Editor’s Note

As Alain Pineau has been telling you in his most recent blogs, we have numer­ous projects in devel­op­ment at the moment. One of the projects that I have been work­ing on lately is search­ing for con­trib­u­tors for our mag­a­zine. I know few peo­ple who have time to read every­thing and under­stand the issues and browse through hun­dreds of pages of reports and stud­ies, so we have decided to do that for you and ask the experts to talk about their projects and their thoughts.

Last month we had a look at the future of the cul­tural sec­tor in Europe from Barbora Polav­ocha. This month, we present three per­sonal columns on var­i­ous cul­tural issues. First, our fea­tured mem­ber, John Hob­day, talks to us about one of his favourite sub­jects: Arts and Edu­ca­tion. What a per­fect sub­ject for UNESCO’s inau­gural cel­e­bra­tion of the Inter­na­tional Arts Edu­ca­tion Week.

Sec­ond topic: Is what’s good for the reader (or con­sumer) really what’s good for the cul­tural ecosys­tem? Are we mov­ing towards a “Wal­mar­ti­za­tion” of cul­ture? Those are ques­tions raised by our friend Dou­glas Gib­son, edi­tor and author, who talks to us about Ama­zon and its impact on the avail­abil­ity of Cana­dian books. Dou­glas Gib­son has been one of the most influ­en­tial edi­tors in Canada. He has pub­lished works by great Cana­dian authors like Alice Munro, Peter C. New­man, Robert­son Davies, Mavis Gal­lant, and Alis­tair McLeod, to name a few! Last autumn, he wrote and pub­lished Sto­ries about Sto­ry­tellers, which recounts sto­ries from four decades of pub­lish­ing these great names. Dou­glas nar­rates his rela­tions with Ama­zon both as a writer and edi­tor. Nego­ti­at­ing with inter­na­tional giants is no cake walk! It’s a per­sonal per­spec­tive of his expe­ri­ences, but it opens the door to an inter­est­ing debate, to which we invite you to par­tic­i­pate: share your reac­tions to the arti­cle on our site.

Our lat­est draft pick (this is the sea­son) is Denis J Bertrand, con­sul­tant for audi­ence devel­op­ment of art for the 50Carleton firm and pre­vi­ously the gen­eral direc­tor of Théâtre Action (2000–2004). Each month, Denis will pen an arti­cle on audi­ence devel­op­ment, trends, and obser­va­tions. We are proud to work with the 50Carleton firm to offer you these foods for thought.

Happy read­ing,

Anne-Marie Des Roches