awarded a medal to John Geiger, Executive Director of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and another of our benefactors, principally, but not exclusively, for publishing the monumental four volume  Indigenous Peoples’ Atlas of Canada in 2018. John is also our landlord and we thank him for his collegiality and the use of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s Upper Gallery space. 

—Our new Ottawa location

On September 1, 2020, the RCA moved into its new office space at 50 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, the home of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Situated at the confluence of the Rideau Falls, and the Ottawa and Gatineau Rivers, this building, designed by architect Peter Spaull in 2000, has two purpose-built gallery spaces. We will present exhibitions beginning in the 2021–22 season, once social distancing is relaxed from the advisories established during the Covid-19 pandemic.

—Closing our office at 401 Richmond, Toronto

Since the early 1990s, the RCA’s office was located at 401 Richmond, a historic warehouse in downtown Toronto and home to over 140 cultural producers including fashion designers, film makers, jewelers, architects, animators, communications specialists, graphic designers, art galleries, artist-run centres, and several charitable organizations. Originally the site of the Macdonald Manufacturing Company, a tin lithography factory built in 1899, 401 Richmond represented a wonderful opportunity for the RCA to liaise efficiently with a centralized arts and culture community. It was determined in 2018, however, to relocate our office to Ottawa as both a cost-saving measure and to benefit from closer proximity to national arts funders.