The cultural sector in general and the performing arts in particular are plagued by serious concerns about an issue as fundamental as their survival. The fall season is marked by increasing demands that the Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, welcomes with empathy without offering satisfactory solutions to artists on the alert.
Public outings have increased in recent days, reflecting a sense of urgency in the cultural community. In two open letters published in quick succession in Duty And The Press, illustrious creators deplore the poverty into which stage artists are plunged. They carry their works at arm’s length, pay out of their own pockets to go on tour, hold by the strings of imagination the precarious finances of their theater companies on the brink of collapse.
The figures put forward by a coalition of more than 500 signatories in The Press strike the imagination. Despite a 25% increase in budgets allocated to culture in recent years, the average salary of artists has stagnated for 30 years, far from the preconceived ideas and clichés associated with the so-called sumptuary lifestyle of creators. The average salary does not exceed $21,000, or $4,500 less than the minimum wage. Leaving aside the “1%” of artists who earn $200,000 and more, the average income falls below $17,000.
The complaints mainly concern the opacity of the rules for awarding subsidies, the discrepancy – not to say the inequity – in the treatment between the flagships of the cultural industry and simple artists, the governance of boards of directors support organizations and the control of a handful of cultural companies over public funds. Added to these considerations are the transformation of consumption habits into culture, the threats of replacement by generative artificial intelligence, competition from GAFAM and the exclusion of creators from the value chain generated on digital platforms.
The common thread in this state of precariousness leads quite naturally to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), whose funding is the subject of a war of numbers between the cultural community and Minister Lacombe. The latter recalls that the CALQ budget has increased by 35% since the election of the Legault government, to stand at 172.5 million in 2023-2024. Affirmations greeted with a series of “yes buts”. Yes, but pandemic aid has not been renewed. Yes, but one-off aid does not guarantee the sustainability of CALQ funding. Yes, but the number of applications for individual scholarships and cultural organizations jumped by 30% and 60% respectively in four years, forcing the CALQ to perform small miracles to maintain its acceptance rates. Yes, but inflation hurts artists, to the point of leading them to reconsider their practice. Yes, but companies will not be able to accumulate deficits for much longer before giving up…
Whether the aid is one-off or recurring does not change the current dynamics. The cultural community is hungry and its determination in mobilization is of a magnitude that has not been seen since the Conservative government of Stephen Harper slashed the budgets of the Department of Canadian Heritage, more than 15 years ago. As proof, 17 cultural organizations came together within the Common Front for Quebec Arts to increase the CALQ’s permanent appropriations to 200 million and plan for their indexation from the next budget cycle.
Other voices are calling for general states on culture to be held. Minister Lacombe refuses collective discussions, preferring to focus on sectoral discussions on the redistribution of envelopes or the reform of programs. It’s a shame, because a collective conversation – the kind of approach that the centralizing CAQ abhors – would make it possible to reaffirm the importance of culture as a foundation of Quebec identity and a source of national pride. This is an idea that we must not abandon, for the future of the living arts.
As it stands, we are witnessing a sterile debate. CALQ budgets have increased, says Mathieu Lacombe. No, they are going backwards, shout the artists. How do you want to get out of the impasse with such a gap of incomprehension?
General statements would make it possible to work on the development of a common diagnosis and an acceptance of the issues specific to each person. Without seeking the impossible absolute consensus, the approach would make it possible to hear the pain of artists, to name the evil of precariousness and to remind us that difficult trade-offs will be necessary in a context of budget deficit. In this initiative there would be a beginning of understanding, a path towards membership and commitment to a common cause: the living, vibrant arts. Especially not dying.