It’s difficult not to be saddened by the findings drawn up this week by the Regroupement des centers d’artistes self-gérés du Québec (RCAAQ), including The duty reported on January 15. In particular, the group has denounced deficient funding for many years now, which is accompanied by poor salary conditions for employees.
These centers, little known to the general public, have a capital importance in the contemporary art ecosystem. They have their origins in the 1960s and 1970s, at a time when the Canadian art world was isolated from the international world and opportunities for artists to exhibit their work were rare. The latter then founded a network of self-managed artist centers – which at the time were called “parallel galleries” – which would allow them to manage their exhibitions and the conditions of production of the works themselves, collectively.
The result was a model which not only compensated for the shortcomings of the environment of the time, but which still promotes artistic experimentation and exploration impossible in other types of organization today. Their success has been particularly marked in Quebec, where the greatest number are found, represented by the RCAAQ.
Often presented as venues where emerging contemporary artists can present their work, artist centers have a much broader mission involving continuing education, the loan of equipment and workshops, and artist residencies. and assistance with the production of works. The originality of their programming and their commitment to their community comes from the fact that the vast majority of their employees are themselves artists, and can thus combine their expertise with the work of managing such an organization.
However, for several decades now, administrative pressures have been increasing on these centers, in particular, as the INRS survey on this subject demonstrates, funding which is stagnating and which seems inaccessible to more recently founded centers. It should also be mentioned that funders, both public and private, seem ill-equipped to understand the specific functioning of artist-run centers. This results in an excessive bureaucratic burden for obtaining funds which remain starving, while requiring a large share of the resources of these organizations.
The question of finding places adapted to their mission also often poses a problem, as evidenced by the recent expulsion of Atoll art contemporain from its premises by the City of Victoriaville. Certainly, if more than half of the artist centers are located in Montreal, the fact remains that they form, like Atoll, the only places for the dissemination of current art in several cities and regions of Quebec.
It then becomes absolutely imperative that the approximately 16 million dollars minimum necessary be injected into the network so that the network can maintain itself and allocate adequate fees to artists. The amount may seem imposing, but remains realistic when comparing the 260 million dollars allocated by the Ministry of Culture and Communications to the Blue Spaces promised by the Coalition Avenir Québec, a project which does not seem to meet the needs of the communities or artistic, neither heritage nor museums – and whose development, as recently mentioned in an article in the Dutyseems to have stagnated for several months.
The deleterious situation in which these centers find themselves today could easily be greatly improved if we injected this amount, from which the entire visual arts community would benefit. The current state of affairs, however, is symptomatic of broader cultural problems, including widespread contempt and misunderstanding of the non-traditional forms of management that artist-run centers have long represented, since their primary mission goes beyond profit.
Likewise, we must move beyond the idea that since artists and cultural workers are passionate about their profession, they should not deserve or be able to make a decent living from it. Contrary to the tenacious myths of the tortured artist, it is by providing the appropriate resources that the freedom to create can be exercised. Artist-run centers have, in this regard, virtually unparalleled potential.
Artist-run centers offer a unique model, allowing you to take risks, to produce art that goes beyond the imperatives of the market in order to try, explore and create. They form a collective good, unfortunately little known to the public and neglected by our governments. Their mission of disseminating and supporting the production of multiple art forms is essential and should not be possible only by sacrificing the well-being of those who make it possible.