What Sustains the Arts Sustains Us
Thoughts on how the 2025 Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts is a reminder of the importance of funding creativity.
Every year, the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, recognize exceptional contributions to the visual arts. The 2025 winners—spanning artists, curators, critics, filmmakers, and designers—exemplify the vibrancy and diversity of Canada’s cultural landscape. Kent Monkman, Jin-me Yoon, Peter Pierobon, Diane Augaitis, Thaddeus Holownia, Clive Robertson, Sandra Rodriguez, and Bruce LaBruce are not just celebrated for their creative outputs with this award, but also for the lasting impacts they’ve made on Canadian culture.
What makes these awards, and the careers they spotlight, so crucial is how they underscore the necessity of sustained federal and public investment in the arts. In a global context, particularly in contrast to the rapid erosion of public arts funding in the United States, Canada’s recognition of and commitment to the arts stands out. It is both a cultural and economic model worth defending.
Recent developments in the United States reveal the dangers of diminishing federal arts support. In 2025, the Trump administration enacted sweeping cuts to federal arts and cultural funding, triggering widespread alarm across the United States and global arts sectors. An Executive Order issued on March 17 called for the near-total elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which supports museums and libraries nationwide and has been vital in funding major institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center, as well as smaller, community-focused museums.
Simultaneously, layoffs at the General Services Administration jeopardizes the care of over 26,000 public artworks, including landmark pieces by Alexander Calder and Maya Lin. Historic artworks under the GSA's management, many dating back to the 1930s Works Progress Administration era, now face an uncertain future. Further, Washington D.C.'s Black Lives Matter mural was dismantled after Republican lawmakers threatened to withhold federal funds unless it was removed. The administration also pressured institutions like the Art Museum of the Americas to cancel shows featuring Black and LGBTQ artists by targetting diversity-related funding. All of this followed the February 20 change to the National Endowment for the Arts grant guidelines, which saw the canceling its Challenge America program and restricting diversity-focused initiatives.
Together, these moves represent a significant rollback of federal support for the arts, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities, threatening public access to cultural institutions, and endangering artists' livelihoods.
Canada’s continued investment in the arts—though far from perfect, and as Canadian artists and institutions grapple with fiscal challenges at federal, provincial, and municipal levels—remains more crucial than ever. The 2025 GGArts awards, and the extraordinary achievements of the winners, send a powerful message about the public values reflected in how we choose to direct support and resources. This support is not merely symbolic; it’s a foundational pillar that enables artistic innovation, cultural critique, and economic vitality.
Many of the 2025 GGArts winners have benefitted, over the course of their careers, from institutional structures bolstered by public and federal arts funding. Daina Augaitis’s curatorial work, for example, is inseparable from her tenure at leading publicly funded institutions like the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Banff Center. Similarly, Kent Monkman’s large-scale, internationally recognized works have often been showcased and collected by publicly supported galleries and museums across Canada, providing not only visibility but long-term financial security. Emerging artists, though at this point Sandra Rodriguez’s extraordinary trajectory can hardly be called emerging, owe much of their career momentum to grants, residencies, and institutional programming made possible by federal initiatives.
On a more personal note, the recognition of Thaddeus Hołownia with this year’s Artistic Achievement Award resonates deeply with me. During my time as an undergraduate student at Mount Allison University, where Thaddeus taught for many years, I became inspired by his work. His approach to photography that treats the medium not just as a means of documentation, but as a philosophical inquiry into place and memory was pivotal in shaping my own academic and professional interest in photography studies. His dedication to the technical nuances of photography and its potential as a powerful expressive vehicle, coupled with his commitment to mentorship and education, exemplifies how publicly supported institutions and artists can have a lasting impact. They not only shape Canada’s cultural landscape but profoundly influence the lives and careers of emerging scholars and practitioners.
His career is a testament to the importance of sustained public investment in the arts and education, nurturing generations of artists, thinkers, and cultural contributors. This kind of support also offers artists the freedom to experiment, challenge, and expand their practices without being solely beholden to market forces. Without sustained public investment, many of these careers may not have unfolded in the same way. In countries where arts funding has been slashed—as we are witnessing in real time happening in the United States—artists are often left precarious, forced to rely entirely on private patronage, commercial galleries, or crowdfunding, making it significantly harder to sustain a meaningful career, particularly for those whose work interrogates social issues or exists outside of commercial trends.
Beyond cultural value, we must also recognize the arts as a potent economic engine. The arts are too often dismissed as a "soft" sector, an optional luxury in times of fiscal restraint. But Canada's investment in artists has measurable economic benefits. The creative economy contributes billions to the GDP and supports a network of professionals well beyond the individual artist—including curators, fabricators, administrators, educators, critics, and gallery workers. Take Peter Pierobon’s furniture designs: his work generates income while also supporting collectors, galleries, and design markets, stimulating commerce and job creation.
Federal and public support doesn’t just spark creation—it also drives collection and visibility. Museums, galleries, and collectors invest in artists whose work has been validated through awards and funding. This, in turn, stimulates the art market, providing further financial compensation and sustainability for artists’ careers. In essence, federal support creates a virtuous cycle: investment leads to visibility, which leads to market viability, which leads to further investment.
In light of global trends where arts funding is precarious, it’s more important than ever to emphasize that Canada’s federal arts support is not just about national pride or cultural preservation—though these are crucial—but also about maintaining a robust, thriving, and inclusive economy. The 2025 GGArts winners embody decades of accumulated investment and vision. Dismantling or diminishing that infrastructure would have long-lasting consequences, not only for individual artists but for the communities, institutions, and economies they help sustain.
By continuing to prioritize and champion the arts at the federal level, Canada affirms a belief in creativity as essential—not optional—to its national identity and economic future. In doing so, it offers a powerful counterexample to countries where such support has been weakened, illustrating the tangible and intangible returns of a vibrant, publicly supported artistic sector.
As we celebrate the 2025 GGArts winners, we must remain attentive in maintaining and expanding the support that made their achievements possible. In doing so, we affirm our belief in the arts as a public good, a space of critical reflection, and an engine of economic growth. The challenges facing artists in other countries only underscore the urgency of this commitment.