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CULTURE
MONTRÉAL'S NEWSLETTER •
NEWS FROM CULTURE MONTRÉAL
An Emerging Artists and Practices Committee is set up Following the resolution adopted by members of Culture Montréal during the Annual Meeting on March 18, the Board of Directors has established an Emerging Artists and Practices Committee. Marie-Claude Parenteau-Lebeuf has been named chair of the committee. It will serve as a space to represent emerging culture and to value the concerns of up-and-coming artists. The committee intends to encompass new disciplines and diverse cultures. In the near future, it plans to collaborate with the Forum Jeunesse de l’île de Montréal and to invite the members of Culture Montréal to a public meeting. The establishment of a new committee also represents a call for an injection of new blood into our organization. Continuity and renewal on the staff of Culture Montréal In order to ensure the smooth running of our organization and implement our action plan, Louise Poulin has agreed to become the acting executive director of Culture Montréal. Starting this week, Lily Gaudreaut will join the permanent staff, taking responsibility for internal and public communications. Accordingly, both women have withdrawn from their seats on the board of directors. Highly active on the board and various working committees at Culture Montréal, Ms. Poulin and Ms. Gaudreault have the capacities to keep the organization on track while giving it the stamina it needs for the upcoming year, one that promises to be exciting and intense. The Culture Montréal team would not be complete without Estelle Litalien, assistant to the director and membership coordinator. On staff for close to a year now, she maintains close ties with the members and works on all our special projects. It goes without saying that the board of directors will support and uphold the efforts of the permanent staff. 18th Annual Symposium of Les Arts et la Ville : Mutations sociales / Métamorphoses culturelles Culture Montréal has long been a member of the coalition Les Arts et la Ville and is pleased to be participating in its 18th symposium, scheduled for May 11 to 13 in Gatineau. As we noted in a recent newsletter, David Moss, general director of the Opéra de Montréal and a CM board member, will be a panelist at a round table on the future of “classical” culture, to be held on May 11 at 1:30 pm. This year’s symposium will examine several social themes of interest to Culture Montréal: demographic change, globalization of exchanges, technological innovation and the impact of these changes on the vitality of local cultural life. We invite you to consult the special insert published in Le Devoir on May 7, 2005, in which we express our support for the coalition. To register for the symposium, visit www.arts-ville.org/accueil.html
The Grande Bibliothèque: Culture Montréal welcomes a new space of convergence Culture Montréal would like to pay tribute to the recently opened Grande Bibliothèque and acknowledge the enthusiastic reception the public has given to the activities surrounding its opening. The new institution deserves credit for encouraging cultural democratization and strengthening the collective memory, for example by joining forces with the Archives nationales du Québec (by the end of this year) and by opening the doors of Quebec’s largest city to the rest of the province and indeed, the world. In addition, the building and adjoining park integrate works of art by several Quebec artists, including Dominique Blain, Roger Gaudreau, Jean-Pierre Morin and Louise Viger. With the opening of this prestigious institution and the planned revitalisation of avenue Savoie in the Quartier Latin, the Ville-Marie borough achieves its rightful prominence. We invite you to read the inspiring speech given by president director-general Lise Bissonnette at the opening ceremonies on April 29. The speech has been posted to our website and to that of the Grande Bibliothèque. Creation of a cultural investment fund, Placements Culture Following its policy of encouraging public-private partnerships, the government of Quebec announced in its recent budget that it was counting on the private sector to increase investment in the cultural industries. More concretely, the government allocated $5 million to the creation of Placements Culture, an investment fund management firm. The idea stems from one of the courses of action identified by the policy committee set up last fall by Line Beauchamp, minister of Culture and Communications. Several representatives of the cultural sector sit on the committee. The mission of Placements Culture is to manage and turn to profit the funds contributed by non-profit cultural organizations, which will remain the owners of their respective assets. While the government believes that Placements Culture will encourage the private sector to inject funds into the cultural industries, the Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres (MAL), for its part, does not expect the undertaking to be successful, at least for smaller organizations, and sees in it worrisome signs of the government’s withdrawal from its commitments (Le Devoir, April 22, 2005). Culture Montréal intends to follow this matter closely, observing the committee’s recommendations and the impact on this fund on the cultural milieu. Concerns about the FrancoFolies’ change of dates to June The change of dates of the FrancoFolies—from late July to late June starting in 2006—has caused considerable discontent within the Montreal cultural sector. The Fête nationale committee for Montréal, the Mouvement national des Québécoises et des Québécois, the Fringe Festival and Présence autochtone/Montréal First Peoples’ Film & Video Showcase have all expressed disagreement with the proposed change to the summer schedule of major cultural events. Filmmaker and singer-songwriter Richard Desjardins recently weighed in with his support of the First Peoples’ festival. The date change of the FrancoFolies could even have an impact on the city of Québec. The management of the Festival d’été de Québec fears that its event would become confined to the status of regional complement; that the cultural offer in June would be oversaturated; that it would lose media visibility; and that it would end up competing for sponsors with the Montréal festival. Although Équipe Spectra has long wanted to permanently change the dates of its festival, it insists that the current change was initiated by the City of Montréal, which asked it to advance the dates because of the August 2006 Gay Games and the logistical impossibility of holding two major events simultaneously. Until now, an equilibrium between summer cultural events had been maintained. Will the date change and controversy it has aroused throw that fragile balance out of whack? Can Montréal, city of festivals, allow that to happen? Heritage Montréal identifies ten at-risk heritage sites Heritage Montréal has compiled a non-exhaustive list of ten heritage sites at risk of deterioration or demolition. The list includes Silo No. 5, church towers, the city’s typical staircases, balconies and cornices, the Carmelite convent, Redpath House, the 9th Floor of the former Eaton’s department store, the Saint-Sulpice library on St. Denis and Montréal’s former central library. Dinu Bumbaru, director of policy at Heritage Montréal, warns that if these architectural items fall into oblivion, they often end up being demolished. He believes the sites should be opened to the public so that people become aware of their worth. Last January, Culture Montréal submitted a brief on the draft heritage policy (see http://www.culturemontreal.ca/positions/memoires.htm that sets out the main issues related to reconverting and protecting heritage sites.
A legendary concert hall is re-opened: the Habitat Saint-Camille A young company, Concerts Spectaculaires !, has embarked on a revitalization project for the Habitat Saint-Camille to give the concert hall back its finery of yesteryear and offer a compelling new program of cultural activities in the too-often neglected borough of Montréal-Nord. The “Concert Intime” series features unique, often acoustic performances by veteran and emerging artists. More than just an addition to the city’s existing cultural facilities, the project represents the reappropriation of a heritage site by citizens and young artists. For more information, http://www.concertintime.com. The Ville-Marie borough loses some of its powers to the central city Since the municipal fusions, the division of public events had come under the jurisdiction of the Ville-Marie borough; now Gérald Tremblay’s administration has brought the division back to the central city. From now on, promoters of major festivals will deal with the central services to obtain their permits for the occupation of public property. The borough council will no longer apply the regulations concerning use of public property; they will fall under the responsibility of the City’s executive council. The mayor of the Ville-Marie borough, Martin Lemay, considers the move “a political and administrative power grab […] that goes against all Gérald Tremblay’s fine words about decentralisation and bringing power closer to citizens.” On the other hand, Francine Senécal, responsible for culture and heritage on the executive committee, claims that simplicity is of prime importance and “there will be a single gateway that will be able to coordinate the whole process from start to finish.” (Le Devoir, April 23, 2005).
15th World Congress and Festival of the Arts for Young Audiences From September 20 to 30, 2005, Montréal will host the 15th Congress of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ). On the program are speeches, debates and workshops on the state of youth theatre, along with some 30 plays for young audiences. This prestigious event, which is totally in keeping with Montréal’s ambitions to become an international-scale cultural metropolis, brings together participants from nearly 80 countries around the world. The Festival Coup de théâtre will provide the event’s infrastructure. For more information, see the event’s website at www.montreal-2005.com. Cork 2005, European Capital of Culture The second largest city in the Republic of Ireland after Dublin, Cork took on the title of European Capital of Culture in January 2005. This symbolic designation by the European Union comes with funding of 500,000 euros and serves to highlight the cultural dimension of the European project, as distinct from its economic and political aspects. The European Union plays a key role in the development of national cultures and the European culture, both through financial assistance and through regulatory provisions and legislation. (Le Monde, April 30, 2005)
Conference on theatre on May 12 The Conseil québécois du théâtre is organizing a conference under the title Le théâtre à tout prix to discuss the potential for pooling physical, material and human resources among theatre companies and to evaluate the financial means available to them. The day of discussion will take place on May 12, 2005, starting at 8:15am at the Grande Bibliothèque (1660 Berri St.) and starting at 4:00 pm at the Maison Théâtre (245 Ontario St. E.). For more information and registration forms, please see http://www.cqt.ca/Congres/Defaut.asp. Seminar on theatre for young audiences With a view to encouraging the development of theatre for young audiences, the Maison Théâtre in cooperation with the Festival Petits Bonheurs is organizing two days of seminars on issues relating to creativity in children’s theatre. On May 9, cultural workers, educators, artists and parents are invited to a day of discussion and reflection. Admission is free, but reservations are required at the Maison Théâtre box office at (514) 288-7211, ext. 1. On May 10, Anne-Françoise Cabanis will lead a workshop aimed at professional artists who wish to develop an artistic form for very young children and to study issues related to such a practice. The fee is $30 and it includes a pass for the Saturday, May 7 performance of Premier (ét) âge. For this activity, it is also necessary to sign up at the Maison Théâtre. 20th anniversary of the Native theatre company Ondinnok On May 7 at 8:00 pm at the Maison de la culture Frontenac, Ondinnok will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a benefit show to recognize the accomplishments of Quebec’s only Native theatre company. Going beyond conventional folklore and the commonplaces of politics, Ondinnok is an innovative company that forms a bridge between Native communities and the modern world. See the company’s Web site at http://www.ondinnok.org/ondinnok_english/ondinnok_eng.html. Free show at the Montréal-Nord library The premiere of a show entitled Écrits et musiques du Québec will be held on May 17 at 7:00 pm at the Montréal-Nord public library (5400 Henri-Bourassa Blvd E.). Spectators will hear works by several authors including Marie-Claire Blais, Alfred Desrochers, Jacques Ferron and Culture Montréal board member D. Kimm, along with music composed by Gagnon, Hétu, Léveillée, Vigneault and Leclerc. Admission is free, but call the Montréal-Nord library to reserve tickets at (514) 328-4128.
Trees, an integral part of Montréal’s natural heritage Citizens interested in making their voices heard on the City’s draft Tree Policy are invited to attend a public consultation on May 5 at 7:00 pm at City Hall. The consultations continue on May 18. The policy, which regulates the felling and planting of trees and the protection of trees in the public domain, is expected to be adopted by elected representatives at the municipal council meeting scheduled for June. The policy can be viewed at http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/services_citoyens_a/tree_policy. Consultation on the CMM’s draft metropolitan land use and development plan The metropolitan land use and development plan is based on the land use framework policy adopted by the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM). It is presently being submitted to public consultation. Citizens may express their views through the discussion forum, by sending an e-mail, by submitting a brief or by attending one of the public meetings. The meetings are scheduled for May 17 in Montréal-Est, May 18 in Montréal-Centre and May 19 in Montréal-Ouest. For more information on the land use and development plan developed by the CMM and to obtain the procedure for participating in the public consultation, visit http://www.cmm.qc.ca/psmad.
NEXT ISSUE: May 18, 2005 Culture Montréal wishes to thank its members, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications, the Cirque du Soleil and the Ville de Montréal for their financial support. Culture Montréal
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