Made au Québec is ELAN's most recent and most successful visibility project. It aggregates coverage about anglo artists from media all around the world and provides a summary of that information in French.
I used to do interviews with the francophone media. I'd be describing artists that were quite famous to us, and they'd say, “Pfft, never heard of them.” Now we can point to Made au Québec and suggest that maybe they have heard of The New York Times and the Grammy Awards, so maybe they should take a look at this artist, because they think they're important.
ELAN has also devoted a great deal of time and energy to building links between artists and educators and increasing the number of English-speaking artists in Quebec's culture in the schools program. ELAN's most recent project built on this foundation and added a new foundation. The project is called YEAH!—youth, education, arts, and health. YEAH! was a very ambitious project designed to increase connections between artists and the important sectors of education and health.
There are many benefits that flow from using the arts in a therapeutic way to stimulate learning and to address youth problems, such as bullying, depression, and at-risk behaviour. There are also many artists who have developed skills in this field. Creating additional revenue sources would help them stay in Quebec, and ELAN has been actively involved in making interventions to the CRTC concerning broadcast policy and licence renewals.
Film and television production can employ many artists ranging from actors, writers, and directors to designers and technicians. Last year ELAN persuaded Vidéotron to apply for a licence for an English-language community TV channel. This would stimulate productions, create many full-time jobs, and produce content that reflects the history and the reality of Quebec's English-speaking communities.