Culture pour tous

Two MRCs Undertake an Art at Work Project

 

In response to an invitation from Culture pour tous, two Municipalités régionales de comté (MRC) undertook an Art at Work project with their employees in 2010. In Vaudreuil-Soulanges, two mosaics created with the artist Madeleine Turgeon will soon adorn the regional municipal court and the MRC head office. At the MRC du Fjord-du-Saguenay, employees chose to create a wooden storage unit as a nod to the region’s forests and lumbering industry in cooperation with the artist Pierre-André Vézina.

MRCs are bodies that coordinate relations among municipalities and administer municipal services in Quebec’s regions. In recent years, several MRCs have revised or adopted a cultural policy, which the Quebec Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine describes as “a political and public gesture recognizing the importance of culture in a community’s development.”

Sortir du cadre at MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges

In Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Cultural and Social Development Officer Nadine Maltais was involved in developing the MRC’s cultural policy which was adopted in 2006. She saw the invitation from Culture pour tous as a chance to do something that would help employees and citizens realize the significance of the policy.

Talks were initiated within the MRC in the spring of 2010. According to Maltais, “At first we had to convince people of the advantages from a cultural and a human resources standpoint. We had to overcome their reservations related to the uncertainty and vagueness of the project and how it would be carried out. Management was definitely open to the idea but wanted more details.” Culture pour tous contributed at this point by providing supporting arguments. “Then,” she says, “we had to roll up our sleeves, find an artist and decide on a project.”

In an informal consultation, the employees showed an interest in a collaborative work made from recycled materials that would express the coherence uniting their individual efforts. The project clearly required “someone who was organized, autonomous and able to lead,” explains Maltais. She consulted the directory of artists in the MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges and chose Madeleine Turgeon, an active member of the artist collective Autour de nous, with whom the MRC had worked on a previous cultural project, Art on the Bike Path.

Discussions began in the fall of 2010 to flesh out the project based on the themes, images and elements that the employees wanted to see. Turgeon made sketches and then reworked them to produce the final drawings that would guide the creation of two mosaics during the winter of 2011.

When it came time to create the works with the employees, the notion of pleasure was important. “I wanted it to be fun,” says Nadine Maltais. “We initially wanted to draw up a schedule for the employees’ participation but that didn’t necessarily work with their priorities. The actual situation inclined us instead to adopt a flexible mode of voluntary participation depending on when the artist was present in the workplace.” It was suggested that employees reserve about three hours of workshop time over two days, during working hours, to help create the mosaic in the room set aside for that purpose. In addition to prep time, Madeleine Turgeon ended up spending over ten days sharing her passion and explaining her art and techniques to the employees.

Réal Brazeau, Warden of the MRC and Mayor of Rigaud, says that the project enabled participants to “step out of the role of promoter, get hands-on experience and actually see how a work of art is created.”

Meubler des secrets at the MRC du Fjord-du-Saguenay

At the MRC du Fjord-du-Saguenay, which adopted a cultural policy in 2009, it was Cultural Officer Ariane Fortin who piloted the project through to completion, on December 22, 2010. After she told the MRC’s Executive Director, Christine Dufour, that she wanted to undertake an Art at Work project, the process took off with the support of the MRC Council.

To consult employees regarding their preferences, Fortin prepared a questionnaire listing various artistic practices such as arts and crafts, performing arts, media or visual arts, and literature. Based on this informal survey, which revealed that the employees favoured a project involving wood, Fortin consulted the directory of artists in the MRC and invited Pierre-André Vézina, a multidisciplinary artist, set designer and furniture designer.

An initial session took place with the artist, who proposed converting a piece of furniture into a cache for secrets, which would also be used for communications and sharing information, like a bulletin board or suggestion box. Employees were skeptical about the project at first and there were doubts about the aesthetic results, but the sessions subsequently picked up steam: introduction to the creative process and furniture design; creation of a blog; brainstorming about the piece of furniture; creation of teams, reflection about the design and placement of the furniture; creation of its components; assembly and finishing.

The choice and fabrication of the piece of furniture thus resulted from a reflection process through which the employees took responsibility for the project. It was at the recycling depot La Ressourcerie that they found an old wooden school desk they could transform into a storage unit, a cache for secrets and confidences.

Meubler des secrets

Ariane Fortin admits that it’s hard to get everyone to work together but all employees were invited from the outset, and about a dozen out of the MRC’s staff of 30 took the project to heart and saw it through to the end. Others contributed to the blog recording the experience. The work sessions mainly took place during breaks, especially at lunchtime, occasionally running over into work time.

Despite the initial doubts, the employees put their trust in Ariane Fortin at all steps in the decision-making process, recognizing her knowledge of the arts and the local environment. While the idea of a cache for secrets is more whimsical than utilitarian, this eye-catching piece of furniture now graces the lunchroom at head office, welcoming whatever anyone cares to confide to it.

Teamwork: A model for sharing and a source of pride

There are many similarities between these two projects conducted within a regional government body. One of the more positive impacts is undoubtedly a sense of pride in having carried out a collective project under the guidance of an artist. Employees who were unsure of what they were doing could count on the two artists to coach them in this group experience.

Both projects involved work in which everyone could contribute to a common goal. It gave people in different fields and with different jobs at the MRC a chance to interact and get to know each other. Guy-Lin Beaudoin, Executive Director and Secretary-Treasurer of the MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, is pleased with this collaboration. “If you’re looking for an activity to bring employees together and build team spirit, it’s ideal. An Art at Work project is only a small expense but a huge investment in teamwork!”

MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges

Number of municipalities: 23
Number of employees: Approximately 17 at head office and 8 at the regional municipal court
Project: Collective creation of two mosaics, with artist Madeleine Turgeon
Person in charge: Nadine Maltais, Cultural and Social Development Officer
Duration (concept and production with the artist): November 2010 to April 2011
Budget: $5,000 (artist’s fees, materials and administration costs)

MRC du Fjord-du-Saguenay

Number of municipalities: 13
Number of employees: Approximately 30 (to be confirmed)
Project: Creation of a storage unit from a recycled school desk, with artist Pierre-André Vézina
Person in charge: Ariane Fortin, Cultural Officer, Villes et villages d’art et de patrimoine (VVAP)
Duration (concept and production with the artist): September to December 2010
Budget: $4,500 (artist’s fees, materials and administration costs)