L'evaluation des pairs, la prise de decisions et les criteres de la qualite au Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec: Le cas des arts visuels contemporains

Our study focuses on the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec (CALQ) program to support the creation of contemporary visual arts. The question that usually rises about this type of programs, which are based on peer review, is: are the decisions "biased"? But behind this question, there is another more fundamental: what criteria the evaluations are based on? We are interested in understanding the relationship between the artistic quality assessment and the fellowships. More specifically, we seek to analyze how are determined the quality and value of an application in visual arts, what types of arguments and criteria sustain an artistic assessment and by which means the latter may create inequity between candidates. Therefore our research is related to the sociology of arts; nonetheless we take into account the institutional framework and the values that underlie the artistic assessment in the context of an autonomous arts' funding organization.;In this perspective, artistic values are not defined ex nihilo but in situ, in concrete situations, such as the evaluation committees, and in a specific institutional context, the CALQ. The artistic quality assessment is built into concrete and particular social dynamics, which compel us to observe and analyze them carefully. In this sense, our attention will particularly address the mechanisms of decision-making and the collective judgments.;Keywords: peer review, decision-making, arts- funding, arts criteria, visual arts, Quebec cultural policies, sociology of arts.