Renewed vigor by volunteers and staff in recent years has brought new life to the Federation and expansion is again underway.

[2] At his opening address at the Kingston conference Bieler insisted that "we should not try to unify ourselves or to attempt to make a school that would cover the whole country.

The other organizers were Gordon Sinclair (Western region), Ernest Lindner (Saskatchewan), Byllee Lang (Manitoba), A. Y. Jackson (Ontario) and Walter Abell (Maritimes).

[6] The FCA became a powerful national lobby for public patronage of the arts, recognized as the legitimate representative of Canadian artists.

It is an organization formed to unite all the artists in Canada, whether member of existing societies or not, in a federation which it is hoped will become a power in the country.

[10] In June 1944 the Federation and other national art organizations prepared a brief on cultural aspects of Canadian post-war reconstruction.

In the 1980s the FCA began to organize annual painting seminars on Saltspring Island, which drew students from across western Canada and the USA.

[16] in 2013, due to chronic underfunding from any level of government, the FCA went through another revitalization under Executive Director Patrick E. Meyer.