The Confederation Centre of the Arts has launched its first national awareness campaign in a bid to rebuild connections to the rest of the country.

The Charlottetown-based arts centre’s first creative work was released earlier this month, developed with the help of Toronto-based agency Fuse Create. The campaign was designed to tell the centre’s story and inform the public about the recent work that’s gone into it.

Located in the city where Canada’s confederation was signed, the “Where Canada Connects” campaign visualizes topics (through the use of Venn Diagrams) that include issues and ideas that concern the country as a whole.

“What I’m hoping resonates with Canadians is the fact the Confederation Centre of the Arts is a national memorial, and it is a place for all Canadians to engage with and connect to discuss issues of importance or to explore the evolving identity of the country,” the centre’s CEO Steve Bellamy says.

The centre sets itself up as a convening place for Canadians and visitors to explore the story of the country’s confederation, its current challenges and prospects for the future, exploring these points through art and conversation. 

The creative work launched ahead of a donation campaign planned for later this year to help fund a new learning institute for the centre that’s designed to act as a place for education, discourse and connections. The new learning institute was planned after the Prince Edward Island provincial library moved out of the centre in 2018. The major transformation necessitated a large cultural campaign, Bellamy tells strategy.

The national campaign was also designed to repair the connection between the Confederation Centre of the Arts and the rest of Canada. “When it was built in the ’60s, it was built with every province contributing 15 cents per capita, and the feds matched it,” Bellamy says. 

“So for 30 cents per Canadian, this institution was built as a national monument to the founders of Canada. Over time, it’s kind of lost its connection to the rest of the country, so part of the goal here is to reestablish that connection, beginning with an awareness campaign reminding people that we’re here.”

The campaign launched on March 4 across the centre’s website and social media channels, as well as in print, OOH and OLV, with animation help from The Faculty.