On May 31, during the spring fair, residents discovered a display organized by the new municipality: Tea Time, the animated crocodile from Lake Nabeillou, guardian of the town for three summers, loaded on a flatbed truck, exhibited in the public square, with a sign displaying what she presents as its cost and announcing its sale or rental. Faced with what it describes as “lynching”, a collective of citizens launched an online petition, regretting the lack of consultation on the subject and in particular on cultural policy. “We are not here to defend one municipal report against another. The question of the cost of this animation can be discussed, but it is discussed in a municipal council, with honest figures, in front of elected officials who answer for their actions. And not on a flatbed truck, at a fair, in front of families who have come to spend a Sunday in the sun”, declares the collective. “What we see in this gesture is something else: a message that imposes itself without being able to respond: culture costs too much. What makes a municipality unique, its capacity to imagine, to surprise, to create a bond between its inhabitants, cannot be reduced to a simple question budgetary. Here, artistic creation is justified in euros, or it disappears.”
The Nabeillou crocodile, whether we liked it or not, was a daily encounter at 5 p.m. at the lake. Among the many activities offered were kayaking, pedal boats, ziplining and concerts, which enlivened this space during the summer and whose facilities are included in the same budget. Children ran to see it, while families regularly returned to the lakeside. A way of illustrating the dynamism of the town. Graulhet maintains an ancient, deeply rooted tradition of living arts recognized well beyond the Tarn. According to the collective, this heritage deserves more than a simple sign. “We, residents and friends of Graulhet, artists, artisans and association leaders, are asking the municipality to open a real public debate on its vision of cultural policy for the years to come. We are waiting for the municipal team to take a date, not by a press release, but by a public exchange, with us.”
For the signatories, this gesture sends a strong signal to artists, creators and companies who work in this territory, but also beyond. www.mypetition.org/petition/art-culture/graulhet-terre-culture-soldes
