Arts_Sainement: For a healthy climate in the performing arts

Arts_Sainement (A_S) is a movement created in 2020 by ten independent artists in French-speaking Switzerland, fighting against all types of abuse of power, discrimination, harassment and hostile behaviour in the field of the performing arts in French-speaking Switzerland.

Since it was set up four years ago, Arts_Sainement has supported and/or advised around a hundred artists and professionals, ten theatres and cultural institutions, two authors of abuse and four cultural departments. The association has also put around fifty volunteers in touch with cultural services. The association is increasingly in demand, not least because of a growing awareness of the importance of these issues. Active throughout French-speaking Switzerland, the association is in contact with its counterparts at a national level and has taken part in numerous round-table discussions and professional meetings on issues of health and well-being at work in the cultural sector.

The vision and objective of Art Sainement is to ensure the continued existence of the association and its activities by funding a two-year programme to professionalise the structure and strengthen, the consultancy activities, support, prevention, awareness raising and training, in the hope that in the medium term, the protocols for monitoring, reporting and dealing with cases of abuse will be sufficiently clear to the community and A_S will be able to cease its activities.

Over the next two years, the aim is to ensure that what has been achieved on a voluntary basis does not fall by the wayside due to overworking volunteer members, to provide support for a growing number of cases of abuse, and to benefit more from all the services and expertise offered by Arts_Sainement through the development of its prevention, awareness-raising and training activities over the medium and long term.