White Paper on Francophone Arts and Culture in Ontario Arts and Culture

FRANCOPHONE ARTS AND CULTURE IN ONTARIO White Paper JUNE 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY 05 BACKGROUND 06 STATE OF THE FIELD 09 STRATEGIC ISSUES AND PRIORITY 16 RECOMMANDATIONS CONCLUSION 35 ANNEXE 1: RECOMMANDATIONS 36 AND COURSES OF ACTION ARTS AND CULTURE SUMMARY Ontario’s Francophone arts and culture sector includes a significant number of artists and arts and culture organizations, working throughout the province. These stakeholders are active in a wide range of artistic disciplines, directly contribute to the province’s cultural development, allow Ontarians to take part in fulfilling artistic and cultural experiences, and work on the frontlines to ensure the vitality of Ontario’s Francophone communities. This network has considerably diversified and specialized itself over the years, so much so that it now makes up one of the most elaborate cultural ecosystems in all of French Canada. However, public funding supporting this sector has been stagnant for years, and the province’s cultural strategy barely takes Francophones into account. While certain artists and arts organizations have become ambassadors for Ontario throughout the country and the world, many others continue to work in the shadows under appalling conditions. Cultural development, especially, is currently the responsibility of no specific department or agency of the provincial government. This means that organizations and actors that increase the quality of life and contribute directly to the local economy have difficulty securing recognition or significant support from the province. This White Paper, drawn from ten regional consultations held throughout the province in the fall of 2016, examines the current state of Francophone arts and culture in Ontario, and identifies five key issues. • Supporting artists and strengthening the capacity of artistic and cultural organizations • Updating and expanding the network of Francophone cultural spaces throughout the province • Increasing the reach of Ontario’s Francophone arts, culture and cultural products • Enlisting the education community as a leading partner in Ontario’s Francophone cultural vitality • Remedying the lack of data on Ontario’s Francophone arts and culture community Based on these issues, this paper proposes a series of priority measures that will reinforce the Francophone arts and culture sector in Ontario and ensure the long-term cultural vitality of Francophone communities. 5 | WHITE PAPER ON FRANCOPHONE ARTS AND CULTURE IN ONTARIO ARTS AND CULTURE BACKGROUND The development of the French language in Ontario is intimately tied to the vitality of Francophone arts and culture throughout the province. Seeking to better understand this connection, the Ontario government undertook a series of studies on the cultural sector over the years (Saint- Denis in 19691, Savard in 19772 and RSVP in 19913). Each of these studies chronicles a sector in full upswing, that is constantly diversifying and specializing itself. When the Saint-Denis report was published, it identified no single Francophone organization devoted exclusively to professional arts in Ontario. At the time, the major stakeholders in the field were local organizations wearing many hats (culture, sports, economic development, education, etc.), and Francophone artists were mostly presented in church and community halls. Ontario’s Francophones now enjoy a network of over one hundred arts and cultural organizations, including a province-wide network of professional Francophone cultural spaces. Over the years, Ontario established a series of measures to support this rapidly growing sector, but they mostly consisted of one-offs. Ontario never adopted a horizontal policy in terms of Francophone culture. Unlike other sectors (education, health, French language services, etc.), Ontario’s approach to arts and culture relies on a range of individual programs and limited initiatives, rather than an integrated strategy. The partial exception remains the Ontario Arts Council’s Francophone Arts Office, which has built strong relationships with the sector for nearly 45 years now, and which has truly played a role in establishing and sustaining the long-term development of Francophone arts and culture in Ontario. It is a relationship far beyond that of a typical client and funder. But even this office, whose field of intervention is dictated by a single provincial cultural agency, has a limited impact. Ontario’s approach likely halted the cultural development of the province’s Francophone minority, which found itself without a central coordination that could have acted as a liaison between the various ministries and provincial agencies. Such coordination could have capitalized on potential synergies between the provincial and federal government, or developed relationships with other provinces and countries interested in Ontario’s Francophone artists, artistic organizations and cultural products. Some may recall that in 2006, Ontario and Quebec signed a collaboration agreement on culture. Both parties further reiterated their commitment to this agreement in 2016. But to this day, the sole concrete action to stem from this agreement has been an artistic residency program devised by both provinces’ arts councils, whose annual investment does not exceed $50,000. Otherwise, the governments of the two provinces that are home to the two largest French-speaking populations in North America have done nothing together in terms of arts and culture. 1 Comité Franco-Ontarien d’enquête culturelle, La Vie culturelle des franco-ontariens, 1969. 2 Rapport sur les arts dans la vie franco-ontarienne, 1977. 3 Groupe de travail pour une politique culturelle des Francophones de l’Ontario, RSVP, 1991. 6 | WHITE PAPER ON FRANCOPHONE ARTS AND CULTURE IN ONTARIO ARTS AND CULTURE Unfortunately, nowhere is the gap between the provincial government’s interest and its actions regarding arts and culture more obvious than when it comes to the new Culture Strategy for Ontario, introduced in 2016. This strategy, a first for Ontario, only mentions Francophones on eight occasions. Indeed, only one of its recommendations pertains specifically to Francophones. This recommendation, which encourages the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture to better work together when it comes to Francophonie, echoes a recommendation made by the Rapport Saint-Denis nearly fifty years ago, and which the government evidently did not follow up on. And yet, the Francophone arts and culture sector has grown in leaps and bounds over the past decades. The arts community has endowed itself with artistic associations, cultural centres, festivals, book fairs, community radios and newspapers, theatre companies, artist-run centres, art galleries, publishing houses, bookstores, etc. Francophone artists are networked and federated. Furthermore, artistic practices have multiplied and diversified as a reflection of the changing face of Ontario’s Francophone community, which is now one of the most diverse in North America. While the Rapport Saint-Denis accounted for singer-songwriters, community theatre groups, craft makers and storytellers, Ontario is now also home to a strong artistic community of world music professionals, media artists, contemporary dancers, established novelists and poets, publishing houses, nationally renowned theatre companies, and the list goes on. Three generations of Franco-Ontarian artists have set out on Ontario’s roads since Robert Paquette undertook his first tour. Among them, regardless of discipline, many have had distinguished careers: Clément Bérinni, Shahla Bahrami, Lise Beaudry, Le Théâtre la Vieille 17, Patrice Desbiens, Jean Marc Dalpé, Brigitte Haentjens, Robert Dickson, Daniel Poliquin, Marguerite Andersen, le Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario, les Éditions Prise de Parole, CANO, Paul Demers, Breen Leboeuf, Brasse Camarade, Chuck Labelle, Véronic Dicaire, Damien Robitaille, Andrea Lindsay, Corpus Danse, Mehdi Hamdad, YAO, Katherine Levac, etc. The success that these artists have known, both as ambassadors for Ontario’s Francophone community and as leaders of their respective artistic disciplines, is a major source of pride for all of Ontario’s Francophones. Jean Marc Dalpé and Marcel Aymar, La Nuit sur l’Étang, 2012. Photo : Joël Ducharme 7 | WHITE PAPER ON FRANCOPHONE ARTS AND CULTURE IN ONTARIO ARTS AND CULTURE Progress has been plentiful in this sector over the decades, but the current situation remains disturbing. Over the last two years, the Ontario Trillium Foundation has reviewed its programs; the Ontario government launched a cultural strategy that largely ignores its Francophone community; and both the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council have undertaken significant administrative transformations, with no indication of their plans for Ontario’s Francophone community. All this happened while core funding has remained capped for over a decade, at both the provincial and federal levels. Working conditions for artists continue to stagnate, the power of community networks is eroding, and – despite obvious good faith and substantial efforts – the sector continues to struggle to open itself up and be more inclusive of culturally diverse artists and organizations. This is the context in which l’Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario (AFO) has developed a White Paper on Francophone arts and culture in Ontario. This document, grounded in an in-depth analysis of the current situation, suggests a vision for the future that will position and prioritize public

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