We are, with HUNDREDS OF OTHER CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS and organisms, victims of a BRUTAL DECREASE IN PUBLIC GRANTS WHICH HAVE BEEN DECIDED WITHOUT CONSULTATION.
Today, we still do not know how much funds will be granted in 2008… and the threat of getting no budget at all is real.

One of our activities already appears to be condemned: the Heure Exquise ! Station, a cultural and multimedia space.

Of course, this situation is dramatic and poses a serious threat to the functioning of our daily work and to our actions.

This could have consequences on the support we get from our partners: the Conseil Régional Nord/Pas-de-Calais, the Conseil Général du Nord, the town of Mons-en-Baroeul. As for the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles (DRAC), it is caught between field reality and the budget cuts imposed by the Ministry.

This also poses a threat to the job of several salaried workers and would have consequences on our activities regarding the broadcasting and distribution of video art and documentaries.

On Friday the 22nd of February 2008, Heure Exquise ! was on strike and did not answer to the daily questions of its users. Supported by the voluntary administrators, our employees were at their working place and had screening some art videos and documentaries from the distribution catalogue with the complicity of many artists.

With this action, we join in the national movement gathering audiovisual and film professionals, distributors, independent producers, teachers, artists and cultural associations… as well as multimedia professionals who discovered at the end of January 2008 that the Ministry of Culture would purely and simply remove its subsidies.