Catherine Bourgeois is Co-founder and Artistic and General Director of Joe Jack & John. Photo credit: Thibault Carron.

is Co-founder and Artistic and General Director of the MontrĂŠal-based theatre company . The company works at the intersection of theatre and life, creating theatrical productions with inclusive teams, including neurodivergent artists and artists with intellectual disabilities. Catherine has co-designed and directed most of the company’s productions, has received several accolades, and pursues more equitable professional recognition for women and artists living with disabilities. She spoke with PANL Perspectives as part of our “Making Canada Accessible” series.

Question: What have been your funding and production strategies in the face of barriers?

Neurodivergent artist Michael Nimbley directed and starred in “Les waitress sont tristes” (“The Waitresses Are Sad”). Photo credit: Joe Jack & John.

Catherine Bourgeois: Through two decades of work, one of the barriers has been recognition of our work, recognition of the fact that people with disabilities can be professional artists. Recognition from our peers has been more difficult to obtain than recognition from audiences and the general public. Recognition from funding bodies has been challenging as well, but not as much as from peers.

We came to life before EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) in the arts. For the first eight years, we rented bars, lofts or any place where we could produce our site-specific projects, because nobody wanted to program us. That was a real challenge. We’d design the locations and bring in audiences — and challenge the notion of audience, actor and the rapport between the two — but funding didn’t follow us, because we didn’t produce or present our work in professional theatres.

We got onto people’s radar when we were maybe 10 years old. The lack of recognition forced us to turn to philanthropic and private-foundation funding. We focused on the positive elements of what theatre means in the life of people living with a disability. Our strategy was to integrate people with a disability who were marginalized and outside of community, society and the arts. So, we emphasized the social and human impacts of our work.

It sometimes felt a bit stuck, because on one side, we were trying to be recognized for our work artistically, and on the other side, we looked like we were doing social work or community outreach, but our main strategy was to frame and create kick-ass work. We created the best work we could with the little means we had – and we wanted to people to see a show and say, “Oh, my God, that’s a great artistic production.”

Question: What productions stand out in terms of leadership and artistry?

“Violette” starred StĂŠphanie Colle. Photo credit: Michel St-Jean.

Catherine Bourgeois: We’re rather proud of everything we accomplished in the last few years. “” was a one-on-one spectator actor show involving Virtual Reality, pre-pandemic, and we went on tour with it later. It allowed the spectator to enter the privacy of the actor’s room — and then to enter her imagination. It was very intimate storytelling, with a lot of poetry around the way we were talking about a very harsh subject matter: the historical exploitation of women with an intellectual disability.

Edon Descollines starred in “Le magasin ferme” (“The Closed Store”). Photo credit: Marie SĂŠbire.

After that, “” (“The Closed Store”) was created and performed by the exceptional Edon Descollines, an artist with an intellectual disability who is proof that the work of a creator is enriched when supported by human and material resources. Le magasin ferme offered “relaxed performances,” which means it was open to all, specifically to people who have a sensory or intellectual disability, a neurological or learning disability, and to people with newborns or special needs.

That was followed by another show, “” (“The Waitresses Are Sad”), as part of our program of inclusive leadership, a show directed by neurodivergent artist Michael Nimbley, artist-in-residence since 2018 and a regular performer with the company. It was about a cowboy who seeks adventure, but who we discover is an alter ego for Michael dreaming about escaping his lonely life. The show offered Quebec Sign Language (LSQ) and a few relaxed performances as well.

Question: Do your shows they take on current events and issues head-on?

“Cispersonnages en quĂŞte d’auteurice” (“Cis-characters in Search of an Author”) opened two years ago and is still touring — and is a cheeky commentary on appropriation, privilege, cancel culture and the role of the artist in society. Photo credit: Thibault Carron.

Catherine Bourgeois: Our recent shows contained strong political stances, the kinds of shows we would not have pitched or produced five years before, because we were on project-based money back then, and every project had to have some kind of realistic or appealing aspect to it. Multi-year funding gave us more freedom to recruit people we identified as leaders in our community of intellectually disabled people.

Our most recent show, (“Cis-characters in Search of an Author”), opened two years ago, and is still touring. It’s a cheeky commentary on appropriation, privilege, cancel culture and the role of the artist in society. The show raises questions — and no answers – because, it’s like, “Oh, there’s actually grey zones and more complexities if we involve people with an intellectual disability to conversations about appropriation!” We asked non-disabled actor to act out a disability for example – and that created discomfort and many questions about who plays what, and why and why not.

Our main focus is the process, not the product. So, yes, there are productions, but our main focus has always been an inclusive process, such as collective writing, and not forcing words and ideas on actors. We work collectively, and that’s been part of the mandate since day one.

All our teams are inclusive in terms of non-disabled and disabled artists, and we’re always questioning the work. A new colleague just told me, “Everything here is getting questioned all the time,” and I said, “Oh, I didn’t even notice.”

Question: Over the years, have you noticed a change in who’s sitting in the audience?

Productions such as “Cispersonnages en quĂŞte d’auteurice” (“Cis-characters in Search of an Author”) have attracted diverse audiences across Canada. Photo credit: Thibault Carron.

Catherine Bourgeois: Yes. All our shows list Accessibility, with what’s available and not available, such as audio descriptions (for blind and low-vision patrons) or sign language interpretation (for the Deaf). On our , “Accessibility” is a tab, along with “Synopsis” and “Credits” tabs, for each show.

In the past seven years, we’ve been doing more “relaxed performance” – with sound, light, smell and other accessibility cues that create an environment for different kinds of abilities and a wider range of people, whether it’s a mom breastfeeding or someone with Tourette Syndrome being shushed during a show. Overall, there’s more work with accessibility initiatives, Quebec sign language interpretation, and audio description. So, we see real change in terms of accessibility for audiences across Canada.

For us, it’s important to develop other audiences, for people who can recognize themselves on stage. We noticed that relaxed performances became more formalized in Montreal and in Canada – and we’ve shared knowledge, and supported that.

Joe Jack & John is on , and . Catherine Bourgeois is on .

In 2014, a blaze broke out at the (GSA) in Glasgow, Scotland. Students watched on social media as firefighters suppressed the flames. In the end, there were no casualties and 90% of the structure was salvaged, but the famous was destroyed and the GSA’s roof and the west wing suffered major damage. A £20 million plan to rebuild was devised soon after the fire. However, incredibly, in 2018, with restoration well under way, another fire ripped through the Mackintosh Library, causing extensive damage. Two years of restoration work went up in flames.

The Macintosh Library.

How ready was the GSA to attract and retain supporters for the cause of re-restoring the building? In 2014, the first fundraising drive had started successfully: the reputation of the GSA, and the significance of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish architect who designed the Mackintosh Library, generated community trust, a rush of celebrity and foundation donations, and an outpouring of giving to reach the ÂŁ20 million goal.

But, after the second fire, four years later, there was little steam behind the second appeal, and no celebrities rushed to support the cause. Instead, there was dissent and disinterest from the national government and local community. Local residents protested over the continued lack of access to their homes near the GSA, and legal action was threatened. The media seized on narratives of management failure and abuse of funds. In 2023, costs to rebuild were anticipated to be ÂŁ100 million.

Artist Claire Henry summed up the emotional response: “We wept the first time. We were enraged the second time.”

Mab Coates-Davies explains what happened in both campaigns and the valuable lessons learned – for anyone involved in disaster philanthropy and fundraising. The Mackintosh Library is estimated to reopen between 2027 and 2030. The hope is that the phoenix will rise from the ashes.

For the full paper, click here: Disaster Philanthropy Goes to Art School, By Mab Coates-Davies, 2023

Question: These are unique, powerful and beautiful. What’s the story behind them?

David Gourlay

David Gourlay: I started at Shepherds of Good Hope Foundation in April 2020, so it was during the pandemic. We had to significantly pivot in how we engaged community members, potential donors, fundraisers, everyone. This was the time to tap into curiosity and imagination. How would we get the word out to support our good work, to support individuals in our community who are homeless? We have a small team of seven people, and we had to reimagine fundraising and philanthropy.

I’m a huge music fan. One night, I was watching online music videos, and I saw a song from an organization, , which re-imagines and re-produces familiar songs by travelling the world and capturing different musicians, instruments and rhythms to create beautiful compilations of great songs. I heard an incredible version of Robert Johnson’s — and it triggered me. I said, “We should do this in Ottawa.”

We contacted a number of musicians, and chose the song , by The Beatles, because everyone knows that song and because it’s about hope, optimism, opportunity — things you need if you’re living on the street during an Ottawa winter.

Q: Did the musicians volunteer their time? How did that work?

Kathleen Edwards appears in “Here Comes the Sun,” at Quitters, a landmark cafe in Stittsville.

Gourlay: I worked with a series of incredible local musicians who put their hearts and souls into their respective pieces. They played outdoors, at landmarks in the Ottawa-Gatineau region. We put near the Beaver Pond, in Kanata. We put at the Pimisi Light Rail Train Station, in LeBreton Flats. We put Davis Dewan on Abbey Road, in Alta Vista, because of course, Here Comes the Sun first appeared on The Beatles’ Abbey Road album. , who helped put together the entire production, had a musical bit on the Flora Footbridge, in the Glebe.

We wanted to support the musicians, so we offered compensation. We never approached them assuming they were going to volunteer their time. It was Covid, so concert halls and live music had stopped. Musicians struggled — and they’re still struggling. Not all of the musicians accepted compensation, but we always offered it. The majority accepted.

Q: How do you measure success with these videos?

Gourlay: Success was based on community response and feedback. Also, we raised money on Here Comes the Sun, which we launched as part of a virtual event in June of 2021. The video went viral, thanks in part to , who had volunteered for us when she was a teenager and who posted about the song on social media.

And the feedback we got from many community members, and from around the world, was, “What a great thing to do — to lift up our spirits and to give us a few minutes of something positive.” We wanted the public to enjoy their community and recognize certain musicians and sites in their city — like playing the sitar at the Museum of History, with Parliament in the background. These were really cool impressions of our community.

After that, we did the song , by Ben E. King, when the pandemic, due to Omicron, got severe for Shepherds of Good Hope — when it devastated our volunteers and staffing in early 2022.

The song after that was Lean On Me, which was positive and depicted the value of community members helping one another. Each of our songs speaks to the values of our organization: empathy, compassion, community, belonging, acceptance, hope, optimism.

Q: Do the music videos raise much money or awareness, or both?

Gourlay: These songs raise money, and we more than break even. We raised $15,000 on Here Comes the Sun, which was remarkable, because we’d never done a project like that before. But these music videos aren’t huge donor opportunities. The main purpose is to introduce our organization to Ottawa – to people who don’t know much about us. Music is a universal and powerful language. Most people like music, and when they see something that’s unique and creative, they stop, listen and give us a few minutes of their time. Each video contained the Shepherds of Good Hope brand, and we were lucky that many community members, such as some residents at , spoke, danced, played the guitar and sang in the songs.

“We wanted the community to listen to Ozzy, to understand homelessness outside of stereotypes and stigma. Most homelessness is a temporary experience for people.” –David Gourlay.

So much of the work we do as fundraisers is to grow our brand, increase awareness, and hopefully, to create initiatives that resonate with people. Afterwards, people contact us to discuss philanthropic giving. The road to a donation isn’t just the direct ask. We have to be more imaginative to inspire people to consider a donation. We have to be more curious about how to incentivize people who aren’t giving.

It’s important for us to constantly incorporate into each video who we are as an organization. Here Comes the Sun included residents from The Oaks. Stand By Me included our volunteers from the kitchen, because volunteering during the pandemic was a huge challenge. Lean On Me included Ozzy, a shelter user who lives on the street and who’s very articulate about his struggles with trauma. We wanted the community to listen to him, to

Q: What’s next in terms of music and Shepherds of Good Hope?

Singer-songwriter Michael Curtis Hanna.

Gourlay: We have a new video, the fourth, , an original song by local musician and singer . Eric wrote the song, which speaks to our organization’s purpose. We just released it.

We tentatively have plans for a fifth video next year. And, now, we’re thinking, “What can we do with five songs? Is there a fundraising concert in the future? Could we bring the musicians together to showcase their talents?” There are all kinds of creative ideas that we’re looking at. We can tell our story through music.

Q: Do you have advice for others who are considering doing similar arts projects?

Gourlay: My advice is to be creative, to be imaginative, to be curious.

Gourlay: Ask yourself, “How else can you connect?” Interconnectedness as a community, as people, is at the heart of being an effective fundraiser. You have to have an ability to challenge your thinking and your team’s thinking on how to connect with people. We talk in fundraising about the “case for support.” Long gone are the days when a case for support is a 20-page pdf, a 10-page pdf, that somebody may read the first paragraph of, or not. You have to be very creative, very imaginative, very curious about what’s going to attract a person’s attention, because that’s a huge challenge in today’s world, with the saturation of social media, information, misinformation, all this kind of stuff. It’s hard to capture someone’s attention today.

Obviously, in terms of the mechanics of these projects, you need partners. You need to build relationships with the music industry or whoever. We work with members of the , which does fantastic work in our city.

And any nonprofit organization will benefit from having a team that’s imaginative, creative and curious — a team that works together to come up with ideas. It’s important to connect differently with the community, to connect with prospects and donors, and to spread the message about your work.

David Gourlay, Chief Executive Officer at Shepherds of Good Hope Foundation, is on . Photos are courtesy of Shepherds of Good Hope.

Question: How is your work as a performing artist connected to your work as an arts researcher?

Megan Lindsay (as Mary Magdalene) in Opera Atelier’s “The Resurrection” (2021). Photo by Bruce Zinger.

Lindsay: As a musician, I’m very aware of the power of nonverbal communication. It has informed my curiosity about the “affective capacity” of words, images, sounds, structures and policies. Affects are the vital forces beyond emotions. They’re the shivers we get from watching or reading something compelling. Affects also flow through policies and structures, and can create barriers. The languages, expectations and institutional norms within the arts sector reproduce barriers for many.

My work deals with understanding how these seemingly intangible forces shape our everyday lives. Specifically, I’m curious about which systems support or hinder a healthy, safe and exciting artistic landscape. This often involves refuting a homogeneous definition of arts and culture. It involves honest conversations about the lived experiences of artists and of precarity. It involves reflection and a deep honour for a multitude of different cultural expressions.

Q: What have you been researching in terms of post-pandemic arts organizations?

ł˘žą˛Ôťĺ˛ő˛š˛â:ĚýRight now, I’m working on a research project called “Pandemic Preparedness.” It’s a project funded by the British Academy that looks at policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the performing arts in G7 countries. I just wrapped up “Being Together,” a SSHRC-funded project on how theatre audiences experience the feeling of being in close proximity. My ongoing work looks at how perceptions of “impact” are constructed between artists and mechanisms of public funding. Much of my research is rooted in understanding how artists relate to policies and institutional structures, and how these structures are positioned within civil society. In the wake of the pandemic, this work feels timely. Challenging, but timely. I’m grateful to be an artist doing this research. My experience has informed my approach.

Q: What has changed in arts organizations in Canada since movements regarding racialized communities, Indigenous people and #MeToo?

Lindsay: First, I want to be transparent about being a white settler working in both academia and classical music. There are people who would be able to speak to this question with more depth than I would, so I’d prefer to take this opportunity to point to the work of those leading change across the sector.

Governance can mean different things to different people. Many interesting organizations, like are working on subverting organizational structures and exploring new ideas of artistic leadership. They’re exploring new ideas for board governance and co-leadership, alongside a rich and innovative artistic season.

I’m on the editorial committee of , a Canadian digital magazine that looks at art and social justice. The perspectives, stories and issues that they’re moving forward are integral to redistributing power in the Canadian arts. Across the landscape, there’s conscious critique about the difference between calls for decolonization and actions toward decolonization.

The “A Culture of Exploitation: ‘Reconciliation’ and the Institutions of Canadian Art” touches on how Canadian art institutions have been plagued by tokenism and inequality. They point to a series of Standards of Achievement for the Relationship Between

Indigenous Peoples & Cultural Institutions in Canada. This is a critical piece for anyone working in the arts in Canada.

Q: What are artists doing differently in terms of social issues and spaces?

Artscape, a group of not-for-profit organizations, was at the forefront of creating resources and spaces for artists. It entered into receivership this year.

Lindsay: Artists are increasingly engaged in advocacy, and the civic role of the arts is deeply embedded in practice.

It’s a complicated time. While we’re seeing artists de-centering Eurocentric knowledges and ways of being, the arts in Canada are deeply reliant on structures that many seek to subvert. Some artists are reimagining futures, some are embedded in community-building, some are doing the important work of language revitalization. We sing, we dance, we write, we laugh. There isn’t one homogenous definition of “social” or “impactful.” What’s important to note, though, is the “double burden” of artists who are encouraged (or compelled) to have both a civic and aesthetic output. There are expectations for artists to fulfill both an aesthetic and civic role, but not an increase in resources to support these responsibilities. As we look toward a shifting role of the arts and culture in Canada, we must be mindful not to laud artists as agents of social change without supporting their capacity to enact this change.

Q: In opera specifically, what changes have you noticed in relation to social issues?

Lindsay: That’s an interesting question. In the wake of the pandemic, opera is dealing with a loss of audience, an aging patron base, issues of burnout, and an interrogation of its role in society. For that reason, companies are balancing new works with revivals and stalwart productions.  is exploring digital works and partnerships with larger institutions in order to support an emerging generation of artists. And is doing some really cool things at the intersection of virtual reality and opera. Larger organizations are partnering with indie and grassroots companies to resource share. The , who’s co-founder of , on a solo show that explores how conventions of race and gender exist within the canon. There are tons of critical pieces and initiatives being put forward. Running parallel to this, we see that companies are accepting entertainment and spectacle as an equally important part of the landscape. Different productions inevitably have different aspirations.

Q: Overall, is there a role for the arts in addressing social change?

Lindsay: There isn’t one straight answer to that. I presume that the answer will also vary depending on who you ask. The instrumentalization of the arts — using the arts to address broader social or economic issues — has been embedded in our cultural policy and rationale (and public consciousness) for quite some time.

The arts are inherently social, but the “socialness” of the arts can also be exploited. Scholar Adam Saifer looks at “art for social change philanthropy.” He points to the fact that this ‘progressive turn’ in arts philanthropy often commodifies artists (particularly the racialized poor) without shifting their material or economic realities. This is important work.

The arts’ fluidity, immeasurability and subjectivity leaves it open to take on many forms and absorb many claims. This presents a host of challenges. It also makes for a beautiful, fertile ground for experimentation, world-building and hope. I love academia and research and am deeply grateful for the privilege to contribute here. I am an artist in my bones, though.

Meghan Lindsay is on . Banner photo is courtesy of Gabriel Varaljay. Photo of Artscape Theatre Centre is courtesy of Adamina and Wiki Commons.

Simon Brault, directeur et chef de la direction du Conseil des arts du Canada. Photo par Tony Fouhse.

[This article is also available in English.]

À la fin de 2022

Simon Brault, directeur et chef de la direction du , a rencontré PANL Perspectives dans le cadre de la série The Arts and Social Issues afin de discuter des façons dont l’organisme répond aux enjeux sociaux. Le Conseil est l’organisme public de soutien aux arts du Canada, et son mandat est de favoriser et de promouvoir l’étude et la diffusion des arts, ainsi que la production d’œuvres d’art. En 2021-2022, il a versé approximativement 475 millions de dollars en subventions à des artistes, à des organismes et à des institutions. (Le compte rendu de cette entrevue a été révisé par souci de clarté.)

Q : Quelles nouvelles initiatives le Conseil des arts a-t-il mises en œuvre en matière de justice sociale, de vérité et de réconciliation, d’accès et de diversité, et de solutions aux changements climatiques?

ľţ°ů˛šłÜąôłŮĚý: Le Conseil des arts a lancĂŠ son plan stratĂŠgique 2021-2026, , afin de garantir que les arts sont considĂŠrĂŠs et perçus comme plus pertinents par l’ensemble de la population canadienne. Le secteur artistique et les artistes ne peuvent pas faire abstraction des enjeux qui comptent pour la population, notamment la justice sociale, les changements climatiques, la diversitĂŠ, l’inclusion, la reprĂŠsentation et la question du Nord.

Les arts ne constituent pas uniquement un secteur d’activité. L’art est également une dimension de notre démocratie, de notre pays, de nos communautés et de nos vies en tant qu’êtres humains. Le Conseil des arts tient compte des enjeux sociaux lorsqu’il doit prendre des décisions relatives à ses investissements.

Le soutien que le Conseil des arts offre aux artistes du Nord en est un exemple. Il devient de plus en plus évident que la majorité de nos défis pour l’avenir sont représentés dans cette région du pays. Les changements climatiques, le manque d’attaches, l’isolement, la distance et les barrières physiques sont des exemples de ces problèmes énormes et urgents. Pendant des années, la vision du Conseil des arts consistait à expliquer aux personnes vivant dans le Nord comment accéder aux programmes conçus dans le sud. Nous comprenons maintenant que nous devons soutenir les artistes là-bas, selon leurs propres conditions. Ce virage a été transformateur.

Pendant 150 ans, ce pays, avec son système de pensionnats et avec diverses politiques, a tenté d’effacer l’existence culturelle des peuples autochtones. Dans nos efforts pour soutenir les arts autochtones, nous tenons compte de ce fait ainsi que des barrières systémiques que ces peuples ont dû surmonter, notamment la vision eurocentrique des arts. Il y a quelques années, nous avons créé et qui est dirigé par du personnel autochtone. Les catégories que nous utilisions par le passé ont perdu de leur pertinence. Par exemple, si nous soutenions autrefois la littérature en français ou en anglais, nous appuyons aujourd’hui la littérature et les livres jeunesse rédigés dans des langues autochtones, des langues qui doivent survivre et être florissantes.

Q : Avez-vous remarquÊ si certains secteurs artistiques se sont positionnÊs comme chefs de file par rapport aux changements stratÊgiques que vous avez mentionnÊs?

ľţ°ů˛šłÜąôłŮĚý: Oui, notamment le thÊâtre, surtout Ă  Toronto, oĂš des groupes comme et beaucoup d’autres compagnies, dramaturges et metteuses et metteurs en scène aux horizons variĂŠs discutent et proposent des pièces sur des questions liĂŠes Ă  la justice sociale et Ă  l’inclusion.

C’est aussi le cas de la littérature. Il y a des livres, des romans, de la poésie et des essais où ces enjeux sont en trame de fond ou même au premier plan. Cela comprend des œuvres littéraires pour les enfants et les jeunes. De nombreux livres d’enfants publiés portent sur l’avenir de la planète et la justice climatique, posent la question du vivre-ensemble ou traitent de la pauvreté et d’autres questions sérieuses qui étaient autrefois vues comme étant réservées aux adultes.

Les arts visuels se sont eux aussi intĂŠressĂŠs Ă  ces questions et Ă  ces points de vue.

Ce n’est pas au Conseil des arts d’influencer ou de prescrire ce que les artistes créent, mais il est important pour nous de soutenir les propositions de ces artistes et de braquer les projecteurs sur celles qui sont porteuses de sens pour une grande partie de la population.

Q : Quel est le rôle des prix artistiques dans ce contexte?

Le mémoire d’Eli Baxter, Aki-wayn-zih, a remporté un Prix littéraire du Gouverneur général en 2022 dans la catégorie Essais en anglais. Cet ouvrage nous propose de plonger dans la culture, la langue et l’histoire anishinaabe.

ľţ°ů˛šłÜąôłŮĚý: Le Conseil des arts a le mandat de gĂŠrer, de subventionner et d’organiser le plus grand portefeuille de prix artistiques au pays, des prix en littĂŠrature, en architecture, en arts visuels et en arts de la scène. Par exemple, cette annĂŠe, 14 ouvrages ont ĂŠtĂŠ sĂŠlectionnĂŠs par des comitĂŠs parmi 1 200 livres pour les Prix littĂŠraires du Gouverneur gĂŠnĂŠral.

En tant que directeur et chef de la direction du Conseil des arts, je m’assure de lire chaque année les 14 livres gagnants, car ils me donnent le pouls de ce dont débattent les poètes, les romancières et romanciers, les traductrices et traducteurs ainsi que les essayistes. Je constate que ces artistes abordent toutes ces choses dont nous avons parlé avec beaucoup de puissance et d’émotion. Ces questions ont de l’importance pour les artistes, qui réfléchissent constamment et remettent en question les mentalités sociétales.

Q : Quel est le plus grand dÊfi du Conseil des arts?

ľţ°ů˛šłÜąôłŮĚý: La qualitĂŠ et la diversitĂŠ des productions artistiques dans ce pays augmentent, en grande partie parce que nous pouvons inclure, soutenir et reconnaĂŽtre des voix qui ont ĂŠtĂŠ ignorĂŠes ou marginalisĂŠes pendant très longtemps.

Je suppose que notre combat réside dans la nécessité de créer un espace suffisant pour que les gens puissent interagir avec ce qui est créé, parce que nous finançons beaucoup de créations artistiques, mais en même temps nous savons que les grandes plateformes – Netflix et compagnie, la diffusion en continu et tout ça – occupent un espace encore plus vaste. Cela dit, comment nous assurer de consacrer autant d’attention aux propositions artistiques et littéraires pertinentes et de qualité, et de favoriser l’engagement authentique du public ou son exposition à ces œuvres?

Je pense que c’est là où nous en sommes et, honnêtement, d’ici les 10 prochaines années, ce sera un test important. Nous devons nous assurer, encore une fois, de stimuler la création, mais aussi l’engagement du public à l’égard de ce que proposent les créatrices et créateurs en arts visuels, en littérature, en cinéma et en musique. Nous devons nous assurer que tout le monde peut voir et entendre ces offres et en profiter. Ce sera notre défi au cours des prochaines années.

Le Conseil des arts du Canada est sur , , et .

Les photos sont publiées avec l’aimable autorisation de Tony Fouhse et du Conseil des arts.

Simon Brault, Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts. Photo by Tony Fouhse.

[Cet article est disponible en français.]

At the end of 2022

Simon Brault, Director and CEO of the , sat down with PANL Perspectives to discuss how the organization has been addressing social issues, part of our series on The Arts and Social Issues. The Council is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study, enjoyment of and production of works of art. In 2021-2022, it distributed approximately $475 million in grants to artists, organizations and institutions. (This interview has been edited for clarity.)

What initiatives has the Canada Council started in terms of social justice, truth & reconciliation, access & diversity, & climate-change solutions?

Brault: The Canada Council released its 2021-26 strategic plan, , which makes sure that the arts are seen, perceived and are effectively more relevant for all Canadians. The arts sector and artists can’t ignore issues that are front and centre for Canadians — issues like social justice, climate change, diversity, inclusion, representation and the question of the North.

The arts isn’t only a sector of activity. It’s also a dimension of a democracy, of a country, of a community or of our lives as human beings. The Canada Council thinks of social issues when we think of where to invest.

One example is the support that the Canada Council is giving to artists in the North. What we realized more and more is that this part of the country is concentrating most of the challenges we are facing for the future. Climate change, disconnection, isolation, and distance and physical barriers are examples; these issues are enormous and urgent. For years, the vision was that the Canada Council would explain to people living in the North how to access programs that we have here, in the South. What we realize now is that we need to support the artist there, on their own terms. That was a shift.

Another example is how we’re now supporting Indigenous arts, taking into account that, for 150 years, this country, with residential schools and other policies, tried to erase the cultural existence of Indigenous people — and taking into account the systemic barriers that Indigenous people have to overcome, especially the Eurocentric views of the arts. Some years ago, we created a and that’s led by Indigenous staff. All the categories we used in the past are less relevant. For example, we supported literature in French or English, but, now, we support literature and children’s books written in Indigenous languages, namely Indigenous languages that should survive and thrive.

Have you noticed any art sectors taking the lead with some of these strategic changes you mention?

Brault: I have. The theatre world, especially in Toronto, with groups like and many other theatre companies, writers and directors with diverse backgrounds, is discussing and proposing plays that are addressing questions of social justice and inclusion.

And literature — books, novels, poetry, essays – both nonfiction and fiction, include these issues in their backgrounds or in their main stories. This includes literature for children and youth. There are many published children’s books about the future of the planet and climate justice — and about the question of how we live together — and addressing poverty and other serious topics that used to be seen as only topics for adults.

The visual arts, as well, have addressed these questions or points of view.

It’s not for the Canada Council to influence or prescribe what the artists are creating, but for us, it’s important to make sure that when they come with their proposals, that we can support them and shed more light on certain proposals that are meaningful for a lot of people.

How do arts prizes fit into this?

“Aki-wayn-zih,” a memoir by Eli Baxter, and won the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Award for English non-fiction. It takes readers into Anishinaabay culture, language and history.

Brault: The Canada Council is in charge of managing, subsidizing and organizing the largest portfolio of arts prizes in this country — in literature, architecture, visual arts and in the performing arts. For example, 14 books were selected by juries for the Governor General’s Literary Awards out of 1,200 books this year.

As the Director and CEO of the Canada Council, I make a point of reading all 14 books each year, which gives me a sense of what’s being debated by poets, novelists, translators and non-fiction writers, and I can see that all these things that we are talking about are surfacing in powerful and poignant ways. These things matter to artists, who are constantly reflecting and challenging the mindset of a society.

What is the biggest challenge facing the Canada Council?

Brault: The quality and the diversity of artistic production in this country is growing, especially because we can include, support and recognize voices that have been ignored or marginalized for a long time.

I guess where the battle is, is how can we create enough space for people to engage with what is created, because we support a lot of artistic creation, but, at the same time, we know that the major platforms, Netflix and others, streaming and all that, is occupying a bigger space. So, how can we make sure that we pay as much attention to the supply of good and relevant artistic and literary proposals and the engagement, the authentic engagement, of the public — the exposure of the public to this work.

I think this is where we are at this point, and, frankly, I think that over the next 10 years, it will be a big test — a lot of attention needs to be given to not only making sure, again, that creation is happening, but also that engagement with what is offered by the artists and the authors and the writers, and the filmmakers and musicians, that that offering is seen, heard and enjoyed by everybody. I think that’s our challenge over the next few years.

The Canada Council for the Arts is on , , and .

Photos are courtesy of Tony Fouhse and the Canada Council.

Which social issues has Banff Centre dealt with more deliberately in recent years?

Valerie Kapay: Banff Centre has always had inclusion, diversity, equity and access as part of our DNA. In fact, I’ve been here for more than 20 years now, and I recall, at one point, we had 52 cultures on campus. It’s something that’s part of us. You’ll see in our strategic plan that we’ve included that in our roots and in various pathways, so we’ve codified it for future commitments, even though it’s always been a commitment in the past. We now have an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Advisory Committee that has met three times, and we’re drafting a terms of reference for it.

Mark Wold: The main issue is reparative justice. We’re entertaining individual programs and artists’ projects on climate change, but inclusion, diversity, equity and access are priorities as an institution, and a distinct category is Truth and Reconciliation. We’re celebrating 50 years of running and do year-round . Out of that work, we have adopted a that we introduce to every artist cohort to create safe spaces. And for programs, we ask, “How are you factoring in Truth and Reconciliation? How are you factoring in Equity, Diversity and Access?” We call those “transparency metrics” and challenge our program directors to say how those manifest in the program content, the faculty they choose, and in their recruitment strategies for participants.

What were the drivers behind your organization taking action?

Janice Price: With Truth and Reconciliation, we were leaders. We were doing that work prior to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, but when the Commission delivered their report, we almost immediately held a groundbreaking national summit in 2016. Out of that grew a program we regularly deliver: Right Relations. What does it mean? How do Indigenous and non-Indigenous people learn about the Commission’s calls to action and how to apply them to their own lives and communities.

How have you formalized acknowledgement of these social issues?

Looee Arreak, in Iqaluit, sings in the Juno-nominated “Messiah/Complex,” which was created by Banff Centre’s Director of Opera, Joel Ivany, after he attended Banff’s Rights Relations and Truth and Reconciliation program. Ivany collaborated with Banff’s Director of Indigenous Arts, Reneltta Arluk, to create a remarkable version of Handel’s “Messiah.” During the Covid pandemic, they recruited singers from across the country, half of them Indigenous, and performed “Messiah/Complex” virtually. “The New York Times” reported on the popular show.

Wold: We’re here to serve artists and leaders after their degrees; they come here for professional development and career advice. In recent years, we’ve run a program called . That’s a distinct program. Our is open to anyone who applies, and they get mentoring by a diverse group of faculty, but simultaneously, we have a cohort, in Indigenous Playwrights Nest, that’s considered a safe space for Indigenous playwrights.

Kapay: Also, we partner with for training for our community and help with policies. In addition, the training we provided related to indigenous awareness, anti-harassment, and prevention and responses to sexual violence has helped to create a safer community.

What were challenges your organization faced in taking such steps?

Price: We’ve tried really hard to diversify, especially our western classical music kinds of programming, and we’ve learned that sometimes the best intentions can lead to some real challenges if you don’t properly think through how to welcome more diverse communities to your campus, with a very stated intention of diversifying the participation in the program. How do you make sure people feel welcomed? How do you manage issues if and as they arise in which people don’t feel that we’ve properly prepared to expand or change the way we deliver our programs to a more diverse community? So, we’ve had some teachings from some very challenging situations.

Please describe an initiative that exemplifies your more deliberate response to social issues.

Wold: We had a dance project, come to us from an esteemed alumna, . When she pitched it with the faculty and the artists, we weren’t quite sure how it would work, because she said, “I want to explore PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) in my dance work.” We had to go through a long incubation period and ask, “What is this piece really about?” and we gave the artist space and time. It became one of our most critically acclaimed exports, telling the story of mental illness through art. It’s toured across the country and around the world and has just won another series of awards in the U.K. It stands out as a success in which we challenge a difficult social issue and make it accessible for audiences.

Photos are courtesy of Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, except for photo of Banff Park, which is courtesy of Henrique Paim.

In the last decade, Black artists have put Canada on the map. Across the globe, contemporary Canadian culture is recognized as the look, sound and feel of Black Canada. Musicians like Kardinal Offishall, Drake and Kaytranada, and producers like WondaGurl have made defining contributions to global popular culture in the last decade. Despite the cultural and economic contributions we’ve made, we continue to see a reluctance from institutions to invest in Black Canadian artistic production. In the 15 years that has operated, we’ve seen that art is a life-sustaining practice. The organization was borne out of the recognition that our communities thrive when we invest in their creativity.

School Engagement: A class at Toronto’s Etobicoke School of the Arts participates in an exhibit, “Ears, Eyes, Voice.” Photo is courtesy of Nia Centre.

Black youth too often find themselves discriminated against in our schools, in the media and when navigating the public sphere. Yet, everyday we see young people enthusiastically using their talents to envision a different kind of world. Our work began in 2008, as a response to increased youth violence in Toronto. From early on, our founders to young people. Since then, we’ve developed a holistic approach to working with young people that honors their creativity.

The Work

Nia Centre has : introducing youth to the arts, supporting local artists and creating opportunities for Canadians to experience art from the Black diaspora. Through our in-house programming, we connect young people to established mentors in the arts sector, provide artists with skills-building workshops and link young people to career opportunities in the arts. Young people who engage with The Centre frequently receive opportunities to showcase their work to the public, helping them to build their portfolios and reach new audiences.

“Thank You for Keeping Us on Track,” by Jordan Sook, one of three art exhibits at “Here Again, At the Crossroads,” presented by Nia Centre and Union Station and shown at Union Station, in Toronto. Photo by Spring Morris. See end of this article for links to Sook and the exhibit.

In a city as diverse as Toronto, it’s important for people to engage with artists who make meaning out of our collective experience. In the last few years, we’ve brought public art projects to Harbourfront Centre, Union Station and along the Ossington corridor. Each of these projects invited citizens to engage with Black cultural production in public spaces where our voices had often gone unheard.

A fourth, and still developing, pillar of our work is documenting our community. Canada’s decision to not collect race-based data has made it difficult to uncover the true impact of systemic racism in the lives of Black Canadians. In the last few years, it has become increasingly clear that in order to create change in our community we have to begin collecting data ourselves. Last year, we began . Through a nationwide survey and a number of dedicated focus groups and interviews, we’re tracking the impact of anti-Blackness online. As an arts organization, we recognize the importance of including artists’ voices in conversations about larger social issues. The research findings have been interpreted by a number of selected artists, who will be exhibiting their works later this year.

The Challenges

Nia Centre for the Arts is located at 524 Oakwood Ave., in the historic neighborhood of Little Jamaica, in Toronto. The neighborhood has become collateral damage to the Eglinton Light Rapid Transit development, rapidly rising rent prices and devastation as a result of the Covid pandemic. Still, local residents, businesses and organizers continue to build a new future for the neighborhood. Photo is courtesy of Nia Centre.

The work of an organization like ours is to uplift and support the people we serve. This responsibility becomes increasingly difficult each year, as expenses rise and funding doesn’t. As a nonprofit organization, finding consistent funding has always been our biggest challenge. At Nia Centre, we find ourselves at a difficult intersection between lack of funding for Black charities and a lack of funding for the arts sector.

A report (Unfunded: Black Communities Overlooked by Canadian Philanthropy), by the Foundation for Black Communities and ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University, found that only seven to 30 cents of every $100 donated in Canada goes to Black-led charities. Additionally, a majority of the Black community organizations that participated in the study indicated that they will run out of funding in less than six months.

These numbers are staggering, considering that Black charities play integral roles in our communities when local and federal governments fail us. In the last two years, the pandemic has decimated the arts sector, and our biggest funders have been unable to keep up with inflation and the increasing financial pressure on our community. This reality makes it increasingly difficult to provide services to the ever-growing number of youth and artists in search of support.

The Pathway

Alica Hall, Executive Director of Nia Centre for the Arts.

Acquiring a physical space has always been a top priority for us. Black artists are the heartbeat of Toronto, and yet, there’s no dedicated gathering place where people can connect to their work. In 2020, we announced that we’re building Canada’s first, multi-disciplinary, professional art facility. Located in Little Jamaica, a historically Caribbean neighborhood, the Centre features a 150-seat theater, studio space, a digital media lab and a youth hub.

In a city where space is increasingly financially inaccessible and often racially discriminatory, it’s important that Black communities have spaces in their neighbourhood that serve them. The facility is a space where young people, local artists and community members can create and dream. We offer a place where people can experience art, divorced from imposed notions of what “Black art” should be.

We’ve been working on the front lines of preserving and nurturing Black artistic talent in Toronto for over a decade. In that time, it’s become increasingly clear the Black artistic traditions aren’t valued by the philanthropic or government sector in the same way that Eurocentric traditions are. What we know about our society changes when we make space for new stories and new experiences. This kind of knowledge is what Black art offers us, and is exactly why it’s so urgent that Canadians see it as their duty to support local artists.

Nia Centre for the Arts is @niacentre on all social media platforms. “Thank You for Keeping Us on Track” is one of three exhibits in at Toronto’s Union Station.

David Maggs is the Metcalf Foundation’s inaugural Fellow on Arts and Society.

As a philanthropic organization, the has three areas of focus: poverty reduction, the environment, and the performing arts. While the first two operate within areas of explicit social concern, we’re seeing an increase in social priorities within our performing arts activities as well. In our support of organizations and communities, we seek to enable rather than direct, and our increased focus on social issues within our performing arts program comes directly from the sector itself.

Our multi-year, strategic-granting program, , is an example. It focuses on developing an adaptive leadership capacity within the performing arts sector. Responding to complex social issues (race, poverty, access, climate and mental health for example) demands skills different from linear problem-solving. Staging Change equips organizations to inspire, lead and navigate the changes that an organization is facing or is prioritizing within its own operations in order to stay relevant and responsive to its communities.

Michael Trent is the Metcalf Foundation’s Director of Performing Arts.

Our priority to empower rather than direct means that we work more organically with our grantees, avoiding institutional lock-in around our own activities and allowing emerging issues to guide our funding. This requires us to respond to the inspired social visions of the sector and to develop tools to resource those visions. We’ve taken a series of steps in this direction: increasing our annual distribution quota from 3.5% to 5%; adjusting our performing arts internship program to engage marginalized applicants and organizations; and dedicating more than half of our early pandemic performing arts emergency funding to equity-deserving groups that weren’t among our historical grantees.

This strategy of bottom-up, emergent engagement is accompanied by another approach that we’re beginning to explore: the arts are increasingly viewed as something of a ‘magic bullet’ of social change, compensating for the inadequacy of technical and managerial strategies in solving complex problems. In the face of this new societal pressure, we’re helping the arts sector to step out of its familiar position of advocacy, in which it simply proclaims the social goods the arts represent, and into one of research and development (R&D), in which we might find ways to generate evidence of these goods.

This shift was explored and articulated in our recent performing arts Innovation Fellowship report, , and is now a central theme in the continuation of that work within the Metcalf Foundation. With a network of interested sector partners, we’re beginning to co-develop an R&D framework for artistic activities, shaped around appropriate practices and outcomes of artistic activity. Such a framework is designed to grow the sector’s capacity to recognize the arts-shaped holes in our social challenges, identify the unique value propositions in our practices, and combine them within an R&D framework composed of three broad steps:

1. Problem-Framing & Theories of Change
2. Methods & Hypothesis
3. Data & Evaluation

By cultivating an appetite and capacity for R&D within the cultural sector, we can help organizations make the most of a unique, historical opportunity for the arts to step into more applied and accountable relationships to society, without the arts abandoning the integrity of its identity and practice as art (and as society’s treasured ability to understand itself in terms of the aesthetic). In this, we feel we can contribute important capacity to the arts organizations, while retaining our priority to enable the priorities they set for themselves.

is the Metcalf Foundation’s inaugural Fellow on Arts and Society (2022-2023). In 2021, he wrote , an extensive report on the disruption and transformation of the arts in the wake of Covid, which led to the creation of a new, full-time role in which he’ll explore the role of art in society, focusing on innovation, climate change and cultural policy.

joined the Metcalf Foundation as Director of Performing Arts in 2015. Over his thirty-year career, he’s contributed to the development of the dance field as a choreographer, performer, teacher, artistic director, curator and arts community activist and volunteer.

The Metcalf Foundation is on , , , and .

Photo of stage is courtesy of Chris Thomaidis.

addresses social issues through our exhibitions, programs, acquisitions and policies. Since 2017, we’ve mounted 15 art and material culture exhibitions concerned with colonial history and Indigenous knowledge, Black culture and systemic racism, community voice, and climate change. Our education programs address issues outlined in the Ontario curriculum. Grants and sponsorships provide opportunities for students from lower-income communities to participate in our on-site school programs. We’ve developed new Collections Plans for both the art and material history collections that prioritize First Nations/Métis, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and LGBTQ2+ artists and histories. And our Board includes representatives of Indigenous, Muslim, and LGBTQ2+ communities, and is now looking to establish a Diversity Advisory Committee.

The history

“Black Lives Matter, London,” installation at Museum London, in Ontario, from Aug. 13/20 to Feb. 28/21. Photo credit: Museum London.

Behind these initiatives lies a history of addressing social issues through exhibitions and programs. This has been intensified and informed by contemporary events: the murder of George Floyd; environmental protests; concerns around Indigenous sovereignty, as well as the 25^th anniversary in 2020 of the Ipperwash Crisis; greater awareness of sexual and gender-based violence; and the ongoing local effects of economic disparity. In part, our work has been encouraged by the criteria within government grants featuring equity, inclusion and diversity. Partnerships also provide impetus, such as our recent collaboration with faculty at Western University on the environmentally themed exhibition . At the Board and leadership levels, there’s also a growing call for Museum London to be more responsive and welcoming to a wider audience and more open to community partnerships.

How we’re responsive

Museum London continues to look for opportunities to work with representatives of marginalized communities and to maintain longstanding relationships with organizations such as the Black History Committee and the Unity Project for Relief of Homelessness in London, Ontario. In 2018 we secured funding from the London Community Foundation to hire an Indigenous Legacies Project Manager on a one-year contract. Since then, we’ve demonstrated greater commitment to working with and following the lead of community consultants and guest curators from marginalized communities. We recently received funding to support the creation of new video works by artists identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour—the most successful works to be screened starting in the fall of 2022.

Resource management is the biggest challenge to Museum London’s ability to develop, formalize, and then implement policies and projects that respond to social issues. Like most small-to-mid-sized museums, we face the prospect of repairing the boat while floating on the lake, needing to deliver established and successful programs, while at the same time looking critically at itself in the wake of a sector-wide reconsideration of museums’ roles.

Here’s an example

The exhibition was conceived as an on-site celebration of Museum London’s 80^th Anniversary in 2020. But with the arrival of COVID-19, 80ML evolved into a virtual exhibition in 2021 that prioritized community input and feedback. In consultation with the community and paying close attention to diversity, we commissioned 80 Londoners each to pen an 80-word response to either an art work or artifact that we selected from our collection—but with the respondents’ values, concerns and experiences in mind. For the most part, the respondents weren’t art or heritage specialists, but instead, were entrepreneurs, teachers, activists, volunteers, religious leaders, social service advocates and professionals who demonstrated high degrees of community involvement.

Looking ahead

Museum London will continue to position social issues in the foreground, while working to ensure traditional audiences continue to feel welcome. The establishment of a Diversity Advisory Committee will help clarify and hone our mandate and new strategic plan to be launched this year. We’ll continue to pay attention to opportunities for online programming, as well as to our reach to communities beyond the primary locale of London/Middlesex. Digitization—especially of the Museum’s under-documented material culture collection—will create new resources for the museum to address social issues.

Since 2019, Andrew Kear has been the Senior Curator and Head of Collections, Exhibitions and Programs at Museum London. He was formerly Chief Curator at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. is on , and . Photos on this page are courtesy of Museum London.