2018–2019 Annual Report
50 Years: Canada’s National Arts Centre
In our 50th anniversary season as Canada’s National Arts Centre, we celebrated who we have always been, and who we are becoming.
Our opening in 1969 was a moment of great excitement for Canadians. The long realized dream of the visionary Hamilton Southam, the NAC was conceived as a national showcase for the performing arts that would represent artistic excellence, and that would collaborate with this country’s greatest arts organizations.
Fifty years later, our commitment to artistic excellence and to the Canadian performing arts is as strong as ever. Over the past two decades we have greatly expanded our national role, becoming a catalyst for performance, creation and learning nationwide.
Today we also look beyond our borders to the world stage, working with organizations like the Canada Council for the Arts to help Canadian artists triumph there as they should.
We welcome our patrons and extend that welcome to a greater diversity of communities who can call the NAC home.
And we feel pride, humility, gratitude and joy as we dedicate permanent space for extraordinary Indigenous artists and stories on the national stage.
Happy 50th Birthday, NAC.
