Advancing Social Change

Registration is now closed.

Live-streaming will also be available for all plenary sessions:

Program for live-streaming

English live-stream page

French live-stream

Campus Map

Map of Downtown Ottawa

Please join us from September 27 to 29, 2013, as Canadians from across the country converge on Ottawa for a conference on improving the quality of life in underserved communities through the arts.

Co-hosted by the Michaëlle Jean Foundation and Carleton University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Forum will mobilize researchers, business leaders, legal experts, policymakers, youth, health practitioners, artists, and others to explore cutting-edge research and social innovation for bettering the lives of underserved Canadians and revitalizing communities.

Over three days, forum participants will explore ways in which grassroots youth organizations, arts communities and academia can work with sectors as varied as health, business, and law, to discuss issues such as youth crime, mental health, unemployment, and social exclusion, through the arts. Our goal is to produce a national agenda outlining ways in which all sectors of Canadian society can enhance grassroots strategies for inclusion, personal and community development, and prosperity for all Canadians.

The Power of the Arts Forum weekend will feature a town hall, plenary sessions and workshops, as well as a celebration of Canadian achievement in the arts. Workshops will focus on the following themes:

• Mental and Physical Health
• Democratic Participation
• Economic Development and Social Enterprise
• Cultural Institutions and Community Integration
• Public Safety and Access to Justice
• Community and Urban Renewal
• Diversity and Social Inclusion
• New Technologies and Social Change
• Voice and Identity

Background: The National Power of the Arts Forum is the brainchild of Michaëlle Jean Foundation Co-Founder and Co-Chair, Jean-Daniel Lafond. Following his appointment as Senior Scholar at Carleton University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in 2010, M. Lafond worked with Faculty Dean Dr. John Osborne to convene a national conference on the power of the arts. It emerged as a natural outcome of M. Lafond’s previous work promoting the arts in Canada, through the Art Matters Forum series organized out of Rideau Hall.

Registration fee (+HST):

• Corporate: $150
• Individual: $100
• Community Organization Employee: $50
• Senior (65 and over): $50
• Student (full-time): $10

If personal finances are preventing you from registering for the forum, or to pay by cheque, please contact Mary Giles.

Hotel Information

Optional Concert Multi Piano Extravaganza: works for two pianos (4, 6 and 8 hands)
Power of the Arts conference delegates: $20 (at the door, with Forum nametag)
Sunday, September 29, 5:30 p.m., Kailash Mital Theatre, Southam Hall

Please contact us for more information:

For donation and sponsorship information, please contact:

Carole Chabot
CFRE
Director of Development
Michaëlle Jean Foundation
T: 647-287-2798
F: 613-562-5688

Presenting Sponsor

Supporting Sponsor

Partnership Sponsors

Materials Sponsor