Announcements

The City of Thunder Bay has posted an RFP for a Municipal Cultural Plan on their website here. Proposals must be received by 4:00 PM on September 30th. The appendix to the RFP describes the project thus:

"The City of Thunder Bay is requesting the assistance of a Consultant team to develop a Municipal
Cultural Plan. The Plan will consider specific public needs and provide the City with a focus for
future cultural development. Its format and recommendations will be unique to Thunder Bay.
The City of Thunder Bay recognizes the important role of arts and heritage in the community and
is ready to proceed with a process to formally identify and address cultural needs and assets."

Congratulations to Thunder Bay on moving forward with MCP. In April 2007, Thunder Bay was one of three location in north west Ontario for a MCP workshop. It is clear there is a lot of enthusiam and committment to this process in Thunder Bay!

The House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Finance has begun pre-Budget consultations for the next Federal budget, details are in the committee’s announcement here.  The questions Canadians are being asked to consider are:

1. What federal tax and program spending measures are needed to ensure prosperity and a sustainable future for Canadians from an economic, social and/or environmental perspective?

2. What federal stimulus measures have been effective and how might relatively ineffective measures be changed to ensure that they have the intended effects?

While those interested in appearing before the committee had to submit a written brief by July 31st, the first four sessions are online in video form here.  Hearings are happening across the country from Sept 14th to October 21.

A number of culture stakeholders have already presented their views on federal arts/cultural spending – see list below. The full list of witnesses from which this has been extracted is attached at the end.  Those appearing to date have published parts or all of their written submissions.  read more »

Because both present material that informs and entertains.  A documentary festival is like the non-fiction section of the public library.  Too many topics are covered to allow quick description or glib guidance.  Different people will like different items and will have a variety of reactions.  What one person will find useful, another may find funny and yet another will find of little interest.  With both, though, there is something for everybody.  All you need do is explore.

And William Shatner will be here in person Thursday, October 22, 8:00 p.m. (Avon Theatre).

Explore DocFest Stratford, October 21 to 25 at Stratford City Hall (except for the opening & closing galas, which will be at the Avon Theatre).  The attached list includes descriptions of each documentary.

NO BOUNDARIES:  What would happen if students were given cell phones, digital video cameras, editing software, access to the Internet, some hands-on instruction and one day to create a digital movie?The answer is, creativity.  No Boundaries will be a one-day intensive digital media lab for students. 

Today, the Ministry of Culture, Aileen Carroll, announced $9 million will be available to municipalities and non-profit organizations that increase capacity  for Municipal Cultural Planning and community economic development. The Creative Communities Prosperity Fund will:

    * Provide municipalities with incentives and support to help them in undertaking MCP-related activities and integrate cultural planning with land-use planning, economic development, environmental responsibility and social equity.
    * Encourage innovative organizations and initiatives that strengthen Ontario’s cultural sector’s capacity to transform Ontario’s communities and economies through culture.
    * Encourage innovative new cross-cultural (e.g. heritage, arts, libraries and/or cultural industries) and cross-sectoral (e.g. culture, business, environment, social, etc.) partnerships and models to support the cultural vitality, creativity and economic sustainability of Ontario’s communities.

The need for funding is a common message MCPP hears from MCP practitioners and municipalities interested in MCP. With a new source of potential funding, the process of MCP will be accessible to more municipalities.

Want to read a MCP? Read London's, Chatham-Kent's and Prince Edward County's.


For additional information, visit: http://www.culture.gov.on.ca/english/Grants/creativecommunitiesfund/index.html

The Creative Communities Blog on the Knowledge Impact Society website, focuses on issues related to economic development in Eastern Ontario and specifically, how these issues intersect with the concept of the creative economy and creative community. The blog is led by Dr. Betsy Donald of Queen's University's Department of Geography.

As part of the working paper series, Ontario in the Creative Age, Dr. Donald published "From Kraft to Craft: Innovation and creativity in Ontario's Food Economy". At MCPP we have often looked to Prince Edward County as an example of a local economy with culture as a driving force. "Local Food Debates & Eastern Ontario Success Stories" addresses the potential of the Creative Food Economy as a potential economic development and tourism strategy. In Prince Edward County, artisanal cheese-making has been positioned within the "Creative Rural Economy". This positioning has to do with the long history of cheese-making in Prince Edward County and the use of milk from local cows, goats and sheep. The practice of artisanal cheese-making in Prince Edward County is very much tied to place.  read more »

Yfactor, a Toronto-based consultancy specializing in online competitiveness for economic development and non-profit organizations, has produced an article on the cultural mapping trend in local economic development. In this article, Yfactor argues that municipalities must attract creative workers in order to develop their knowledge-based economy. This argument has been made elsewhere by Dr. Greg Baeker and suggests that by identifying, leveraging and augmenting cultural resources, the authenticity of a place is heightened. This improved "sense of place" is attractive to knowledge-workers and thus develops the economy. Yfactor suggests that "cultural mapping using GIS makes it easy to get a feel for the characteristics of a community around a site under consideration."

To explore the potential of MCP as a key strategy to support rural economic and community revitalization, The Ontario Rural Council (TORC) partnered with the Municipal Cultural Planning Partnership (MCPP) and a number of sponsoring organizations to host a series of three MCP Forum events. These gatherings took place in Brockville (November 17, 2008), Chatham (November 26, 2008) and Minett / Muskoka (March 26, 2009) and attracted a total of 284 participants.

I wrote about each of these events and posted the presentations afterward. You can find them here, here and here.

The TORC Report summarizes “what we heard” during the forum series. It includes participant insights, observations and recommendations that are intended to help inform stakeholders  on the issue of MCP. TORC will be distributing it to a number of provincial ministries and organizations.

Emerging themes include:
1. A policy framework for MCP is needed
2. The necessity of collaboration
3. A consistent definition of cultural assets and community is needed

Key recommendations for action include:
1. Building and sharing the case for culture
2. Supporting the process of MCP
- Policy and funding
- Capacity building and tools
- Engagement

Find the full report here

This post comes from MCPP Partner Kwende Kefentse. Check out Kwende's bio here: http://creativeclass.com/creative_class/author/index.php/kwende-kefentse

Can the digital and geographic world find common ground?  How will the internet be used to further the practice of municipal cultural planning?  Some answers to these questions are beginning to emerge.  New York has begun to pursue ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) for a TLD or a Top Level Domain for its city to not only connect better with the world, but to connect better with itself as well.  A top level domain for New York would mean that all URL's in the city would adopt a .nyc instead of the traditional .com (for example, brooklyn.nyc) In the last meeting there was discussion about 2010 as a watershed year when many existing policies will be up for review.  Municipal TLD's will also begin to become available in 2010.  Learn more about the initiative here: http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/project-home .   But it's not only in the states!  In Quebec they are already well on their way - http://www.pointquebec.org/ 

Though acquiring one is no simple process, and requires a critical mass of resources, both human and financial, is certainly worth a municipality's while to consider it.  There are abundant benefits to be reaped, from economic development to community development, to municipal resource access and on.  Just imagine when people will be able to know at a glance where the resources specific to their cultural group are located within their city.  Or how the mapping and planning discourses will be transformed by a geographically based world wide web.  read more »

Mr. Rick Dykstra, the Member of Parliament for St.
Catharines, and Jim Bradley, MPP for St. Catharines, are pleased to
announce that the City of St. Catharines will soon break ground on a
new Centre for the Arts and Recital Hall, thanks to a joint investment
by the governments of Canada and Ontario.


This project will have a significant economic impact for the
Niagara region and surrounding area. It will help create jobs, attract
skilled workers and generate more visitors to the town.


"Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, our Government is
investing in a complex that will create jobs, revitalize downtown St.
Catharines and promote Niagara's diverse arts community," said Mr.
Dykstra. "A new Centre for the Arts and Recital Hall in our region is a
welcomed venue that will place St. Catharines squarely on the cultural
landscape. This is a concrete example of how we are supporting the arts
and creating opportunity for students and adults alike."


"Under the leadership of Premier Dalton McGuinty, our government
believes that investing in cultural infrastructure is a great way to
create jobs, build stronger communities and forge the creative
workforce of tomorrow," said Mr. Bradley. "The Niagara Centre for the
Arts and the Recital Hall will be a significant cultural attraction in
the Niagara region and the government of Ontario is pleased to be
investing with the city and the government of Canada in this exciting
project."


"The new Centre for the Arts project will provide the necessary
catalyst for a full-scale transformation of Downtown St. Catharines,
which has been identified as an Urban Growth Centre," said St.
Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan. "Building on the support of the
Federal and Provincial governments, Downtown St. Catharines will be
able to position itself as a diverse location for cultural pursuits and
new business investment."
 read more »