Art for Whose Sake?

If the arts and culture need advocates, there is no more tireless one than Simon Brault. Trained as a chartered accountant but a longtime arts administrator, Brault has worked at Montreal’s National Theatre School since 1981 and was made its CEO in 2008. He is also in his second term as vice-chair of the Canada Council for the Arts. Along the way to these prestigious appointments, he has developed and honed his strongly held views about the arts and last year published them in French in Le facteur C, a book of essays, now translated into English. Its central thesis deals with Brault’s take on his experiences in the arts field and “a plea in favour of action to return cultural concerns to the forefront of public policy.” When first published, it caused widespread interest in Quebec, catching the eye of the media and the attention of leading cultural bureaucrats at both the provincial and federal levels; Brault is well known for being able to attract the ear of the...