Canada Council for the Arts turns 50

Since it is celebrated all year, I guess these are not belated good wishes to the Canada Council for the Arts on its 50th anniversary. The CC has put up a special website to mark the occasion and it is well worth viewing.

The Council was started in 1957 at the urgings of the Massey Commission, and with the stealthy intervention of some well-placed mandarins, using the $50 million proceeds of the death taxes on the estates of two tycoons. (To read some background, you could go to an article in the current issue of The Beaver called "Canada's Highbrow Bastion", by historian Paul Litt.)