brownstein: grants give anglo arts creators a chance to build cultural bridges with francos
5 minute read
“the (grant) money will allow me to create a space for franco and anglo teenagers to connect and to explore the theme of identity and their connection to montreal,” says carolina aguirre, seen at her montreal home on monday, march 23, 2026.
dave sidaway
/
montreal gazette
despite too little awareness, there is actually a significant number of anglo artists and organizations in quebec building bridges by making inroads within the franco cultural community.
on wednesday afternoon, the english language arts network (elan) will be announcing the names of the representatives of 15 quebec anglo arts programs intended to engage francos. each will receive grants from $10,000 to $25,000. six individual artists will share from a pool of $90,000, while nine arts organizations will be given about $25,000 each. the projects cover the arts gamut, from animated films to painting, puppetry to square dancing.
this is the third year of the four-year elan initiative — as part of its trellis micro-grants program in conjunction with heritage canada — which will result in a total of $1,212,000 being distributed to arts projects across the province.
this is a two-pronged cultural approach, according to deborah forde, elan’s director of operations and this project’s manager.
“first, it’s to make people aware that anglophone artists are a part of the quebec arts community. and then it’s to bridge-build in terms of not so much getting involved in the franco side, but in having francophones becoming more aware of what is going on among anglophone arts groups here and having our work more accessible to them,” forde says.
“the point to the project is to let people in the province know that we’re here. we’re doing wonderful work that makes a difference in the community, with work that says something about who we are as québécois. too often there is this notion that because we are english, we can’t be québécois. not true, and this work is highlighting that. we were presented with projects that would make inroads within the franco community, to make them more aware and to engage them in a way that’s different.”
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it’s important to underline that elan does not decide who gets the money. that’s decided by a community jury. but what’s most gratifying to forde is that there are people getting funded who have never received arts grants before.
what also makes this project particularly special is that the application process is “so simple” for anyone involved, forde notes.
“that’s why heritage canada came to us. when i write a grant application myself for heritage canada, it’s usually over 27 pages. but when an artist applies for our grant, it’s only about three pages.”
this is a different process from applying for funding grants from the canada council for the arts.
“when you go to an arts funder like the canada council, they simply focus on the art, which is judged by a jury of peers. in our case, the project is evaluated on two levels. the art aspect is judged first, but the second level has to do with the project’s ability to meet the goals of the overall project. … it’s about community,” forde says.
“what i love about these grants is that we’re reaching places the artists have never been before. they’re being able to take work out of montreal into the regions in a way it’s never been done.”
anne koizumi should have no difficulty reaching most anyone, anywhere in this province. the montreal filmmaker will be receiving $15,000 in elan grant money to put to use for an animated project called le magnifique, highlighting the exploits of québécois hockey hero mario lemieux — albeit sadly not with the habs, but rather with the glory he attained with the pittsburgh penguins over the course of his career.
“hockey transcends everything in quebec. and my story speaks to the blending of the anglo and franco communities,” says koizumi, who is the film’s director, writer and producer.
“it’s about a 10-year-old japanese-canadian girl whose family owns a dépanneur in montreal. she forms a very unlikely friendship with a retired québécois man and customer. they bond over hockey and their hero, mario lemieux. the story is actually inspired by my mom, a japanese immigrant, who loved the penguins in the ‘90s.”
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the film will be made in english, but will also come out in a french version. production begins in a few months and release is slated for 2027.
koizumi’s previous film, a short animated cbc doc called in the shadow of the pines (available for free on youtube), is also highly personal, based on her own story.
“it’s about the shame i carried because my father was a janitor at the elementary school i attended. he passed away 12 years ago, and it’s kind of like this letter i wrote to him,” explains koizumi, who had worked in the nfb’s education department before being laid off two years ago.
cultural identity and immigration are also at the root of carolina aguirre’s project. the montreal painter will be getting a $10,000 grant for a community art project.
“the money will allow me to create a space for franco and anglo teenagers to connect and to explore the theme of identity and their connection to montreal,” aguirre explains. “we’re going to do this through a series of community art workshops: creative writing, mixed media and clay sculpting. through a series of artworks they put together, they will be able to answer the question ‘what does belonging to montreal feel like to me?’ and ‘what is the identité québécoise like to me?’ in the last workshops, they’re going to create this sculpture that answers these questions.”
aguirre will be reaching out to both an anglo and a franco community centre focused on the arts to conscript 10 teens, equal parts anglos and francos.
the project begins in july. when the final collective artwork is completed, it will go on display early in 2027 at the espace amalgame art gallery on st-laurent blvd.
aguirre is also at work on her own art piece, which will be exhibited in montreal as well as in vancouver and st. john’s.
“the topic is migration and my reaction to immigration laws,” says aguirre, who immigrated to montreal from el salvador at age seven. “it was growing up here in my teens that i had an identity crisis. this is what likely led to the (elan) project, about creating something for teens — especially if they’re first- or second-generation immigrants — who feel like they don’t belong. art can go quite a long way to help.”
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