ELANews: May 2011

Director’s Message Election 2011. Voting Day. Most people vote for their top two or three personal issues. For ELAN members, arts and culture are right at the top along with education and health. Arts can and should play a major role in education; teaching creativity, resourcefulness, critical thinking and transmitting the vast cultural heritage that has inspired generations. Arts and culture also have therapeutics effects on mind and body, which hard-nosed number-crunchers dismiss as difficult to quantify, therefore not of serious importance. Nothing could be less true. Tolerance, civility, compassion, freedom and democracy are all difficult to quantify, and harder to monetize, but are nonetheless essential to our quality of life. The business model for arts and culture is perfectly sound. We generate $85 billion a year in revenues: just over seven per cent of Canada’s GDP, the Conference Board of Canada noted in 2008. We also bring in a lot of tax money: about $25 billion a year to Ottawa, the provinces and municipalities, more than three times what those governments invest in the sector. And Canadians spend twice as much on live performing arts ($1.4 billion) as they do on sports, Statistics Canada reported in 2005. We are also a big employer: 600,000 people, twice as many as in forestry or in banking. It is our duty to vote for the things we believe in. Encourage your friends to join you at the ballot box Guy Rodgers Executive Director

ELANews: January 2011

Director’s Message

ELAN wishes all the best for 2011 to all of our members and friends. We all have projects dear to our hearts that we’ll be pursuing this year, and ELAN will continue to make every effort to spread the news of your creations in 2011  through our website, Facebook, Twitter and ELANLinks blog.

With this issue of ELANews we encourage you to also take a look back at some of the highlights of 2010 (see the Year in Review articles listed below). In the midst of this creative explosion we must remember to pay tribute to pioneers who blazed a trail during years when the English-language arts scene was smaller, more fragile and less visible. 2010-11 has seen a number of important anniversaries for leading members of our community: Black Theatre Workshop (40 years), Geordie Theatre and Teesri Duniya (30 years), the Fringe Festival, The Other Theatre and Choeur Maha (20 years), and Pop Montreal, Expozine and Porte Paroles (10 years).

If you know of other trail blazers marking key milestones, please let us know. In March, ELAN will be holding an anniversary party to celebrate these fine organizations, and you’re all invited!

Guy Rodgers
Executive Director

Director’s Message, Dec 2010

by English Language Arts Network on Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at 6:16pm

The English-language arts community in Quebec has never been so busy. The music scene is a phenomenon with new bands forming and new CDs being released. Last week Rover Arts and Infinitheatre staged Imagining Montreal: a city in fiction, excerpts from 24 novels and short story collections published since 2000 that are set in Montreal.  Next week the Quebec Drama Federation launches its Winter Theatre Calendar at the Segal Centre with short performances from 14 upcoming productions. All of this creativity is cause for celebration.Not everyone agrees. There are still people who see any resurgence of English-language culture as a threat to ‘’québécois’’ culture, as if the two are mutually exclusive.  It is a constant challenge to present the “new face” of English-language culture – fluently bilingual, proud to be Quebeckers – and to get across the message that we are friends and allies who do more to promote Quebec than a multi-million dollar PR campaign.

The important question is whether the government of Quebec values its English-language minority.  We know that CALQ has an exemplary record of providing support for English-language artists. We get mixed messages from the Ministries of Culture and Education. ELAN has been speaking to the Ministry of Culture (MCCCF) about funding a showcase celebrating English-language artists next year.  So far the answer is no because of technicalities concerning the way events and organizations are funded.  In the New Year ELAN will seek a meeting with the Minister of Culture to ask about the official position of the provincial government toward English-language artists. We hope to encounter Santa Claus rather than Scrooge.  Stay tuned.  And happy holidays!

Guy Rodgers
Executive Director