Nadine St-Louis recognized that Aboriginal artists have world-class talent, and she’s giving them the platform they need
Arts Entrepeneur, Nadine St. Louis. She represents 20 Aboriginal artists from her gallery in Old Montreal. Photograph by Roger Lemoyne
On a contract with the Canada Council for the Arts, I mapped artists in the Innu territory, where my family comes from. I found world-class talent. The council said, “What do they need?” I said they need a platform. They need representation. They need life skills. They need access to markets. So I founded a not-for-profit Aboriginal arts organization that would do that.
I have a bachelor of fine arts from Concordia University. I studied art history in graduate school, and now I’m doing my M.B.A. on cultural organization development.
We promote, distribute and sell the art of 11 Nations of Quebec through a gallery and e-commerce. We do professional development with the artists, and we produce cultural events. We generate an economy for the artists by selling products like cards and reproductions. When I go to sleep, I feel good about the hope, the inspiration and the creation that we bring together.
One of the defining moments was when I realized my role would evolve into one of an Aboriginal social entrepreneur. After my Eleven Nations exhibition in Montreal in 2012, I needed to turn a temporary exhibition into a permanent social economy project to ensure Aboriginal artists from Quebec had a permanent presence accessible to markets and buyers.
The hard thing is that I work with artists who are sometimes 3,000 km away. The communication with the remote communities is difficult. Bringing diversity together, you need a lot of understanding of the cultural differences. A pro, for example, is when I called the Royal Canadian Mint and asked why there are no Aboriginal artists on the collectors’ coins in Quebec. And they said, “We don’t know where to find them.” I said, “Come down to my exhibition.” Four of our artists were selected to produce collectors’ coins. That’s an astounding achievement, not just for us, but for the artists.
Internships. Start with event management. Volunteer at a summer festival. Go to the producers and say, “I want to learn about logistics. I want to learn about timelines. I want to learn about budgets.”
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