ABOUT THE YORK REGION ARTS COUNCIL
The York Region Arts Council is the only York Region-wide nonprofit charitable arts service organization focused on capacity building, creative placemaking and community engagement in support of artists, arts organizations and creative entrepreneurs. In order to realize the potential of our services, we work in partnership with the Regional Municipality of York, each of the Regions nine municipalities (Markham, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Aurora, King Township, Newmarket, Whitchurch-Stouffville, East Gwillimbury and Georgina) as well as other community organizations and businesses.
The Arts Council was first incorporated as Arts Link in 2002 with a focus on connecting York Region public and Catholic schools with artists and implementing arts programming for youth. In 2008, Arts Link changed direction and became the York Region Arts Council. The Arts Council was founded in response to the plethora of under-served artists and arts organizations working in silos and lacking the resources and network to grow capacity.
Over the past years, the Arts Council has played a leadership role in the community, providing quality programming and services such as the Arts Exposed Conference (2011-2014), ExperienceYorkRegion.com (2010 to present), Artrepreneur Accelerator Program (2015 to present), the York Region Festival Alliance (2015 to present), SpaceFinder York Region (2016 to present) amongst many other tools and forums for professional development and networking.
Visit our website to learn more about our Mission, Vision and Beliefs.