Articles
WIPO Treaty on performances in the audiovisual sector
Actors and actresses are now demanding that their rights be enshrined in a Treaty. After the disappointment of the failed Diplomatic Summit of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2000, Beijing will be the host of the next Summit in June, which will most probably adopt the new Treaty. Actors from around the world are saying :...
read moreCanadian content regulations
The loss of Pierre Juneau, father of Canadian content regulations served as the pretext for a good debate on the regulations in the National Post last month. Marni Soupcoff, Lorne Gunter and Matt Gurney of the National Post agreed in large part that government generally should not get involved in the arts. They then argue that the absence of quotas in the broadcast and music industries in the U.S. and the United Kingdom is somewhat healthy. They also claim that “CanCon requirements look most...
read moreAlberta: business and culture, two preoccupations of the Redford conservative government
by Tom McFall, Executive Director of the Alberta Craft Council and CCA Board member The weekend of February 26 may prove to be a turning point for Alberta’s culture sector. That weekend Alberta’s new Premier Alison Redford and Culture and Community Services Minister Heather Klimchuk hosted almost 400 of Alberta’s culture and business leaders at Red Deer College for an important discussion about the future of culture in Alberta. Culture Forum 2012 gathered a cross-section of...
read moreThe Impact of Digital Media on the Performing Arts
A new report entitled Beyond the Curtain: How Digital Media is Reshaping Theatre was recently released by Ballinran Entertainment Ltd. in partnership with Digital Wizards Inc., Canadian Actors Equity Association, and Stratford Shakespeare Festival. It contains a study of the challenges facing the performing arts in the sector’s attempt to embrace and achieve the right balance with new media and digital technologies. The research involved interviews with leading theatre...
read moreEurope and gender equality
During a plenary session held in Brussels on October 27, 2011, the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the audio-visual field formally adopted a framework of action on gender equality, representing a successful outcome to two years of negotiation between social partners. The agreement aims to improve the situation in the sector in the following areas: - Gender representation; – Gender role at work; – Wage equality; – Decision-making equality;...
read moreMunicipal Cultural Investment
Montréal and Vancouver Lead the Way in Culture Funding On January 10th, Hill Strategies Research released a study called Municipal Cultural Investment in Five Large Canadian Cities. The study compares cities with the largest number of cultural workers and artists in Canada – Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal. This report written in partnership with the cultural staff of the five cities covered, the Creative City Network and the Canadian Urban Libraries Council aims to...
read moreQuebec gets a move on!
In November 2011, we received two new reports examining the impact of digital technologies on Quebec. The first from SODEC, Porte grande ouverte sur le numérique, reports on a consultation undertaken in 2010. The second report comes from the Quebec Council of Arts and Letters (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec or CALQ) and a summary is provided below. SODEC: Doors Wide Open on Digital This report details the impact of the digital technologies on the cultural industries in Quebec:...
read moreAgenda 21
Minister Christine St-Pierre announced on December 5th that Quebec would be the first province to adopt its own Agenda 21 on Culture. Agenda 21 allows us to carve a place for culture in all political actions of the government; Quebec is the first province in the world to integrate this idea into their sustainable development plans. The move is a response to the Convention on the protection and promotion of diversity of cultural expression from UNESCO that pushes states to integrate...
read moreDigital New Brunswick
A new funding application process was created in New Brunswick for the film industry after consultations with the television, new media and film sectors in November. This may help to rectify some of the loss after the province cancelled a tax credit program for audiovisual productions last spring. For films this could mean between 25–30% of the production expenditures spent in the province could be covered. Accepted projects will also receive half of the funds immediately after being awarded...
read moreCreative Europe
Europe : A 1.8 billion Euros investment in culture to stimulate the economy On November 23, the European Commission unveiled a plan to boost cultural and creative sectors. With a proposed budget of €1.8 billion for the period 2014–2020, it would be a much-needed boost for the cultural and creative industries, which are a major source of jobs and growth in Europe. The new program would allocate more than €900 million in support of the cinema and audiovisual sector (area covered by...
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