History

A Brief History of the RAIQ

2004 / In February, in the midst of carrying out program reforms to its Multidisciplinary section, the CALQ (Quebec Council for the Arts and Letters) calls upon key practitioners from across Quebec. Following this exchange, Richard Simas, Dulcinée Langfelder and Michel Lemieux meet to further reflect upon the needs of the multidisciplinary milieu, inviting other practitioners to join them. In March an initial committee is formed. Comprised of Marie-France Bojanowski, Isabelle Choinière, Nathalie Derome, Richard Gagnon, Dulcinée Langfelder, Émile Morin, Annie Roy and Richard Simas, the committee organizes a forum for discussion, at which time a general call to all interdisciplinary artists and presenters is made. Supported by the CALQ, the Canada Council for the Arts (CAC) and the Arts Council of Montreal (CAM), this forum undertakes to pinpoint the needs of our diversified community and to find the connecting links in order to begin the process of improving our working conditions, enhancing our public image and advancing the practice of interdisciplinary arts.

Following the forum, a 2nd committee is formed with the express mandate to begin the process of assembling a representative organization for interdisciplinary arts. This committee includes Isabelle Choinière, Nathalie Derome, Richard Gagnon, Martin Kusch, Dulcinée Langfelder, Marie-Claude Poulin, Caroline Ross, Annie Roy, Nadine Sures, Jean-François Desmarais, Miriam Ginestier and Richard Simas.

2005 / On February 24, 2005, a consultation meeting consisting of 30 inter-arts practitioners takes place. Committee #2 proposes a legal structure to the general assembly; rules of governance, a membership scale, a definition of what constitutes interdiscplinary arts, and the priorities of a 2005-2006 action plan are outlined. A 3rd organizational committee is formed (Richard Simas, Nathalie Derome, Richard Gagnon, Annie Roy, Miriam Ginestier, Nadine Sures), with Dulcinée Langfelder, Caroline Ross et Marie-France Bojanowski offering additional assistance. On April 5, 2005, the association, Regroupement des arts interdisciplinaires du Québec is officially incorporated.

On May 30, 2005, the first Board of Directors is elected (Caroline Ross, president, Nadine Sures, vice-president, Miriam Ginestier, treasurer, Olivia Boudreau, secretary, Sarah Wendt, D. Kimm et Annie Roy, administrators). In the summer, the RAIQ proceeds to hire a general coordinator, Michel Des Jardins and a website coordinator, Victoria Stanton. The RAIQ moves into its new office at Studio 303 in Montreal.

2006-2007 / Following the forum on interdiscplinary arts organized by the RAIQ and presented during the Vasistas festival in Montreal in February, an outline is written and presented to the Inter-Arts department at the Canada Council, the Multidisciplinary section at the CALQ and to the Emerging Artistic Practices at the CAM in an effort to establish a developmental framework for the continued evolution of interdiscplinary arts.

Ensuing grants from the Flying Squad program at the Canada Council allow the RAIQ to structure and consolidate the association’s activities, focusing specifically on creating a strategic action plan which is then followed by a communications plan and a four-year action plan. In May 2007, the RAIQ hires Virginie Belhumeur, an emerging coordinator.

2008-2009 / In February 2008, The RAIQ/Popstart launches its new Website Portal at the Mois Multi (in Quebec city), at Vasistas and Temps d’Image (in Montreal) and at the Free Fall Festival (in Toronto). In September 2008, Lise Gagnon, formerly the director at Studio XX from 1998-2003 and director of the magazine Jeu from 2003-2008, is hired as the General Director of the RAIQ. With four years spent steadily building and honing a coherent working structure, while gaining increasing support from its members, the RAIQ begins to occupy an active role within the inter-arts community, initiating and taking part in a range of artistic events. Producing and Disseminating In Interdisciplinary Arts with Nathalie Derome and Émile Morin, the first professional development workshop for interdisciplinary artists, takes place on February 19, 2009 at the Méduse Complex and the Théâtre La Bordée in Quebec city. The RAIQ develops an online Resource Centre simultaneously on the RAIQ/Popstart websites in an ongoing effort to offer interdisciplinary artists a space conceived specifically for collecting, (and reflecting) the varied practices within the inter-arts. The Centre also intends to reach a larger public through the wide variety of documents that will touch upon the multi-faceted aspects related to interdisciplinary practices, at once offering a tool for research and consultation.

The RAIQ is planning several collaborative projects with artist run centres and is initiating network-building and think-tank activities in the practice and evolution of interdisciplinary arts. The first major event will be a symposium that will take place in May 2010.

The RAIQ team keeps growing; joining Lise Gagnon are Victoria Stanton (Development Coordinator), Mannon Quintal (Accounts Management), and Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre (Associate Administrator).