Simon Brault the vice-chair of the Canada Council for the Arts and the CEO of the National Theatre School of Canada knows a thing or two about culture.
He is in town tonight to discuss the themes in his new book: No Culture No Future. A bit of a hyperbolic title no doubt but he makes a compelling argument for why culture is important and why it deserves the attention of not only politicians but citizens at all levels.
Brault says he thinks the arts are in danger in Canada unless "we bring back the notion of public engagement with the arts to the forefront of the public agenda."
Defining culture can be tricky even for someone as immersed in it as Brault. Speaking by phone this morning in Calgary he comes up with a simple breakdown though. "Everytime we feel that culture is threatened we don’t even have to qualify what we are talking about. We all know that it isn’t mainstream culture. We all know that what is at risk is more the art more the most challenging part of arts and culture."
But Brault isn’t an elitist when it comes to culture. He thinks there has to be a blurring of the lines that seperate so-called high and low culture. For Brault this snobbery is an impedipement to more people enjoying arts and culture in our society and alienates citizens and decision-makers.
Economics play a major role in convincing people of the importance of arts and Brault recongnizes this. But he’s not an advocate for simply using economics as the only means of judging culture’s worth. It has a fundamental creatvitiy and emotional response that can’t be measure or forgotten.
Brault will be talking at The Lantern Community Church in Inglewood on Monday June 7 at 7:00 p.m. The talk is being presented by the Calgary Foundation.
If you want to hear more about Brault’s book and our interview check out the full story in next week’s paper.
