Art Houses Close in Solidarity
Montreal art establishments are closing on March 22 in solidarity with the student protest.
Eliane Ellbogen, the artistic director of exhibition and production center Eastern Bloc, affirmed in a press release that culture and education are linked and that neither should become a commodity.
“As is the case with universities, the arts and culture sector is being forced to depend more and more on private interests and to conform to a business operating model,” Ellbogen said. “[…] Resisting the tuition hike is resisting the logic that everything in society needs to be profitable in order to exist.”
On Thursday Eastern Bloc, along with a dozen other creation and exhibition spaces including La Centrale, Atelier Graff and Studio XX, will be closed—and the list of participating venues is growing.
The closed art centers will be covered in red squares and their members will be joining students in the national day of action.
