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The colonization of eastern Canada began with the French in the 17th century. For some years, these settlers depended for clothing on what they brought with them.

The history of visual artists' groups in Canada is filled with short-lived societies which have had a major influence on both professional and amateur artists.

Parallels and Contrasts in the Visual Arts and Music: A comparative study of the development of the two sister arts in Canada had not been published, although Maria Tippett's Making Culture (Toronto 1990) reviews broad trends in anglophone Canada from the late 19th to the mid-20th century.

Yukon Arts Council. Organization founded as an independent society under the Yukon Societies Ordinance in October 1971. Prior to that time, some of its musical responsibilities were carried out by the Whitehorse Concert Association, active from the late 1950s to 1970.

By the 1920s comics were an established popular art form in North America. With the advent of the Depression, however, significant changes occurred as publishers responded to the public's growing appetite for escapist entertainment.

Since the 1960s some craftsmen have moved away from traditional weaving into "art fabric," experimenting with traditional techniques but using a wide range of materials in the production of unique works.

Canadian Prime Ministers as Seen by Their Loyal Cartoonists

​The Beaver Hall Group (also known as the Beaver Hall Hill Group) was a group of artists (both male and female) who shared studio space at 305 Beaver Hall Hill in Montréal and exhibited together; A.Y. Jackson was the first president.

Fine art is meant to be contemplated and interpreted; decorative art is designed to be used and enjoyed. Nonetheless, there is no sharp boundary between the decorative and the fine arts. Yet for thousands of years, people have fashioned everything from totem poles and shaman’s rattles to elaborately carved stone and ivory knives and harpoons. These items served ritual and practical purposes and carried with them both spiritual and historical meanings. There is no reason to think a useful object cannot also be a bearer of meaning. Contemporary Canadian artists and artisans continue to blur the lines between decorative and fine art.

The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.

Canadian painting in the 19th century tended towards the pastoral. It depicted idyllic scenes of rural life and represented the country as a wondrous Eden. Canadian painter Homer Watson, under the influence of such American masters as Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt, created images that are serene and suffused with golden light. In On the Mohawk River (1878), for instance, a lazy river ambles between tall, overhanging trees; in the background is a light-struck mountain. In Watson’s world, nature is peaceful, unthreatening and perhaps even sacred.

Birch-bark biting is the art of dentally perforating designs on intricately folded sheets of paper-thin bark. Traditionally, the technique is known to have been practised by Ojibwe (or Chippewa), Cree and other Algonquian peoples who used birchbark extensively in fabricating domestic containers, architectural coverings, canoes and pictographic scrolls. Indigenous artists have kept the practice alive in spite of colonial efforts to culturally assimilate Indigenous peoples into Canadian society. (See also History of Indigenous Art in Canada and Contemporary Indigenous Art in Canada.)

Since the First World War, there have been four major initiatives to allow Canadian artists to document Canadian Armed Forces at war. Canada’s first official war art program, the Canadian War Memorials Fund (1916–19), was one of the first government-sponsored programs of its kind. It was followed by the Canadian War Art Program (1943–46) during the Second World War. The Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artists Program (1968–95) and the Canadian Forces Artists Program (2001–present) were established to send civilian artists to combat and peacekeeping zones. Notable Canadian war artists have included A.Y. Jackson, F.H. Varley, Lawren Harris, Alex Colville and Molly Lamb Bobak.