Dorothy J. Killam was an American-born Canadian philanthropist. She was the wife of Canadian financier Izaak Walton Killam. When he died in 1955 she inherited his fortune and continued to build it until her own death 10 years later. She engaged in philanthropic activity during her lifetime and left her estate to a number of Canadian educational and research institutions.

The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.