The Conseil des arts de Montréal and the City of Montréal’s Service de la culture are pleased to announce their support for 12 projects that will help develop, pool and sustain creative spaces for Montréal’s artists and cultural organizations, for a total investment of $114,000.
These projects, led by organizations from various artistic disciplines, will explore new models of governance, partnership, and occupancy to address the growing challenges accessing affordable creative spaces.
The organizations and projects being supported are:
- Arts sur glace – Le Patin Libre will receive support to develop a pooling and sharing model for Le Garage in Hochelaga, a new multi-functional artistic space in eastern Montréal for creative and rehearsal activities.
- CIRCA art actuel will create a pooling toolkit to support creative spaces seeking to adopt collaborative models, particularly in terms of governance, partnerships and organizational development.
- The Compagnie Théâtre Créole will develop the business plan for the pooling of Espace Riché-Kenskoff, its artistic third space in eastern Montréal, to develop a shared and accessible management model with support measures for Black artists.
- The Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec will conduct a start-up study for the 1151 Mill Street project, the first step in creating a hub dedicated to craft arts that combines affordable workshops, creative spaces and a sustainable governance model.
- Diversité Artistique Montréal will conduct a feasibility study for the creation of a shared creative space for culturally diverse artists, including the development of governance, funding and long-term development scenarios.
- The Groupe RUBBERBANDance will conduct a feasibility study to develop a large-scale professional choreography creative space in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles.
- Productions Extravaganz’arts will conduct a preliminary study to assess the feasibility of a shared creative space dedicated to street arts, a sector particularly affected by the scarcity of venues suitable for its practices.
- PRODG Création, in partnership with the Canada Lands Company, will conduct a feasibility study to develop a sustainable model for access to creative spaces tailored to circus and interdisciplinary practices in the future artistic and cultural hub of the former NFB building. The project will involve conducting community consultations, designing a residency model and developing management and pooling tools.
- Studio LaTraque NPO will undertake an organizational structuring approach to establish its governance, support the development of its activities and strengthen strategic partnerships to ensure its growth and eventual acquisition of its premises.
- Studio Mboka Sound will implement the tools and mechanisms necessary to manage and coordinate its rehearsal, creative and collaborative space in order to strengthen the conditions for creation, dissemination and training for artists, particularly culturally diverse artists.
- The Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois (UNEQ) will conduct a feasibility study to assess the conditions necessary to renovate and maintain the Maison des écrivains. The project aims to strengthen its role of this place as a creative, collaborative and meeting space for writers and actors in Montréal’s literary community.
- World Creation Studios will establish a development plan to improve long-term access to affordable creative spaces through resource pooling and partnership development within the evolving ecosystem of the 4001 Pôle artistique.
The Conseil des arts de Montréal and the City of Montréal applaud the vibrancy and initiative of the organizations supported. These projects demonstrate the Montréal cultural community’s capacity to come together to develop concrete and sustainable solutions that facilitate access to creative spaces tailored to the needs of artists and the communities they serve.
About the program
The Conseil des arts de Montréal’s Support for Projects Facilitating Access to Creative Spaces program helps cultural organizations develop pre–start-up or start-up projects aimed at improving access to affordable and sustainable creative spaces on the Island of Montréal. In particular, it supports planning, pooling, partnership development, scaling and organizational innovation initiatives that help strengthen the creative space ecosystem and professional artists’ conditions of practice.
