Montreal, May 28, 2007  —  The 31st Plenary Meeting of IETM, the International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, starts in Montreal this coming Wednesday, May 30. 500 participants from 40 countries will get together in 30 activities at Place des Arts and at UQAM's Pavillon Sherbrooke and Agora du Cœur des Sciences, as well as at Studio 303, TOHU, and Ex-Centris.

Occurring in conjunction with Festival TransAmériques (a partner in this event), the arrival in Montreal of so many people who work in the live performing arts will undoubtedly lead to an unprecedented Cultural Warming (the main theme of the meeting) in the city's downtown entertainment hub. Artists, arts company directors, administrators, presenters, managers, researchers, and people who work in organizations that support the performing arts will plunge into the heart of the issues raised within the sub-themes of this meeting: cultural diversity, interdisciplinarity, the emerging generation, new technologies, and exemplary practices. Nights will be given over to enjoying performances at Festival TransAmériques and the OFF event, and to get-togethers at FTA's Café-bar.

Let us remind you that it is the first time this prestigious network, founded in 1981, will hold one of its plenary meetings in North America. With more than 400 member organizations from 45 European countries and elsewhere, IETM now includes 30 Canadian companies. As the majority of the Canadian members are based in Montreal, they succeeded in convincing the European organizers to choose this city as the ideal introduction to North America, and to discover the effervescence of the artistic creation here. Canada's arts milieu will be well-represented: among the participants, half are from places spread all over the country.

The City of Montreal is offering the opening cocktail at City Hall on May 30, and the Cirque Éloize is hosting the closing party at the Gare Dalhousie, on Saturday, June 2 (reserved for registered participants).

All the details concerning the program, the speakers and moderators, the artistic program, and the OFF event are on IETM’s official website: www.ietm.org (Meetings/Montréal sections). See also the Latest News section at this address: www.ietmmontreal2007.org.

Journalists interested in covering this meeting and obtaining accreditation are invited to contact Catherine Caron, Communications.

IETM Montréal 2007 is made possible thanks to the participation of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the Ministère des Affaires municipales et des Régions du Québec, the Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine du Québec, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the City of Montréal, the Montreal Arts Council, the ministère du Tourisme du Québec, Tourisme Montréal, as well as with support from the European Commission’s budget line “Support to European organisations who promote European culture", the Ministry of the Flemish Community of Belgium and the Fonds Voor Amateurkunst en Podiumkunsten, the Netherlands.