The Vancouver Forum and meeting in Victoria

October 27, 2008

My trip to the British Columbia was a real pleasure! The weather was exceptionally beautiful, although I did not get to see much of it, busy as I was meeting with people.

It started early in the morning on Wednesday, October 22, when I was invited as guest speaker at a breakfast meeting of the Downtown Vancouver Association, thanks to the good offices of Andrew Wilhelm-Boyles, Executive Director of the Vancouver Arts Alliance. This was an opportunity for me to present the CCA to a group of about 15 people interested in arts and culture and to have an open discussion about the theme of our Regional Forums. The importance of working at the local level to position arts and culture, the relationship between arts, culture and education and the need to work on our collective image with the population at large were raised during the exchanges which followed my presentation.

The same themes were raised again during the Forum which was held during the afternoon at the Vancity Theatre, where about 35 people had gathered to discuss priorities and strategies. Education was raised again as a very important component of a long-term strategy to better position arts in our society and it stemmed from this discussion that it was necessary to develop a comprehensive strategy which would target local, provincial and federal decisions-makers. Fragmentation of the sector was also raised and it was suggested that maybe what was needed was a provincial organization modelled on the CCA, that is, an umbrella organization which would cover all disciplines and walks of life, intervene at the provincial level and work with the CCA at the national one.

People also welcomed the CCA’s objective of developing into a sort of think tank doing basic research on broad issues affecting the arts and culture sector at large. The importance of creating and maintaining a central repository of information and statistics accessible to artists, organizations, governments and the public at large was also underlined.

My next stop was Victoria, where I had the opportunity to meet with a number of members of the Professional Arts Alliance of Greater Victoria in the beautiful Belfry Theatre complex. The smaller group led to an animated exchange and raised some interesting suggestions concerning possible strategies to improve the profile of arts and culture in general and with Ottawa politicians in particular. I was particularly interested in hearing about an idea that had been discussed in previous years but has not yet come to fruition, namely the notion that national arts service organizations should look again at the possibility of coordinating Annual General Meetings so that they could take place over a period of a week in the nation’s capital and use the opportunity to hold an advocacy operation on the Hill.

My interlocutors also raised concerns about the fact that there may a temptation for the federal government to concentrate its attention and policies only on a few large centres of excellence to the detriment of mid-size communities which also have, and must continue to have, thriving arts and culture institutions and organizations.

My next regional forums will be in Edmonton (November 3), Calgary (November 4) and Regina (November 6).

The Ottawa Regional Forum

Ottawa, Friday October 17, 2008

Well, the ice is broken! On Friday, we held in Ottawa the first of our Regional Forums: only 13 more to go before mid-December… I must say that if they are all as animated and stimulating as this first one, my tour of the country promises to be rewarding.

About twenty-five people gathered at Arts Court on this brisk but beautiful autumn afternoon to discuss the questions put to them by the Canadian Conference of the Arts: how can we best work together to put arts and culture permanently on the public agenda? What should be our collective priorities for the next couple of years? What strategies should we develop to ensure these priorities get the attention they deserve?

It was noted that while there were reasons to rejoice that for once, arts and culture had figured prominently during an election campaign, this was done in a way that proved divisive within Canadian society. Apart from the rhetorical excesses which sometimes characterized the debate, the most worrisome aspect of all this was that there obviously still is a large number of citizens who view arts and culture as a luxury and an elitist concern, and perceive artists as eternal whiners never satisfied with the handouts the government gives them.

It was pointed out that we are partly to blame for this perception. It is true that, as was the case during the campaign, artists and culture professionals make themselves heard mostly when they clamour for more subsidies or protest against something (e.g. Bill C-10). The sector has an image problem which must be addressed and we must find ways of re-branding it by showing not what we ask or demand from society but rather all the things we give to it.

Participants have invited the CCA to put this item on its list of priorities and be at the centre of such a reflection to help craft a message and a strategy to help Canadians understand that artists and cultural workers make an important contribution to society, beyond the economic one highlighted during the federal campaign. It was noted that while important, economic arguments are fraught with danger in that they may support the view that the only art worth having is the lucrative one. Measured by that yardstick alone, van Gogh would never have achieved the status of one of the main painters of the 19th century!

Next Forum, Vancouver on October 23rd!

Welcome to the CCA Regional Forum Blog!

Thanks to a set of circumstances which nobody could have foreseen, arts and culture have occupied with politicians and journalists a most unusual place in the course of the federal election campaign. The question is, what will happen on the day after the election?

Several months ago, the CCA had chosen the theme of its March 2009 National Policy Conference and of the series of Regional Forums which will precede it: how can we best work together to better position arts and culture in public debate? We could not have been more topical if we had tried!

During the next two months, I will travel all over the country to consult with members of the CCA and will all those who are concerned about the important place arts and culture occupy in our society and who want to raise its profile with Canadians at large and with decision-makers in particular.

During the whole process, I will keep here a diary on the highlights of each forum. I invite you to follow this series of consultations to see what is on the mind of your colleagues across the country, the common priorities they think we should adopt and the short, mid and long-term strategies we should adopt to make sure arts and culture occupy the place they deserve on the public agenda.

But even more, I invite you to write your comments and suggestions as the consultation process unfolds. And of course, I urge you to register for the forum which will take place in your province.

I look forward to reading you and, better still, of meeting you!

Alain