Snapshot: Civic Art Collections

The Intermunicipal Comparative Framework: An inventory of local government support to cultural development; Snapshot: Civic Art Collections

The Intermunicipal Comparative Framework Project is a means to inventory and understand the infrastructure, scope, and nature of local government involvement in cultural development across Canada. It creates the structure to capture the nature of local government involvement and investment in cultural development nationally. “Cultural development” is used here in an inclusive sense, and topics addressed in the project include arts, heritage, facilities, civic art collections, public art, funding, non-monetary support, and more.

Civic art, as distinguished from public art, refers to a collection of artwork held in trust by a municipality for the citizens of the community. The collection may be displayed in rotation in galleries, civic offices, or interior public venues. In some municipalities, the civic art policy covers heritage and art museum collections.