Making It Montreal

We'll be posting some audio and transcripts (and music!) from the launch shortly, but in the meantime here are a few of the themes that emerged in the half-hour discussion that took place:

These artists moved here in large part because it's an inexpensive city to live in, or they moved here to attend University and stayed because it's inexpensive.

This ties in with the definition of "success" in the arts that everyone agreed on: being able to pay your living expenses with your art, or at least not have to work too many unrelated jobs to do so. Our panelists felt that they have more free time to do their art here than they'd otherwise have in cities with much higher costs of living.

Some panelists mentioned being originally drawn to the city because of its reputation as a highly open and creative milieu. The comics and music scenes are internationally renowned, for example, and for writers, such famous local names as Leonard Cohen and Mordecai Richler made the city an enticing place to consider moving to.

Each panelist seemed to feel more a part of a creative community than any linguistically-defined community. Support for their work as artists has come more from their specific artistic milieus rather than organizations or institutions formally serving the city's English-speaking community.

For example, artist Marc Bell felt welcomed by the bilingual comics and visual arts community when he came to town in the mid-1990s, quickly finding himself involved in group exhibits and bilingual publications.

With regards to language, it is less an issue than might be assumed with either collaborators or with audiences. Lake of Stew mentioned how the "roots music community" is largely Anglophone but draws a great many Francophone fans to that scene's concerts and events and includes Francophone performers.

The literary scene is by nature more closely tied to one's linguistic community, but that doesn't preclude the presence of mixed audiences and collaborations. One author mentioned how local publishers on occasion publish translations of each other's works, and of course events such as Expozine small press fair or the Festival des Voix Amériques mix English and French publishers, authors and spoken-word artists. What's more, many Montrealers are bilingual enough to be consumers of local writing and performances in either language.

The panelists agreed that many challenges to being an English-speaking artist in Montreal apply to the general plight of artists anywhere. In the end, lucrative careers in the arts are not easy to find in most North American cities, particularly in today's economic environment (and with technological challenges affecting the music and publishing industries in particular).

The panelists did agree that Montreal had fewer cultural "industries" than other big cities (at least in English). There are less large established music industries or publishing industries in Montreal than in comparable cities than when providing potential for higher-paying work in the arts, but this often comes at the expense of a less vibrant cultural community or "scene" in those cities. Furthermore, panelists mentioned they still write for Toronto publications, for example, or participate in concerts or exhibits in Toronto or New York, all while maintaining their home base in Montreal.

However, some audience members seemed to take issue with this picture of being an English artist in Montreal. And that's why we'd like to hear from you, too: did you move to Montreal to work in the arts? Has it been working out? What are the major challenges? Are you tempted to move elsewhere, or are you perfectly happy staying here?

We'd love to have your voice included to keep this discussion going. Sign up to add your comments to this blog post, and let's get talking!