Up from the roots: Conversations on precarity and resilience with arts and heritage leaders
In February 2025, the Cultural Policy Hub at OCAD U interviewed twenty leaders, researchers, thinkers, service organization leaders and funders from the arts, culture and heritage sector from around Canada to discuss the root causes of precarity and uncertainty currently facing the industry. These interviews and the ensuing report represent the first phase of a two-year project entitled Mapping Drivers of Change Across Arts Organizations. The project goal is to support an evidence-based national policy conversation to address precarity in the arts and cultural sector, and explore the shift to a more sustainable, resilient and equitable system of practice and support for the arts and heritage (to learn more about this project, read our recent blog post by Kelly Wilhelm, Head of the Cultural Policy Hub).
From the outside and from within, the arts ecology is perceived by many to be on fire, in peril, deeply suffering, uncertain and facing worsening precarity. However, as with all perceptions, they have corresponding realities that provide a more nuanced situation, one that is not focused on peril but on rebirth, renewal and newfound understanding of the need for deep, meaningful and sustained change.
This report on the root causes of uncertainty and precarity is intended to bring together as many of the similarities and connections as possible to find collective solutions and actions to move the ecology forward.
The report is accompanied by a Futures Triangle, a system mapping tool that identifies and illustrates relationships to change. Designed by Danielle Pierre, a Graduate Research Assistant at the Hub, the Futures Triangle maps the findings of the report and demonstrates the relationship between the root causes of precarity and potential pathways and futures for Canada’s arts, culture and heritage organizations.
This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada.
