Jeff Melanson

Turn the topic to Jeff Melan­son and most peo­ple are full of praise for his accom­plish­ments. How­ever, he would be the first to tell you that none of it would have been pos­si­ble with­out the col­lab­o­ra­tion of oth­ers. Not only that, he insists that he has got­ten more out of his pro­fes­sional expe­ri­ences than he has put into them. “The trans­for­ma­tive change that arises from art can hap­pen to us everyday.”

Col­lab­o­ra­tion and, to some extent, trans­for­ma­tion wove their way through our con­ver­sa­tion with Jeff Melan­son last week. Whether the topic was his own adap­ta­tion to life at Banff, cre­at­ing a glob­ally com­pet­i­tive cre­ative cul­ture for Canada, form­ing a Fed­eral Cul­ture Action Plan, advice for the CCA’s renewal, or extra-curricular pur­suits, some­how the com­mon thread was col­lab­o­ra­tion and transformation.

Per­son­ally, Melan­son has embraced the chal­lenge of immers­ing him­self in the local cul­ture. He skied down­hill for the first time at the begin­ning of the year, is acquaint­ing him­self with local indige­nous arts lead­ers and is try­ing to “walk the walk”. In other words, he believes it is impor­tant for an arts direc­tor to be involved in the cre­ative process.

CANADA – A GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE CULTURE?

Melan­son believes that Canada can cre­ate a “glob­ally com­pet­i­tive cre­ative cul­ture with the incred­i­ble range and diver­sity of artis­tic tal­ent in this coun­try.” This can be fos­tered by what he sees as a robust eco­nomic engine behind arts and cul­ture, multi-generational Cana­dian fam­i­lies sup­port­ing the arts and a rich multi-cultural soci­ety. He states that there is a pretty inter­est­ing mix of gov­ern­ment and pri­vate sec­tor sup­port. The pri­vate sec­tor has stepped up over the years and as pub­lic sec­tor arts fund­ing is cut, pub­lic private-partnerships become that much more important.

Poten­tial lim­i­ta­tions to fos­ter­ing Canada’s glob­ally com­pet­i­tive cre­ative cul­ture stem from the great dis­tances between Canada’s major cul­tural cen­tres that con­tribute to a regional or silo think­ing and keeps the arts and cul­ture sec­tor from act­ing as a group. Fur­ther, Melan­son adds that the Massey-Lévesque Commission’s report (1951) out­lin­ing the national cul­tural poli­cies is old and needs to be updated.

A NATIONAL CULTURAL ACTION PLAN FOR CANADA?

Before assum­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties at the Banff Cen­tre at the begin­ning of this year, Melan­son par­tic­i­pated in the devel­op­ment of Cre­ative Cap­i­tal Gains, the cul­tural action plan endorsed by Toronto’s City Coun­cil. When asked if he can imag­ine a Fed­eral Cul­tural Action Plan, Melan­son spec­u­lates that this might come to pass. The arts and cul­ture sec­tor is ready to look at more col­lab­o­ra­tion and provin­cial bar­ri­ers are break­ing down.  He adds that it would be nice if the Min­is­ter of Her­itage would con­vene a sum­mit for the arts, much in the same way that other min­is­ters host sum­mits for indus­tries in their port­fo­lios. And while facil­i­ta­tion of a national cul­tural action plan could come from out­side the gov­ern­ment (remem­ber, a busi­ness­man and an aca­d­e­mic led the Massey-Lévesque Com­mis­sion), the gov­ern­ment needs to be at the table.

Photo by: Laura Vanags—The Banff Centre