Several Measures Proposed at the CCA Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy

CCA Bul­letin 38/07

Decem­ber 7 , 2007

The Facts

On Novem­ber 22nd, at Uni­ver­sité du Québec à Mon­tréal, the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) held a one one-day Sym­po­sium on the Role of Arts and Cul­ture in Cana­dian Pub­lic Diplo­macy. One hun­dred and twenty (120) peo­ple work­ing within the artis­tic and cul­tural sec­tor gath­ered, to hear the twelve invited pan­elists’ thoughts.  Par­tic­i­pants dis­cussed the prin­ci­ples and mod­els on which the fed­eral gov­ern­ment bases its actions per­tain­ing to the inte­gra­tion of the artis­tic and cul­tural sec­tor into pub­lic diplo­macy strate­gies. Sev­eral pro­posed mea­sures for the CCA were put for­ward in an attempt to rede­fine the role of the cul­tural sec­tor in pub­lic diplo­macy while seek­ing to alter other coun­tries’ per­cep­tion of Canada.

More Infor­ma­tion

The two for­mer min­is­ters in atten­dance at the sym­po­sium, Bill Gra­ham and Mar­cel Masse, reminded the audi­ence that the peo­ple respon­si­ble for the cul­tural dossiers in the gov­ern­ment solicit funds, gen­er­ally with­out the sup­port of the Min­istry or Trea­sury Board, for activ­i­ties rarely men­tioned in pub­lic forums. In addi­tion, the ques­tion of the gov­ern­ment del­e­gat­ing to third par­ties — artists or cul­tural work­ers — its respon­si­bil­ity and diplo­matic cred­its, despite the fact that it has the abil­ity to assert strict con­trol over this activ­ity, was called into ques­tion. Part of the answer cer­tainly resides in main­tain­ing cul­tural issues in the pub­lic sphere. An open dis­cus­sion forum such as the CCA sym­po­sium goes a long way in keep­ing the arts and cul­ture on the government’s agenda. Such pub­lic forums pro­vide valu­able argu­ments to min­is­ters respon­si­ble for cul­tural dossiers, enabling min­is­ters to sub­se­quently make a stronger case for the shared inter­ests between the gov­ern­ment and the cul­tural sector.

Beyond the need to keep these ques­tions in the pub­lic forum, the group iden­ti­fied other obsta­cles, such as the lack of dia­log between the cul­tural and the polit­i­cal sec­tors, as well as the need for con­certed action among the peo­ple work­ing in Cana­dian pub­lic diplo­macy, mainly the fed­eral gov­ern­ments and the provinces.

Fur­ther­more, par­tic­i­pants looked at pub­lic diplo­macy by explor­ing the gen­e­sis and the accom­plish­ments of the diplo­matic mod­els devel­oped in Québec, in Japan and in Canada. One find­ing was that cul­tural diplo­mats should prin­ci­pally be respon­si­ble for build­ing the bridge between artists and cul­tural work­ers, and between for­eign cul­tural net­works and gov­ern­ments. This task is too often sub­ject to polit­i­cal agen­das of exist­ing gov­ern­ments, prompt­ing some par­tic­i­pants to sug­gest that pub­lic diplo­macy ought to be per­haps kept apart from gov­ern­ments. It was sug­gested that a sep­a­rate entity be cre­ated, with a man­date to pro­mote Cana­dian cul­ture abroad, based on exist­ing mod­els such as the British Coun­cil, the Alliance Française or the Goethe Insti­tute. How­ever, the Que­bec and Japan­ese mod­els demon­strate the impor­tance of estab­lish­ing a net­work of states’ rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the need to appoint com­pe­tent employ­ees in charge of cul­tural matters.

The impor­tance of net­works took up a sub­stan­tial part of the day’s dis­cus­sions. These net­works do not come into being solely through efforts of offi­cial rep­re­sen­ta­tions, as they also require action from artis­tic insti­tu­tions which are more and more con­nected to their inter­na­tional coun­ter­parts. A form of par­al­lel diplo­macy nat­u­rally ensues, one in which the artist acts as a diplo­mat. This does not imply that the state can’t play a role in such oper­a­tions; sup­port, even sym­bolic, from diplo­matic rep­re­sen­ta­tives is often required in the con­clud­ing stages of inter­na­tional cul­tural partnerships.

Dur­ing this enrich­ing day of dis­cus­sions and rec­om­men­da­tions, the CCA deter­mined the fol­low­ing requirements:

• The need for more dia­logue between the cul­tural and the polit­i­cal sec­tors about the role of the arts and cul­ture in our soci­ety and in our for­eign policies
• The need for more coher­ence between all involved in pub­lic diplomacy
• The impor­tance of main­tain­ing and fos­ter­ing the devel­op­ment of net­works already in place
• The rel­e­vance of seiz­ing inter­na­tional part­ner­ship opportunities
• The urgency of inte­grat­ing new tech­nolo­gies in all future cul­tural diplo­macy approaches.

What Can I Do?

In Jan­u­ary 2008, the CCA will pub­lish a report com­prised of all the symposium’s dis­cus­sions. This report will be made avail­able through our web­site and will be for­warded to the Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade Canada, to the Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage and to every mem­ber of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage and the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Devel­op­ment. As well, the CCA is bring­ing together a group of experts on inter­na­tional rela­tions in order to estab­lish a long-term action plan, which will put for­ward tan­gi­ble solu­tions to the chal­lenges fac­ing the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian cul­ture on the world stage. Please share with us any ele­ment which you feel should be con­sid­ered when this group gath­ers, by con­tact­ing Guil­laume Sirois, Cul­tural Advi­sor to the CCA at guillaume.sirois@ccarts.ca, or by call­ing (613) 238‑3561        (613) 238‑3561      , ext. 19.