The Ontario government has appointed Missy Knott to the Ontario Arts Council, the first-ever appointment of a member of Curve Lake First Nation to the council and the first appointee to the council from the Peterborough area in more than 50 years.
Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith made the announcement of Knott’s appointment in a media release issued on Monday (October 16).
“I had the privilege of first working with Missy in the lead up to the Special Hockey International Tournament in Peterborough back in 2017,” Smith said. “I am so happy that someone who has used her talents to give back to our community as a positive role model is be appointed to the Ontario Arts Council. In my position as Member of Provincial Parliament I have witnessed the impact that Missy has had not only to those in Curve Lake, but the greater Peterborough area.”
An agency that operates at arm’s length from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, the Ontario Arts Council provides grants and services to professional Ontario-based artists and arts organizations support arts education, Indigenous arts, community arts, crafts, dance, Francophone arts, literature, media arts, multidisciplinary arts, music, theatre, touring, and visual arts. In 2022-23, the council provided 2,269 grants to individual artists and 1,023 grants to over 500 arts organization totalling $55.9 million.
A volunteer board comprising 12 members who come from communities across the province is responsible for setting the council’s policies and oversees the organization’s operation. Members of the board are appointed by the Ontario government for a three-year term.
“In my role as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, I know Missy will bring a unique and important voice to the Ontario Arts Council and ensure arts and culture will continue to flourish throughout the province,” Smith said. “Congratulations Missy, you deserve it.”
An award-winning singer-songwriter who herself received a career development grant from the Ontario Arts Council the past, Knott (Singing Wild Rice Girl) is an award-winning singer-songwriter known for her rich vocal tone and blend of country, pop, and folk, whose 2021 single “Our Song Acoustic” made it to #3 on the Indigenous Music Countdown on Sirius XM. In 2017, she was nominated at the Indigenous Music Awards for EP My Sister’s Heart.
Knott is also a mother, business owner, educational assistant, and active member of Curve Lake First Nation. In 2018, Knott founded her not-for-profit Wild Rice Records label in Nogojiwanong-Peterborough. She also worked as an afternoon drive and weekend live radio personality at ELMNT FM in Ottawa and Toronto.
“It is an honour to sit on the Ontario Arts Council board of directors,” Knott says. “It is and has always been important to me to foster a creative vision and help artists realize their voice and their passions. Success is not an individual achievement, but the result of learning, engaging, collaborating and hard work. The same is true of communities, and I am so happy to be a part of this one. When we support, guide, nurture, inspire and raise each other up, we succeed both individually and as a community. I am so excited for all that I’m about to learn. Cheers to the next three years.”
