Gifting the Alchemy of Artistic Creation

December 16, 2025

By guest blogger Sarah Conn, Artistic Producer, National Creation Fund

In these seasons of gift giving, I’m possessed with a desire to give the most thoughtful gifts. I end up down rabbit holes, crafting (I am not a crafter), shopping (I hate shopping), and lost on Instagram. What vessel can I find to share my love?

I recently read Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book The Serviceberry and was captivated by her invitation to consider every element of our world as a gift. Kimmerer writes: “To name the world as a gift is to feel your membership in the web of reciprocity.” The offering and receiving of gifts invites us into relationship, a dialogue that becomes an alternate form of exchange.

I lead the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund, where we have the honour of building this exchange with artists across Canada. Dedicated to the alchemy of artistic creation, we make transformative investments in the creation of bold new music, dance, theatre, and interdisciplinary performance.

Each investment, each gift, invites the artists and their collaborators to dream further. From this, a new gift emerges: the performance, to be shared with audiences around the world. Gifts cascade and evolve and transform.

The 2026 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is a feast of gifts. The stunning program includes five Creation Fund-supported shows: Split Tooth: Saputjiji; Everything Has Disappeared; 2021; Remember that time we met in the future?; and Kiuryaq. While they are wildly different, aesthetically and conceptually, all five are gifts of community and love envisioned by some of Canada’s top artists and brought to fruition through multiyear creative processes. 

These five productions represent thousands of companies, artists, and communities from coast to coast to coast who understand that creation is a force of joy, expression, and resistance. Their dedication to offering us their wildest dreams is a breathtaking gift.  

Seeing these shows together offers a mesmerizing snapshot of Canadian creation today, right now. They are bold and fierce. They manifest transformative futures. In other words, they perfectly embody the culturally fearless PuSh Festival. 

Huge thanks to Gabrielle and the PuSh team for all you do to champion Canadian creation. Thank you for reminding us how delicious artistic risk can be.

I hope you’ll all join me at the Festival! There are many gifts in store for you.