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Massey Commission, the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, was released in 1951. Often referred to as the Massey Report, this document provided the armature of what would become a state-defined national culture in Canada and gave birth to the idea of Canadian content. Having been drawn to the Massey report not as a currency of cathexis but rather as a contemporary political problem and more in terms of a philosophical problem, in such a way that it is difficult to disarticulate one from the other. In this lecture, I attempt to bridge history, policy and theory through invoking the nomos, telos, and ethos of the Massey Report on its 70th anniversary, anchored in lived experience, concrete knowledge and practice. Beyond the notion of an unconscious archetype, how does one account for its ubiquitous presence despite finding art and culture often in the backwaters of public policy discourse. Also, over the decades, the coherence of the domain of arts and culture from a policy perspective has seen a fractured narrative. We have seen a widening rupture between ‘art’ and ‘culture’. Given art, culture and power are re-aligning in the pandemic context, this lecture will review the history, consequences and prospects of policy making in this domain for the 21st century. Lecturer's bio: A thought leader, persuasive champion of arts and advocate for artists rights, Zainub Verjee has over four decades built a formidable reputation as an artist, writer, critic, cultural administrator, and public intellectual in Canada and internationally. A firm believer that Art is a public good, she has contributed to international instruments of culture such as Status of the Artist and Cultural Diversity and building institutions such as British Columbia Arts Council. Her artwork has been shown nationally and internationally, including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Venice Biennale. Her œuvre as a cultural bureaucrat, cultural diplomat, artist, activist and writer is consistent and contiguous with what is termed as a critical transversal aesthetic. An active member of civil society, she was a Vancouver Moderator of the Spicer Commission – The Citizen's Forum on Canada's Future. As a McLaughlin College Fellow and Mentor to the Action Canada Fellowship program she is committed to building next generation leadership. Among many awards and honours, in 2020 she received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for Outstanding Contribution and this year OCAD University conferred honorary doctorate on Zainub. In 2021, she was elected as a Senior Fellow of Massey College. Zainub has held positions at the Western Front Society, Canada Council for the Arts, Department of Canadian Heritage, City of Mississauga and is currently the Executive Director of the Galeries Ontario/Ontario Galleries-- voice of Art Galleries and Museums in Canada. www.zainubverjee.com @zainubverjee facebook.com/zainub.verjee linkedin.com/in/zainubverjee ------- To ensure you never miss a Massey Event, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/masseycollege?sub_confirmation=1 We also invite you to visit masseycollege.ca/calendar for upcoming events. Follow us on social media: twitter.com/masseycollege instagram.com/massey_college linkedin.com/school/massey-college facebook.com/MasseyCollege Support our work: masseycollege.ca/support-us