OTTAWA.- After a year of introspection and through the collaborative work of 60 members of the National Gallery of Canada team, Transform Together, the Gallery’s first ever Strategic Plan was released to the public. The document outlines the deep changes the National Gallery of Canada aspires to make over the coming 5 years. The 5 Strategic Pillars of the new plan underline the Gallery’s commitment to:

• Strengthen community connections through transformative art experiences
• Build a collection and program that inspires human connection
• Empower, support, and build a diverse and collaborative team
• Centre Indigenous ways of knowing and being
• Invest in operational resilience and sustainability

“Visitors to the National Gallery of Canada will see us living into the new Strategic Plan when we reopen,” said Dr. Sasha Suda, Director and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada. “A groundbreaking curatorial approach was taken for the Rembrandt exhibition when the National Gallery invited three curators and art historians to tell his story through a Western, Black and Indigenous lens. Two major commissions of contemporary public art by Tau Lewis (Jamaican-Canadian artist based in New York), and Rashid Johnson (Black artist based in New York) are in dialogue with the Rembrandt exhibition.”

The National Gallery of Canada has also developed new purpose, vision and mission statements which will guide its work over the coming five years. In consultation with four Indigenous Elders the National Gallery was given an Algonquin word to describe its new purpose which is “Ankosé”, “Everything is Connected”, “Tout est relié”.

• Purpose: We nurture interconnection across time and place.




• Vision: We envision a future in which art has the power to build bridges, deepen relationships, and advance a more equitable society.

• Mission: Through the visual arts, we create dynamic experiences that open hearts and minds, and allow for new ways of seeing ourselves, each other, and our diverse histories.

“The Elders brought us to this idea of Ankosé - connection, it means that the Gallery must be connected to the land, the water, the creatures and the sky that surrounds it. To art that connects us, to history, to the present and beyond. It’s a beautiful ideal, one that we want to live up to every day as we build the new National Gallery of Canada,” added Dr. Sasha Suda.

The National Gallery has also articulated its values as an arts organization serving Canadians equitably in a post-pandemic world. Justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility (JEDI&A) and Indigenous ways of knowing and being are lenses that it will use to align action with its values. A detailed action plan, linked to the Strategic Plan, will ensure that the Gallery’s transformation efforts are inclusive, anti-racist, and disrupt its roots in colonial museological practice. This plan will be shared later this year. The National Gallery aspires to be a place of inspiration and hope to the communities it was meant to serve when it is allowed to reopen again, and will live into these values through its Strategic Plan.

• Foster Belonging
• Embrace Change
• Learn and Evolve Together
• Lead Boldly

“The pandemic has taught us that people need the arts more than ever. Try to imagine what these past 14 months would have been like if you hadn’t been able to read a book, listen to music, visit a gallery, watch a livestream performance, or binge-watch a series on Netflix. I think we’ve all realized, in a new and very personal way, that the arts are an extraordinarily important source of mental health support, in dealing with the anxiety, the loneliness and the isolation caused by a collective threat like COVID-19,” continued Dr. Sasha Suda, Director and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada.