Culture pour tous
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REPORT OF THE 11th EDITION OF THE JOURNÉES DE LA CULTUREThe flagship event of Culture pour tous is the annual Journées de la culture, during which participatory activities to discover and appreciate the arts and culture are offered free of charge to the Quebec population. The event is produced with the voluntary support of more than 8,000 artists and cultural organizations, who organize thousands of activities and opportunities for meetings between artists, cultural workers and citizens. The 11th edition of the Journées de la culture took place on September 28, 29 and 30, 2007. In the call for projects sent out to cultural organizations, the theme was “Innovation through collaboration.” Across Quebec, 350,000 people participated in the activities. Of the 75% of partners who responded to our survey, The national movement of municipal resolutions In order to encourage all Quebec municipalities to participate, we launched the municipal resolution movement calling upon municipalities to follow the lead of the National Assembly and designate the last Friday in September and the two following days as Journées de la culture. To date, 191 municipalities covering 16 regions of Quebec have joined in. The list of municipalities that have adopted resolutions is available on our Web site at www.culturepourtous.ca. The movement is organized in co-operation with Les Arts et la Ville and the Union des municipalités du Québec. PROGRAMMore than 2 100 activities were held during the Journées, in 272 municipalities of Québec. Art at work In 2007, eight companies took part in the pilot project Art at Work, which aimed to increase the presence of professional artists in the workplace and further integrate the cultural dimension into all sectors of society. The collective works produced as part of the project were unveiled during the 2007 Journées de la culture. These artworks now belong to the companies, which are exhibiting them in their workplaces. A video that shows the artworks and contains excerpts of interviews with the artists and company executives can be viewed on our Web site at www.culturepourtous.ca/artatwork. Intercultural encounters The 3rd edition of Intercultural Encounters was expanded to include 12 municipalities in 7 regions of Quebec. Around 50 sponsoring institutions and organizations as well as 200 participating artists offered some 100 activities, such as workshops, demonstrations, collective creations, readings, screenings, talks and discussions. Intercultural Encounters wrapped up on Sunday, September 30, in Montréal with an event at the Cinquième salle of Place des Arts called Le goût des autres, organized in collaboration with Diversité artistique Montréal. The event was designed as a reflection on today’s hybrid art practices and featured cinema, music, dance and a panel discussion. A report on the panel, moderated by Michel Coulombe of Radio-Canada International, is available on the Intercultural Encounters Web site at http://www.culturepourtous.ca/interculturel/index.htm. Free shuttle buses in Montréal Thanks to financial support from Groupe Financier Banque TD and the collaboration of the Société de transport de Montréal, a free shuttle-bus service was offered for the second year during the week-end of the Journées de la culture. In 2007, the service was oriented around theme stops spread out over two routes serving close to 180 activities near the theme stops (in comparison, the service covered 150 activities in 2006). PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGNThe promotional campaign Become more cultured in just three days was well noted. Journées de la culture microsite Another innovation this year was our microsite, which took up the same design as the promotional campaign. We received many compliments for the site’s graphic design and the efficiency of our search engine. The site, which went online on September 6, was visited an average of 1,029 times per day between September 6 and 27. A peak was reached during the Journées, from September 28 to 30, with 5,685 unique visitors per day. A total of 40,000 people checked out the site. Contest For the first time, a contest was set up in collaboration with Cyberpresse, under the title “Ready to become more cultured?” More than 12,500 people participated. According to Cyberpresse, this is one of the highest participation levels achieved for a contest that was only open for 14 days. Here are the winners: Donavan Savoie from Saint‑Hubert, Robert Bissonnette from Princeville, Louison Fortier from Montréal and Nathalie Jacob from Québec. Promotional material • 20,000 posters containing the logos of the Government of Quebec, Groupe Financier Banque TD and Hydro-Québec were distributed. For the whole of Quebec, 650,000 program guides were distributed in the form of four leaflets (Abitibi-Témiscamingue/Nord-du-Québec; Côte-Nord; Gaspésie; Outaouais) and seven booklets (Bas-Saint-Laurent/Capitale-Nationale/Chaudière-Appalaches; Centre-du-Québec/Estrie/Mauricie; Lanaudière/Laurentides/Laval; Montérégie; Montréal English, Montréal French and Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean). The program guide was distributed as an insert in the Gesca daily newspapers and the regional weeklies on Saturday, September 22. In addition, 20,000 copies were freely distributed. Press conference to launch the Journées The national press launch, held on September 18, 2007, at the Parquet of the Centre CDP Capital in Montréal, was an unqualified success. The “talk show” format taken up for the occasion was entirely appropriate and made the ceremony less formal. Our two spokespersons took part: André Robitaille in person and Melissa Auf der Maur via a video message. |