Bard on the Beach founder Christopher Gaze appointed to Order of Canada
Governor General Louise Arbour named Gaze and 60 others to the national honour, recognizing his five decades building Vancouver's Shakespeare Festival.
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Christopher Gaze, founding artistic director of Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, has been appointed to the Order of Canada in Governor General Louise Arbour's latest round of appointments.
The official appointment describes Gaze as "a visionary arts leader whose career spans five decades of performance, education and advocacy. As founding artistic director of Vancouver's Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, he built it into a major cultural force, championed youth outreach, and strengthened British Columbia's arts community through mentorship, public engagement and dedication."
Gaze received the Order of British Columbia in 2012 and was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire in His Majesty The King's Birthday Honours List earlier this month for services to British arts and culture in Canada.
Since Gaze founded Bard on the Beach in 1990, the festival has grown to a $10 million budget and welcomes more than 100,000 visitors annually. The festival just opened its 2026 main-stage productions: The Merry Wives of Windsor and Macbeth.
Gaze has also just released a new biography titled The Road to Bard: A Legacy of Shakespeare on Canada's West Coast.
Among the 61 new Order of Canada appointments announced Friday are other major figures from Canada's arts and entertainment world, including Burnaby's Michael J. Fox, who was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada. Fox drives transformative research and advocacy through his foundation and has inspired millions through his writing, public speaking, and the 2023 documentary Still.