Our Organization

Mass Culture is...

A collaborative support organization that takes a community based approach to providing diverse parties with the context and connections needed to enhance the equitable mobilization of arts and culture research. By convening cultural workers and academics, Mass Culture provides a platform for knowledge to be explored, widely understood, and mobilized.

To find out more about Mass Culture’s origins, watch the video below.

Vision, Purpose & Mission

Vision: Where we're going

By circulating robust, inclusive research through a healthy network, Mass Culture will deepen the capacity of communities to develop an interconnected Canadian arts sector, empowered to reflect and make informed decisions towards a future in which the arts sector in Canada can thrive.

Purpose: Why we exist

Mass Culture is committed to ensuring all communities have the ability to mobilize and benefit from arts and culture research.

Mission: What we do

Mass Culture is dedicated to recognizing, undertaking and disseminating professional research that is relevant to the Canadian arts community. By convening cultural workers and academics, Mass Culture provides a platform for knowledge to be explored, widely understood, and mobilized.

Guiding Principles

Mutual Respect: Engaging cultural pluralism and diverse perspectives through the work

Access: An ongoing practice of defining and improving access with communities

Decent Work: Implement and evaluate Mass Culture’s decent work practices in service to the sector, our team(s), and each employee

Reconciliation and Relationship Development: Making collaborative action toward mutually beneficial goals between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities

Relations: Deepen relationships and creative approaches that address the needs of the sector across generations

Stability: Ongoing evaluation to improve Mass Culture’s work. Commit to sustainable practices in operations, programming, and projects

Integrity: Conducting ethical research, collecting accurate data, valuing transparency, and embracing debate

Research Priorities

As determined through conversations with the sector

Mass Culture’s Research Priorities are:

What's being said about Mass Culture

Guided by concepts of participatory governance and bottom-up decision-making, national arts service organization Mass Culture is building networks across the arts sector with the long-term goal of fundamentally changing Canadians’ relationship to the arts.

Redefining advocacy, research, and funding in the arts sector, Gordon Bowness for The Philanthropist Journal

Art and culture are catalysts for social change. But how do you measure their impact using traditional methods? A team of researchers from Emily Carr University is addressing this challenge by looking at how programming centred around Indigenous cultural knowledge generates access, community, and connection.

What does social innovation look like? Mitacs Canada

This article uses the national arts research network Mass Culture (MC) as a case study for assessing the strengths and limitations of participatory governance and community-based research for reimagining and enacting better futures in the Canadian arts sector.