Evidence of meeting #105 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was artists.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
10:20 a.m.
Victoria Velenosi Founder, Brick and Mortar
I will answer that question.
Our business functions entirely on revenue that comes in from artists who rent our space. We don't have any funding. We are completely self-sufficient. Over the last six years we've built four different spaces, solely from the revenue collected from the artists who use and need our space.
10:20 a.m.
President and Professional Artist, La Filature Inc.
It is very similar with La Filature because, as I said, we receive no grants.
What we receive in return from the organizations and the artists to whom we provide spaces and services is principally the fact that the artists come to us, and work and produce with us. First, there are costs associated with that. In addition, people help us a great deal in return in the form of their volunteer work, without which we would not be able to exist. We would not be able to fund everything if we did not have a huge number of people working as volunteers. That is part of what we get in return, and what allows us to maintain a certain level of activity.
Otherwise, it would be totally impossible for us to operate financially, unless we became totally dependent on grants for our survival.
10:20 a.m.
Artistic Director, The Theatre Centre
The Theatre Centre's annual budget is over $1 million. Of that, 40% is earned revenue, 30% is public, and 30% is from private donations. That's the breakdown.
Our café really pays for itself. It's run as a social enterprise. We do get funding from all levels of government, but I feel that the work we do.... I didn't really describe some of the stuff we do. We support the research and development of new work across different disciplines, so we are the R and D hub. As in any other sector, there are always those places where new ideas and innovation occur, and that's the role we play in the ecology. That requires a level of subsidy, and that's at 30% of our annual.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
10:20 a.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My thanks to you all for coming to introduce your organizations in order to enlighten us a little about cultural centres.
Actually, I'll speak in English. Maybe you're not able to get the translation out there.
The theatre hub and Brick and Mortar surely are hubs, but in a different way. I would say that the Theatre Centre is a theatre hub, because you actually have citizens getting involved, such as having access to the rooms. If I'm not mistaken, you have two or three companies relegated to one room, trying to produce in that space.
What do you want this program to become? We've had a lot of witnesses at these meetings, and you come here as concrete examples of how it grows naturally. What's one thing that you need to support your actual actions and one thing that you don't want to see coming as an intervention that would sterilize or bleach the spontaneity of things?
Mr. Roy, Mr. Vigneau, Ms. Charland, once again, your organizations reflect all the spontaneity of a creative centre and all the spontaneity of artists working together. In your case, that seems to me more like a form of artists’ cooperative. Congratulations for your tenacity and for the authenticity of your testimony. We feel your ability to think freely; my congratulations once more.
Mr. Roy, EXMURO is clearly a kind of creative centre that was established some time ago in the Saint-Roch neighbourhood.
Quebec City seems to have the means to make itself beautiful today. The word “means“ occurs to me because you have talked about the private partners that support you. Each time I have seen something in Quebec City, it has always seemed to me that the quality of life of the people of Quebec City has been greatly enhanced. Just walking by a building and suddenly seeing trees coming out of windows is really wonderful, it is fun, it brings the place to life. I feel that work has been going on for a long time and your organization is the result of that, in a way.
I have this question for you. How do you see the Department of Canadian Heritage becoming involved in your program? What are the positive aspects and the potential dangers?
I will stop there, because I only have four minutes left.
10:25 a.m.
President and Professional Artist, La Filature Inc.
I just want to give you some additional information. What I expect from the Department of Canadian Heritage is to meet our needs, those in the area of equipment, for example.
Artists are often very good managers, even if they are artists. They are able to take care of the locations, the equipment, as a contribution to the overall development of arts and culture in Canada. We are not asking the Department of Canadian Heritage to do it for us. We are simply asking for the support we need for infrastructure. I just emphasize that we are sometimes dealing with very heavy machinery and it requires a lot of volunteer work. That is one aspect to consider.
10:25 a.m.
NDP
10:25 a.m.
Founder, Brick and Mortar
We are a self-sustaining model. We've proven that we can hold ourselves up within the community that we serve, without funding. I think the theme of the artists who come to us is that they're done waiting. They don't want to wait for grants either. It's too much. They're here, they're ready, and they want to do their art now. Nothing is going to stop them, and we can help them through that.
Kasey spoke to the need for more education and encouragement for artists to see themselves as creative entrepreneurs and have the education so that they can succeed faster, and fail less by trial and error, with a little bit more experience that can come from a training program or places where there is knowledge that can come from other sectors. Really, that is how we flourish, when the artists are able to do that. Our obstacle right now is that we are unfortunately running out of time in Toronto, with the gentrification and real estate market on a very fast track to pricing us out. In the meantime, while we're trying to get these artists to move faster into what they're inevitably working toward, perhaps there could be support for the spaces. Something the government could do would be tax credits and rent control offered to landlords willing to rent to small independent cultural hubs.
10:30 a.m.
NDP
10:30 a.m.
Executive and Artistic Director, EXMURO arts publics
Yes. I agree with Mr. Vigneau when he says that the situation may have made us very good managers. In concrete terms, we need stability in the form of grants specifically for operations, in order to complete our financial package. We usually do four or five major projects a year through international partnerships. We go to France and then we come back here, specifically so that we can arrange for works to circulate. Two of us take care of it all.
We talked about volunteer work earlier. Here is an example. We are paid for half of the work we do. The second half is about passion and faith. I have no problem with that. I am a creator and it is my passion. However, we face problems like professional burnout. We are always walking on a tightrope, for sure.
We also need a place in which to create. We are like mechanics who have to repair cars in the street. We need an actual place today. We do public art and, as you can see, the works are quite large. Artists do not generally have garages or workshops where they can weld or assemble large pieces. So that is a new service we want to provide. There is nothing of that scale anywhere else in Quebec City.
We also want space where we can store the works. What I am about to say will seem a little improbable, but sometimes we have to throw out some works just because we do not have storage space. The works belong to the artists. In a way, we are the managers of those works. For various reasons, the city does not want to buy them, and neither do we. Artists have nowhere to store them. The works are still in very good condition, as they only spend four and a half months in a public space. So we are talking about two to five years of stability. So, clearly, we need space. We have tried to move the works around, and it works very well. We also want to distribute them among the municipalities. In any event, we really need a location.
10:30 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
Could you take a quick 30 seconds, Mr. Boni, so that you get a shot into that too?
10:30 a.m.
Artistic Director, The Theatre Centre
For me, hubs are places that are about innovation, are nimble, and should be about providing places and spaces to voices we don't often hear, especially in places in an urban environment like Toronto, where the population is changing and the way people are living is changing. People are no longer engaging with these large monolithic structures. They're working and interacting with small, more human-scale places.
I would say that Canadian Heritage should seek out those places and those people who are actually creating space for those voices we don't often hear, and fund and support those human-scale spaces where people can really be authentic in their expression.
Also, that's not just artists. That's where citizens and artists meet. I feel that artists so often have been taken out of conversations around health care, science, climate change, and education, when in fact the one thing that we are is communicators, and the one thing that we have is imagination. For me, it's really key to be able to insert conversations around science and all of those issues, in art centres. That's what creative hubs can do.
10:30 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
Perfect. Thank you very much, Mr. Boni. I'm sorry. I have to cut you off there because we're running against the clock.
We'll go to Ms. Dhillon now.
10:30 a.m.
Liberal
Anju Dhillon Liberal Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC
Madam Chair, thank you for giving Mr. Boni that time.
I thank the witnesses for coming here to meet us this morning. I will limit myself to one question, since I am going to share my time with my colleague Mr. Virani. My question is for Mr. Roy.
Mr. Roy, I would just like to know whether you have worked with other cultural centres elsewhere in Canada.
If so, did it have advantages or disadvantages?
