Memphremagog MRC hands out cultural funding

The Memphremagog MRC has announced more than $26,000 in support for ten local cultural projects. During its recent meeting on April 15, the MRC council granted the financial assistance as part of the Programme de soutien financier aux initiatives culturelles locales de la MRC de Memphrémagog.

“The selected projects are very interesting and touch on several disciplines: visual arts, performing arts, literature and publishing, heritage and history. They will be of interest to a variety of audiences,” said Michèle Turcotte, President of the Cultural Committee and Mayor of Saint-étienne-de-bolton. “Of course, the conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic will force the postponement of some of these projects, but they will come to fruition and the MRC will offer more flexibility to promoters by maintaining funding, even if the projects have to take place later than originally planned.”

The ten projects supported for 2020 are:

A literature, theatre, and visual art presentation called Ton oeuvre m’inspire in Saint-étienne-de-bolton ($1,320); Poetry workshops and an anthology project from Studio Georgeville ($1,000); A mural of the Narrows Bridge through Action communautaire Canton Stanstead ($2,000); A fantasy exhibition by Les Fantastiques de Magog ($500); a Beethoven concert at the St. Benoit du Lac Abbey by the Ensemble vocal Massawippi ($2,500); Culture en liberté in East Bolton ($1,790); the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Town of Stanstead ($5,000); 1001 métiers de la culture in Sainte-catherine-de-hatley ($2,580); the tenth anniversary of Un livre/un village in Eastman ($2,300); and an artistic forestry project in Austin ($7,500).

This program is made possible thanks to the cultural development agreement between the MRC and the Ministry of Culture and Communications (MCC). The objective of the program is to energize the local cultural development of the communities. Through this program, the Memphrémagog MRC supports innovative, original and structuring projects that will contribute to the social and economic development of living environments.

The funded projects had to be linked to at least one of the orientations of the MCC’S cultural policy: contributing to individual and collective development through culture, shaping an environment conducive to the creation and influence of the arts and culture, revitalizing the relationship between culture and the territory and increasing the contribution of culture and communications to Quebec’s economy and development.

Support for local cultural development also makes it possible to develop and strengthen the links between municipalities, citizens and cultural stakeholders. Indeed, each selected project will also be supported by the host municipality and carried out with the collaboration of artists or professionals in the field of activity.

The Memphrémagog MRC, in partnership with the municipalities, the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec and the MCC, expects total investments in culture of more than $ 170,000 for the region in 2020.