Part 1 of 3
Excerpt from David Lavoie's Speech to the Canadian Public Arts Funders, Ottawa - November 2007
I am addressing you today as the Executive Director of the Théâtre de la Pire Espèce, Théâtre du Grand Jour, Cartes Premieres and the Festival du Jamais Lu. I am also speaking to you today as a representative of a generation of artists.
Our common ground that unites us today is our commitment that we bring to emerging artists and our shared passion for the arts. The goal of my speech today is to share my perspective on the context in which the new generation of artists are evolving, and to demonstrate how this new generation is promoting the arts. And, my secret agenda is to compel you to have more faith, more trust in this new generation of artists.
Is it possible to have a dialogue with the government?
My work load is overwhelming. Occasionally, I wear myself out and I look to the artists who employ me for a solution. However, they have no solutions to offer me. So, I invited them to contact the councils, in order to demand that the government provide them the necessary means to accomplish their projects. Unfortunately, these artists did not feel able or welcome to do so. In the end, I took the initiative and set out to contact the government myself.
Act one. May 25.
I write a letter to the program directors of the Councils and Ministries with whom I have som contact with. Here is an excerpt below:
“Last year, while working full-time for the Theatre de la Pire espece, the Festival du Jamais Lu, the Theatre du Grand Jour and Cartes Premieres, I earned a total salary of less than 12,000$. I am still working for these same projects and my financial situation does not look any more promising this year.”
“I am bringing my situation to your attention, because I believe that it illustrates the inability of young and emerging companies to grow within the arts scene. It appears to me that the arts community is saturated by members of previous generations and the vitality of the new generation of emerging artists is being put to the test.”
I never received a response in writing, but a few recipients contacted me directly to express their understanding and incapacity to react to my needs within the immediate future.
Act Two. June 2005.
My work is exhausting me once more and I am noticing the powerlessness of the Councils to obtain any significant budget increases. The promotion and development of the Arts in society is a huge undertaking, but I decide take a first step, a naïve and heartfelt first one, by creating a colouring book for the future.
This colouring book starts with a letter signed by twenty young theatre companies illustrating the impact that funding shortages are having on artists from all the disciplines. The opening letter says the following:
“Our emerging companies have no place in the arts milieu. Those who have come before us are still lacking funds. We have neither the necessary resources required to organize ourselves, nor the resources required to allow our activities to evolve. Listen to us now, before the only thing that will be presented on the stage will be filled with bitterness and irony.”
I sent this notebook to 40 provincial and federal ministers, and to several media outlets. One article was printed. And I received three letters: one from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec offering to meet with me; and two letters signed by the federal and provincial ministers of finance, highlighting their investments in the arts and referring me to the Ministers of Culture. Surprisingly, there was no response from the Ministers of Culture.
Act Three. Summer 2006.
I sent an e-mail to my contacts at the Councils and at the Ministries. Once again I informed them about my state of exhaustion. I inform them about the number of grant applications I submitted over the past year: more than 60. The 2006-2007 season takes me to a new peak of stress, a case which the CALQ was very aware of.
So I in reaction to CALQ’s inability to react, I send a fraudulent press releas on the Council’s letterhead. The press release was entitled “ Rotating strike at the CALQ: Demonstration in support of Quebec’s artists”.
In the press release, I announced that the Council’s employees would be taking rotating strike days in order to show their support for the artists who are asking for budget increases. The prank was a huge success. Over one weekend, I received 25 letters of support. Here are two excerpts:
“Bravo for your courage, which is so essential at this time. This gesture of support for the artistic community clearly demonstrates the gravity of the current situation. Your support is exemplary since few artists have this kind of lobbying power.”
“Good evening strikers. It’s too good to be true! With this gesture, you are demonstrating that the employees of the CALQ are not civil servants who don’t care about the people for whom they work, as we sometimes hear in the artistic community. I’m touched! Maybe we, as artists, could take action in different ways other than by trying to mobilize public opinion through the media.”
On Monday morning, the CALQ sent out a (real) press release refuting the strike. And, on Friday, I sent a letter to the CALQ, to explain my actions. I wrote:
“What was the meaning behind my prank? I invite the management and the Board of Directors of the Conseil des arts et des letters du Quebec to bring the artistic community’s demands to the attention to those who really hold the power and to the government. It is my belief that it is your responsibility since artists associations will never have the same power to be heard by the government as you do.”
The theater director of the CALQ invited me to lunch, to make sure that I wasn’t on the verge of committing suicide. He assured me that the CALQ wouldn’t hold it against me.
Act Five.
I am still thinking about it what to do next…I could start a hunger strike or show up at the CALQ office naked, to demonstrate our lack of resources. If you have any other ideas, please let me know.
Honestly, I would like to support the councils. But, following the example the artists of my generation I must ask: How can I be a member of an organization or support an organization that excludes me?
Despite it all, I consider the structures of the councils to be exemplary, allowing artists-at the head of these organizations to participate in the governance. However, I would advocate for a separation of the roles of the President and Director General in order to allow for a constructive between the two functions.
Following all of these experiences, the answer to my original question would be yes. Yes, it is possible to have a dialogue with the government. But it doesn’t produce any results.
Comments
SMS marketing
That’s a good point. When we have more than one blog, selling one of the others may be something we could consider.
I’m touched! Maybe we, as artists, could take action in different ways other than by trying to mobilize public opinion through the media.”Microgaming
I was very encouraged to find this site. The reason being that this is such an informative post. I wanted to thank you for this informative read of the subject. I ate every bit of it and I submitted your site to some of the biggest social networks so others can find your blog.
Hey this is actually nice information. I was looking for article affiliated like this. Thanks for this advantageous information.
Good info sob. Salam kenal, thanks.
Currently, most modern monetary systems are based on fiat money. However, for most of history, almost all money was commodity money, such as gold and silver coins. As economies developed, commodity money was eventually replaced by representative money.
A letter may be printed in a number of different sizes or forms, depending on choice of typeface. A typeface is a single, stylistically consistent set of forms for letters or glyphs. A particular typeface may alter standard forms of characters, may present them with different optical weight, or may angle or embellish their forms.
To earn money online you can fill out surveys for money. Some survey sites let you earn points and later exchange them for cash.Other survey sites will pay you cash. There are also survey sites that give you merchandise for filling you surveys. Some sites say you can earn up to $250 per survey, but they ask you to pay them money to get the surveys.
Financial economics is the branch of economics studying the interrelation of financial variables, such as prices, interest rates and shares, as opposed to those concerning the real economy. Financial economics concentrates on influences of real economic variables on financial ones, in contrast to pure finance.
David Lavoie’s Speech to the Canadian Public Arts Funders, Ottawa - November 2007 was an ispirationalone.He spoke on the behalf of the generation of artists.The goal of his speech was to share his perspective on the context in which the new generation of artists were evolving, and to demonstrate how the new generation is promoting the arts. And, his secret agenda was to compel the audience to have more faith, more trust in this new generation of artists.
Financial assets, known as investments, are financially managed with careful attention to financial risk management to control financial risk. Financial instruments allow many forms of securitized assets to be traded on securities exchanges such as stock exchanges, including debt such as bonds as well as equity in publicly traded corporations.
The economic scenario is far from encouraging. Under these difficult circumstances, several bad things may also happen to people such as going out of employment, sudden medical expenses and so on. People are already facing stressful financial situations with unpaid bills and other pressures. By taking a few steps, you can slowly come out of your financial pressures.
In poker games such as the popular Texas Hold’Em, the relative size of each player’s chip stacks does have some bearing on the betting process. Those with shorter stacks may have to bid more aggressively than those with higher chip counts, for example. When you count your chips during a game of Texas Hold’Em, it can create a delay in the game’s flow and distract your fellow players. By stacking your chips in a more organized fashion, such as in uniform stacks of equal value, then you should be able to count your chips at a glance.
This was just what I was on looking for. I’ll come back to this blog for sure! I bookmarked this blog a while ago because of the useful content and I am never being disappointed. Keep up the good work
Théâtre du Grand Jour, Cartes Premieres and the Festival du Jamais Lu. I am also speaking to you today as a representative of a generation of artists.
Nice
Hello everyone!
I’ll disagree with some of the ideas in these comments generally . however it might have been categorical more related for the destructive feedback right here.
Great speech, keep up the good work.
RFID (English Radio testking JN0-101 Frequency Identification, RFID) - a method for automatic identification of objects, which means radio is read from or write data stored in the so-called, Transponders or RFID-tags.
Any RFID-system consists of a reading device (reader, reader or interrogator) and transponder (also known as RFID-tag, also sometimes uses the term RFID-tag).
Most of the RFID-tag consists of two parts. The first is an integrated circuit (IC) for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulation oftestking 70-536 radio frequency (RF) signal and some other functions. Second - antenna for signal reception and transmission.Introduction of RFID-tags in everyday life associated with a number of problems. For example, consumers who do not have readers may not always detect the tags attached to goods during production and packaging and get rid of them. Although the sale, as a rule, such tags are destroyed, the very fact of their presence causes concern for human rights and religious organizations. Already known applications RFID (contactless smart card systems, access control and payment systems) get more popular with the development of Internet services.
History of RFID testking E20-001 tags In 1946, testking SK0-003 Lev Sergeyevich Theremin invented for Soviet spy devices, which allowed the cast audio information to a random radio waves. Sound causes vibration diaphragm which slightly change the shape of the cavity by modulating the reflected radio frequency waves. And although the device was a testking 000-118
passive transmitter (so-called. “Bug”), this invention is referred to the first predecessor RFID-technology.
——————
testking 642-374 l testking 70-643 ll testking HP0-S25 l testking 70-290 l testking 70-648 l testking 70-448 l testking 646-671 l testking 1Y0-A24 l testking 640-721 l testking HP0-S26 l testking 1Y0-A05 l testking 1z0-051.
I would like to thank
Thanks for posting this. i really enjoyed reading this.
‘ve been looking for a similar to this post. Not only extensively but also detailly. We can learn a lot from the post. I recommend to you , you can come communication in here. Let us grow up together.On the other hand ,I know some websites content is very well.you can go and see.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? ... ADD YOUR COMMENT BELOW.
Next entry: Art Activist - Version Francais
Previous entry: Talking About the Next Generation
I think, it’s a helpful topic. I like this topic. I want know some helpful things from this side. It fresh my mind and experience. So lots of thanks for sharing this information with me.
ma