The Kingston Colloquium was organized by the Visual Arts Alliance in order to look towards the future of the visual arts in Canada and commemorated the 70th anniversary of a similar event that occurred in 1941, the first time people working in the visual arts had come together to discuss common concerns. The 1941 Kingston Conference lead to the creation of the Massey-Lévesque Commission on the Arts in Canada, and to the eventual founding of the Canada Council for the Arts in 1958.