Academic stay with Professor Pascale Bédard - Inaugural Conference

From 13 to 16 October 2025, in the frame of the ENCATC Working Group Art Markets and Cultural Goods Integrity, our member Université libre de Bruxelles in partnership with ENCATC welcomed Professor Pascale Bédard from Université Laval of Quebec, a renowned specialist in cultural policies and practices.

Across four conferences, lectures, and seminars, Professor Bédard invited us to reflect on the evolving nature of work in the cultural sector, the economic and social realities of artists, and the tensions between artistic creation and managerial logics in cultural organisations. 

The inaugural conference focused on the relationship between art and work. Are artists workers? Can the cultural sector survive without its workers' vocational commitment to their organization's mission? Are regulations and social security systems adapted to the realities of this sector? These questions will guide a conference whose conclusions raise questions about the changes underway, but perhaps also desirable, in the contemporary world of work. Indeed, what place is there today for atypical, productive but economically undervalued activities such as artistic creation, civic engagement, caregiving, and volunteer work? Based on recent surveys of creative professions, a number of observations were put forward that could lead to a rethinking of how work is organized in our societies in order to revalue these activities that are essential to living together.