100 Mile Arts Hosts Networking Event for Pontiac Creatives

Wakefield-based arts non-profit 100 Mile Arts Network hosted its first Pontiac networking event on Thursday evening at the Spruceholme Inn in Fort Coulonge.

The non-profit works to support English-speaking creative professionals across the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais, MRC Pontiac, and MRC de la Vallée-de-la-Gatineau by connecting artists, venues, and organizations to strengthen and promote talent across the regions. While it’s been doing this work since 2017, most of its efforts have been focused on the Gatineau Valley area.

Thursday’s event was its first organized with the express purpose of bringing together Pontiac artists, and offered itself as a relaxed, informal get-together designed to help local artists and arts groups connect, discuss shared challenges and perhaps spark future collaboration.

Representatives from local organizations, including the Pontiac Community Players theater group and Pontiac Enchanté, the Luskville-based classical music concert series, spoke briefly about the hurdles they’ve encountered as arts programmers in the Pontiac region.

Val Twolan-Graham, vice-president of Pontiac Community Players, shared one of the group’s goals is to grow its audience and attract participation from across the Pontiac, but said the region’s large geographical span makes this difficult.

Carson Becke of Pontiac Enchanté, emphasized the importance of cultural investment in rural areas.

“I don’t think it is right that the culture gets collected in big cities and these regions are considered satellites. I think regions have to have their own cultural identities, and they have to be invested in,” he said.

“Our ambitions are to provide concerts elsewhere in the Pontiac. I’m intrigued by seeing the Spruceholme Inn.

This is a place I could totally imagine presenting concerts in the future,” he added, offering evidence the event’s purpose – providing opportunities for artistic collaborations within the Pontiac – was producing results.

In a conversation with THE EQUITY, Sebastien Molgat, communications director for 100 Mile Arts Network, echoed many of the challenges expressed by arts facilitators at the event.

“If you look at a map you can very quickly see it’s all rural. These areas have been home to artists for a long time and there have been strong communities built around that. But there isn’t a lot of infrastructure, compared to cities for example, to meet each other and to come together for shows,” he said.

“It’s sometimes hard to feel like you’re a part of a community when everybody is so spread out, and not very visible.”

Molgat emphasized English-speaking artists in Quebec often lack the support systems more readily available to their francophone peers.

“As a minority community in Quebec, newfound artists don’t quite have the same community foundation that perhaps francophone artists might have and that historically has extended to practical support opportunities, [such as] places at a community level for them to show their art, and financial support to carry out their activities,” Molgat said.

Following presentations, the group gathered around a piano where classical pianists Sureen Barry and Carson Becke of Pontiac Enchanté played four beautiful duets for the group.

Becke shared that he and Barry “used to hate each other” in their youth, as they were each other’s fiercest rivals in piano competitions. However, he said later into adulthood, the two discovered that their collaboration offers them more success and enjoyment.

Their story and performance echoed the purpose of the evening, and the ethos of the 100 Mile Arts Network: that when artists come together, something truly beautiful can emerge.