Photo: Adil Boukind The Duty
Julie Beaudoin has not provided a time to have the sting of the show for children when she built the social enterprise school and The arts.
To speak of culture as an industrial sector can make to cringe to those who fear that the reduction of art to a column of numbers. They reveal, however, an economic reality of weight : the cultural industry employs approximately 178 000 employees in Quebec, generating annual benefits of nearly $ 9.4 billion. However, behind each work is an active army of workers of the shadow whose job is now threatened by the health crisis, as workers to whom The Duty has dedicated a series.
There are these trades, which is measured poorly, the impact on our world, but when a pandemic reveals : when the government has required the containment of Quebec in mid-march, Julie Beaudoin, director general of The school, and the arts, working in the district of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, had to take the decision to cancel the last series of performances were programmed in the centres de la petite enfance (CPE) and at the Maison de la culture Mercier, performances for young audiences. If schools outside Montreal have finally been able to reopen, they have done so by depriving their students of an element essential to their development is the awakening to the culture.
Julie Beaudoin has not been idle these last few months, even if its cultural season 2019-2020 ended in the tail of a whale. “We went in the room on march 16 with the company Foutoukours. We had three rounds of performances for the public school — we usually ends our season in mid-April to meet the timetable of the exams. We also had two series that were to be presented in the CPE. This is the first time we saw it, so it was a shock ; there, it is necessary to work on the post-containment. “
The task is not going to be easy for the next few months because, like all other types of broadcasters shows in the province, The school and the arts navigates without clear guidelines from the authorities. “It is the blur “, summarizes the director-general, who work for the specialized presenter to the young public, consisting in a non-profit organization for the past twenty years and has established himself as one of the must-sees of the middle of the show for young people 2 to 12 years of age in the montreal region.
45 000 small lights on
Founded in the mid-1990s, The school and the arts responded to the need to structure an offer cultural rich, diverse, and dedicated to children ; the primary mission of this broadcaster, such as the cultural committee of The child and the arts in Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, or Art-school in Pointe-aux-Trembles, is ” to offer a cultural program of quality, professional, in a room professional. The goal is to get students out of the school “to introduce them to the theatre, the dance, the song, the arts, circus, etc” This is a project that will meet the needs of school principals as the terms of reference of the cultural agents ” at the head of the houses of the culture of the metropolis.
Each year, The school and the arts coordinates between 400 and 500 cultural activities for the young people of the district, which corresponds to about 45 000 dating. Each year, a child can attend three different performances according to his / her age group, Julie Beaudoin and his small team schedule of performances for children attending the CPE, to 6 to 8 years and 9 to 12 years of age. “At the end of elementary school, a young person will have attended 21 different shows, this is not nothing ! If you want that later, young people have a desire to culture, we must start there. “
Julie Beaudoin has not provided a time to have the sting of the show for children when she built the social enterprise school and The arts : “From the first month, I saw the potential, I saw the biggest difference you can make with young people who come out when the bright eyes of the room saying, “Wow, this is the most beautiful sight I’ve seen in my life !” It is a lot of work of management and administration, but I am almost always there to welcome the children back to the room. “
In addition, all the planning surrounding these performances is provided by The school and the arts, of sending material preparatory school to the teachers through the charter of a fleet of buses for the schools most remote from the Maison de la culture Mercier (and its 400-seat auditorium) to move their students up to the room. The while respecting the limits of the budgets : on average, the price of a ticket for these shows is $ 6.50, generally assumed by the school — for the past two years, a government measure offers to elementary school students in two performances per school year, a measure that was welcomed by the midst of the young audiences as ” a breath of fresh air “, says Julie Beaudoin.
As soon as the first month, I saw the potential, I saw the biggest difference you can make with young people who come out when the bright eyes of the room saying, “Wow, this is the most beautiful sight I’ve seen in my life!”
— Julie Beaudoin
Dream
During the year, the director-general attends many of the shows are mounted by companies specializing in the production for children, and she has a special relationship with the artists. It will then submit its blows of heart to the programming committee (consisting of school principals, teachers and involved citizens in their community). “When I see performances, I avoid the evenings of the first and chosen a representation where the young are present. It allows me to watch the show with them, hear their reactions, their laughter, their little comments, the hubbub, and I drink of it to make my choice. See the shows that I think set out in the company of children, it is important. “
The programming of a full year is decided in January, so the season 2020-2021 is already fixed. Now remains to see what the fall out will be made. Rooms the welcoming, or if the measures of distance ?
“All broadcasters are in the same position : it is necessary that the conditions [to be able to go see a show] to be met, believes Julie Beaudoin. It is necessary that the theatres can operate in a ratio public/empty seats to be viable. It is also necessary that schools have permission to make out of their students. At this time, I keep a lookout chapter of the communications [of the government] to try to make the best decisions. I also have to make the compensation of the companies following the cancellation and discuss with the school principals, who are still working even if the facilities are closed. It is a lot of information to manage in everyday life. “
If the conditions end up being met for a return to some normality, The school and the arts will be ready. “All the artists will need to get back to work — not just for the money, but also for their own balance, writes Julie Beaudoin. And the children, too, will need to have activities that fall outside the school to see performances that will make them dream and think about something other than what we saw, because they too have suffered because of the situation and of the containment. They will need this light. “
