The toonie, formally the Canadian two-dollar coin, was introduced on February 19, 1996, by Minister of Public Works Diane Marleau. As of 2023, it possesses the highest monetary value of any circulating Canadian coin. The toonie is a bi-metallic coin which on the reverse side bears an image of a polar bear by artist Brent Townsend. The obverse, since 2023, bears a portrait of King Charles III. It has the words "Charles III / D.G. Rex"; before 2023, the words were in a typeface different than that used on other Canadian coins.
The Group of Seven, once known as the Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933, with "a like vision". It originally consisted of Franklin Carmichael (1890–1945), Lawren Harris (1885–1970), A. Y. Jackson (1882–1974), Frank Johnston (1888–1949), Arthur Lismer (1885–1969), J. E. H. MacDonald (1873–1932), and Frederick Varley (1881–1969). A. J. Casson (1898–1992) was invited to join in 1926, Edwin Holgate (1892–1977) became a member in 1930, and Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald (1890–1956) joined in 1932.
The Royal Canadian Mint is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under the Royal Canadian Mint Act. The shares of the mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada.
Francis Hans Johnston was a member of the Group of Seven. He most commonly worked as a landscape painter though in a more conservative mode than other members of the Group. He also used tempera rather than oil paint in his Algoma landscapes, a fast-drying material that was more often associated with commercial art of his day.
In Canada, a penny is an out-of-production coin worth one cent, or 1⁄100 of a dollar. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the official term for the coin is the one-cent piece, but in practice the terms penny and cent predominate. Penny was likely readily adopted because the previous coinage in Canada was the British monetary system, where Canada used British pounds, shillings, and pence as coinage alongside U.S. decimal coins. Like all Canadian coins, the obverse depicts the reigning Canadian monarch at the time of issue.
Alfred Joseph Casson was a member of the Canadian group of artists known as the Group of Seven. He joined the group in 1926 at the invitation of Franklin Carmichael, replacing Frank Johnston. Casson is best known for his depictions in his signature limited palette of southern Ontario, and for being the youngest member of the Group of Seven.
One of the most profitable aspects of the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) is its numismatic product line. The first numismatic coin from the RCM was arguably the 1935 dollar commemorating the Silver Jubilee of King George V. Though intended for circulation, it was the first Canadian coin commemorating an event. The decision to issue this coin was made in October 1934 by Prime Minister R. B. Bennett. There were economic and patriotic motivations for the release of a silver dollar, including a hope to boost the silver mining industry. In future years, the silver dollar would have a more emotional meaning for many Canadians because it was also the first coin to have the Voyageur motif on its reverse.
The Canadian silver dollar was first issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 1935 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V. The coin's reverse design was sculpted by Emanuel Hahn and portrays a voyageur and a person of Indigenous descent paddling a birch-bark canoe. The faint lines in the background represent the Northern Lights. The voyageur design was used on the dollar until 1986. It was then replaced with the 1987 Canadian 1-dollar coin. 1967 marked the end of the silver dollar as a business strike, or a coin issued for circulation. After 1967, the dollar coin was made of nickel, except for non-circulating commemorative issues for the collector market, which continue to contain silver.
David Charles Bierk was an American-Canadian realist painter known for working in the postmodern genre.
Rebecca Belmore is a Canadian interdisciplinary Anishinaabekwe artist who is notable for politically conscious and socially aware performance and installation work. She is Ojibwe and a member of Obishikokaang. Belmore currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Dora de Pédery-Hunt, LL.D. was a Hungarian-Canadian sculptor who designed medals and coins. She was the first Canadian citizen to design an effigy for Queen Elizabeth II.
M. Bernard Loates is a Canadian artist, lithographer and publisher in the manner of the private press movement. The private press movement refers to a printing press or publishing method that is artistic based, with great attention to detail as opposed to commercially based. The proprietor controls all elements of the publication, from concept, to design, to the final execution. "Loates is recognized as one of the finest printing artisans..." Loates is best known in the United States for his M.Bernard Loates Edition of John James Audubon, Birds of America. In Canada, Loates is best known for his work with A.J. Casson, the last living member of the Group of Seven.
Shary Boyle is a contemporary Canadian visual artist working in the mediums of sculpture, drawing, painting and performance art. She lives and works in Toronto.
Leo Yerxa is a Canadian visual artist, medallist, and writer. As an illustrator of children's picture books he won the Governor General's Award in 2006. He lived in Ottawa, Ontario, then. He died on September 1, 2017.
Winston David Ward, also known as W. David Ward, is an English-Canadian artist and writer.
Sandra Brewster is a Canadian visual artist based in Toronto. Her work is multidisciplinary in nature, and deals with notions of identity, representation and memory; centering Black presence in Canada.
Anne Kahane was an Austrian-born Canadian artist. Best known for her figures carved in wood, Kahane began her career as a printmaker and commercial artist. In addition to her work as a sculptor using wood, brass, and aluminum, Kahane's artistic repertoire also included drawing and printmaking.
Ann Beam is a multimedia artist based in M'Chigeeng First Nation, Manitoulin Island. Born Ann Elena Weatherby in 1944 in Brooklyn, New York, she is the spouse of artist Carl Beam. She has a BFA from State University of New York at Buffalo. She taught at the Art Gallery of Ontario in the late 1960s and 1970s and later managed the Neon Raven Art Gallery on Manitoulin Island. Themes covered in her art have been described as "cultural histories of women's labour in building homes, in motherhood, cooking and teaching." She has worked with various mediums, including oil and acrylic, found art, recycled materials, pottery, paper and cloth.
Elaine Goble is a Canadian visual artist who lives in Ottawa, Ontario.
Laura Millard is a Canadian contemporary artist. She uses for her installations drawings and videos records of the marks left on the earth obtained from drones, such as traces of the tracks of skates and snowmobiles on ice in northern Canada in a long-term investigation of ways to reinvent the landscape tradition of Canada. She also is an educator with over many years of experience working at OCAD University and a writer; she lives and works in Toronto.
