 Hi everyone, if we can reassemble, Simon is in his office, he's on Skype and ready to talk to us. So in a moment once everyone's in, it'll be Simon Bro. We don't have his slides but he's happy to front his talk to us. So here he is. Simon, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. So we're ready? Let's begin. Okay, first I really want to say that I'm absolutely sorry that I was not able to find a flight for New York. Yesterday night there was a big snowstorm in La Guardia and in Montreal and I had this very surrealistic moment after being four hours on the tarmac in Montreal. We had to go back, you know, I had to go back home and I went through the American custom and the man asked me, so what are you doing? Why did you want to go to the U.S.? And I said to talk about culture and he looked at me and said, why? I said, because that's my job and he said, so are you paid for that? And I said, so it wasn't an interesting moment about going to the U.S. to talk about culture. So I just want to start by saying that by giving some context about the situation of the Canada Council for the Arts right now in Canada, we are in a, as you know, we are an arts funder. So our mission has been for the more than 60 years to champions the art and to support the art to make sure that as many Canadians could enjoy the benefit of the arts. In three years, two years ago, we had the three years ago, we had the new government elected in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And during the election campaign, part of his platform was that if elected, they would double the budget of the Canada Council for the Arts. This is a situation that is absolutely so far unique in the world. We saw over the last few years a slight decline in terms of public investment for the art. And I would argue that the model of an arts council or an organization like the National Endowment for the Arts in the U.S., for instance, is a model that is being marginalized since many years in many, many countries and government in different directions because they are convinced that investment for the arts, if they make any investment, should generate more economic wealth and therefore should be tightly controlled by them, by the bureaucrats or the politicians. So the model of an arms-length agency making decisions about funding the arts with certain independence from the government and being in fact quite free in a way it makes its decision is, I would say, less and less popular across the world. But in Canada, our government made that variable decision to double our budget over five years. And it is at the same, it's so, so in 2021, the Canada Council will enjoy an annual budget of $360 million, which is quite a significant amount of money for our federal funder. But for us, what is really important right now is that we realize that, I mean, it's good to have more results, but at the same time, it's a huge responsibility because the last thing in the world we could do is to try, is to do more of the same. The last thing in the world we would do would be to just distribute that money to the existing clients of the Canada Council, even if they are insisting a lot that they have a lot of needs. We realize that we need to make sure that our investments are transformative and in fact are bringing new powerful voices in the cultural landscape and that we will deal with issues around cultural rights, cultural democratization, the impact of arts on the daily life of citizens and all that in a way that is both innovative and noticeable for our fellow citizens, including for our government. So the Canada Council over the last few years have been through an immense transformation, a radical transformation, and to just give you an idea of the scope of that formation, I arrived as a CEO four years ago and one of the first things I said when I arrived was that there was a need to recreate, to modify the way we do fund the arts, and we went from 150 programs roughly that were devoted to support every possible artistic discipline with the ultimate goal of maintaining what we considered to be a healthy ecosystem. So we went from 150 programs, now six programs. So it means that the vast majority of the staff of the council is occupying new jobs now, working in different teams, and we reinvented completely the Canada Council with the idea that we should have a clear idea of what are the desired outcomes of our investment, that we should have capacity to act in a strategic way as opposed to be only reactive, that we would invest 25% of all the new money that the Canada Council is receiving over five years for students who never got a grant from the Canada Council so far, that we would explore new territories in terms of like the digital, that we would triple our investment for supporting indigenous artists in our country, moving from a very Eurocentric way of supporting indigenous art to support indigenous artists on their own term, so recognizing self-determination and sovereignty of the first peoples of our lands in their choices to express themselves and to conduct their artistic activity, and obviously we also said that international would become more and more prominent in terms of our preoccupation as an arts council, and certainly not in a way that is one way, so not only in terms of trying to make sure that Canadians and artists would present more of their work on the world stage, but also that we would have a reciprocal approach and that we would really try to build sustained relationships with different nations in the world through exchanges with their artists and their artistic companies. Over the last few weeks, I've been traveling a lot, which is a lot outside Canada, and to engage in discussions with friends, UK, Mexico, and to try to explain what will be the terms of engagements that we are proposing for the future on the international stage. And it's also kind of an offset of a big initiative we took last May in Ottawa when we organized the first America's cultural summit, and we invited nearly 200 artists and thinkers and professionals of the art sector, politicians, diplomats from 34 countries of the America to discuss how we could have more link on this continent in terms to advance and to give more space for arts and culture in our respective country, but also in the way we deal or we exchange between our country. What is very fascinating right now is that no matter who you talk with and no matter which country you are trying to have the discussion about the future of the arts, you realize that the major challenges that are confronting various cities and countries are similar and are also deeply interconnected. It's clear that the issues of social isolation, that identity-based clashes, and ultimately a growing deficit of social cohesion are a matter of concern everywhere in the world. This manifests in different ways at different levels from the rise of populism and nativism in the political sphere, right down to racist comments in everyday conversations at the street level. These challenges have been, I would say, exacerbated by a system that prescribes more and more our behaviors, be they political, economic, nationalistic, organizational, and perhaps above all algorithm-driven platforms. In this context, decision-making at the highest levels has been plagued with polemical struggles that place winning an ideological battle over finding real solutions for the good of everyone. This has led to a general sense of disempowerment, resentment, and anger, and widely felt anxiety about what the future might hold. And this sense of disempowerment is only perpetuated as people seek out solutions to the various problems of our world, only to discover that the existing resources are short. But in this quest for a viable solution to create happier, healthier, more secure, and more prosperous societies, however, the arts are often overlooked. This is, in my opinion, an irony. To this, because the arts have the incredible capacity to bring diverse people together, to foster communication among them, and encourage their collective exploration of ideas and human experiences, rather than offering prescriptive or reactive solutions. When I speak about the power of the arts, I'm reminded of how the arts community in Canada came together recently to welcome the over 4,000 refugees who arrived in recent years from Syria. And in December 2015, so three years ago, the Canada Council for the Arts partnered with a private company, Sunlight Financial, and put out a call to offer support to arts organizations that wished to provide free access to refugees to a performance and exhibition or an arts event in their communities. And we had dozens and dozens of organizations across Canada who responded. One of these was the Vancouver's on the West Coast, barred on the beach Shakespeare Festival, which is a not-for-profit professional Shakespeare Festival that presents its play every summer on the waterfront of Vancouver in Vanier Park. In the summer of 2016, barred on the beach prepared to welcome an audience of Syrian refugees, recent refugees, to a production of the Mary Wives of Windsor. Before the performance, they prepared a plot summary written in Arabic to make it easier for the Syrian families to understand. They also sought advice from the refugee service organization that accompanied the Syrians, Immigrant Service Society of BC, and their response was generous. The organization rearranged the connection between the festival, the refugees, and sent members of the team to the performance so that the refugees would recognize a few familiar faces in the audience. During intermission, members of the audience went out of their way to welcome the newcomers, speaking to them and meeting their children. The Syrian families loved the experience. For most of them, it was unlike anything they ever seen before. This initiative, and I could give many, many examples, exemplifies the great potentiality of arts to play a role in promoting greater social cohesion. Though, of course, it required a timely, coordinated response from several players, including arts organizations across our country, not for profit in the immigration sector, a private financial organization, and so on. But this kind of coordinated activity that is not easy at first, but I think it can demonstrate the leadership in responding to emerging issues in our world. And I'm confident that it will become a more fluid process as more and more people look to us to forge the path ahead. But I must say that when I announced that initiative with the Syrian refugees, it was a big surprise, both for my staff and for the artistic community. One, the Canada Council granting agency would care about an issue like that. And my response was that if we don't care about what concerns our fellow citizens, if we don't show that we can partner with other people to address each of our challenges that are important, and we only focus on, you know, what on the arts and saying how great it is, we miss the opportunity to be part of conversations that are meaningful. And in return, we miss the opportunity to demonstrate how relevant the work we do is for people in their daily life. Of course, if we want to play a stronger leadership role in the emerging issues of our in our world, we need to think very carefully about how the arts reflect the diversity of our world. And I'm thinking of an important idea that was introduced. I just mentioned the summit that we had last May. During one of the panel, there was a studies academic named Elisa Chandler, and she noted how there is a lot of discussion in the arts sector right now around the inclusion of marginalized people, but that if they are being included, those marginalized voices into institutions or practices that continue to be racist, colonial, oblivious or other exclusionary practices, then progress is not truly made. She spoke, Elisa, about how she was inspired by the efforts of indigenous artists and arts and arts organizations in our country in advocating to the mainstream whether it be arts funders, leaders in the arts organizations, producers or presenters of the importance to move beyond inclusion and make space for others to lead the way. Indeed, at the Canada Council, we continue to engage in important conversation for how we can make space for marginalized groups to lead the way in the arts, including indigenous artists, as well as those from diverse backgrounds or the deaf and disability communities. Similarly, we look for ways to encourage the art sector that an art sector that reflects gender, parity more and more. But while I'm both proud and excited about the work being undertaken in Canada to make space for indigenous and other historically marginalized artists, I don't want to give the false impression that the divides between peoples in Canada have been entirely healed through the arts. It's not the case, it will take time. Notably, our country continues to engage in a broad conversation about cultural appropriation, largely in connection to indigenous representations in the performing arts. The Canada Council for the Arts is committed to respecting and honoring the right of First Nations, Inuit and Mitzis people of our land to cultural sovereignty. At the same time, there had been much confusion in the wider sector ecology about what this means. Artsists in the mainstream expressed concern about their freedom of artistic expression. There's a discussion right now happening in Canada on how you respect the sovereignty, for instance, of indigenous people and how you respect the need for artistic freedom. And it's sometimes a very complex discussion, a very challenging discussion, because a lot of artists, white artists, have a definition of what artistic freedom is that is very, very close to the perpetuation of privilege. And that conversation that is growing in importance in Canada will not stop because not only the indigenous artists, but artists from different backgrounds, different minorities in our country, are now saying more and more loudly that if we want a vibrant art scene, that art scene needs to present and represent and acknowledge differences that exist in the real world and need to give space for people to tell their own story, stories on their own terms, as opposed to being presented through the lens of a way of doing arts that is very Eurocentric, that is very traditional, or that is very, in fact, the perspective of dominant people about everybody else. Having said this, it is important, I think, that the art should not be instrumentalized by those of us funding producing or presenting artistic work. Artists need independence to explore the issues and ideas that matter to them. Instead, I guess the point for all of us as funders, programmers or presenters is to provide the artists with the support and the space they need to autonomously direct these conversations. We do, however, have an important role to play in advocating to leaders within the art sector and in the other sectors about the power and the responsibility of the arts. The very great French writer, Victor Hugo, used to repeat that everything that grows dumb grows visibility. One doesn't go without the other. We think that discussion about art has to be more and more a discussion about values, about public values, about and disconnecting the discussion between arts and the discussion around public values is very, very dangerous because it will only perpetuate the gap between the art sector and the rest of the society, a gap that never stopped to grow over the last 50 years, certainly in our country. So it's very clear that we need to, for us, that we need to kind of reframe the discussion about the importance of the art and society. And this is why when we organized that Summit of the America last May, we invited the UN Special Rapporteur, Karima Benon, and she was the opening speaker and she made a speech defining cultural rights as human rights. So explaining that those rights, those cultural rights, are not disconnected of the human rights and they have the same importance and they carry for the people who believe in those rights, the same responsibility of integrity, of authenticity of so. And she was saying that the human rights agenda is an example of where we might bring the art sector more strongly to the table and that there are many, many more areas where we need to consider. I think that as we uncover new opportunities, we will be surprised that we did not think of them sooner. The arts belong in almost any conversation that has to do with making our society more cohesive, more inclusive. I just want to finish by saying that it is imperative that those of us in the arts that we work together above and beyond the borders that divide us. We may be smaller players in our respective countries, but together across the world, we are critical mass that can get the attention of key decisions makers in our countries and around the world. This was the idea behind the America's Cultural Summit, where we brought those delegates coming from all these different countries and together we drafted a call to action with a view to first promote value of arts and culture in public life. Second, advance the idea of cultural rights, foster inclusive societies, embrace exchanges between peoples in the Americas region, acknowledge the rights of Indigenous people and finally, cultivate diversity of cultural expressions. In an era of strengthening borders, strengthening borders, increasing nationalism and isolationism, this collective statement signals the unique position of the arts. We're ready to work together above and beyond our borders to have a real impact on the world and it is an affirming, optimistic way of looking at the world today. And why shouldn't we take this approach? All of us already have a deep understanding of the power of the arts, I think. Now is the moment for us to unite in a commitment to unleash this power throughout our respective society and around the world. And this is why we believe in networks like ArtsLink and other networks that we're very active in and we believe that all those gatherings are important because more than ever, the like-minded people can really make a difference if they come with ideas that are bold, that are strong and if we spend more time to discuss those ideas with the people outside of our sector. So this is my communication for today. I thank you very much. Simon, thank you so much. We hope you can come to New York soon. We need your perception and powerful advocacy here. Please come soon. I hope the same and I'm coming to do it. I think again the fact that we are in this very, very unique position of having the trust of our government and having more resources than ever, I think for us it's a complete moment of reinvention and maybe we have something to communicate about the importance of that reinvention and the need for not repeating over and over the ideas and the same words and the same recipes. And we're looking for more exchanges with everybody around the world to understand their context and see how we come with plans and ideas that will really lead the future. Simon, thank you so much. Merci beaucoup. Merci. A bientot.