Taking the pretext of new appointments to the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec, The duty invites you into the imagination of artists whose exemplary work promotes culture.
I am a manager of cultural organizations. I have always been a volunteer. Publisher, cultural organizer, administrator, Gaston Bellemare presents himself as a pragmatic being in search of efficiency, while claiming to be attentive to what his deepest emotions, cultivated by his love of poetry, the invite you to think.
“When I was in charge of Écrits des Forges, I was aware that poets are the worst paid writers. I gave 50% of the royalties right away, at launch. A definite credit! »
Publishing, he got into it with Gatien Lapointe in 1970. He was still just a student. “ Ode to the St. Lawrence by Gatien Lapointe, I had read that. I had been amazed. Les Écrits des Forges, the publishing house, is an initiative that came from the university. »
At the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR), where he is associated with the management of the publishing house, Bellemare begins to dream of distributing more and more Quebec poetry. Les Écrits des Forges ended up leaving their university nest to fly on their own. “The books, I gave around me. It’s so important, books. It always has been. »
At UQTR, Gaston Bellemare acted as an administrator, on the arts and humanities side, in the early 1970s, before becoming responsible for the coordination of undergraduate studies. Between 1974 and 1980, he also watched over the International School of French.
time to read
“My father was postmaster at Saint-Étienne-des-Grès. As a child, I had a lot of time to read. It was my main activity. As a student, he will be a boarder in Terrebonne. He will also be on the benches of the seminar in Shawinigan. Then, it will be the university during the day and a musician in the evening.
“I was a musician from 1962 to 1977. I worked at the Manoir des Vieilles Forges. A kind of piano bar. I learned to listen, to look for emotion in the faces of others. That’s what I wanted to do, basically, for the rest of my life, by other means: to seek emotion, to arouse it. »
Gaston Bellemare was the head of the Trois-Rivières International Poetry Festival. He still is. “Everywhere, poetry festivals are events for poets with perhaps an audience. We are the opposite. We made a festival for the world, which is presented with poets. We chose very small rooms. The poet had to be seen and heard. Let’s feel the emotion. »
Does he see himself as a poet, as a writer? “I’ve written a few poems… But I’m not a poet. I’m just an administrator. I make decisions… I wanted us to talk about literature, poetry. When we talk about culture, in Quebec, we are talking about song, cinema, theatre. Sometimes musicians. Rarely writers, with very rare exceptions, like Michel Tremblay. People experience emotion through music, song. They are encouraged in that way. Have you ever heard a Minister of Culture, in Quebec, talk about such and such a poem, apart from perhaps those of Nelligan? It’s unheard of… Moreover, the Premier of Quebec always talks more about hockey in a year than about culture. It touches people more than talking about Gaston Miron, you have to believe. Especially if we don’t talk about it! »
Sharing literary emotion
The International Poetry Festival has continued to grow, observes Bellemare. “We had 79,000 admissions in 2019. People now come to Trois-Rivières to read poems that are scattered all over the city. »
The festival formula has developed over time. “At first, we presented jazz and poetry. Then cinema and poetry. We organized readings, in restaurants, in cafes. They last about three minutes. Everyone is listening. Silently. Then the ordinary resumes its course. “These are four poets who will each read twice. It allows people to speak with poets, to listen to them. This festival system has been imitated in Mexico, Argentina as well. »
With each edition of the festival, he says, poetry circulates more and more. “We sell more poetry than in bookstores, I think. We sell $35,000 worth of poetry during the festival. »
He is working on a special edition, focusing on the centenary of Riopelle’s birth in 2023. “I was 14 or 15 when I first saw a painting by Riopelle. It’s one of the greatest emotions of my life. This programming will be in a way his legacy to the festival, he says.
Although he plans to slow down, he still sits on the board of directors of the Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (BAnQ). “It’s the biggest business culture in Quebec,” he says. Gaston Bellemare was on the selection committee that led to the appointment of Marie Grégoire, the former member of the Action Démocratique du Québec (former CAQ), whose unexpected visit to these places raised controversy. “No one ever forced us to take it. We looked at his perspective,” he said. “We worked with the requirements that were sent to us. While adding that “the final choice is not BAnQ who made it”.
Gaston Bellemare likes to quantify everything. “I have published 1100 titles, including co-editions with 17 publishers. He recalls, not without pride, being recognized by the university institution. “University gave me three or four honors,” he says. “I’ve been a member of 32 organizations, including president of the National Association of Publishers for 20 years. »
He has just received the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec and he is delighted. “I had 36 honorary distinctions. Several from Quebec, the Trois-Rivières region, two from Romania and two from Mexico. I’m lucky. This one is worth more than if I had won $100,000. This is the highest rank that I have in Quebec. Apart from the Georges-Émile-Lapalme, which I already had, it’s the biggest! It is a moral bonus. This is the pay that will make me happy until the end of my days. »