The office of the Minister of Culture, Nathalie Roy, has summoned the main players in the world of the performing arts for next week to discuss a possible plan for the reopening of performance halls. What nourish hope in this environment hard hit by the fifth wave, without having any illusions.
In an e-mail sent Thursday to about twenty organizations, and of which The duty obtained a copy, the ministry specifies that it has no deadline to disclose concerning the resumption of cultural activities, but indicates that it wants to take stock to “identify possible solutions to promote the most predictable and solid resumption possible”.
“We also want to discuss the “after” to bring the public back to cultural venues. […] Basically, it’s a session of brainstorm “, we added to Minister Roy’s office on Friday.
The minister will not personally participate in the two meetings scheduled for January 20 and 21, although her chief of staff will take part. The discussion still promises to be lively, as a few players in the community spoke out this week for a reopening of performance halls and cinemas from January 17, at the same time as that of schools.
However, if the classes will indeed resume in the presence next week in primary and secondary schools, the rooms must still take their troubles patiently until further notice. But some refuse to let go and still advocate reopening as soon as possible.
“Go to the Promenades Saint-Bruno on Saturday, people are on top of each other. There is a line in front of the stores and there is no vaccination passport, unlike the theaters. I have the impression that we are evolving in two parallel worlds,” indignant Luc Fortin, president of the Guild of Musicians.
Little listening from the start
Mr. Fortin believes that a reduced gauge reopening of performance halls is possible in the very short term, and he has decided to put forward his way of thinking next week during his meeting with the office of the Minister of Culture. Especially since this kind of consultation bringing together both the ministry and all the main organizations of the cultural industry has been very rare since the start of the pandemic. Too much, to the taste of Catherine Voyer-Léger, director general of the Conseil québécois du théâtre.
“Last October, when [Québec] announced the return of theaters at full capacity, we had not even been consulted before. We knew we weren’t ready and the audience wasn’t either, and no one even bothered to call us the day before the announcement. We are still considered a negligible quantity,” decries Catherine Voyer-Léger.
She hopes that next week’s meetings will at least serve to establish criteria that will determine when theaters and cinemas can reopen.
Because she still wonders on what basis the government could decide to close the rooms, when no known outbreak was listed there.
That said, the director general of the Conseil québécois du théâtre understands that we must be extra careful before deconfining culture. “As a mother, I understand that we want to wait to see the impact that the reopening of schools will have before. But I think we can hope for a reopening of theaters in February, ”she said.