Culture pour tous

A cultural buffet all year long!

As this new year begins, the Culture pour tous team wishes you peace, joy, health, prosperity— and, of course, a generous helping of culture!

Still trying to come up with a constructive resolution for 2010? Mark September 24, 25 and 26 on your agenda! Those are the dates of the 14th Journées de la culture, a great cultural democratization initiative that just keeps on growing and getting better and better. Last year, more than 300,000 Quebecers sampled this cornucopia of culture, and we’re hoping to have even more participants in September 2010. Watch for the invitation to this year’s edition, which promises to be even more open and inclusive. Coming soon!
www.culturepourtous.ca/journeesdelaculture.

Citizens, to the arts!
(Re)Connecting citizens, artists and the arts

On the occasion of the 2010 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, Rideau Hall is organizing an Art Matters in conjunction with Culture pour tous.

The forum will look at initiatives by artists and administrators who are creating new ways to interact with citizens and will be held on Tuesday, February 23, from 6 to 8 p.m at the Société des arts technologiques (SAT – 1195, boul. Saint-Laurent, Montréal). It will be a wonderful opportunity to bring them together around Their Excellencies the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean and Mr. Jean-Daniel Lafond to discuss and examine the challenges facing culture in our society.

The panel will be moderated by Anne Lagacé Dowson (CJAD 800), with the following guests: Simon Brault (General Director, National Theatre School of Canada), Frédérick Gravel (Dancer and Choreographer), Patricia Perez (artist and mediator, TOHU), Gisèle Rucker (Academy Director, Segal Centre), Monique Savoie (President and Chief Executive Officer, SAT).

Registration at conference@gg.ca before February 19^th 2010.
Info : www.citizenvoices.gg.ca

Seminar on Cultural Mediation

Culture pour tous and the Cultural Mediation Research Group are organizing a new seminar for the cultural and community sectors on Friday, March 26 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Maison des Conservatoires (4750 Henri-Julien Avenue, Montreal)

The daylong session will provide an update on the Research Group’s work, followed by workshop discussions on case studies in different sectors. The morning plenary will feature a discussion of different approaches to cultural mediation (guests to be confirmed), while the four afternoon workshops will focus on initiatives in the arts, institutional, municipal and community sectors. The plenary is open to everyone, but the workshops are limited to 20 participants each.

See the schedule (in French, PDF format).

Details will be posted on our website as they become available. Register early at 514 873-2641 or toll free 1 866 734-4441.

Art and culture—at work!

Culture pour tous invites you to be daring and try something different this year: invite an artist into your factory, store, studio or lab.

Create a collective artwork with your employees as a training activity, an employee motivation initiative or a celebration of arts and culture. Our website has a new list of turnkey projects for your workplace. And to inspire you to get you involved, have a look at the video (in French) describing the development of three projects conducted in 2009 with SAP Labs Canada, La Capitale Financial Group and the Laurentian Forestry Centre.
www.culturepourtous.ca/artatwork

Culture Days/Fête de la culture Project Attracting Interest Coast to Coast!

Initiated by the Canadian Arts Summit based on the model of Les Journées de la culture held in Quebec since 1997, the Culture Days/Fête de la culture project is picking up steam.

Task forces consisting of cultural organizations, artist groups and public and private institutions in different provinces, including Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia, are getting busy to ensure that activities are organized for the inaugural edition to be held in September 2010. Project director David Moss and coordinator Helen Yung are set up in the offices of Culture pour tous, where they can benefit from the support and collaboration of the Culture pour tous team, and are about to get things rolling.
The project has recently received very favourable coverage in three major newspapers—The Globe and Mail, National Post and Le Devoir. To receive project updates directly in your mailbox, join the Culture Days mailing list at: www.culturedays.ca/inscrire.html.

Le Devoir article (French)
National Post article (English)
Globe and Mail article (English)

What are the territories for cultural mediation workers?—An important question at an important forum

Culture pour tous and its French partners Espace Pandora and Médiation culturelle worked in close collaboration on organizing the important international forum on cultural mediation held on November 30 and December 1, 2009, as part of the Entretiens du Centre Jacques Cartier.

More than 200 people listened attentively to the numerous discussions on mediation practices in the cultural, political and social spheres. The event was attended by a dozen Canadian artists, administrators and researchers brought together by Culture pour tous.

More articles about the forum (in French):
- La médiation dans les mailles du tissu social, François Deschamps, territorial.fr
www.territorial.fr
- Art pour tous. Ils et elles sont parmi vous, Normand Thériault, Le Devoir, www.ledevoir.com

Social Solidarity in the Heart of the Appalachians
Saint‑Venant‑de‑Paquette’s poetry walk breathes new life into the region

For close to 15 years, the hundred or so inhabitants of the tiny village of Saint‑Venant‑de‑Paquette have worked together to create a poetry walk and save their historic church. The poetry walk is a trail connecting some ten sites featuring works by local artist Roger Nadeau, writings by Quebec poets and interpretative elements about the surrounding forest and horticultural environment. Local residents and visitors gather at the poetry walk’s tree house or church‑museum for performances, lectures, plays or creative workshops or come to lend a hand during work bees.

Agir par l’imaginaire
Artistic expression helping women in the justice system

In a joint project undertaken by the Société Elizabeth Fry du Québec and Engrenage Noir / LEVIER, two women’s prisons, a psychiatric hospital and a halfway house invited artists to lead multidisciplinary creative workshops to reveal the inner world of female inmates.

The right to cultural development

In 2009, to mark the 15^th anniversary of the inclusion of the right to cultural development in the Belgian Constitution, the organization Culture et Démocratie is encouraging people to think about the meaning and application of this basic right. As part of this campaign, it has published Culture et vous?, a comprehensive information kit on this crucial issue with relevance far beyond the borders of Belgium.
www.cultureetdemocratie.be

Art & the Public Purpose: A New Framework Launches

An American Working Group on Cultural Policy was created in May 2009, following a White House Briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery. This stellar group of founding endorsers has released a proposal calling for “a bold new investment in culture, a policy recognizing that culture holds the key to a future we can believe in.” The new Framework proposes five key concepts to support art’s public purpose.
www.newculturalpolicy.org