A. In 1951, a report commissioned by Canada’s federal government indicated that professional theatre was moribund, music was present only in churches and schools, and English Canada produced only 14 works of fiction per year. Artists—whether writers, composers, or actors—couldn’t make enough money from their art to support themselves. This famous Massey Report recommended that the government create the Canada Council for the Encouragement of the Arts, Letters, Humanities, and Social Sciences, which was established in 1957. Twenty-one years later, the government divided the Council, making the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council a separate entity to take over funding for research in the social sciences and humanities.

B. Using the name Canada Council for the Arts, or Canada Council, the organization provides funding for the arts in Canada: dance, media arts, music, theatre, visual arts, writing and publishing, and aboriginal arts. In addition, the Canada Council may provide funds to publishers, concert presenters, and theatres. Writers may apply for a grant to support themselves while they finish a novel; dancers and composers similarly may be awarded subsistence funds for a period of time devoted to the creation of new work. The Canada Council also awards several annual prizes to artists. Perhaps the most well-known are the Governor General’s Literary Awards. Decisions about grants and prizes are made by juries comprised of artists and arts professionals from across the country, about 750 of whom serve on the Canada Council juries each year.

C. In 1986, the Canada Council established the Public Lending Right Commission (PLRC). Public Lending Right ensures that authors receive financial compensation when their books are borrowed through a public library system. The program is intended to offset the injustice of library patrons accessing books for free—that is, without a portion of equivalent purchase price going to the author. Close to $10 billion per year is now paid to about 17,000 Canadian writers. Although similar programs exist in over 30 other countries, the Canadian program is unique in that its focus is solely on Canadian authors.

D. The Canada Council also selectively collects contemporary Canadian art. Currently it has over 17,000 works of art by approximately 3,000 artists in its Art Bank. More than one-third of these paintings, prints, photographs, and sculptures are on exhibit in private and public spaces throughout Canada. The works can also be seen on the Canada Council Art Bank website and the Google Art Project website.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.