Like many others, I was startled when the new acting national director of public health described cultural activities as “entertainment”.
Far from wanting to throw stones at him (culture is not his field of expertise), I seized the opportunity to help Dr Luc Boileau stunning and convincing testimonials from people who have seen their lives transformed by contact with a work of art. These testimonies, it is the journalist Émilie Perreault who recorded them in the book and in the television series To do useful work. The comments collected are those of people from all walks of life, who, after an injury, have seen their life “repaired” by contact with art. We are not talking here about elitist culture, but about a great diversity of works and artists, ranging from Yannick Nézet-Séguin to Louis-José Houde, via Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette and Fred Pellerin.
Do useful work shows us that culture, far from being a luxury, contributes to health and well-being. A message to which the Dr Boileau, as well as the Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture should be sensitive.
So why not make culture a priority? I will conclude by referring to another of my recent readings, that of sociologist Frédéric Lenoir, who reminds us that “it is often through his imagination that man today can live this experience of ‘re-enchantment’. of the world” “. Everyone will agree that our world really needs to be re-enchanted.
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