Senators' Statements

Honourable senators, last week the arts community of Greater Sudbury and the francophone community rejoiced as the federal government made a major funding announcement for the construction of the Place des Arts, a cultural project that the Regroupement des organismes culturels de Sudbury has been nursing for more than 10 years. This project will confirm Sudbury’s status as one of this country’s arts and culture hubs.

Behind every great movement, lies exceptional work, and I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to pay tribute to one of the great women behind this project, Paulette Gagnon.

Paulette Gagnon carved out an enduring place in the Canadian theatre world. Born in Hearst, she got her start with the Fabrik à Pantouf marionette troupe. During the 1970s and 1980s, she taught classes at Direction Jeunesse, Théâtre Action, and the Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (TNO) in Sudbury. It was the TNO that hired her as coordinator of the cultural activities program and gave her many of her first administrative roles. She worked on special projects for the TNO, spurred by a vision of reaching a wider audience, spreading arts and culture to every member of the public, and helping the theatre company get a theatre of its own where it could continue to grow and evolve. Building on her work in arts administration and development, Paulette became head of development for the Franco-Ontarian section of the Ontario Arts Council.

In 1997, Paulette packed her bags for Ottawa, where she became the managing director of La Nouvelle Scène, a centre that regroups four theatre companies. In 2003, she became the project manager for the théâtre français at the National Arts Centre and the president of la Fédération culturelle canadienne-française. Finally, from 2005 to 2010, she was the executive director of l’Association des théâtres francophones du Canada, which has membership from across the country.

Throughout her career, she put her heart and soul into helping Canada’s arts scene flourish.

Two days before the government’s major announcement about the Place des Arts, her children, her loved ones, and the arts communities in Sudbury, throughout francophone Ontario, and across Canada, received the shocking news of her sudden death. Paulette Gagnon gave her heart and soul to designing and developing the Place des Arts.

Persons Day was yesterday, of course, and it is my hope that Paulette Gagnon’s work will continue to inspire female artists and cultural workers who are putting their own heart and soul into our shared future.

Thank you and goodbye, dear Paulette.