Address by Simon Brault at the CORIM [Montreal Council on Foreign Relations] on May 12, 2015. Supporting the arts: a driving force for prosperity and reputation in the 21st century.
Introduction
Thank you, Manon, for that glowing introduction. I hope that I can do it justice.
Good afternoon everyone, I’m delighted to be here at this prestigious CORIM forum to deliver my first major speech in Montréal since being appointed Director of the Canada Council for the Arts.
I’ve always believed that a city’s power lies in its ability to create many spaces of mutual trust and intense networking. Spaces where leaders in business, community groups, international relations, politics, public services and the arts and culture can meet, share ideas and viewpoints – and, most importantly, develop alliances that lead to real action.
Throughout my years in Montréal, including my time as Chair of Culture Montréal, there were many times when I benefited from open platforms like CORIM. I say “benefit” because this forum goes beyond polite conversations and pleasant surroundings. It’s about advancing the cause of a city that has reinvented itself by drawing on and mobilizing all of its creative resources and agents of change, regardless of particular background and concerns – even when pessimism abounds, for example during economic slowdowns, moments of doubt, or even crises.
Montréal is a city that is resilient, proud, confident, inventive and hard-working. It’s a difficult place to leave. You can take the man out of Montréal, but you can't take Montréal out of the man!
I confess that it was demanding, edifying and revealing to make the personal and professional transition in leaving Montréal. I was leaving a place whose streets and avenues I had roamed for 58 years, both literally and figuratively, to settle in Ottawa by day and Gatineau by night for the next five years of my term.
I don’t regret for a moment the choice I made. Fate presented me with an enticing opportunity for which my long years of apprenticeship among you had prepared me; and still serve me to this day.
In making this decision, I’ve traded my multiple identities – the director of a theatre school, a cultural manager constantly looking for donations, sponsorships and ways of advancing my organization and community, a cultural activist always in the line of fire, a writer, speaker, and spokesman for Culture Montréal and the Montréal Cultural Metropolis steering committee, and finally, as Vice-Chair of the Canada Council Board of Directors. I’ve traded these to accept the appointment as Director and Chief Executive Officer of a Crown Corporation at arm's length from the federal government, an organization that promotes the arts and spends more than $150 million each year on artistic creation and the sharing of excellence and artistic innovation, I, like Alice, truly had to step through the looking glass.
Needless to say, I was careful to pack with me my knowledge, expertise, experience, impressions, ideas, questions, certainties and especially doubts, gathered along a career path full of twists and turns. A path that led to close, enduring relationships with artists of all ages, backgrounds and horizons. With cultural organizations and groups, with the patrons and volunteers so essential to the ecology of arts and culture. With civil servants and elected representatives from all levels of government. With private and public organizations that support the arts, along with journalists, columnists and facilitators, intellectuals, scientists, thinkers and philosophers, and especially the citizens who are the driving force in this great cultural metropolis in which the arts are truly celebrated. Unfortunately, this kind of devotion to the arts is not often found elsewhere on this continent, and we still have a long way to go to fully understand the real value of the arts to the economy; and to fully recognize and fairly compensate creative artists and performers, and the cultural workers who surround and support them who are, after all, responsible for this contribution.
I often think about just how valuable the knowledge that I’ve gained has really been – much more valuable than all the possessions following me in the moving van. One thing I can tell you: this knowledge is not packed away in storage. It’s always with me as I walk at briskly over the wooden and steel structure of the magnificent Alexandra Bridge (manufactured in Montréal at the old Dominion Bridge plant), a bridge I cross twice a day to and from my office on Elgin Street in Ottawa.
I don't believe in nostalgia. I don't believe in living in the past. Nor do I believe in tradition when it prevents us from seeing the line of the horizon. I don't believe in rationalization, and I believe even less in patting yourself on the back, because doing so is as bad for individuals as it is for institutions.
It is extremely important to critically analyze our own directions and those of the organizations entrusted to us. We must not become intimidated, complacent or smug. Our analysis should help us identify a number of useful and essential yardsticks that make it possible to move towards new heights or, if we happen to get bogged down, to help us extricate ourselves.
You heard me correctly. I left Montréal. I left behind a past that many of you know well. A past that remains with me. This past gives me my bearings and has influenced me; its real value will only become clear in the change for the better in the arts to which I am now devoting all my energies, with solid support from the women and men on my team.
My last visit to CORIM
The last time I was at CORIM, in November 2013, I introduced the speaker, Joseph Rotman, who was at the time, the Chair of the Canada Council and who had a major influence on my career.
As you may know, Joe died in January. Before I speak to you today about the Canada Council, I want to recognize Joe’s role in nurturing and supporting the directions taken by Council that I will be speaking about. Joe and I were convinced of the vital importance of seeing the Canada Council as more than a granting agency. Like me, he believed that as a public agency, it should contribute to the well-being of society in all its diversity – and that the Council’s real “clients” are citizens.
My team and I are now preparing to launch a new funding model that echoes Joe's ambition to place the arts at the heart of any endeavour to foster economic and social innovation – which is after all the key to human development and controlled, sustainable growth.
Art matters
But what is growth? What are the parameters that define and influence it?
Just a few weeks ago, we released a number of stats and stories that show persuasively that investing in creativity is a path to prosperity. It is more than just a slogan: it's a truth. But a truth that is often neglected.
We’ve decided to repeat these messages more often and more forcefully in our communications. If you haven't heard it yet, I can assure you that you will hear it more than once!
In terms of economic impact, the arts and culture contribute close to $50 billion to GDP (Statistics Canada, 2014).
For every 100 direct jobs in the cultural sector, 64 indirect jobs are created, making the cultural sector one of the three sectors that employs the most people. (CCMM, 2009).
Canadians spend approximately $27.4 billion on cultural goods and services each year, for an average of $841 per person (Hill Strategies, 2010). Every year, 80% of Canadians attend at least one artistic performance or event (Hill Strategies, 2010).
The arts also have undeniable human and social benefits that should be stressed more emphatically. Studies regularly document the beneficial impacts of the arts, including on people with neurological disorders (Hill Strategy, 2014; Arts Health Network Canada, 2013). It’s worth noting, in our age of anxiety, that two thirds of generation Y (18-34-year olds) say they attend cultural events to reduce stress (Culture Track, 2014).
Beyond the figures, there are numerous concrete examples and touching stories. Initiatives like the El Sistema program run by orchestras in six of the country's cities which give young people from disadvantaged backgrounds access to musical instruments and music lessons. The program’s objective is not musical excellence, rather a shift in the students’ relationship with society, a greater confidence in themselves. And it works! Here in Montréal, the Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal dance therapy program at four university centres uses dance to improve people's well-being, particularly in terms of mental health. I can tell you for a fact that the results of the intersectoral art/health programs have been very promising to date.
The observable context: the paradigm of growth and innovation
Why then is it so important to engage in and share these kinds of conversations? First of all, because we need to get the attention of more citizens, and rally them if we want artistic innovation to be more recognized as an engine of human, social and economic prosperity. The other reason is that it is urgent to rethink the current growth paradigm.
We are living in a context of overabundance, flooded with contradictory symbolic content of extremely variable quality that could overwhelm identity, critical thinking and free will. We overvalue growth that too often leads to the obsolescence of the experiences and products we consume, and make excuses for a form of prosperity that is worryingly ephemeral, trite and inequitable.
How can we bring back collective well-being to the centre of our development? How can we abandon the idea of everyone for himself, in which “everyone” is an anonymous, enthusiastic, vulnerable, indifferent and undifferentiated consumer and move instead to the idea of “all for one and one for all?”
For me, the answer is clear: by relying on creation and innovation. And when I say innovation, I mean the kind of innovation that has real repercussions in our lives, that takes risks, that draws upon the diversity of our traditions and cultures, and constitutes genuine progress for humanity. But how are we to support, recognize, and have access ot this kind of innovation?
Last fall, an article was published in the “economy” section of Le Monde, with the headline “Lack of innovation threatens growth.” In March, I attended an international conference on "Agenda 21 for culture" in Bilbao, Spain. I can assure you that all those in attendance, including many policy-makers, were discussing the importance of including the arts and culture in all decision-making processes, as well as the positive impacts of both these dimensions on sustainable development within their respective communities.
What could possibly be more important than our ability to create, invent, think, dream and imagine? Artistic creativity remains one of the most powerful drivers of this ability. And yet, public investment in the arts sector at the international level has been stagnating, if not completely stalled.
Since the 2008 recession, many arts councils around the world have experienced budget cuts. By 2017, the Australian Arts Council's budget will be 30% lower than in 2014; and in England, 36% lower.
The Canada Council has had a stable budget over the past few years. It has not suffered any cuts. Worldwide, it is an exception in that its resources, mandate and capacity for action have not been affected over the past six years.
More specifically, Council did not have its budget cut when the federal government was going through a large-scale deficit reduction exercise. And while we are grateful for this and celebrate it, we can’t ignore the fact that the latest budget held that no major arts funding announcements. Ad hoc investments were announced, along with a measure to make gifts of private corporate shares and property exempt from the capital gains tax. We are grateful for this measure, for which Donald Johnson has argued for a long time with the support of many other Montréal leaders, since it should lead to more donations to non-profit arts organizations.
But I’m not here to argue in favour of increased funding from Parliament for Council – even though such an increase is necessary and would certainly be economically and socially profitable.
My main goal today is to situate our specific budget status in a global context, because doing so helps us understand the idea behind our efforts to update our funding model and its scope.
We’re not transforming due to financial constraints or because we need to meet political imperatives. We’re transforming to implement a simpler process that would maximize our impact, giving artists and organizations more time for creative work and public engagement, and less on filling out our forms and meeting our requirements. These have, after all, too often encouraged ways of classifying artistic practices or organizational decisions in a way that was too specific, limiting or normative.
We would also like to make the most of the intellectual and analytical content generated by the deliberations of hundreds of artists and experts who sit on our peer assessment committees. They bring a plethora of skill and knowledge that goes well beyond funding recommendations. Indeed, they are a source of wisdom that is continually being renewed as it informs Council's strategies, provides better support for the arts and generally does a better job of meeting new challenges of all kinds that are surfacing or becoming clearer.
We have set a timetable to implement this new funding model: the Canada Council's 60th anniversary in 2017. So you can expect the transition from the current model to the new model to begin before the end of 2016.
This huge undertaking – a complete overhaul of the Canada Council – was fuelled by several concerted lines of action – not only ongoing discussions with the arts community and an impressive number of consultations, but also meetings with our partners and colleagues, input based on my team’s expertise and ideas, and the active and well-informed support of our Board of Directors.
Over the past few years, Council has consulted on literature, dance, the visual arts and other disciplines, and we learned about the community’s concerns and expectations. Moreover, we recently published a summary of the major thrusts and conclusions arising from these consultations, and they are compelling: ways of operating are evolving; boundaries between disciplines are disappearing; emerging technologies are creating opportunities that need to be seized rapidly; the public wants a deeper, more participatory relationship with the arts.
Over the past ten months, I also consulted many colleagues from here, most recently Stéphan Laroche and members of the CALQ Board, who were ahead of us in several respects in reconfiguring their support to the professional arts community. I also had productive discussions with the President and CEO of the Montréal arts council, the CAM.
Further, I met my counterparts from many countries at meetings in New York in January, and more recently in Bilbao, because what is happening here is definitely consistent with the shifts occurring around the world.
I took note of the most innovative practices being adopted and the challenges being encountered. I talked about these repeatedly with my team, because it’s important not to impose a model developed in a different context from ours, but rather to create a model that factors in the realities of our own society and arts sector, a model that will allow us to respond flexibly and openly to the demands of today’s creativity and the creative work of emerging generations.
I cannot claim to be a psychic. I don’t know what the future holds. But I can say clearly that we are determined to shoulder the responsibilities of the present, to seize the opportunities that appear to be on the horizon, and to come up with an approach that will lead to a more prosperous future for us all.
The Canada Council is a public agency and, as such, is required to carry out its mandate while demonstrating its relevance and democratic imperative.
It’s not easy to properly “foster the production of works in the arts” at a time when the production of content has reached proportions that would have been unheard of only five years ago. At a time when the typical ways of interacting with artistic content and experiments are changing radically. We need to define and focus our action, and also once again demonstrate its true scope – both qualitative and quantitative – for artists, the general public, policy-makers and our current and potential partners.
We have opted for transparency by publicly sharing our intentions, plans and progress. And my presentation today of the funding model we are working on is my last public presentation before we announce an outline of our new programs in early June.
The model
What will this model look like? The Canada Council is going to reduce the number of granting programs from 146 to fewer than 10.
These will be national programs not specifically focused on advancing artistic disciplines as an end in themselves. The programs will instead cover all areas of artistic practice and their dissemination in Canada and abroad. They will address issues specific to current artistic disciplines and emerging art forms. They will integrate and respect Council’s fundamental values and commitments. These values are, and will remain:
Our unshakable commitment to artistic excellence
Our deep conviction that peer assessment is the best system for awarding public funds
Our respect for – and promotion of – official languages, cultural and regional diversity, and the artistic practices of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples.
We will also continue to act in concert, complementarity, synergy and partnership, including through the Canadian Public Arts Funders organization (to which the CALQ belongs) and our trilevel meetings with city-level funding agencies (of which the CAM is one example), and with many other government and private partners.
Two weeks ago we announced a partnership between the Canada Council, the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, and The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada, to fund art projects that explore the ongoing process of conciliation and reconciliation between Canada’s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. It is an innovative investment in the power of the arts and imagination to nurture dialogue, understanding and positive change. The Council is a catalyst and will continue to join and initiate such partnerships.
We will leverage our power as a convener to encourage more partnerships. Our new programs will support creation and innovation, public engagement in the arts, support the ongoing development of the sector and of professional artistic practice, and affirm the presence of the arts in Canada and their international reputation.
Two programs will have a special role. One will promote Canadian arts abroad. We believe that supporting initiatives to bring Canadian art to the world contributes to the success of our artists and arts organizations. I know that many of you here today could point to examples of your own organizations' international exchanges, collaborations and partnerships. Our artists need a presence in international networks, exchanges and other forms of global collaboration.
In 2014–2015, we reached our commitment to double our investment in international market access – from $5 to $10 million. And this funding has had an impact. The media recently reported on Quebec’s innovative art collective BGL at the Venice Biennale. Council’s contribution to this official presentation was $175,000. We also contributed to the participation of two other Quebec artists in the form of funding for Art Mûr, and the participation of two First Nations artists. In the visual arts alone, Council awarded $1.13 million last year to ensure that works by major artists could be presented at biennials and other major international events in Venice, Berlin, Sydney, São Paulo, Santa Fe, Istanbul and elsewhere. With a program dedicated to international activities, we hope to have even more impact abroad, gain more exposure for artists and show to the world Canada’s innovative and creative potential.
The other special purpose program will be dedicated to the Aboriginal arts, whether in terms of creation, sharing expertise or outreach. For 20 years now, Council has had an Aboriginal Arts Office and successful programs dedicated to Aboriginal artists. But we can do better, and we will.
We are at a pivotal moment in our history. Relations between the Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian government are one of the defining issues of our time. Initiatives like the partnership I mentioned earlier, between the Council, the McConnell Foundation and The Circle address this issue.
It is high time to recognize the incredible potential of Aboriginal arts to change the tide in relations between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people towards a common future. Our Aboriginal program will take a self-determined approach. That means it will be articulated around the values and perspectives of Aboriginal artists, administered and assessed by Aboriginal artists; and its impacts evaluated and presented in an Aboriginal artistic and cultural framework.
As we develop our new funding model, we will, of course, try to maximize its impact on our other non-granting programs that give people more access to art on an everyday basis, and that enable us celebrate the excellence of Canadian artists on the world stage. These programs include the Art Bank, the many prizes and grants that underscore excellence, the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, the Musical Instrument Bank, and the Public Lending Right Program. All these programs also foster public engagement with the arts.
That then is an overview of our new funding model. Reaction to our proposed funding vision has so far been positive. But beyond the specific form and content of our programs, and greater operational efficiency and impact of our investments, we also hope to focus more on promoting and defending the arts and on demonstrating through real-world results just how important the arts are for the lasting human development to which we all aspire.
As you can see, our new funding model is ambitious, but it is through its values, principles and vision that we will fulfill our role and maintain our distinctiveness. Moreover, these values reflect what our citizens and elected officials expect from us. I will now describe what our next steps are in implementing this model.
In early June, we will announce the main thrusts of our new funding model and the specific goals and objectives of our funding programs. We will report on our progress and engage the arts community in a broad conversation about new programs towards the fall of 2015. We will also take stock of the Canada Council’s transformation exercise at our annual public meeting in January 2016.
At this very moment, we are working on the design of the new funding model, mapping it out against current programs, based on existing commitments and funding envelopes for the various disciplines. We are meticulously preparing a well-organized transition from the current system to the new model to ensure none of our existing clients get lost in the shuffle, and further to ensure that the arts sector is not disrupted or undermined by our repositioning. We want to be sure that implementing our new funding model doesn’t prevent artists and organizations from being able to plan long-term projects.
Simplifying is always complex. But we need to pay attention to this complexity and leverage it. We are well aware of the fact that the future should not be built at the expense of the present by rejecting a past that has had some impressive successes; we draw inspiration from the past and dream of the future. And we are determined to dream. And bear with me as I reiterate that I embarked upon this venture with the conviction that it was essential to work within a ten-year timeframe, and that it was important to keep the emerging generation and those that will follow in mind. I will never forget the wonderful slogan that young Spaniards came up with to protest the recent economic crisis and which was intended for my generation: “If you stop us from dreaming, we'll stop you from sleeping.” I must admit that although I do not sleep all that much, it’s because I dream a lot.
Speaking of Spain, on my recent trip to Bilbao, I told attendees at the conference on Agenda 21 for culture that the benefits of culture are now generally understood and have made their way into education, economic development, health and social services, and the environment. But I also pointed out that the impact of public spending in the arts is not always immediate and not necessarily or readily measurable.
But that is no reason not to do it. On the contrary, we must always do a better job of demonstrating that art and culture contribute to freedom, innovation, liberation and control over our future.
At a time when evolving technologies have almost made us forget what innovation really means, we need to convince people of the advances made possible by the arts and culture, and especially how they encourage us to innovate, imagine and create.
That is what I hope will happen. That is what motivates me more than ever.
Thank you.