Culture pour tous
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BILAN OF THE NINTH EDITION OF THE JOURNÉES DE LA CULTURE
1. THE PROGRAM
2. COMMUNICATIONS
“Come In!” to the ninth edition!
On September 30, October 1 and 2, 2005, Journées de la culture remained true to its 1997 mandate and continued to be, for the ninth time, a major cultural event that brings people together.
Highlights
- Over 2,000 free activities organized by 1,791 production partners, including 129 municipalities;
- The mobilization of 8,000 artists, artisans, and cultural workers throughout Quebec;
- More than 300,000 people who came together to see and discover the world of the arts and culture across a territory comprising 266 Quebec cities and villages;
- A special program, “Intercultural Encounters,” organized, for the first time, thanks to the cooperation of 50 ethno-cultural and aboriginal artists who were hosted by 20 Montreal cultural institutions;
- A first thematic event on cultural diversity in the arts, a public forum entitled “Le goût des autres”, that took place on the Place des Arts Esplanade;
- More diversified and increased media coverage;
- The high satisfaction of production partners, both in terms of the advertising campaign and their own activities.
The participation of the cultural sector
In total, 952 organizations, in association with 839 others, signed on to the ninth edition of the event to present their activities – a total of 1,791 production partners. This represents a 3.7% increase over 2004.
The cooperation between organizations offers many advantages. Not only does it allow the pooling of resources, but it also provides more opportunities for increasing the number of activities for the public. This cooperation is also desirable in terms of strengthening ties with corporations and organizations working in other fields (business, education, community work).
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THE PROGRAM
The program of activities, submitted by organizations and artists, was made up of 426 hands-on workshops, 98 guided tours, 126 forums and discussions, and 925 visits and demonstrations; a total of 1,575 activities, some of which were offered more than once over the course of the week-end. In other words, there was a total cultural offering of 2,173 activities available to the population. The activities took place in 266 municipalities.
As for the various disciplines represented, the visual arts sector was very dynamic, with 461 activities offered to the public, followed by the heritage and history sector, with nearly 300 activities. The music and song sector featured 238 activities, while 214 others touched on the fine crafts. The variety and sheer number of activities in all of the regions were once again the hallmark of Journées de la culture.
An exclamation mark printed next to an activity in the program guide and on the website indicated the daring, unique, or unusual nature of certain activities. The Secrétariat had pre-selected 145 such activities.
For the first time this year, a banner activity took centre stage in Montreal. The 100th anniversary of St. Laurent Boulevard provided the opportunity to unite some 200 creators during a 24-hour period of cultural activities on the “Main.” Presented by the Société de développement du boulevard Saint-Laurent, the “Cultural Occupation of the Main” enabled the public to discover the artistic and cultural riches of this decades-old street in Montreal, thanks to 75 activities: a resounding success both in terms of the artists’ participation and the public’s. Our Anglophone spokesperson, Melissa Auf der Maur, presented two sold-out activities: a workshop for teens on the creating and interpreting rock music, and an evening concert in honor of the “Main” accompanied by artists, friends, and lovers of the famed boulevard, including, among others, the McGarrigle sisters and Martha Wainwright.
Over 300,000 people participated in the activities, the same number as last year. This figure was calculated and averaged based on the evaluations sent in by 71% of our production partners. The stabilization of the public’s participation can be explained by factors such as the cancellation of activities by the school sector due to teacher boycotts, among others. Considering that the program offered free within Journées de la culture consisted mainly of workshop-type activities or personal encounters with artists or cultural workers in their own work environment, the public’s participation is nonetheless highly impressive.
Special program: Interrcultural Encounters
The Secrétariat des Journées de la culture produced a project this year aiming to highlight the practices of professional artists from ethno-cultural and aboriginal communities within the institutional art and culture network. Produced initially in Montréal, Intercultural Encounters featured 30 activities (workshops, demonstrations, group creations, readings and screening, discussions and debates) in cooperation with 20 cultural institutions and organizations and over 50 artists and collectives.
These novel pairings thus provided an invaluable platform for ethno-cultural and aboriginal artists and artists’ collectives, allowing them to share their work and creative process. From the aboriginal event at the Société des arts technologiques, to the activist filmmaking of Parole citoyenne at the National Film Board, not to mention the multilingual readings at the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, and Théâtre de Quat’Sous, Intercultural Encounters stood out as a rendez-vous with the creativity and dynamism of Montreal artists of all backgrounds. You can read the synopsis here.
This special program also allowed us to organize an outdoor event on the Place des Arts Esplanade on the theme of cultural diversity in the arts, entitled “Le goût des autres.” Along with artists and activists, the public was invited to enjoy music and theatre performances and voice their opinions on the issue of diversity during a “Café corsé” debate, hosted by our Francophone spokesperson, André Robitaille, and presented in collaboration with the Culture Montréal organization.
Intercultural Encounters also acted as a bridge with the Semaine québécoise des rencontres interculturelles, organized by the ministère de l’Immigration et des Communautés culturelles. Intercultural Encounters will be extended to Québec City and to the main regional cities throughout Quebec in 2006 and 2007. This first edition in 2005 was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Fondation du Grand Montréal, Cirque du Soleil, and the City of Montreal.
COMMUNICATIONS
Advertising campaign
"Come In!” was the theme of the campaign created by the BOS advertising agency. To the resolutely contemporary looking television ads in English and French were added radio ads in both languages. The overall value obtained for the campaign was 30% higher than last year. New broadcast networks were added on this year, as always thanks to the cooperation of the media placement agency, Carat Stratégem: MétéoMédia, Canal Évasion, RDS, and ARTV for television and the Corus network and MPV for radio stations.
The “Come In!” campaign was also used in the print media. Advertising was placed five times in the newspapers belonging to Gesca, i.e. Le Droit, La Presse, La Voix de l’Est, Le Quotidien, La Tribune, Le Nouvelliste, and Le Soleil, supporting the television and radio campaign which invited the public to consult the online program on the Journées website.
National launch
The national press launch was held in collaboration with Place des Arts, where guests were invited to gather on the stage of Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Over 125 people attended, including 17 journalists. The event took place in the presence of the Ministre de la Culture et des Communications, Line Beauchamp; spokespersons André Robitaille — who garnered rave reviews for his double role as master of ceremonies — and Melissa Auf der Maur; representatives from our sponsors: Stella Leney, General Manager, Corporate Affairs at Hydro-Québec and Isabelle Courville, President, Enterprise Division at Bell Canada; and the Director General of Journées de la culture, Louise Sicuro. In order to mark the launch of the 9th edition, the choir of the École Joseph-François-Perreault, composed of 170 youths, sang the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th symphony.
Media Campaign
The availability and generosity of our two spokespersons were the key factors in obtaining media coverage. A great number of interviews were given by André Robitaille and Melissa Auf der Maur. In the written, electronic, and Internet press, there were 742 reports, including 457 articles published in regional weeklies; 127 radio broadcasts; and 61 television broadcasts throughout Québec. Twenty-five reports were broadcast on the Internet. All of these reports were overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic.
Spokesperson André Robitaille and Director General Sicuro participated in three regional press launches, which took place in Québec City, in cooperation with the City; Windsor, in the Eastern Townships, in cooperation with the Conseil régional de la culture; and in Shawinigan, in collaboration with the Corporation de développement culturel de Shawinigan and of Alcan.
Program guides
The list of activities was published in six separate regional guides. The Montreal/Montérégie and Laval/Laurentians/Lanaudière guides were inserted in La Presse, the Lower St. Lawrence/National Capital /Chaudière-Appalaches guide was inserted in Le Soleil, the Centre-du-Québec/Estrie/Mauricie guide was inserted in Le Nouvelliste and La Tribune, and the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean guide was inserted in Le Quotidien. The English version of the Montreal guide was inserted for the very first in The Suburban, a weekly distributed to subscribers across the Island of Montreal.
The Secrétariat opted to buy advertising space to publicize the program of activities throughout the Côte-Nord, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Outaouais, and Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine regions. Thus, local newspapers in these regions published the programs twice. This strategy was conclusive: the public’s participation in these regions remained stable.
Website
The Journées de la culture website was used by both the production partners, as a reference document, and by the general public who could consult the program online. Our production partners could find all of the pertinent information they needed (registration forms, communications guides, etc.) and had access to the Journées’ promotional material (logo, general information, web banner, etc.).
The online program was also user-friendly for the public thanks to new and improved search criteria and redesigned visuals. The site attracted approximately 35,000 internauts, which corresponded to the number of users in 2004. The contest by our sponsor, Bell, was featured on the homepage: 1% of users participated, the average rate of participation for web contests requiring several steps.
A project in collaboration with the Canoë website generated hundreds of hits by internauts. Over a dozen cultural organizations agreed to act as beacons for promoting the Journées by displaying banners advertising the event on their sites (ARTV, Culture Montréal, etc.).
Statistics from the Journées website showed that 90% of users wrote in the full domain name for the Journées in order to access the site, while 25% bookmarked the Journées site.
Information kiosk and exterior banners
For the first time, the Secrétariat des Journées organized and hosted, in collaboration with the Société de la Place des Arts, an information kiosk located in the corridor leading to the Place des Arts metro station, in Montreal. Starting on the Thursday preceding the Journées and right up until the Sunday, a team of volunteers and employees met the public, distributed the program guides, and suggested activities to the many commuters: 4,000 English and French program guides were handed out, and over 6,000 more were made available in stands located in various public areas throughout the city.
Furthermore, 8,500 posters were sent to production partners to post at the site of activities; 4,500 other posters were put up in public spaces in Montreal, Québec City, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Rimouski, Gatineau, and Saguenay; and 50,000 biodegradable balloons were also given to organizers of activities, who already had banners for exterior display.
Again this year, a large number of production partners (organizations, municipalities, independent artists) produced and distributed their own promotional material (posters, flyers, press releases, bulletins, etc.) featuring the national campaign’s colors. Every year, we have seen an increase in the way these groups and individuals have taken on the tools created by the Secrétariat and made them their own. For us, this is a testament to Journées de la culture’s ability to bring people together.