"The vitality and creative force of Montreal help define us as Montrealers. We are choosing to bring together, stimulate and radiate these qualities into the world. We intend to nurture our city’s growth as a great cultural metropolis. "- Manon Gauthier, candidate for City Councillor in the borough of Verdun and spokesperson for culture, Sébastien Dhavernas, candidate for City Councillor in the borough of Verdun and spokesperson for Heritage, and Helen Fotopulos, candidate for City Councillor in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace and spokesperson for design and architecture.

Proud francophone capital of North America, Montreal stands out among the world’s cultural metropolises. As a cosmopolitan crossroads, our city enjoys widespread recognition for its cultural participation, creativity, design and innovation. Its artists, cultural institutions and industries are celebrated here and around the world. Its cultural economy is flourishing and creating new structures. On the eve of its 375th anniversary, Montreal celebrates and affirms its identity, its richness, its diversity, and its openness to the world by focusing on its artists, designers and the value of its cultural and artistic heritage. Its citizens proudly and actively contribute to the cultural life of their neighborhoods and their city. Every day they recreate its influence and its attractiveness, and drive its development. Montreal is a city signed by both its artists and its citizens.

Culture is one of the main priorities of Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal. That is why, for the first time in its history, Montreal can count on three elected officials assigned to cultural matters. Their mandate will cover three main areas: Culture, Heritage and the 375th Celebrations, and Design and Architecture. And their goals for these cultural matters are also trifold: to bring together, stimulate and radiate into the world.

COMMITMENT NUMBER 1: BRING TOGETHER

Act as a catalyst and show leadership to bring together the strengths of the cultural milieu, to create effective synergy between our artists, our institutions and the city’s economic and public policy makers.

CONTEXT: Montreal must show its cultural leadership by relying primarily on dialogue and partnerships that already exist; that have been initiated by the cultural milieu.

Our imperative is to continue to mobilize with partners from all sectors, to grandly showcase our artists, our creators, our cultural heritage, our institutions and our cultural economy.

The Quartier des spectacles has a pivotal role in Montreal’s radiance to the world. This central hub of cultural production and distribution must also intensify its links with our neighbourhoods that are bursting with creators and attractions that contribute to the identity of Montreal. We will promote a rethink of the cultural geography of the city by linking all its cultural centres in ways that let them nourish each other.

The synergy between culture in the neighborhoods, boroughs and the culturally fecund city centre gives Montreal its daily colour. An approach to culture for all integrates cultural districts and mediates the city’s cultural diversity.

Culture is in good health in our metropolis, with strong consensus behind excellent projects and initiatives. We intend to help them continue to evolve, providing not only continuity but coherent leadership. We will act as catalysts, and as facilitators to ensure that the artistic and creative, philanthropic, business, and education milieus can all contribute to and all benefit from the vital force of culture in Montreal, and that support to one does not come at the expense of support to another.

ACTION PLAN:

● Enhance and increase the civic participation of various communities in the cultural life of Montreal by building on the ferment of cultural neighbourhoods, ensuring access to, retention, as well as the development of new initiatives of cultural mediation to forge together Montreal culture and strengthen our identity.

● Develop an action plan and collaborative and inclusive cultural policies adapted to the realities and needs of each district and the city centre.

● Take advantage of the concordance of three anniversaries of 2017 (Montreal’s 375th, the 150th of Confederation, and the 50th of Expo 67) to develop celebration projects in each district, as well as joint projects focusing on citizen participation, and including infrastructure projects that will ensure a durable legacy from these celebrations.

● Enhance the network of Maisons de la culture; ensure the development in the library network and the Accès Culture network of a range of services and programming representative of resident populations and new technologies, while ensuring equitable access and service across the territory.

● Encourage the promotion and adoption of United Nations Agenda 21 for culture by all citizens, including the principles of participation, transparency, diversity and inclusion.

COMMITMENT NUMBER 2: STIMULATE

Provide leadership that stimulates all the actors of the cultural community and all citizens and allows the emergence and implementation of projects that contribute to the achievement of the goal: Montreal, Cultural Metropolis.

CONTEXT : Montreal has many cultural facets. Our cultural sector has positioned Montreal as a metropolis of digital arts, contemporary circus, performing arts, music, film and television, heritage, museums and design. Montreal’s cultural enterprises contribute to a strong and enviably diverse economy. Montreal culture is also changing in tune with the digital revolution. Montreal cultural content can be found on various avant-garde platforms that are instantly connecting us with the rest of the world.

We intend to encourage the deployment and dissemination of this rich cultural life of Montreal, modernize its governance principles, update its financing and invest in the development and support of its artists, its institutions and businesses, as well as its cultural policies.

We believe that this effervescence and cultural creativity will strengthen the city, economically and socially, and affirm its unique identity.

ACTION PLAN:

● Support and accompany the implementation of programs and initiatives of the 2007 - 2017 action plan Montréal, métropole culturelle and its continuity beyond 2017.

● Maintain and ensure the full development of the Quartier des spectacles.

● Ensure continued growth in the budget of the Conseil des arts.

● Enhance support for artists, organizations and cultural industries in their activities of creation, mediation, production and distribution.

● Create and develop new models and funding initiatives for culture.

● Encourage cooperative groupings of artists and cultural organizations that provide access to spaces and long-term funding, facilitating access to environments that nurture diverse creativity and production.

● Create the role of Economic Development Commissioner dedicated to culture and study the feasibility of establishing a development corporation for cultural enterprises, to develop effective economic development strategies using culture as a lever.

● Continue support to festivals and major events that enliven and stimulate the attractiveness of Montreal.

● Support the development of new business models related to the digital revolution through a creative trans-media approach, generating local intellectual property and its deployment.

● Promote access to, development and dissemination of the heritage of the city in all its forms and in all its disciplines (public art, design and architecture).

COMMITMENT NUMBER 3: RADIATE

Ensure that Montreal gets the recognition and influence due to it as a global epicenter of creativity, innovation, and artistic and cultural diffusion.

CONTEXT: Montreal already has great attraction on a national and international level. Clearly being a cultural metropolis is a fundamental characteristic of Montreal and our best business card in Canada and around the world.

Montreal’s artists (those who are established as well as those of the next generation), its businesses, and its cultural productions which cross borders, all take part in showcasing the city’s quality and expertise, and help to attract people here. This radiation, this global outreach, generates cultural, social and economic benefits. We wish to emphasize this radiation around the world of Montreal’s image as a cultural metropolis.

Our cultural action plan will be coordinated and inclusive, adapted to the realities and needs of the boroughs and the city centre. It will also support the development of cultural industries in the international arena, in consultation with local stakeholders to develop real economic development strategies for Montreal using culture as a lever.

ACTION PLAN:

● Review Montreal’s brand image to emphasize its creativity and its artists, to make it a town signed by artists and cultural life.

● Ensure the positioning of the Quartier des spectacles as a springboard for marketing the city, its artists, institutions and businesses internationally.

● Support the development, revitalization and promotion of sites of community and cultural life and tourism, as points of light across the metropolis.

● Facilitate the development and hosting of major international events related to culture, starting with a meeting of cultural, economic, academic leaders as part of the 2017 celebrations.

● Use the model of the National Commissioner of Cinema to develop a Montreal Cultural Ambassadors program, to support outreach initiatives abroad, both virtually and physically.

● Enhance the recognition of Montreal as a UNESCO City of Design, the first in North America to have earned this designation.