PAL Ottawa featured in Fifty Five Plus Magazine

“Life for artists and arts workers is, and has almost always been, unaffordable in Canada, let alone Ottawa,” explains Leah Cogan, an artist in her own right as well as the current Chair of PAL, an Ottawa-based service provider looking after our city’s lifelong creatives. “Compound that with aging, as work opportunities dwindle and support costs increase, and you have a community of beloved Canadian artists at high risk of homelessness.”

Cate Proctor, one of PAL’s key consultants, elaborates: “Senior artists and arts workers, generally, have lower incomes as they age. The precarity of their field of work does not allow for many, if any, financial savings to cushion living expenses, especially in their senior years, yet they remain actively creating.”

So where does the veteran folk singer, the retired lighting designer, the career painter go? Other communities, from Hollywood to Toronto, have established affordable housing for those who’ve traded security for artistry. But no mid-sized city has taken up the initiative … until now.

PAL Ottawa is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, charitable organization that provides affordable housing and programs for veteran artists and art workers in the National Capital Region. Since 2012, PAL Ottawa has provided personal care services, transportation and collaborative opportunities within the local arts community, largely through a generous, hard-working arm known by the fitting pun Supporting Cast. Now, though, PAL Ottawa is extending its reach as never before, with the establishment of PAL Place.

To read the complete story, visit Fifty Five Plus Magazine or click here.

PAL Ottawa would like to thank Fifty Five Plus Magazine and writer Dan Lalande for the featured article.