Canadian Heritage

Opening remarks

Madam Chair, members of the committee, RIDEAU is the professional association of performing arts presenters. We represent close to 170 members, including about 100 performance presenters at about 350 performance spaces in Quebec. Together, our members make it possible to raise the curtain over 20,000 times for nearly 5.2 million audience members each year. Our members are primarily multidisciplinary presenters. This means that, in a single season, they present works from various performing arts disciplines and also help showcase emerging talent. In their communities, they are often the primary professional gateway to the performing arts. Above all, our members are not merely venue managers, they are a fundamental link in the artistic chain. They select the works, take the artistic risks, build audiences and support the touring of productions across Quebec and Canada. They enable works to leave their birthplace to reach audiences in major urban centres and across the regions. For the next generation of artists, their role is crucial. An emerging artist doesn't just need a space to create; they need a venue willing to program and promote their work, and to take an artistic…

Opening remarks

Thank you. I'm Grumms. I go by S.E. Grummett professionally, and I use the pronouns they and them. I'm a transgender theatre artist from Treaty 6 territory, Saskatoon. I'm here today representing So.Glad Arts, a queer theatre company based in Saskatoon. As well, I'm one half of the performance art comedy theatre duo Creepy Boys. After graduating from theatre school over a decade ago, I became increasingly frustrated with the limited opportunities for trans artists like myself within mainstream theatre. I wasn't seeing artists like me on stage or the kind of work I wanted to make. I started making and touring my own things. For me, self-creation was and continues to be a way out. In 2016, I founded So.Glad Arts, an independent theatre company with a focus on creating new queer and queer-led performances. Over the past decade, So.Glad Arts has grown from producing locally to touring on an international scale to 11 different countries, presenting work at some of the biggest arts festivals and venues in the world. As a company, we have also shifted from producing in fringe and indie spaces to more year-round national and international touring, as well as curated festivals,…

Opening remarks

Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the committee. My name is Kelly Straughan, and I am the executive director of Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, Ontario. For 53 years, Theatre Aquarius has been a cornerstone of Hamilton's arts community. We are the only professional theatre in the city. We own our building, which includes a 702-seat mainstage theatre, a 120-seat studio space, a carpentry shop, a rehearsal hall and a beautiful lobby space. We produce five main-stage shows each season, as well as three studio productions. We employ more than 300 people each year, from artists, directors and designers to production personnel. We are deeply committed to supporting Canadian artists. In the last five years alone, 22 of the 29 productions on our mainstage were written by Canadians and featured Canadian casts and creative teams. Theatre Aquarius is also home to the national centre for new musicals, a program dedicated to the development of new Canadian musicals. Since its launch in 2023, we have supported eight new musicals, with more than a quarter of a million dollars in funding. Our commitment to new musicals also extends to our mainstage, including our recent production of…

Opening remarks

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. It's wonderful to have the opportunity to speak to you alongside my esteemed colleagues. My name is Jonathan Bunce. I am the co-founder and artistic and executive director of Wavelength Music, a non-profit organization in Toronto that has supported emerging Canadian artists for more than 25 years through concerts and festivals, and now a conference. I'm also a co-author of two recent research studies on the wider independent live music sector: “Reimagining Music Venues” and a forthcoming report titled “New Sounds, New Spaces”. Across Canada, there are hundreds of creative and performance spaces that are largely invisible at a policy level. These are grassroots music venues, as well as rehearsal spaces, artist hubs and DIY community cultural spaces. These spaces are where artists develop their craft, build audiences and launch their careers, yet most survive with little to no public support and operate primarily as commercial businesses. The central finding of our research is simple: Creative and performance spaces are cultural infrastructure, but Canada largely treats them as commercial real estate. This creates what I would…