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Excellence and creativity in service of culture and events

We offer a wide range of services

Strategic planning and support

ArtExpert supports organizations and major cultural or event-related projects in their strategic planning, their repositioning, and the definition of new directions.

Cultural economics

ArtExpert supports cultural industries and institutions in their deliberations on the impacts of creation, distribution and consumption.

Cultural, educational, heritage and cultural-mediation policy

ArtExpert puts in place conditions favorable to cultural development and vitality by way of tools and guidelines designed to enrich the living environment of artists, organizations, citizens and clients.

Feasibility and opportunity studies

ArtExpert conducts studies that allow for the integration of new projects into their ecosystem, bringing together economic, social, artistic, community and environmental objectives

Evolution of business models

ArtExpert is attuned to market trends, and advises companies on the evolution of their business model – in the digital arena, for example – while exploring growth opportunities with regard to revenues and financing.

Our corporate mission: building the future of cultural and event-related projects!

Diversity

ArtExpert can provide its strategic expertise in all artistic disciplines and all cultural industries, for any type of event proposal or cultural or tourist attraction.

Expertise

ArtExpert stands out through its in-depth knowledge of the issues and best practices in the cultural, tourist and event sectors. That knowledge is what allows for the development of concrete solutions tailored to each client’s needs.

Success

An ability to document, analyze and relate culture to social and economic realities.

Reliability

ArtExpert supports excellence and innovation by relying on the ecology of markets in order to contribute in a sustainable way.

The history of our consultancy

ArtExpert is a consulting firm that assists municipalities, governments and private organizations in developing the cultural and event industry in Quebec and in Belgium.

The organization has been headed by Nathalie Courville since August 2022.

It was founded by Louise Poulin in 2002.

“ArtExpert is first and foremost wonderful encounters with all those who truly care about culture and artistic vitality as a key element in society.”

-Nathalie Courville, president of ArtExpert

Our team is made up of gifted minds in Montreal... and in Brussels!

PDG

Nathalie Courville

Recognized as an expert with more than 35 years of experience. Courville acts as project director. She advises and guides her clients at every step of consultation.

Courville is a recognized expert in strategic planning in the cultural field, tourism, and events; she has worked in these sectors for more than 35 years.
She has founded two communications agencies and held various high-level positions in cultural and event organizations. For many years, she has provided strategic consulting to various cultural structures, associations, and event organizations of all types.

Courville has been an adjunct teacher at the Carmelle and Rémi Marcoux Chair in Arts Management at HEC Montréal and a lecturer on management of cultural organizations in the graduate diploma and master’s degree programs since 2007. She is also a guest professor for event management, marketing, and event financing at the Institut des Hautes études de Communications sociales (IHECS Academy) in Brussels and at the management school in Brussels, ICHEC, in the C-Ship cultural management program. To date, she has trained and assisted thousands of students and professionals develop their management, marketing, and private financing skills in Canada and Europe.

Director of Research

André Courchesne

With over 40 years of experience, he applies his Canadian cultural industry expertise to analyze contexts, plan municipal policies, and contextualize client's challenges.

André Courchesne is an adjunct professor at the Carmelle and Rémi Marcoux Chair in Arts Management at HEC Montréal, where he teaches cultural policies and marketing. From 1993 to 2008, he was director of the Arts Division and head of the Theatre Section of the Canada Council for the Arts; during his years at the Canada Council, he supervised many quantitative and qualitative research projects. Before joining the Canada Council, he was administrative director of the Festival Trans-Amériques, administrative director of Théâtre le Carrousel, and a consultant for a number of arts organizations.

Courschesne holds a PhD and a master’s degree from HEC Montréal and has a degree in theatre from the Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris). For his doctoral dissertation, he conducted qualitative research on parents’ motivation in cultural transmission. He has conducted research for the Canada Council for the Arts and a number of cultural policy reviews for cities and municipalities.

Research Coordinator

Hugo Dufour

Mr. Dufour is our master analyst for statistical data and socio-demographic contexts. His skills are leveraged for the analysis of contexts and environments.

Hugo Dufour has made his mark in the Montreal art world in the last few years as a researcher, cultural worker and a curator. Through his work as the founder and administrator of the Celine Bureau art residency and as a producer in multiple art festivals, he supports emerging artists and intercommunity collaboration. Recently, he has been researching cultural policy-making with professor André Courchesne at HEC Montréal.
Research Assistant

René St-Amand

Mr. St-Amand is pursuing a career in various cultural fields with a strong HR component. His skills contribute to contextualizing issues within their competitive environment.

Culture is my passion
With a bachelor’s degree in graphic communications from Université Laval and a specialized graduate diploma in management of cultural organizations from HEC Montréal, I have more than 15 years’ experience in publishing and print media. Starting at Groupe HMH (Hurtubise, XZY, Multimondes) as a graphic designer, I then became a publishing projects manager. In the projects that I managed, I analyzed and studied the competition in order to provide recommendations regarding artistic and marketing positioning. My love of books, and literature in general, was behind my desire to be involved in the cultural field.

More recently, I was director of administration and human resources at the Fonderie Darling visual arts centre in Montréal. For this mandate, I led the work of the communications and philanthropic development teams, and handled general administration of the organization. At the same time, I worked with my team to implement a new database so that we could better understand our clientele and further customize the message that we wished to transmit by offering adapted content.

My specialties are marketing of arts and culture, development of own-source revenues, and human resources management.

Expert in cultural engineering

Géraldine Dallaire

Madame Dallaire has over 15 years of experience in the cultural sector. She specializes in organizing workshops and training sessions to provide tools for cultural organizations and cultural entrepreneurs, particularly in Quebec, France, and West Africa.

The holder of a Ph.D. in business administration from HEC Montréal focusing on how cultural entrepreneurs conceive and develop their entrepreneurial projects, Géraldine Dallaire has been involved in the cultural sector and interested in entrepreneurship for more than 15 years.

She works as a consultant for both cultural and creative organizations (strategic planning, rethinking business models, mobilizing stakeholders) and for institutions seeking to analyze and better understand the issues faced by cultural actors (studies for YES Montreal, Compétence culture).

Her specialty is organizing workshops and training sessions with the aim of providing tools to cultural organizations and cultural entrepreneurs. She has had several years of experience in moderating roundtables, in conferences, in facilitation and in creating workshops and professional training programs. She is regularly called on to deal with entrepreneurship issues in culture. She is the founder of the Pôle entrepreneuriat culturel et créatif in France, which she later introduced to Quebec.

She has also collaborated on a number of research projects, and for the past 10 years has taught or otherwise participated in training sessions to address issues relating to entrepreneurship, cultural entrepreneurship, management and marketing in Quebec, France and in West Africa. She has also obtained official certification in business model design from Yves Pigneur.

Consulting in strategic cultural communication and cultural engineering (Brussels)

Delphine Jenart

Madame Jenart is dedicated to cultural democracy and knowledge sharing, by exploring how technologies can promote the accessibility of cultural content and audience development.

For Delphine Jenart, democracy through culture and the sharing of knowledge lie at the heart of her commitment – recurring themes that led to her involvement in the field of technologies that serve culture, or how such technologies can make for greater accessibility of content, on the one hand, and the development of audiences, on the other.

These last 20 years have seen her develop an expertise in strategic communication and in engineering in the French-language Belgian cultural sphere (museums, cultural centres, festivals, Capitale européenne de la culture), but also in support for development of digital innovation at the local level – from start-ups to multinationals – and training in digital occupations. Some of her references: Mundaneum, Mons arts de la scène, Le Botanique, Fédération des employeurs des arts de la scène, KIKK festival, Google, Foire du Livre de Bruxelles, Arts et Publics, Technocité, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Transmission, communication, education and mediation are the cardinal points of her compass. On that basis she has served as trainer for the non-profit sector, and lecturer at IHECS (Haute École Galilée - Bruxelles) and at Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

Archivist (Brussels)

Camille Jacobs

Madame Jacobs has enriched her expertise by working for Brussels-based organizations such as Brussels Major Events and Brussels Expo. Her career grants her a unique understanding of the connections between architectural heritage, culture, and events.

Following a master’s in architecture and urban planning in Brussels (UCL Louvain) completed in 2018 along with a complementary master’s in event management and communication in Brussels (IHECS) obtained in 2019, Camille was able to broaden her knowledge of these two domains in the course of her professional experiences as part of organizations such as Brussels Major Events and Brussels Expo.

The combination of these areas of training and experiences allows her an exceptional understanding of all aspects of architectural heritage and of culture as well as a comprehensive appreciation of the exceptional synergy that unites them over time.

Our achievements

Financial ecosystem of cultural organizations in Quebec

Diagnostic

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Digital Needs Assessment for its Audience and Community Engagement

Action Plan and Cultural Policy

Resources for entrepreneurship support in the creative and cultural ecosystem

Diagnostic

Best business practices in Outdoor Artistic Programming using Public Square

Diagnostic

International Trends And Best Practices within Festival and Event Industry

Business Model / Comparative Study

Musée de Lachine 2.0

Business Plan

Concert Hall open to its Community

Feasibility Study

Transforming a church Building into a Cultural Centre

Feasibility Study

Arts Facts using CADAC Data: 191 Theatre Organizations

Diagnostic

DestiNATIONS – First Nations Arts and Cultural Centre

Business Plan

Don’t take our word for it. See what our customers are saying.

ArtExpert enjoys an excellent, deserved reputation within the Montreal cultural community. Its management, demonstrates a global understanding of the issues in the community.

David LavoieCo-Executive and Administrative Director - Festival TransAmériques

Thanks to the ArtExpert study, a pilot project was born with the aim of improving the conditions for the presentation of emerging music in Quebec.

Sandy BoutinDirector du Festival international de musique émergente

Throughout the mandate given to him by the Ontario Department of Tourism and Culture, his approach was able to meet our needs and requirements with brio and professionalism.

Marilou Loncol DaigneaultManager – Digital Projects and Strategic Communications

Those of us who worked on the Empress Project (Cinema V) admired the expertise and cultural sensitivity showed in setting out the potential and benefits of developing English and minority arts and culture in the West end of Montreal. It is because of voices like theirs that the struggle of minority arts and cultural institutions will continue to be heard, and continue to enrich the City of Montreal.

Dr. Clarence S. BayneInstitute for Community Entrepreneurship and Development (ICED)

ArtExpert and its team provided in the strategic planning that they presented a smart and very professional work which better structured the Foundation and its activities. Great knowledge of the artistic community of Quebec and very effective network.

Robert TrempeAdministrateur, Fondation du Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec

In all the phases of the project where ArtExpert lent us their support and their assistance, we felt a communication that was open and sensitive to our reality and uniqueness.

Etienne BeaulieuExecutive director, Correspondances d'Eastman

The art of doing things well and working in concert with creativity and daring for a project crowned with success!

Fanny Bertrand-GirouxHead of the Recreation, Culture and Tourism division, City of L'Assomption

She’s so cool, Nathalie Courville. An overflowing and infectious enthusiasm! I loved her course!

Alexia CappuynsParticipant in professional training (Belgium)

Enough talk, let's build something together

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About ArtExpert

5605 de Gaspé Ave #702
Montreal Quebec H2T 2A4
(514) 678-2163

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