Rethinking Canadian Culture and Arts Policy
After the opening remarks, Paul Hoffert, introduced his “Framework for Change,” and he concluded with the idea that “the future is not what it used to be.” For those of you who could not be with us today, I have summarized his insightful ideas in the following paragraphs. If you have any further questions about his presentation do not hesitate to contact me.
Trends:
1) Even though we constantly hear the claims that “cultural diffusion is rampant,” that the “global culture is being harmonized,” as a result of globalization, the truth is that we are now experiencing a return to local cultures around the world. A very illustrative example of this trend is the announcement by Marvel of their decision to launch Spider-Man India. This new character, interweaves local customs, culture and mystery to make it more relevant to the readers. If you want to see this character, I would encourage you to visit its website http://www.gothamcomics.com/spiderman_india/.
2)The world in now characterized by “disintermediation.” Mr. Hoffert likes to illustrate this trend by calling it the “Bagel Effect” because it seems to leave a whole in the center. This whole seems to be caused, among other things, by a move towards less power in the middle in both the public and private sector, and more downsizing, deregulation, decentralization, and digitization. In the cultural sector, this effect is characterized by a shift of power away from what it used to be the center, the cultural industries, because big arts organization are getting bigger and more global, while creators are reaching audiences directly.
Canadian Support System:
The problem that we currently have with the Canadian cultural policy framework is that it does not fit the 21st century. To illustrate this, Mr. Hofftert talked about the current components of the policy framework: Legislation (copyright, status of the artists), Regulation (CRTC, internet), Taxation, Programs, Arts Councils, and Government Ministries. He raised the major issues faced by these components, and some of his proposed solutions. The one that really caught my attention was the idea that we need to merge parts of heritage and industry, that we need to go back to the culture and communications framework, and that copyright should become whole.
Finally he devoted the rest of his presentation to overview how do we move forward. Even though his presentation was not as positive as Alain Pineau's remarks that "the sky is blue" (due to all the work that we need to do to get where we need to be), he definelty gaves us something to think about.
Trends:
1) Even though we constantly hear the claims that “cultural diffusion is rampant,” that the “global culture is being harmonized,” as a result of globalization, the truth is that we are now experiencing a return to local cultures around the world. A very illustrative example of this trend is the announcement by Marvel of their decision to launch Spider-Man India. This new character, interweaves local customs, culture and mystery to make it more relevant to the readers. If you want to see this character, I would encourage you to visit its website http://www.gothamcomics.com/spiderman_india/.
2)The world in now characterized by “disintermediation.” Mr. Hoffert likes to illustrate this trend by calling it the “Bagel Effect” because it seems to leave a whole in the center. This whole seems to be caused, among other things, by a move towards less power in the middle in both the public and private sector, and more downsizing, deregulation, decentralization, and digitization. In the cultural sector, this effect is characterized by a shift of power away from what it used to be the center, the cultural industries, because big arts organization are getting bigger and more global, while creators are reaching audiences directly.
Canadian Support System:
The problem that we currently have with the Canadian cultural policy framework is that it does not fit the 21st century. To illustrate this, Mr. Hofftert talked about the current components of the policy framework: Legislation (copyright, status of the artists), Regulation (CRTC, internet), Taxation, Programs, Arts Councils, and Government Ministries. He raised the major issues faced by these components, and some of his proposed solutions. The one that really caught my attention was the idea that we need to merge parts of heritage and industry, that we need to go back to the culture and communications framework, and that copyright should become whole.
Finally he devoted the rest of his presentation to overview how do we move forward. Even though his presentation was not as positive as Alain Pineau's remarks that "the sky is blue" (due to all the work that we need to do to get where we need to be), he definelty gaves us something to think about.
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