The Federation is a national organization to unite artists, art critics and persons interested in art; to promote common aims to assert the creative importance of art in the national and community life of Canada. 

We presently have over 2,900 members and 14 chapters across B.C and Alberta and Ontario.

We organize 24 exhibitions per year for our own gallery in Vancouver, 5 online-only exhibitions, and an additional 20 or more chapter exhibitions.

The Federation was founded in 1941 founded in Kingston, Ontario by professional artists including Group of Seven luminaries Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, and A.Y. Jackson. The first National Executive Council was led by Andre Bieler. Other notable founding members included Emily Carr and the Honorable Mark Kearley.

Our origins are as an “Artist Run Centre” but we have grown to become more than this. We have retained our Artist Run Centre roots in that we have not adopted curation practices for our gallery. We have retained peer-review jurying for all our exhibitions. Our Signature members with decades of “hands-on” experience and understanding jury the works that appear in our gallery.

Donations will go to support our education and networking programs that help artists develop their artistic and business skills.