Back from the edge: recent changes in Canadian cultural policy and the digital humanities perspective. A view from Canadian art history

Canadian cultural policy has been made complex over the past ten years by a conflict between the former federal government's economic policy and the priorities set out by the cultural sector; in some cases this saw the erosion of principles of arms-length funding, the cutting of support for state broadcasting, interference in the mandate of national heritage institutions and the mooting of controversial public art projects. The situation is now rapidly evolving; with the election of a new government in October 2015, de Department of Canadian Heritage has reinstated arms-length principles and announced important reinvestment in the arts; the minister has announced pre-consultations for a policy on ‘Canadian Content in a Digital World’. Since ‘Canadian content’ embraces a vast range of cultural practices, I will organize my remarks from the perspective of fields I know best: museums and university research and teaching in the visual arts, both from the experience of working in heritage institutions (public art galleries and museums, 1989-2008) and in the university environment since 2008, where the articulation between Canadian content (in all its diversity) and international content (with its own set of diversities) is at the forefront of my work with the public experience of art.