01
A director agrees in writing, or not at all
Being a director of an Ontario corporation carries legal duties. Somebody takes that on by signing for it, and a name printed on a website ahead of that signature is a claim made on their behalf.
About · the people and the corporation
No names on this page. Yet.
A team page usually carries photographs of people who have already agreed to be there. The corporation behind Capital Cultures has not been registered, its first board has not been seated, and publishing a list of names before either of those has happened would put words in people's mouths. This page says where that stands, which seats are open, and how to take one.
Corporation being incorporated · articles filed September 2026 · current as of 29 August 2026
Status · reviewed 29 August 2026
| Line | State |
|---|---|
| Legal form | Ontario not-for-profit corporation, under ONCA |
| Registered office | Ottawa |
| Articles filed | September 2026 — planned |
| Corporation number | Not issued yet |
| Board seated | With the filing |
| Charity status | Applied for after incorporation |
Why the page is empty, in plain words.
Every reason below is a decision, taken and written down. Somebody reading this page a year from now should be able to check whether we did what we said.
Four reasons · the page fills in the week the board is seated
Four reasons · none of them is «we have not got around to it»
02
The corporation does not exist yet
Articles of incorporation are filed in September 2026. Until that filing is registered there is no board to publish, and calling a working group a board would misdescribe both.
03
Funders check this page against a registry
A grant officer compares the names here against a corporate record. A mismatch reads as carelessness at best, and it is the cheapest possible thing to get wrong.
04
The seats are still being offered
At least half the board has to live in the Ottawa region, and the whole point of the first year is to fill those seats from the communities this festival is for. Publishing a finished list would close a door that is deliberately open.
The corporation being built.
A new not-for-profit corporation under Ontario's ONCA, with its registered office in Ottawa. The shape is settled; the registration is the next step.
Canon · ONCA · the same structure described on the mission page
| Rule | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Three directors minimum | ONCA s.22(1). The first board is seated with the articles and grows from there. |
| At least half from the Ottawa region | Every funder that matters here asks for it, and several exclude an applicant whose board mostly lives somewhere else. |
| At most a third of directors may be employees | ONCA s.23(3) for a public benefit corporation. It keeps the board answerable to the purpose rather than to the payroll. |
| Terms of four years at most | A director has to be of age, solvent and legally capable, and a seat comes up for renewal rather than being held for life. |
| Objects written through advancement of education | Drafted by a lawyer before filing, and copied onto the mission page word for word once registered. |
| Charity status comes after | Year one is planned without it. Applying before the corporation exists is not possible, and planning on money that depends on it would be reckless. |
- August 2026Now Objects drafted, incorporation prepared The purposes go to a lawyer before anything is filed, because a wording that has to be amended later costs a fee and a long wait.
- September 2026Planned Articles of incorporation filed, first board seated Online filing runs about five working days. The corporation number goes on this site the week it arrives.
- Autumn 2026Planned This page fills in Directors by name, their roles, and the corporation number. Each name goes up after that person has signed for the seat.
- After incorporationPlanned Charity registration applied for A separate application with its own timeline. Year one is budgeted without it, and this page reports the answer either way.
The seats being filled.
Six kinds of person this board needs. Some are legal requirements, some are the difference between a festival that happens and one that stays a document.
Six seats · none of them filled by a photograph
Six seats · at least half of them held by people living in the Ottawa region
01
Community leaders, from more than one community
People who can say yes on behalf of a group, and who will say no when we get something wrong. A board of one community running a festival of many is the failure mode this whole project is built to avoid.
02
Somebody who has run an event this size
Crowd, permits, insurance, contractors, a radio in one hand on the day. Experience of a large public event in Ottawa is worth more here than any other single qualification.
03
Money
Somebody who reads a budget properly, and somebody who has taken a grant application through a full cycle in Ontario. A first-year festival lives or dies on the funding calendar.
04
The land, and the host nation
The festival is planned for the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinābe Nation. What that relationship is stays with the host nation to define, and the board needs people who can carry that conversation properly.
05
Both official languages
A festival in this city that works in one language is doing half a job, and a board that works in one language will keep producing one.
06
Somebody who says the unwelcome thing
The seat that stops a plan going ahead because the insurance is wrong or the community was never actually asked. It is the most useful seat on any board and the hardest to fill on purpose.
Put your name forward.
A board seat, a committee, or an afternoon of advice from somebody who has done this before. Tell us which and we will come back to you.
Intake 12 · board and volunteers · answered by a person
About · the section that gets read before anybody believes you
Where to read the rest.
So who is actually doing this right now?
A small working group, the same people who run a festival in Lanark County, plus whoever has joined since. They become directors, staff, contractors or volunteers as the corporation takes shape, and this page names them in those roles once the roles exist.
Is anybody being paid?
Not out of a festival budget that does not exist yet. Paid roles arrive with funding, they are advertised when they do, and what a role is paid is reported to the board and to funders.
Can I be a director if I do not live in Ottawa?
Yes, within limits — at least half the board has to live in the Ottawa region, and several funders check it. A seat from further away is possible and it is not the seat we are short of.
When does this page get names on it?
In the autumn of 2026, after the articles are registered and the first directors have signed. Each name arrives with a role, and the corporation number arrives with them.
What if incorporation slips?
Then this page says the new date and why. A timeline that quietly edits itself is the clearest signal that an organisation cannot be trusted with anybody's money.
A festival needs people who say no.
A board seat, a committee, or one honest afternoon. All three are worth more right now than another page of plans.