The last OFFTA in Montreal, which closed on June 2, kept up appearances. This year, this avant-garde performing arts festival put on 13 shows and received 10,000 visitors with 61% of the 2022 subsidies. Four of the selected shows could not be presented due to lack of funds. “We no longer know where to cut,” confide the co-general directors, Claudel Doucet and Éva Patenaude.
“We cut the advertising, the video recordings, the review video. We did not rent boxes for the shows exteriors — we asked the artists of AlterMundi [qui donnaient leur performance sur la place de la Paix, boulevard Saint-Laurent] to go pee at Place des Arts. »
OFFTA has never rolled in gold, and has always been, since its founding in 2007, made of “do-it-yourself finances”, specify its co-general directors. “It’s a headache between public money and partnerships with the broadcasters who largely welcome us. »
OFFTA’s main grant is the Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage (DCBAP) grant from Canadian Heritage. In 2024, it was $57,600, while it rose to $61,700 in 2023, to $102,800 in 2022, to $84,900 in 2019, according to open data from the Government of Canada.
Claudel Doucet: “We cut technical directors, scenographers, designers. We did not have t-shirts made, but asked the volunteers to hold the leaflets high, near their OFFTA buttons, so that they were identifiable…”
In response, OFFTA had to cut four shows from its 2024 programming. “We cut larger projects, which cost more. Good projects. It hurts my heart,” explains Mme Doucet.
THE Shitshow by Dominique Sophie, for four dancers, is one of them. “I was so excited that my show was accepted,” confided the choreographer, who learned about it in early December 2023. Shitshow was created at Tangente in 2023, for four performances. “It’s a lot of work, a creation, for not so many shows… It’s important to rebroadcast. »
Mme Sophie immediately applied for federal and provincial grants, because putting the show together and modifying it as she wanted required four weeks in the studio. She learned a few weeks later that this opportunity would not take place.
For her, above all, OFFTA was an opportunity for presenters, from here or elsewhere, to see her work.
Momentum, from OFF to GG
It is an open secret. OFFTA can be a wonderful springboard for emerging artists. Several institutions come to shop there. I like Hydroby Annabel Soutar and Christine Beaulieu, cut its teeth there in 2015, before being reprized at the Festival TransAmériques in 2016, then at Duceppe, then almost everywhere, then on ICI ARTV.
There, we make financial decisions that prevent us from giving a chance to all the new voices we identify. This makes projects precarious. This makes artists precarious, who too often end up working on a voluntary basis, at least in part.
Same momentum, more or less, for Maxime Carbonneau, Sarah Berthiaume and Mani Soleymanlou in theater, Fred Gravel in dance, the performers Lara Kramer and Nadège Grebmeier Forget, the musician and poet Mykalle.
“Choreographer Mélanie Demers has just won the Governor General’s Award. Six years ago, she presented at our house,” says Claudel Doucet, smiling.
“If your artistic project does not fitte nowhere else, it’s probably for us. We like unusual shapes,” she continues.
Like shows for a single spectator, in libraries (Manualby Adam Kinner and Christopher Willes, 2022), or a 72-hour performance (Invisibleby Aurélie Pedron, 2022).
“There, we make financial decisions that prevent us from giving a chance to all the new voices we identify. This makes projects precarious. » With a domino effect: “It makes artists more precarious, who too often end up working on a voluntary basis, at least in part. »
Money from festivals, in general
OFFTA is not alone in suffering from a radical reduction in its DCBAP subsidy. Festivals and Major Events (FAME) and the Grouping of Major International Events (REMI) have been predicting the disaster for several years now, through briefs and representations to the government.
The maximum possible for a DCBAP grant request for an event is set at $200,000. However, for several years, the maximum granted has been $61,700, as The duty verified it in open data.
“The envelope is the same, and there are more and more applicants. It’s a program that aims for connections in communities,” explains Éva Patenaude, “and the projects are evaluated quantitatively, not qualitatively.”
So the Saint-Pierre-Baptiste Sugar Festival, the Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat, the Festif!, the OFFTA and Arvida celebrates summer find themselves in competition there, despite very different missions. For all of these, “the downward trend continues,” notes Martin Roy, president and CEO of REMI.
“In 2024, it seems that no one will receive more than $57,600, which would be the new maximum in practice. Festivals that received more than $100,000 from DCAP before the pandemic received a maximum of $61,700 for 2023-2024. That can not continue. »
On the bone
What solutions for OFFTA? “We increased the price of our tickets this year: it doesn’t work with our community, they can’t afford” labs at $18 and shows at $30. OFFTA reacted quickly to the depressed sales, and opened its “Pay what you can” ticket office in the second week. “We ended up with full rooms. »
Developing medium-term co-broadcast agreements with theaters could be an option. “Our spectators are 18-35 years old. It’s the community that everyone wants, that no one can join,” recall the co-general directors. But this type of agreement is established slowly, in the medium term, over a minimum of three years.
“In artistic audacity, we cannot go back. We don’t want to,” continues Claudel Doucet. The next step, if nothing changes, will be to further reduce programming, because “we are already on the rocks, financially. Montreal has increased its support, we can’t really hope for more.” Do fewer shows, therefore. And delay, once again by domino effect, the entry on stage of the voices of tomorrow’s living arts. Keep them in voice off.