CLAIRE HOPKINSON

Executive Director, Toronto Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council Foundation

A champion for the creative spirit, Claire Hopkinson joined the Toronto Arts Council as Executive Director in September 2005. TAC is the arms length funding partner of the City of Toronto, providing support to 450 arts organizations and 200 individual artists each year. TAC Foundation provides a broad range of programs to enhance arts awareness and generate revenues.

Hopkinson has made a significant contribution to the arts during her 25-year career in Toronto. Best known as an innovative producer of theatre and opera, she has premiered dozens of ground breaking works, most recently with Tapestry New Opera Works where she served as Producer and General Manager for 14 years. Highlights of her time at Tapestry include: Iron Road, a bilingual (Cantonese-English) opera by Chan Ka Nin and Mark Brownell which won the 2001 Dora Mavor Moore Award; and the national tour of Elsewhereless by Rodney Sharman and Atom Eqoyan. Hopkinson also served as General Manager of COMUS Music Theatre, producing R. Murray Schafer’s landmark opera RA.

As President of Opera.ca and Vice President of OPERA America, sister national service organizations for opera, Hopkinson has been a passionate advocate for the development of opera in the 21st century. During her tenure, the Canadian Opera Creation Program, a major re-granting program, was created.

Hopkinson’s work as a volunteer and advocate extended beyond the opera world. Her work as the Founding President of Creative Trust: Working Capital for the Arts resulted in the foundation of the largest arts stabilization program in Canada and is proving to be of great assistance to the mid-sized arts sector in Toronto. She also co-founded the preceding Creative Trust Endowment Project, the first collective fundraising campaign for the arts which raised over $780,000 for over 25 organizations, which was then matched by the Ontario Arts Council Endowment Program.

In May of 2001, Ms. Hopkinson won the national M. Joan Chalmers Award for Arts Administration in recognition of her contribution to Tapestry and the arts in Canada. In January 2006 she was recognized by Theatre Ontario with the Sandra Tulloch Award for Innovation in the Arts.

Executive Director Claire Hopkinson