Director’s Message – April
Guy Rodgers attending the Creative Resilience Panel event.
Photography by Nasuna Ulin-Stuart
The show must go on… but maybe not in any way that we have ever experienced, or can currently imagine. The COVID-19 pandemic’s ultimate impact on our personal and professional lives is impossible to estimate. Right now, ELAN is busy collecting and sharing useful information from all major funders, as well as health advisories from Ottawa and Quebec City. See our COVID-19 webpage. In the short term, our members want to stay physically and mentally healthy, pay their rent, and help one another where and when they can. Being underemployed or unemployed, living in isolation, and looking after children or parents is stressful, so we are also sharing suggestions for entertaining, stimulating activities. Please send us any suggestions that are making a difference in your life to research@quebec-elan.org.
Major shows and festivals closed in mid-March, followed by small venues, launch parties, galleries, studios, cinemas and restaurants. Then, Premier Legault asked all non-essential businesses to close until mid-April and schools closings were extended to May 1. These disruptions are serious and unprecedented, but our best chance of minimizing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is to take prompt, decisive action. That is where we are now. It is difficult but temporary, and the downtime can open a door onto reflection and creativity.
Once the pandemic has passed, we will get busy re-building, repairing and re-inventing the arts and culture sector. ELAN will provide support and information to help us all get back to work as soon as possible. The show will go on.
Guy Rodgers
Executive Director