Regart: In pursuit of space, stability and organizational identity
This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada.
For two years, the Cultural Policy Hub has been working to better understand organizational precarity and resilience in Canadian arts, culture and heritage not-for-profit organizations. This research now leads the Hub to ask: what novel approaches are to organizational development, transformation and sustainability are organizations undertaking to address the precarity they face?
Over the course of March 2026, the Hub is sharing case studies that explore how nine organizations are responding to unique opportunities and challenges, ranging from financial precarity to governance, space insecurity, connection to community and the impacts of climate change.
This case study focuses on one artist-run centre in a rural environment and its efforts to address insecure access to spaces, governance issues, complex partnerships, and financial strain.
Founded in 1986 as an artist’s collective, Regart, centre d’artistes en art actuel quickly became the only space dedicated to the production, exhibition and dissemination of contemporary visual arts in the Chaudière-Appalaches region of Québec. Like many artist-run centres, Regart has been gone through episodes of deep instability over the past two decades, the result of governance crises, displacement, funding gaps, community disengagement and the constraints imposed by its regional location. Despite these challenges, Regart strives to contribute to artists’ professional development, to deepen its connection to its community and to develop organizational resilience in the face of chronic uncertainty.
In this case study, the Cultural Policy Hub explores Regart’s history of transformation and adaption to address chronic precarity. This study is based on an interview with Claire Goutier, who has served as Regart’s Executive Director since 2022. It concludes with Goutier’s insights for art leaders, government policymakers and funders, drawing on Regart’s experiences implementing changes to address the crises it has faced.
Read the full case study below:
