It’s happening again. After its inaugural event last year, called “a bit insane” by one Ottawa gallery exec, Nuit Blanche will return to Ottawa in September, spearheaded by a dedicated team of artists and directors.
Nuit Blanche, or “sleepless night” in French, is a once-a-year all-night arts festival. Galleries, museums, and public spaces fill with art that is open free to the public deep into the morning.
The event started in France in 2002, and spread around the world, hitting cultural centres such as Rome, Brussels, Toronto, Montreal, and for the first time in 2012, Ottawa.
“As soon as the event ended, we got bombarded with emails,” Nuit Blanche organizer Ariane Nazroo said.
With the positive response, and only in its second year, the festival is expanding to Gatineau.
“All I can say right now is it’s developing really well,” Nazroo said.
While Nazroo withheld details, she said she has talked to both the City of Gatineau and businesses in Hull, and is looking to partner with events happening that same weekend.
“We always bemoan the fact that there seems to be a river that divides our city, and anything to bring Gatineau closer to Ottawa I think is a good thing,” said Jason St-Laurent, director of programming at SAW gallery.
The gallery was a partner last year and will be again this year, joining Ottawa-based artist collective Artengine, the Ottawa School of Art, and the Ottawa Art Gallery, who have already jumped on board.
Nazroo said the festival is also seeking corporate partners. The festival last year was funded largely by one grant, provided by an organization with a mandate to support francophone artists.
“[Nuit Blanche] became national and international, and it also became bilingual,” Nazroo said. Because of this, the festival will not have the same partner.
Nazroo was hired on that grant, and this year, along with the other festival organizer Megan Smith, has been volunteering her time.
“The project is too important not to be happening again,” she said, and so she said she works about 20 hours a week, while on maternity leave.
The artists, depending on the success of grant applications, corporate sponsor intrigue, and funding from the City of Ottawa, may also be volunteering.
“I know some artists who had to pay out of their pocket to produce their work, and they were keen to do that,” said Heather Anderson, curator at the Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG).
Last year CUAG did not participate, but Anderson said depending on the St. Patrick’s Building gallery’s budget and the success of their grant applications, they might participate this year.
“It’s certainly a good initiative that we hope will grow and become more sustainable by providing artists with budgets and professional fees,” she said via email.
St-Laurent said artists running the risk of not getting paid are a constant at every Nuit Blanche around the world. He said there are two types of projects: commissioned, which are paid for by the organizers or supporting galleries, and independent projects, paid for by the artists themselves.
“I don’t think there’s a better model, necessarily, because it’s probably the most democratic way of going about it,” he said.
“Anyone can do a project during Nuit Blanche, which is great because it allows emerging artists, young artists, non-artists, all kinds of people to participate in the event.”
“I think if you restricted it to the number of projects you can actually pay artist fees for, you’d be eliminating [the number of artists].”
He added that for artists, it’s not all about the money, either.
“It’s about finding an audience that’s crazed for one evening for contemporary art.”
“They don’t just want to talk to the converted in a gallery, they want to reach people that may be encountering contemporary art for the first time.”
The first stage of Nuit Blanche will be the call for artists, where artists pitch their submissions. Nazroo said this will happen in mid-April.
The next Nuit Blanche will be from 6 p.m. on Sept. 21 to 4 a.m. on Sept. 22.
