The visual arts in Canada : Secteur des arts visuels au Canada : synthèse et analyse critique de la documentation récente

Context and Constraints This report follows in the wake of an initial research plan developed by the members of the Alli- ance (August 22, 2008),1 and continues the work of R. Labossière (2002),2 who addressed specif- ically the problem of obtaining an overview of the visual arts as a discrete sector. [...] Three other constraints also arose: 1) research and information on the visual arts are une- 1 This plan had three segments: 1) an economic and structural study of the visual arts (2); a study of the development of the visual arts market in Canada; and 3) a study of the working conditions of visual artists, cultural workers and volunteers in the sector. [...] The second constraint also limits the possibility of a strategic research and monitoring program for the sector: the diversity of stakeholders involved is not initially conducive to an overview of 2 …A Synthesis and Critical Analysis of Recent Research the sector. [...] The concept is a relatively recent one: its ascendan- cy over a whole set of other concepts—primarily the previously dominant concept of the “fine arts” and, more recently in francophone circles, that of the arts plastiques—dates back to the 1960s; this change took place gradually and without replacing the other concepts.3 Currently, the concept of the visual arts serves on the one hand as an umbr [...] Without completely breaking with the former concepts of the practice, the configuration of the visual arts is clearly distinguished from the previous definition encompassing art forms formerly associated with the fine arts or the so-called plastic arts.