Pierre Lapointe is among the instigators of a project called Faubourg à musique, which aims to bring musical creation back to a central district of Montreal.
Published at 9:00 a.m.
He dreams of seeing rehearsal, research, experimentation, creation and storage spaces brought together in the same place, but also around a hundred short and long-term accommodations for musicians from here and elsewhere. …And why not a daycare?
Pierre Lapointe is thinking about this project with his manager Laurent Saulnier (former conductor of the Francos and Jazz Festival programs) and Yanick Masse, co-founder of the Bonsound record company. Last April, they created an NPO called FàM, for Faubourg à musique. The trio counts on valuable collaborators, including Simon Brault (founding member of Culture Montréal and former director of the Canada Council for the Arts) and architect Ron Rayside, of the firm Rayside Labossière.
We were able to consult the NPO’s brief which will be presented this Tuesday as part of the public consultations on the proposed Montreal Cultural Development Policy 2025-2030. “The places of diffusion are physically and geographically separated from the places of life, meeting, creation and production”, we can read there.
With three poles (creative, residential and collective), the Faubourg à musique would be an opportunity to encourage exchanges, underline the instigators of the project, both between artists, with the neighborhood and with the international community. The quadrilateral where the FàM would take up residence would be protected by a social utility trust.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Pierre Lapointe
Around this fortress for musical creators, it risks becoming a really hot neighborhood.
Pierre Lapointe
“It is a project that is at once cultural, urban and social,” underlines Simon Brault, which is directly linked to the essay he has just published, What if art could change the world? (see box).
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Simon Brault and Laurent Saulnier
Housing too expensive
The Quartier des spectacles brings together many venues, but it is not a living environment for artists, explains Pierre Lapointe. Housing is too expensive for “artisan workers in the entertainment industry”.
Since the pandemic, he has seen musician friends leave Montreal due to the housing crisis, or even have to find a job alongside their career. He fears that musical excitement is no longer part of Montreal’s DNA. And let’s remember: one of the factors that helped the excitement of the “Montreal sound” is the massive presence of people linked to this musicality at the beginning of the 2000s, thanks to the low rents in central neighborhoods, like Mile End.
“I am sad to think that Montreal could lose its musical luster,” worries Pierre Lapointe.
We also want to provide basic tools. There is a glaring lack of rehearsal rooms or even storage for instruments not used between tours.
Laurent Saulnier
In theater and the visual arts, for example, we find this kind of space. Pierre Lapointe says he was impressed by La Caserne, Robert Lepage’s workplace, a multidisciplinary production center in Quebec. Even Peter Gabriel came there to finalize the final preparations for a tour in 2012. “I was angry to see that there is no space for experimentation like that for singing here in Montreal” , he remembers.
A place where artists have “time”, insists Laurent Saulnier.
If the location of this place has not yet been found, specifies Laurent Saulnier, it should be in one of the central districts. The timing is good right now, since several corners near the city center, including the surroundings of the former home of - and the Molson Brewery, will soon experience a new vocation.
It should also be noted that the FàM project is intended to be complementary to that of the Maison de la chanson et de la musique du Québec (MCM) of Monique Giroux, which counts on the support of Luc Plamondon.
A window on the international
Pierre Lapointe would also like to be able to welcome international musicians to the FàM. When the latter is in Paris, he rents a room in the studio-residences of the Récollets center, where international artists and researchers live together. “When artists meet, connections are created. »
Simon Brault emphasizes that musical creation is “invisible” while music is an art form essential to others such as dance and cinema. Hence the idea of the project to open up to the community.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Pierre Lapointe’s musician is Simon Brault’s son, Philippe Brault.
Pierre Lapointe and Laurent Saulnier consider themselves privileged in the music industry. Both say they have received a lot: the first as an artist and the second as a programmer of major festivals. “We want to create some sort of legacy to give back. »
According to them, with falling revenues from album sales combined with the housing crisis, it is all the more important to support musical creation. Their project would make it possible to include culture in the urban development of Montreal. This is what they argue in their brief, submitted this Tuesday to the Commission on Culture, Heritage and Sports of Montreal.
What if art could change the world?
Simon Brault is a founding member of Culture Montréal, whose role is to position Montreal as a cultural metropolis. His new book, What if art could change the world?, is the continuation of his essay The C factorpublished 15 years ago. In the age of artificial intelligence and greater concern for inclusion and diversity, he optimistically argues how art and culture can contribute to living together, but also help us deal with crises, including the climate crisis.
What if art could change the world?
Simon Brault
September
200 pages
