The Association of Cultural Executives began in 1976. Peter Swann, a former director of the Royal Ontario Museum, began the Association as an informal network of senior level arts administrators. Some of ACE’s earliest activities revolved around governance, employment and the need to provide relevant management-level information to arts administrators. During 1985, ACE held the first Cultural Imperative Conference which focused on arts management and board governance – one of the first instances these topics were addressed in a conference setting. This conference was very successful, and ACE went on to host two others in Collingwood and Ottawa.

In 1996, through a partnership with the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Cultural Management, ACE moved its offices to the U of W campus. ACE’s focus at this time was providing electronic and print information resources to its members. In 2004, the Centre for Cultural Management and ACE embarked on a joint project funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The project “cultureconsultants.ca” will create a web portal that will bring together consultants and organizations looking for skilled expertise. Between this project and ACE’s perseverance in fundraising, ACE was able to hire its first full-time Administrator in November of 2005, and began the next chapter of its existence.

Our founder Peter Swann passed away in 1998. Click here to read his eulogy.