Rideau Hall, Friday, March 28, 2008

It is a pleasure for Jean-Daniel and me to welcome you to Rideau Hall to continue the dialogue on the place that Canadian visual and media arts hold in our society, and to bring together this year’s award recipients and other artists, painters, creators and administrators within the cultural community.

Those who took part in last year’s discussion raised some critical points that needed further exploration.

Where does the unique insight of our artists fit into society? What place have we given them in our institutions, our cities, our communities?

The surge in new technologies has certainly transformed our visual landscape, but has it made it richer? Are there more spaces for creativity, for discovery? Has this profusion given us a greater diversity of points of view?

How important is the work of our artists to us? What role do our artists play in today’s society—a society plagued by over‑consumption and the fleeting images put before us?

What place do we give their work in society?

Canada has an astounding number of visual and media artists who have developed new languages with infinite possibilities.

Artists who have explored the freedom of creation in unique, daring and unexpected ways.

Artists who are breathing new life into the work of their predecessors and pushing back the boundaries of their art.

Some of you here today are sometimes better known and more highly regarded abroad than here, in your own country.

Some artists say that they lack the opportunities and spaces to show their works, which are meant to be seen. Is it okay that access to those works is so limited? This question is often asked.

Jean-Daniel and I are privileged to live and work in this residence that seems to hum with the energy of a hundred works by past and present Canadian painters and visual artists.

These paintings, sculptures, objets d’art that we walk by every day offer us a multitude of perspectives on the world.

Because they speak to us, question us from the walls on which they hang, challenge us; they accompany us in our search for meaning.

The works of our artists are not simply meant to bring a little beauty into the room or appeal to every taste.

They are meant to help us see better, understand the world in which we live better, give expression to our fears and desires, reveal our strengths and our weaknesses.

They give back to our day‑to‑day lives that extra measure of harmony that we sometimes let fall by the wayside.

I firmly believe that here in Canada, we must do whatever it takes to expand our opportunities to appreciate the luminous beauty and scope of Canadian art.

To tell the world who we are.

To ensure that we continue to dig deeper.

To make our lives more rich and more complete.

To be free to aspire to be the best within ourselves, individually and collectively.

Thank you for accepting our invitation to join us in exploring the place that we give in Canada—in society and in our lives—to Canadian visual and media artists, to their creativity and to their works.

Jean-Daniel and I, along with all of our partners here today, are eager to hear what you have to say.

Today is an opportunity for dialogue, one we are hoping to extend to your networks.