Le Continental XL, choreography by Sylvain Émard, a Sylvain Émard Danse and Festival TransAmériques co-production, co-presented by Quartier des spectacles. 200 amateur dancers took part in this line dancing extravaganza. Photo: Robert Etcheverry 2011.
Note: This is the first post in a conversation on this blog about public engagement in the arts. See also a more recent post: Illusion and reality.
Art has entered our homes and taken to the streets – no longer is it confined to places specifically designed for its expression or exhibition. It no longer stands on ceremony – it pops up in our computers, we carry it around on our smart phones. Slam poetry in my headphones on my way to the ballet? A new art installation in a storefront window that I can snap a photo of and share with friends? No sooner seen than done! In the digital age, cultural citizenship means instant access, diversity and mobility. It also means a quest for meaning and the desire to participate, to be truly included. Art continues to hold sway, but it’s no longer enough to offer more and more possibilities: we now have to help people discover, appreciate and assimilate its amazing powers. The Canada Council for the Arts wants to do more and better on this front, knowing all the while that there is no one-size-fits-all formula for doing so.
A priority, a choice and a right
It is not a question of funding everything – but it is also not a matter of ignoring the fact that everything around us is changing. The demographics of our country are radically different from what they were in 1957 when the Canada Council was founded. Technology changes the way we think and create. It challenges the basic premises of cultural participation. Supply no longer seems to be the magic key that opens the door to art.
This is a paradox of our times: the incessant flood of content does not erase the threat that weighs on the diversity of cultural expressions. The exponential growth and democratization of the means of creation and dissemination do not guarantee the depth, quality and range of all that humans are capable of creating as they try to understand the world and our existence in it. In appearance, art is everywhere; in reality, you still have to seek it out.
Public engagement in the arts appears to us to be a priority we need to reaffirm – a societal choice we need to reconfirm, a universal right we need to reassert. For citizens of all ages and from all walks of life, this engagement is a possibility and something of value, for it makes the world a more wondrous place, enriching individual and community life.
We support professional artistic practice because it allows for the creation of high quality artistic content and experiences that we aspire to as a democratic society.
Leaving the past, looking to the future
The days of tallying numbers of spectators, tickets or publications are now making way for an era of focusing on the relationship between artists, cultural institutions and citizens.
The Canada Council’s programs are key to capturing the value of the content and experiences proposed by artists, and for encouraging citizens to explore creation and interact with exceptional ideas and works of art. The Council has made public engagement in the arts one of its priorities.
As a unifying force, the Council is approaching this priority in the form of a dialogue with numerous stakeholders, artists and arts organizations, all committed to full participation in artistic life.
It’s everyone’s turn to speak
During the Canada Council’s annual general meeting, I spoke about public engagement in the arts and extended an invitation to all to take part in the discussion. This is an issue that concerns us all, and you are all invited to join the conversation. To help nourish the debate, the Council has posted a discussion paper on its web site.
What kind of cultural citizenship do you want to see? How do you see the current relationship between artists and the public? What will it look like tomorrow? How do you envision the arts organizations of the future? What actions and initiatives should we take a fresh look at?
Let’s talk!
Follow Simon Brault on Twitter: @simon_brault
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I think the function of art galleries is fundamentally changing, as they
increasingly take up issues of social justice in their exhibition,
education and programming initiatives. Many art
galleries are now introducing activist practices into the more
traditional areas of collecting, conserving and exhibiting. Art
galleries are reassessing their roles and find themselves
ideally placed to foster critical historical consciousness, as
well as individual and community participation in the quest
for greater awareness and workable solutions to global problems. I believe the introduction of dialogue into visual art and
curatorial practices marks an emergence of cultural institutions’
engagement in diversity and opens a space for public
voices to enter the institution. I think concepts such as participation, interaction and shared authorship are major trends that are influencing contemporary visual arts practice in Canada today.
Scott Marsden, Curator
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Translation of French comment posted October 17, 2012:
Bravo for continually insisting on the need to fund the arts and culture: “Public engagement in the arts appears to us to be a priority we need to reaffirm – a societal choice we need to reconfirm, a universal right we need to reassert.” It is easy, every time there’s an announcement about some economic crisis somewhere in the world, to think of arts funding as area that can be cut without doing damage, whereas the reality is that it is the guarantee of democracy, freedom of expression and cultural advancement in general. Contemporary art, especially when it is funded, reassures each of us that we are not censoring ourselves when we maintain that we are not censuring ourselves – which is generally false, but reiterated at every opportunity in order to bring our citizens and those of other countries as well into compartments of classification: those between age x and y think this way, those earning a salary of x per year think that way, those with x years of education think the other way, and where do we situate ourselves in all of this? We calmly open our eyes to the reality of the person who’s been divorced four times, with an immigrant past, who’s just found a job in another region: what group, what sector does he fit into? But your experience, your own, that highly personal one that you seem to share with everyone, is unique as well, and where are you in all of this? Bravo, also, for “The days of tallying numbers of spectators, tickets or publications are now making way for an era of focusing on the relationship between artists, cultural institutions and citizens.” And have a great day , even if I would have preferred being offered the choice of the category ‘guy who used to have long hair’ as an antecedent…. Daniel Quimper
25
Translation of French comment posted October 23rd, 2012:
For me, being exposed to the arts and having the opportunity to express myself through the arts is an essential aspect of self-actualization. I have seven grandchildren, and I try to expose them to as many things as possible: sports, nature, different cultures, and most of all, to the arts! A phenomenon that I find disturbing is that it seems that arts programs are often the first thing that is cut in the schools. Even more worrisome is the fact that parents do not seem especially concerned when this happens. What can we do to make people understand that the arts are an essential part of life?
25
There’s a vastly increased supply of cultural experiences available via many new channels of distribution. We will only discover the best ways in which the professional non-profit sector can expand its participation by trying new things (often, I suspect, in collaborations), and very few non-profits have risk capital available to experiment. Important note: operating funding is not risk capital! So, where will it come from?
Also, it’s important to remember that measuring progress will be very important to effective advocacy and we must have good ways to capture and communicate the impact of funding decisions. In other words, don’t dedicate scarce resources to achieve outcomes that can’t be measured.
Finally, it’s important not to spread ourselves too thin; no one organization – funder or grantee – can do everything worth doing in this arena. And that’s just fine, since innovations will come from many participants. For those with limited resouces – most of us, that is – we need to think long and hard about what we can do that will really make a difference to the quality of Canadians’ cultural lives and of our society.
27
Maritime Concert Opera Society was founded in 2003 in Lunenburg, NS for the following reasons:to present to the South Shore concert versions of operatic works in their original languages; to keep ticket prices low and venues small so that opera is more accessible to our audiences; to promote enjoyment of opera, musical theatre and operetta; and to encourage audience development through pre-concert lectures, vocal recitals and school programmes.
Over the years our audiences have risen consistently. We tour our shows as much as possible, usually performing our fall shows in Liverpool and Lunenburg, and on some occasions in Halifax. The Summer Opera has always performed in Lunenburg and Shelburne, but in recent years we have also included Yarmouth and Annapolis Royal. The performances outside our home base have been well attended and in the last two years, the venues have been delighted to book us for the following year 12 months in advance.
Ticket sales constitute only part of our revenue and we have to rely on fund-raising, donations and sponsorship support to cover the costs of our productions, pared down as these are. We have remained solvent throughout our existence due to loyal support over the years and the generosity of provincial and national level grant programs.
Because of our regular performances and our commitment to hiring artists from the Atlantic Provinces, we have created a market for professional-calibre opera in our region and have grown to become an important employer of young and emerging opera singers in Atlantic Canada. There are many students from Dalhousie and Acadia Universities who have had their first professional engagements with us. In this way we act as a feeder company for other Canadian opera companies, and as an extension of the university performing experience for talented young singers.
Until MCO was founded, there was little or no opera in the South Shore area of Nova Scotia. We have made it possible for thousands of people in Lunenburg, Yarmouth, Annapolis Royal, Halifax, Liverpool and Shelburne to hear good Canadian singers perform entire operas in the original language (with projected English translations where necessary). We have broadened the range of cultural experiences available to Canadians in our region, and our audiences, both adults and children, continue to grow.
In my experience, start up funding for organizations is relatively easy to access. What becomes more difficult is to secure reliable funding to carry an organization through growth and maintenance phases.
As sources of government funding reduce due to the political and economy-driven restructuring of government and social priorities, then other sources of funding for Arts and Culture must be developed. Funding itself is an art, and the government can help secure funding for non-profit organizations from other sources in our society that make huge annual profits.
As an example, the government could enact legislation requiring national and international corporations doing business in Canada to pay back a percentage of their profits into a support fund for Arts/Culture that would be administered by government sanctioned agencies such as the Canada Council.
This is one suggestion. If there were a will, it would be no great undertaking to create a board to map out realistic alternate sources of funding to the present government sponsored ones. Corporations voluntarily do a great deal already to help supplement the resources of organizations spanning a broad spectrum of needs in our society. But, of those to whom much is given, much is expected.
29
It all starts with education. As an art teacher I feel it is so important that children are educated by art specialist. It is also important that the student teacher ratio is lowered in art classes. It is hard too teach 32 kids at a time to draw, paint or appreciate art in a 50 minute period of time. In my position, I can teach 250 students a week and be required to evaluate them each term on three competencies. 750 marks to enter in a computer, it becomes more about numbers then education and communicating the subtitles of an art form.
So, we wonder as a society why we don’t have more public engagement. The general public see’s artists as distant from them selves. Their are the few talented and the others: “I can’t draw a straight line.” By high-school everyone knows who those few are and the rest have believed the lie that they can’t. The lone art teacher in most schools are up against a society that believes the same. Parents don’t care about little Johnny failing his art class because after all he is only talented at hockey. I could go on about my colleges in the field of education who have never taken an art class and perpetuate the belief that art class is a filler. Children can come late for art or be disturbed more readily in this class.
So the bottom line educate them young to love art. This is where the government has really failed us as a society.
We are too ignorant, closed minded, and conservative as a Canadians. Only a few get a real education and only a few will participate in a discussion about public engagement in the arts because the title alone will scare them.
If Tim Horton’s had art work on the walls then more people would be exposed to art.
30
Technology does not change the way an informed, grounded artist thinks, though it may have some impact on the method of executing creative ideas. I have waited to comment on this blog to observe what kind of response it would generate. I am dismayed but not surprised that there is – to date – very little dialogue. Curious that most of it is in French! Cela confirme ma confiance par rapport a la passion que mes collegues francophones gardent pour leur vocation.
The necessity of arts and the support that is required to maintain high quality, provocative work should no longer be the lead-in for any official statement on the arts. Suggesting that everyone is an artist now that the barrier to technical entry has been removed by gadgets like smartphones is a step back not a step into engaging and elevating the public. The challenge for any agency supporting art now is to discern the true craftsperson who has developed their art by way of serious education and training followed by a dedicated practice – often at great personal expense. Most important, by reflection and the kind of creative work that takes years of practice and experimentation, not the purchase of a new gadget.
As I tell my University-level Creative Arts and Technology students when I ask them to get out a pencil and paper, for reflection, “Technology does not create art. Artists create art.” Or, as a film colleague so well put it: “If it is a strong concept and idea it can be done on ANY budget with the simplest of tools.”
Money does not make art. But it can facilitate great ideas borne of experimentation. If artists have no point of view fuelled by education and an imagination organized through a passionate vocation, then there is little to fund or support but Facebook narcissism.
My own passion is cinema poetry. Cinema, one of the modern age’s most remarkable integrations. The painter Kandinsky envisioned an “art of the future” that would encompass the existing six arts: painting, sculpture, dance, architecture, photography and music. The seventh art is still best experienced when presented by seasoned practitioners on a cinema screen.
The engagement of individuals at a film screening together remains the most remarkable art experience. It cannot be felt, heard or seen on a hand-held screen. The spiritual experience that movie screens began to offer as the religious framework of attending church services waned will not be replaced by narrowing our gaze. The view that looks out and up is one that is an invitation to larger vistas and new perspectives not to mention broader ideas. The small, limited scenes on our phones serve the kind of crude and corrupting anti-art that is being cobbled together by artists who have always thrived with or without funding. “Free,” “accessible” and “easy” does not make art – or engage anyone in any meaningful way. The cost and effort required to provoke a genuine response and engagement with the public through compelling creative work that furthers the soul’s progress cannot be measured in money but it ought to be supported if it is made and conceived by minds unhindered by technology.
The French filmmaker Chris Marker was one of the very few creative artists whose aesthetic harnessed gadgetry instead of being driven by it. I direct you to his masterpiece “Cat listening to Music.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KalkgX5Igwo)
We have a great deal to learn from our less technically inclined kin.
-Eliza Fernbach
05
Simon Brault’s response to Suzanne Cayer (23 October)
First off, let me say that I agree with you absolutely: discovering the arts, playing sports and directly experiencing cultural diversity are ideal ways for children to learn to understand the world, express themselves, and participate fully in life in society.
In this respect, family connections can pass on a general culture – the basis of our freedom and independence as individuals. But family alone can’t always pass along an appreciation of art or the values of cultural participation.
As you suggest, schools have a role to play too, and culture should be at the core of any comprehensive education project. It is vitally important that citizens take an interest in the content of school curricula and activities. The idea is not to pit sports versus culture, but to show that both are essential to the academic process, and to helping children to become social and independent. I think that we need to talk about this a lot more – in the media, in parent-teacher meetings, to school boards and to our politicians. We can base our message on the many studies that prove the value of the arts and culture within society, and give concrete examples of successful learning experiences that were made possible by being exposed to and taking part in the arts.
In fact, I would like to ask our readers to share examples of ‘eureka’ moments that were the result of exposure to the arts in school that have changed the lives of children or young people they know.
Simon Brault
15
Simon Brault’s response to Eliza Fernbach (30 October)
Your comments are very interesting, and I agree with you that technology doesn’t make everyone an artist. It would be wonderful if this were the case – the human experience would be richer and more satisfying if each of us had carried the seeds of artistic genius, even dormant, within ourselves. But I’ll leave that utopian dream aside for now, since it’s getting us off topic …
You are also absolutely right to remind your students that technology does not create art. However, I do believe that technology often changes the process and the practice of artistic creation, just as it can modify the relationship people have with artistic works and events. Here’s an example concerning playwrights from my day-to-day life at the National Theatre School: These budding authors can now free themselves from the constraints of a limited number of locations where the action can take place. They can use projections on stage that don’t necessarily transform the theatre into a cinema when they are well integrated in terms of dramaturgy and scenography.
I really like what you have to say about screens. Format does change the sensorial experience. At the same time, the first movie theatres were built on the model of stage theatres, with a lot more seats at the orchestra level. In those days, the screen itself was installed on a stage. Later we started to build theatres by copying the model of the old movie houses, based on an appreciation of this artform. What I am trying to say is that from one generation to the next, our relationship to the work is inspired by our vision of the past and influenced by our mastery of the architecture or communications of the present. The question of public engagement with the arts remains as complex as ever, and we have to take into account both the pitfalls and the possibilities of technology.
20
Beautiful Blog post…. I will try to tweet a quote from it…. hard to pick just 140 characters. I love the engagement of public all the various forms of art and within the very making of the work itself…
Art ignites curiosity and fire within me… I want to participate… I want to be part… to appreciate and to rediscover myself inside the notion of the work itself…be it– Theatre, Music, Installation, Performance, etc…
I always desire to take part…not just as a viewer… but as a real– in the flesh component of the work… as a witness… as a person or group that changes it … by my very act of being present….
Thus, I always ask, and push myself– how can (for my own work) the audience take part (and also do this), how can I surprise them, create curiosity…have them find wonder… question our community, our very reality…. How can they (the audience) leave their imprint on the work… or a least leave the work– with more to think about … more to ponder… as they traverse the remainder of their day…
Again… thanks so much for this post… there is so much to take in and many angles of attack on the topic…. I appreciated the piece.
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A Brief Response to Canada Council’s discussion paper Public Engagement in the Arts
As a dance presenter, I applaud the Canada Council for addressing a range of issues related to equality of access to culture. I urge Council to:
• maintain its focus on “specialized artistic pursuits” (pg 7), ensuring that its policies conform with the general principles of Canada’s Status of the Artist Act and are sensitive to key issues affecting professional artists such as: adequate compensation, taxation status, social benefits, training and professional development, health and safety, rights to collective bargaining and need for adequate workspace
• address the “central tension between excellence and democratization” of culture and ensure “that both aims are well served.” (pg. 22)
• clarify and harmonize the relationship and potential overlap between the Canada Council and the Department of Canadian Heritage regarding cultural policy and public engagement in the arts, i.e. “An example of the complexity of this system is shown through performing arts presentation and dissemination support which is shared between the Canada Council and Canadian Heritage.” (pg. 12)
I want to see arts organizations of various sizes receive sufficient support to:
• remain financially stable
• forge and maintain lasting relationships with an engaged public
• pay professional wages to creators, interpreters and administrators
This support should not be limited to large scale organizations dedicated to “high art.” The Council should acknowledge the time, effort and expertise required to develop and sustain relationships with marginalized communities.
I want to see Council address barriers to cultural involvement. While the discussion paper includes a relevant quote and references to John Holden’s Culture and Class, I believe that Council could go farther to reflect the full meaning and context of Holden’s views: “[A]rts policy and policies that influence culture more broadly in the commercial world and policies that affect people’s capacity to create culture for themselves are inextricably linked with issues of social justice.” In her preface to Culture and Class, Catherine Fiechi, Director Counterpoint, the British Council writes: “Shamefully, at a time when we know that the gap between rich and poor is at its widest, worldwide, and likely to widen as the economic recession deepens, we are entirely failing to address the direct role played by culture in perpetuating these distinctions.” Needs noted by Holden include: “Having the money, time and confidence to get involved … Gaining access to means of production and communication and the skills to use them.” (Culture and Class, pg. 56)
In a recent New York Times article, the author quotes University of California economist Greg J. Duncan: “affluent families… have tripled the amount by which they outspend low-income families on enrichment activities like sports, music lessons and summer camps” (The Diploma Divide – For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall, Jason DeParle, Dec. 22, 2012). While the writer notes that “low-income Americans have lower chances of upward mobility than counterparts in Canada and Western Europe,” economic barriers to arts participation are also an issue in Canada. I hope Council will take a fresh look at vehicles for encouraging arts participation by the broadest possible range of social groups.
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Public Engagement in Canadian Book Publishing: A Response to the Canada Council’s “Public Engagement in the Arts”
The members of the Association of Canadian Publishers, representing independent, Canadian-owned publishers of English-language books, congratulate the Canada Council on publication of its discussion paper, “Public Engagement in the Arts.” This is a timely consideration of an important issue for the cultural sector today.
The Association of Canadian Publishers is the national voice of Canada’s independent English-language book publishers. Our 120 members are drawn from all ten provinces and Nunavut. They publish in every genre, and serve literary, trade, educational, scholarly, and specialty markets. Public engagement is at the core of publishers’ activities; increasingly, over the past four years, it has become a core focus for the ACP as well, as manifested in the National Reading Campaign, the 49th Shelf, and eBOUND Canada. All of these initiatives are intended to foster public engagement, from the most fundamental act of reading, to the application of technologies that enable new kinds of communication among authors, readers, publishers, and the public at large.
Supporting a Reading Public
The act of reading is the primary means through which the public engages with the literary arts. Reading is an essential component in a host of social benefits upon which a civil society depends: education, participatory democracy, critical thinking and analysis, and the ability to know and understand others. It is essential that Canada as a sovereign nation, through all its institutions, maintain and nurture a culture of reading. The Canada Council’s support of literary arts and publishing has played a crucial role in this process, and must continue to do so. Many (perhaps most) Canadians encounter the arts for the very first time as babies, when their parents read to them. Reading remains an important activity at all stages of life; recent research conducted by BookNet Canada reveals that more than 50% of Canadian adults read books several times a week, with close to 30% reading books daily. When magazines and newspapers are also considered, the numbers are even higher (The Canadian Book Consumer, BookNet Canada, 2012, p. 53). The National Reading Campaign, supported by the ACP and the Canada Council since the inaugural Reading Summit in 2009, strives to sustain that primary connection, and to ensure that reading remains integral to the lives of all Canadians, at all ages.
Building Community
Historically, Canadian book communities grew up anchored by three local institutions: independent bookstores, schools, and libraries. The first of those is fast disappearing from the landscape; the other two are under intense pressure as a result of funding constraints and other challenges. Public libraries are in many places being forced to reduce their open hours. Many school libraries are not managed by professional librarians, and are unable to provide students with the current, relevant, high-quality literature they need and deserve. As a result, the nature of community in the context of Canadian readers has changed; physical spaces where readers gathered to hear authors read, to find new books, to discuss them with other readers, are far fewer than they were twenty-five years ago. These shifts represent a significant challenge to Canada’s ability to engage the public in the literary arts, and to maintain Canada’s place as a premier producer of excellent writing.
Publishers have worked with school and public librarians on a number of initiatives that work against these trends. The “tree awards,” a series of provincial and regional children’s book programs, bring classrooms and school book clubs together to discuss the nominated titles each year; the excitement about reading and books instilled in students of participating schools is palpable and inspiring. The TD Summer Reading program, funded in part through the private sector, encourages children of all ages to connect with books through their public libraries; again, the results are hugely positive. But these programs are not uniformly adopted across Canada, and not all Canadians can benefit directly from them. They need the means – in both financial and public policy terms – to extend throughout the country. Investment in programs like these would do much to increase the exposure of children and youth to Canadian literature, and in turn foster a population of lifelong readers. As bricks-and-mortar retail spaces disappear, libraries are more vital than ever as a forum for community-building and public engagement in the literary arts.
At the same time, digital technologies and the social media which they enable have created enormous opportunities to establish different kinds of public engagement in Canadian books, new kinds of communities, and new roles for readers and the public at large.
The ACP’s 49th Shelf is an example of an online community that has grown up around Canadian-authored books. It was created primarily to address the challenge of decreasing discoverability for Canadian-authored works, as retail space for books shrank overall and what remained was increasingly dominated by a narrow range of (mostly American) commercial fiction and celebrity biographies. As online bookselling grew in size and reach, it mirrored the trend toward promotion of top sellers, to the detriment of the vast majority of books published, and particularly of Canadian titles. At the same time, space for book reviews has declined, prompting publishers to seek alternate channels through which to introduce readers to new works. In its efforts to counter the effects of these developments, the 49th Shelf developed a following of readers who now exchange opinions and reactions to Canadian writing, share recommendations and updates, communicate directly with authors, and participate in an online community that celebrates Canadian-authored books.
Extending the reach of Canadian writing
The introduction of ebooks has made it possible for Canadian books to reach many more readers at home and around the world. Recent research informs us that boys – a segment of the public whose reading had been steadily declining in recent years, in tandem with their academic performance – who read ebooks are now reading more books for pleasure (Kids & Family Reading Report, Scholastic/Harrison Group, 2013, p. 8). People of all ages who use e-readers report reading more books overall than those who read only in print, and 30% of those who read digitally report spending more time reading than they did in the past (The Rise of e-Reading, Pew Research Centre, 2012, p. 4). Although these surveys reflect American populations, it is reasonable to expect similar results within Canada. Those with visual impairment (or other disabilities that make print books unusable) now have access to materials previously unavailable to them. The ACP is participating in the TIGAR project of the International Publishers Association, which facilitates access across national borders and copyright restrictions for those with disabilities, through multinational exchange of ebook files.
EBOUND Canada, the ACP’s ebook initiative, is at the heart of these developments in Canadian publishing. In assisting publishers to navigate the uncharted waters of ebook production, promotion, and distribution, eBOUND has helped to ensure maximum exposure of Canadian writing to readers at home and abroad, and to bring new sectors of the public into the realm of Canadian literature.
Expanding the conversation
Written communication in this century far exceeds anything the world has known before. The mechanical aspect of writing is easier than at any time in the past, for those who have access to computer technology, and the dissemination of digitally produced content can be far less expensive than print distribution. Powerful search engines allow people to compile a great deal of information on any area of specific interest. Platforms such as Goodreads and 49th Shelf offer curatorial functions. Anyone can be a writer, and any writer can be a publisher. The implications for professionals in the literary arts are a subject of ongoing discussion in the book world, as publishers, authors, readers, and members of the general public all reconsider their roles in the publishing process and the criteria that define them.
The question of self-publishing continues to evolve, as technology enables a proliferation of authors who eschew traditional contracts. Those who do opt for traditional channels are now often expected to conduct more of the marketing activity themselves, through their social media networks. And as traditional reviewing media disappear, readers are providing the critical opinion that guides other potential readers, as professional reviewers and other experts once did.
The roles of professional author and publisher may evolve in new ways over the years ahead; nevertheless, members of the ACP strongly believe that the value professionals bring to the process will always be the foundation of a healthy and diverse body of Canadian literature.
Conclusion
Book publishing, like all areas of arts and culture, has experienced unprecedented change in the past ten years. Most of the changes are rooted in technology, either directly, as in the proliferation of ebooks, or indirectly, as in the decline of bricks-and-mortar retail fuelled in part by the rise of online alternatives. Each change presents challenges for authors or publishers or both, but all of them arise from a process in which the public has become increasingly engaged in the creation, production, dissemination, and evaluation of writing in general.
These developments are affecting every aspect of our work and the way the public engages with it, and we must understand the nature of their engagement in this new environment. To that end the ACP is working with a range of other organizations in the writing and publishing sector on public-opinion research to understand the place of reading and writing in all aspects of Canadians’ lives, and the value they place on the written word.
It is the job of literature, as with all art forms, to lead and not to follow. In order for Canadian writing to flourish, it cannot merely reflect back our world back to our citizens, or reinforce popular points of view or trending tastes; it must provoke new ways of understanding the world and ourselves, identify and promote new perspectives, and encourage new ways to express ideas. This is the core mission of independent publishers.
Public engagement is something book publishers have always sought. We are eager to work with the Canada Council in the months ahead, in exploring the implications of public engagement in the arts, and the means by which to further it.
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Hey Simon et al,
We are having a public chat about all this in Vancouver [Feb. 19], at the Rhizome cafe, from 5-7 pm. It was inspired by your post and the CC discussion paper. It’s part of a series of public chats about the arts produced by Kristina Lemieux.
http://kristinalemieux.com/sankaset/
Or on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/460088270730264
Thanks,
Flick Harrison
#artsforall