This text is part of the special section Arts and culture in Quebec
This year, the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec is celebrating 10 candles. Since 2015, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), in collaboration with the Caisse Desjardins de la Culture, has annually awarded an honorary title of companion of the Order to personalities, artists or patrons, who contribute to the growth of Quebec culture. This anniversary is an opportunity to remember the founding of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, whose objective is to contribute to the influence of culture.
For Liza Frulla, promoting culture is a real mission to which she has tackled several times during her career. She is one of the leading figures of Quebec’s Cultural Policy, presented in 1992, when she was Minister of Cultural Affairs under the government of Robert Bourassa. It was she who saw to the adoption of Law 53 on the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) and who was at the origin of its creation, which also earned her the honor of being among the first personalities to be decorated with the Order in 2015.
The need to create such a Council was real, although it was not without challenges. For the former minister, it was necessary to create an body “for the cultural community” and “led by the cultural community,” in order to put the artist at the center. It is also by the cultural community itself that the winners are chosen, explains Liza Frulla.
She also underlines the importance of culture in Quebec society, which she describes as an “absolutely fundamental” link allowing “our society to recognize itself and project itself,” she adds.
Like the Quebec cultural landscape
On June 10, 16 personalities will be honored by the Order of Arts and Letters, which strives each year to represent the cultural and artistic diversity present in the Quebec cultural landscape, maintains Liza Frulla. As a “privileged observer of the world of culture”, as described by the president of the board of directors, Sylvain Lafrance, the CALQ also aims to represent Quebec’s cultural diversity in its entirety. The goal is to “represent the entire palette […] of what is done in cultural creation and cultural work so that culture, firstly, exists and, secondly, shines,” continues the president.
The 167 companions of the Order of Arts and Letters represent “almost all the arts, all the diversity, all the people who act on culture in Quebec,” he adds. For him, cultural diversity is crucial in order to not only represent “a single trend in the world of culture”, but also to make the culture of our society known.
Some have “marked Quebec with an extraordinary career, like Claude Dubois”, recalls the president of the CA, others “by their constancy in working to make culture known, [comme] Louise Sicuro, [ou] Roland Smith. Sylvain Lafrance also evokes with emotion a great moment in Quebec culture, when the Cowboys Fringants managed to create an incredible gathering of people “of all ages, of all cultures” around their songs.
Reflecting culture as it is today is no easy task, argues Sylvain Lafrance. In ten years, the phenomena of migration and the welcoming of all the cultural diversities of Canada, but also the “new forms of aid for culture and philanthropy” have transformed Quebec society and its culture. In terms of public support, he wants artists and artisans of Quebec culture to be more “considered” so that they have the means to create and “keep their culture alive”.
In a difficult Quebec and Canadian economic context, believes the president of the CALQ board, we must ensure that “our elected officials understand the importance of our artists as [étant à] the basis of an entire cultural ecosystem. For her part, Liza Frulla also maintains that in a society as creative as Quebec society, it is necessary to obtain more funds to support culture.
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