section_path: Culture/Visual arts
section_name: Visual arts
paragraph_text: Visual arts
  
  Art in Canada is marked by thousands of years of habitation by its Indigenous peoples, and, in later times, artists have combined British, French, Indigenous, and American artistic traditions, at times embracing European styles while working to promote nationalism. The nature of Canadian art reflects these diverse origins, as artists have taken their traditions and adapted these influences to reflect the reality of their lives in Canada.
  
  The Canadian government has played a role in the development of Canadian culture through the department of Canadian Heritage, by giving grants to art galleries, as well as establishing and funding art schools across the country, and through the Canada Council for the Arts, the national public arts funder, helping artists, art galleries and periodicals, and thus contributing to the development of Canada's cultural works.
  
  Canadian visual art has been dominated by figures, such as painter Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. The latter were painters with a nationalistic and idealistic focus, who first exhibited their distinctive works in May 1920. Though referred to as having seven members, five artists— Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley —were responsible for articulating the group's ideas. They were joined briefly by Frank Johnston and commercial artist Franklin Carmichael. A. J. Casson became part of the group in 1926. Associated with the group was another prominent Canadian artist, Emily Carr, known for her landscapes and portrayals of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.