The inaugural Upfront Festival is a weekend-long celebration of Indigenous talent from across Turtle Island and beyond. Featuring three days of extraordinary music, comedy, puppetry, free workshops, and more, right in the heart of Tkaronto. With performances by William Prince, Drezus, Cris Derksen, Shawnee Kish, Semiah, and more. Learn more. The Western Fair, one of Canada’s oldest …
Introducing Catalina, Our New Manager of Operations at OCAF Catalina Fellay-Dunbar joins us with extensive experience as a grants administrator, dance artist, educator, and advocate. She spent 7 years at the Toronto Arts Council (TAC) as a Program Officer/Manager, where she was responsible for monitoring trends and issues within Toronto’s arts sectors. Before TAC, Catalina …
August: Up Here Music Festival, Niagara Irish Festival, Her Northern Voice and more Read More »
Dear OCAF Friends, Today I send you my fondest farewell after 25 years with OCAF, marking its own 25th Anniversary. So far it’s been an action-packed celebration with events in Hamilton, Sudbury, Windsor and others coming up in Mississauga, Thunder Bay and elsewhere. It’s been wonderful to celebrate, with all of you, your successes over the …
July: Four Winds Music Fest, Elora Festival, Hamilton Fringe Festival and more! Read More »
Dear OCAF Friends, We’re well into our 25th Anniversary Celebration and in this issue you will read about events in Sudbury and Peterborough and in subsequent issues there will be Windsor and Thunder Bay news. We are thrilled to be able to visit great communities around the province where OCAF has provided support for amazing cultural tourism …
Dear Friends, I am writing to you today as the Founding Executive Director Emerita as Thomas Vaughan steps into the role of Executive Director! More on that and 25th Anniversary memories in the next issue but for now I am excited to share a major announcement by Minister Lumsden last Friday! Theatre Aquarius, celebrating its 50th …
Greetings friends of OCAF! As we continue to celebrate 25 years of supporting Ontario’s cultural tourism sector it seems important and appropriate to honour our Founding Chair, Dr. Murray Frum. Dr. Frum, entrepreneur, developer, lover of the arts and avid collector of African and Renaissance work, was the Founding Chair of OCAF. He, along with …
Founding Executive Director Kathleen Sharpe to retireThomas Vaughan named next Executive Director The Board of Directors of the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund [OCAF] is pleased to announce the appointment of Thomas Vaughan as the Executive Director of OCAF effective May 1, 2024. Mr. Vaughan succeeds Kathleen Sharpe, the Founding Executive Director of OCAF who will …
To our OCAF friends, OCAF is celebrating its 25th anniversary all year long! We are proud to have supported more than 900 events in over 150 Ontario communities. We will use this space in upcoming newsletters to highlight some of the amazing success stories of Ontario cultural organizations we’ve worked with closely. For example, in …
March: Theatre Aquarius, Beaches Jazz Theatre, Theatre Centre and more! Read More »
Dear Friends, We are excited to tell you that 2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund! To be precise, our Letters Patent were approved on March 9, 1999; the first board was assembled with Dr. Murray Frum as Chair; I was hired in June of that year; the board met for …
February: Hamilton Winterfest, DesignTO, Canadian Comedy Festival, and more! Read More »
