Nuit Blanche, an annual art festival in Ottawa and Gatineau, has been cancelled for this fall.
The festival, which often highlights the work of aspiring artists, was a success in 2012, with approximately 30,000 attendees, according to its founders.
But in the following three years, the pop-up festival appeared to lose momentum, with around half the attendees compared to 2012, as well as fewer artistic displays. This trend continued into 2016, leading to the discontinuation of the festival for this year.
Ariane Nazroo, co-founder and president for Nuit Blanche Ottawa-Gatineau, said the decrease in attendance was due to rain three years in a row.
“Since we are an outdoor festival, poor weather has a tendency to demotivate people from coming out,” she said.
Although the rain impacted the success of the event the past three years, the weather was not a factor that influenced the cancellation of the festival this year, according to Nazroo, but was rather a matter of funding.
Nuit Blanche is a non-profit organization that is dependent on granted funds, Nazroo said.
“The City of Ottawa has helped, but it would be really good if they showed more interest and did more,” Nazroo said. “They really need to step up the funding in all of the arts and cultures organizations that are out there that are pushing . . . for these types of events to happen.”
Nazroo added that because the event is not-for-profit, money was mostly spent on logistics, rather than compensating the artists for their work. She said the city will grant them funding, but the funding will often be returned to the city in the form of service fees and permits, instead of helping fund the artists and festival.
A media representative for the City of Ottawa redirected inquiries about their Nuit Blanche funding back to the event’s organizers, citing Nuit Blanche not being a city-led event as reasoning.
Malika Welsh, the development co-ordinator for the Ottawa School of Art (OSA), who helped organize the OSA portion of Nuit Blanche last year, said that more initiative needs to be taken on behalf of the city.
“We have struggled in the past with funding, but we still made it happen regardless. Sponsorship and finding funds are always a challenge for any organization . . . Here in Ottawa, [funding] is definitely something we need to proceed,” Welsh said.
She added community involvement in the festival has been one of its biggest supports.
“All of the art organizations that are usually a part of Nuit Blanche have come together. The Byward [Business Improvement Association (BIA)] have come together, and that community involvement is huge,” Welsh said. “They have been great and are great supporters of the festival, but we always need a little bit more sponsorship.”
Jasna Jennings, executive director of the Byward BIA, said the association primarily facilitated various locations throughout the market for the event, and ensured they had the city’s permission, as well as the permission of property managers.
However, the Byward BIA also served as a financial sponsor for a couple of years as well, according to Jennings.
Other funding in the past for Ottawa’s Nuit Blanche has come from the Ontario Arts Council, the Ottawa Community Foundation, and the City of Gatineau.
Additionally, the organizers and partners of Nuit Blanche have changed this year, and due to the regrouping of their staff, Nazroo said they decided to take this year off to iron out their new goals and objectives more clearly.
“We had a big board rotation this year, and we needed to revisit our vision, because we are a community-driven organization,” Nazroo said. “We have a lot of partners that are part of the cultural world, with things to share who want to take part in the future of the event.”
Jennings said that while the Byward BIA is sad about the lack of event in 2016, they understand the organizers’ reasons.
“Last year was a very, very difficult year. They have pretty much no resources . . . They were basically doing it all as volunteers and it was very much a full-time job,” Jennings said.
Nazroo said although there aren’t concrete plans to bring Nuit Blanche back for 2018, there is hope for the future of the art festival.
“It’s a great event that brings the whole city together, so we’re upset that it isn’t happening—but, what is happening is quite interesting,” Welsh said. “All of the arts organizations that usually are part of Nuit Blanche have come together, and we will be bringing it back even better for the years to come.”
