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.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
I'm sorry. I'm going to have to cut you off there, just because now you're over your time. You might be able to bring that out through some of the questions.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
No, don't be sorry.
We will now be going to Brick and Mortar, please.
Kasey Dunn Founder, Brick and Mortar
Good morning, and thanks for the opportunity to speak about cultural hubs in Canada.
Brick and Mortar is a small business that runs arts hubs in Toronto. Vikki and I run four spaces that are available to artists, community groups, and companies to rent. We serve dozens of groups every day and have a client base of over a thousand. We rent out the space on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis. We offer basic equipment and the support needed for a variety of arts uses, all at cost, with no long-term commitments. We have commercial leases or partnership agreements in every building where we work. We cover the cost of the rent, property tax, insurance, and utilities, and stock the spaces with the basic necessities.
To us, arts hubs are spaces that provide whatever enterprising artists need in order to use their skills to create their own employment. We provide do-it-yourself resources for them to take the first step towards start-up companies. Because we are the venue where these budding creators are taking their first plunge into entrepreneurship, we are also the place where they experience their first challenges or failures.
We opened the spaces because we believed that a lack of space was the main challenge facing artists. We have discovered that although the cost of space is a problem to artists, this is really more a symptom of a bigger problem. Even when we are able to offer space for free, it doesn't guarantee the type of success artists need, nor does it lead to sustainable employment. Creators need more from us than just space. If nobody comes to buy their tickets, their art, or their services, they are still not succeeding, no matter how cheaply we can provide the space, and many of them have no idea where to start. In order to imagine how an arts hub like Brick and Mortar could flourish, we must instead imagine how our artists could flourish. Our vibrancy is really just a reflection of the community that we're trying to serve.
In order to be successful, we need successful clients who can come back to us to produce over and over again. Our biggest challenge is an inability to retain our customers. This isn't because they go elsewhere to other hubs. It's because they quit entirely and leave the industry. They face overwhelming barriers that they don't have the training or resources to overcome. While we do work with some established companies like Stratford or Shaw, the bulk of our clients work on a project-by-project basis. They are very vulnerable clientele, which leaves us vulnerable in our attempts to cater to them rather than the larger, better-funded groups.
We recognize that not all artists are interested in starting a business, but the ones who come knocking on our doors are, even if they don't quite see it that way yet. A desire to create on their own, take control over their own careers, and earn income from their craft leads them to our doors. They require more support to bridge the gap to start thinking of themselves as entrepreneurs.
We believe the Government of Canada can help foster this new developing ecosystem. We think the most dire need is training at the intersection point between art and entrepreneurship. Every company and artist we have worked with talks about the lack of any kind of education in the fields of marketing, finance, or administration as it applies directly to the arts. Even though it has become culturally accepted that self-producing is the first step to getting started in the arts industry, none of our college training programs prepare students for this reality. We need programming that learns from the innovative start-ups in the private sector and applies it in the arts sector. Funding would be well spent in the creation of courses to offer business training to artists who want to start companies.
Within hubs themselves, funding is needed to administer training, workshops, and mentorship programs that can guide artists on how to use our spaces effectively. Rather than grants that offer artists one-time funding for projects, we would love to see a focus on company development and sustainability like the type of start-up grants offered to entrepreneurs in other fields. Hubs managers like us could also benefit from more business management training opportunities. After all, we're really just learning through trial and error too.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
Thank you very much.
The floor now goes to Mr. Roy, from EXMURO arts publics.
Vincent Roy Executive and Artistic Director, EXMURO arts publics
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Honestly, I must say that I did not expect such a meeting. I thought it would be a little more intimate; I am quite impressed.
My name is Vincent Roy. I am the founder and the Executive and Artistic Director of EXMURO arts publics. The organization's mandate is essentially to disseminate and design temporary public art projects in the public space. I founded the organization in 2007. At the time, I was working in artist-run centres, but I found that this research community did not have many links with the public. It was all about the current arts. I decided to go outside the walls a little and make the art accessible to the public.
Gradually, the projects grew. At first, this was new in Quebec City. Then, the city nd the municipality realized the potential that public art could bring to people's experience and the joy of living in the city. Since then, we have been fairly well supported by the levels of government, especially by the municipal level.
This year, EXMURO will hold the fifth edition of “Passages insolites (Unusual Passages)”, an event funded almost 100% by Quebec City.
I will present the project “Passages insolites (Unusual Passages)” by trying to make my remarks so as to repeat the themes that are the subject of your study, namely cultural centres and cultural districts.
In Quebec City, between 1990 and 2000, then mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier wanted to revitalize the Saint-Roch neighbourhood. Today, it is quite trendy, gentrified and very much alive. It's a sort of cultural lung. It used to be a bad, even a little dangerous, neighbourhood. Mayor L'Allier decided to create a park and make low-cost artists' studios accessible to them by exempting them from business taxes. He also created a number of artists' studios. In a short time, the neighbourhood was revitalized. It is therefore an inspiring example. Some might say that it exploits artists, but when you put artists together, it's a real strength.
In the past three years, we have witnessed a phenomenon called “artistic branding”. The Saint-Roch neighbourhood is now a technocultural neighbourhood and the Place-Royale/Old Port Crescent and the Quartier Petit Champlain, very touristy places, have now become “Le Quartier Création“. Finally, the Montcalm neighbourhood has become the Quartier des arts.
It seems that everyone wants to appropriate the artistic identity, which is very good because there is, in my opinion, a potential for attractiveness. Branding has to come from the heart. It must come from the core, from the artists. Artists must work there and develop their practices. When artists take over a place, an ecosystem is created.
Later, I will show you images of “Passages insolites (Unusual Passages)” to allow you to see what we are doing. The idea is sort of like decentralization. Thanks to “Passages insolites (Unusual Passages)”, which has been around for four years, there are a dozen works installed in Old Quebec, that is to say in highly touristy areas. So we have the chance to meet a lot of people.
Moreover, in the last year, there was a desire to decentralize, to move to the suburbs, to the boroughs, in order to reach more people by taking the power of art outside. Personally, I see it sort of like an antenna broadcasting what we do in the cultural centres. I think it's important to keep culture and public art in the cultural lung, in the cultural centre.
However, it may be one of the last bastions. I do not know whether it's the same here or in your ridings, but a number of local businesses have been decentralized, meaning that they have moved to the suburbs. Shops and commercial businesses in the downtown area are now spreading to the suburbs. In my opinion, we must keep this kind of ecosystem in cultural centres.
You will now see scrolling images.
Initially, the objectives of the Passages Insolites (Unusual Passages) project were to promote public art. As I just said, we decided to create the brand of a creative neighbourhood. Afterwards, we actually had to create. We were given a substantial envelope totalling $150,000 to create public art in historical neighbourhoods. By presenting contemporary works of art, we had the opportunity to create a contrast with the historical side of the city, that looks just like old Europe. It’s truly a great privilege. This initiative is much talked about and is very successful. Initially, it was supposed to last only one year, but because of the success of these works, it was decided to renew the initiative for a second year, then for a third. This is our fifth edition.
Municipalities are beginning to understand that this could also bring residents back to the neighbourhood. Earlier, I talked about the power of art. The residents had gradually abandoned Old Quebec, but we realized that living in these neighbourhoods and creating such cultural projects would make them more enjoyable, in a way. Young people might also want to settle there. We are no longer dealing with traditional tourism or Disneyland-inspired tourism.
Today, the idea is to bring residents back to the neighbourhoods they have left. At EXMURO, we work in the city centre, in the Saint-Roch neighbourhood, which is the cultural lung.
One aspect of your study struck a chord with me. My understanding is that when you talk about cultural centres, they are also institutions and buildings.
Executive and Artistic Director, EXMURO arts publics
We work outside, but we are regrouping with organizations to create a kind of cultural centre in Old Quebec. The building in question is a former fire hall with an area of 8,000 square feet. The city is renovating this place in order to meet the standards. This is the beginning of repositioning artists in the tourist development. In the coming years, I think we will see developments around this cultural centre.
This meeting helped me find out about a fine federal program of financial support. So I will probably come back to see you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
Thank you. Perhaps there will be some time left after the presentations for questions.
I will now give the floor to the representatives from La Filature.
Welcome, Mr. Vigneau and Ms. Charland. Thank you for joining us.
Jean-Yves Vigneau President and Professional Artist, La Filature Inc.
Good morning, my name is Jean-Yves Vigneau. I am, first and foremost, a visual artist, but I am also the President of La Filature. Let me introduce Diane Charland, who is responsible for bookkeeping and day-to-day administration. She works part-time whereas I'm a volunteer.
La Filature is located on the other side of the river, near the city centre of Gatineau, beside the Brewery Creek. Let me give you a very brief history, with one decade per sentence.
In the 1980s, more precisely in 1983, the situation was problematic: artists were leaving the region to settle in the big cities, especially in Montreal. Artists, of whom I was one, decided to come together. We found an old abandoned building that belonged to the municipality and, like many other organizations, we started to take care of the place and move there. The place was named AXENÉO7. We had a first exhibition, that of a young artist, in September 1983. Three years later, with the advent of new technologies, such as video, the DAÏMÔN artists' centre was created.
A little before 2000, it became clear that we absolutely had to move. We had been thinking about it for years. The building we were in was going to fall into ruin and the space was much too small. In collaboration with the AXENÉO7 and DAÏMÔN artists' centres, which are artist-run production and distribution organizations, we took steps to reclaim an old industrial building that had been boarded up for about 25 years. It was contaminated and nobody wanted it.
It took artists to dare to embark on such an adventure, but we did it. That project, which cost $2.5 million in 2002, was funded mainly by the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications, the City of Gatineau—which was still called Hull at the time—and Canadian Heritage whose contribution, through the Canada cultural spaces fund, made up about 7% of the overall budget and helped with the purchase of equipment.
La Filature, which has been around since 2002, is today an organization that is doing very well. It is not subsidized. It is a building, a piece of land, a space that belongs to the artists. We are the owners and we manage it. La Filature, as well as the AXENÉO7 and DAÏMÔN organizations, about which I will say a few words later, share the costs. We also rent some workshops to artists. Costs are shared. Funding comes from people’s contribution to fees and expenses. We cannot really talk about tenants. We operate a bit like a cooperative. In addition, there is a lot of volunteer work.
As I said earlier, there are two organizations in the building: AXENÉO7 and DAÏMÔN. Both centres have built a reputation across Canada. They act locally, nationally and, increasingly, internationally, allowing artists to come and create new works and present them. Since we have been established there, the place has grown more and more. It has become a gathering place. There are, for example, openings and launches of exhibitions. Hundreds of people go there, and I can tell you that they come from both sides of the river.
I must also say that La Filature manages a series of productions. The artistic productions come mainly from the two organizations, but also from individual artists. AXENÉO7 and DAÏMÔN not only design programs, but they also occasionally carry out large-scale projects that you may have heard about. Last year, in 2017, for Canada’s 150th anniversary, we held a major exhibition entitled “À perte de vue”, which brought together a dozen artists from across the country, major artists who have produced major projects.
The organizations that are in that building work with a budget of approximately a half million dollars a year to support activities, aside from special events like the one in 2017, which almost doubled previous operational budgets.
We have been in that building since 2002, so 16 years already. We are beginning to think that the old building we renovated more than 20 years ago is starting to be behind the times. Increasingly, organizations and artists are feeling somewhat crowded, they lack space. So we already have some renovation, expansion and development projects on our drafting table. There are all kinds of possibilities that would allow us to meet the needs.
In 2002, we developed a project that could last 20 years, but now we see that we have to think ahead to the next 20 years. I don't know if I will be here in 20 years, but I was here 20 years ago.
That is a brief summary of the activities that allow us to present the projects of artists from various locations. Our centre really acts as a strong meeting place for artists who practice visual arts and contemporary media arts throughout the region, and who also work nationally and internationally. Over the past two or three years, for example, we have been able to host several indigenous and Inuit artists to come and produce artworks. We try to be as broadly open as possible to Canadian production.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
Thank you very much.
We are going to proceed to our questions and comments period.
Mr. Hébert, you have the floor.
Liberal
Richard Hébert Liberal Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you for all of these excellent presentations.
My first question is for Mr. Vigneau and concerns La Filature. We see on your website that Canadian Heritage is your partner in that it provides 7% of your budget.
Does the department support you in other ways?
Could you suggest recommendations that would allow Canadian Heritage to support you more?
President and Professional Artist, La Filature Inc.
La Filature does not receive support from anyone except for the building's renovation. Quite recently, one of the organizations, DAÏMÔN, received a subsidy from Canadian Heritage for the installation of cultural equipment to set up a sound studio, which it had never managed to do before.
In fact, we have always wanted to demonstrate that if we are allowed to put in place equipment, infrastructure and tools, it is then our responsibility to manage them. As I often say, we don't want to ask a government body to pay our heating and hydro bills. However, we can't afford to invest, borrow and incur debt to renovate a building or even to expand it, because that would be an enormous burden for the organizations and artists who depend on subsidies.
As I was saying, AXENÉO7 and DAÏMÔN are mainly supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. The artists who use these workshops also occasionally receive grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres of Quebec, but we can't call that guaranteed income.
Liberal
Richard Hébert Liberal Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you.
My next question is for Mr. Roy.
You are currently exhibiting a work entitled “Myth and Evidence” and I have for a certain time had the pleasure of seeing this unicorn that is exposed at the intersection of Laurier Street and the Portage Bridge.
What are the repercussions—I'm not talking about money but about the impact on the population—of your projects in the areas where they are exhibited?
Executive and Artistic Director, EXMURO arts publics
Yes, I did not speak to that in my presentation.
Under a contract with the Department of Canadian Heritage, we take works that were used in the “Unusual Passages” project and we reinstall them elsewhere and circulate them. The circulation of artworks is something we can increasingly work with, because there is a demand for that.
We brought four works into the region, two in Ottawa and two in Gatineau, and “Myth and Evidence” is one of them. In fact, we went to see it yesterday — the unicorn — and she's doing very well.
You asked me about the impacts of our projects. We aren't always next to the works, of course. Citizens and passersby can view them, and they are as autonomous as possible. According to the comments we receive, the impact is really on quality of life. That is what I noticed since the foundation of EXMURO 10 years ago. If there is no public art, what is there in our public spaces? What poetry can there be?
We must not underestimate the impact looking at something for pure pleasure can have on people, something that is not publicity and is not trying to sell you anything. That amuses people and reassures them. They are simply happy to see something that surprises them. We play a lot on that relationship people have with free art. Those are the repercussions we observe most often.
Thanks to the millions of photographs that are taken, we benefit from high visibility. It's quite phenomenal, and means that these art works travel virtually throughout the world. Our reality is very linked to images. It's always a good thing for a city or municipality to project an image of openness, daring and originality.
Liberal
Richard Hébert Liberal Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
What difficulties did you encounter when you created your organization? Once again, how can our government help you to continue to evolve?
Executive and Artistic Director, EXMURO arts publics
In the beginning, the main problem was that municipalities refused to exhibit public art, but now, they are more open to that. They have even loosened certain rules. In the beginning, our works were considered like billposting, and municipal regulations had to be changed.
Ten years later, there is a demand, population asks for these. We also have to operate with revenue of $400,000, $500,000 or $600,000. Our funding is granted per project. We don't receive operational funding from the Conseil des arts et des lettres of Quebec, nor from the Canada Council for the Arts. Our operational funding is only $5,000. We feel this makes our projects more precarious.
We have a lot of support and the projects are going well, but it's as though we never managed to obtain operational subsidies because envelopes were saturated. That is changing a bit, and we are going to try to take advantage of it.
We are forced to manage our organization somewhat like a business, to the extent that we cannot depend entirely on subsidies, and so we create projects and partnerships. This makes us fairly dynamic in our search for funding. Operational funding is what we lack the most.
There's also the new location where as creators, we want to get together to create things together. The city of Quebec is renovating the building to bring it up to code — at a cost of about a million dollars — and we are the tenants. It's an empty envelope. There will also have to be an installation phase.
We have reached the point where it can really become a dynamic location and where we will really be able to take our place, and expand in the ecosystem of the environment.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Thank you, Chair. I thank all of our witnesses this morning.
In studying these cultural hubs and districts, we see that you folks are providing many different types of services: contemporary art, crafts and design, theatre, dance, writing and publishing, libraries, music, museums and heritage, and film and television, etc. I noticed that some of the presenters here talked about operating like a business, like you said, Mr. Boni. Some of you have a café in the facility, or a bakery.
But everyone seems to be focusing on the need for assistance in funding, whether it be from the municipal or district government, or provincial or federal, especially for building some of the complexes and stuff like that. We hear quite often that the better the complex is and the bigger it is, the more use it seems to generate in the cultural hub. I am curious for those.... This question goes to all four of you. I will start with Mr. Vincent Roy.
Do you expect any payment back from the people, the artists, who are using your facilities, whether they're learning or training there? Also, do you get a financial return from some of the people who have developed, or gained experience, or prospered through your ventures?
Executive and Artistic Director, EXMURO arts publics
When we started, we did not have an operating budget. We have not had one for 10 years. We designed quite a creative way that allows us to find funding and obtain partnerships, a clientele, if you will, in the municipal sector but sometimes also in the private sector, by organizing events.
In a sense, we did the opposite, that is to say that we did not wait to have an operating budget and the possibility of occupying a building as tenants. We have no physical location. We just have an office. Our space is the public space. After 10 years, we want to move to the next stage, that is to say, to have a space where we can create. As I was saying, we have an operating budget of $5,000 and a budget for fixed costs of approximately $150,000 per year. I have to go and find contracts. In that context of self-funding, we really have to find original and creative ways of doing things. Earlier, I started to talk about the fire station that we are perhaps looking at using. We also have to rent space for other artists, with all the equipment they need. Equipment and storage are in great demand. That brings self-funding to us.
We cannot open a café, since the location is not really open to the public because of the regulations. We want to try to monetize our creative space and to not depend on grants. Grants are fragile because it is always possible for them to be taken away. That would be signing our death warrant.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Maybe I could hear from one of the other witnesses. You still never did answer the question, and maybe one of the other witnesses can.
Are you getting remuneration back from the artists who are using these facilities, and do you expect to get any remuneration back for the services you are providing them? It could be through the building. I'm curious as to whether you get anything back from the people you are helping at present or will help in the future.
Executive and Artistic Director, EXMURO arts publics
Okay. I will answer quickly because it does not seem that I did so.
The service that we provide to the artists is in organizing events. Our clients are the municipalities. We hire the artists and we pay them. Alternatively, they can rent the production spaces.