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Community, culture and Collingwood's future
30 January 2011
There's an old joke that goes, "What's the difference between (insert a city name here) and a cup of yogurt?" The answer is, of course, that a cup of yogurt has culture. I first heard this with Calgary as the city, back when I lived in Banff. Not very flattering, of course.
Collingwood, on the other hand, has oodles of culture. We have art, music, theatre, film, events, musicians, actors, artists, craftspeople, writers... we just don't have much of a coherent program to implement any policy or strategy for culture, overall.
It's not from lack of trying. We have an Arts & Culture Advisory Committee, we have a staff person whose focus is culture. We have a Strategic Plan that lists as one of its primary goals:
Further establish arts and culture as integral to the community:
So we have the policy framework laid out and agreed upon, but where are we now, in terms of our cultural community?
Not much further, if any, than the grand gestures and visionary statements made in the Strategic Plan and Sustainable Community Plan. Mostly it's been fulsome verbal support with neither the resources nor money to back the fine words.
Do we have a comprehensive plan to support and grow cultural events? I'd suggest we have ad hoc, sporadic and entrepreneurial approaches to culture and events, but no real strategy. Most major events plan at least a year in advance, often longer, to book space and acts.
Aside from Elvis, we plan budget-to-budget, often giving organizers a few months to try and accomplish their goals - if, that is, they get funding. To build and maintain a credible, cultural tourist attraction, we need to plan for events and activities two, three, five years down the road, and ensure they have long-term support and funding, not need to re-apply year-by-year.
Collingwood used to be a blue-collar, industrial town. That changed when the shipyards closed in 1985, and we've been losing industries ever since. We have fitfully remade ourselves into a tourist-hospitality-event-driven town, not as the result of any direct policy or strategy, but rather we fell into it by necessity. And as such, we haven't really put our collective hearts into the transformation. Nor have we backed up our ideas with the requisite funding.
We need - not merely want - more visitors to the region to help bolster our economy. To achieve that, we need to be able to offer them something they can't get elsewhere. Festivals, theatrical events, concerts, heritage, art exhibits and expositions all help create that sort of attraction.
We need to have a well-established and sufficiently planned and funded program to develop and support cultural tourism with long term goals, to identify and brand our community as special, different, exciting, appealling and fun.*
We have many recreational opportunities here, both active and passive. But they are not sufficient to draw more people to the area. We also have a greying population, much of which comes from the urban Toronto area, which expects a higher level of cultural opportunities than we currently have to offer.We have the competency and the resources. We just need the political will to invest in them. We also need to rethink our bureaucratic hierarchy and determine if culture is best ordered as a minor subset of our parks and recreation department, or if it should have greater prominence in that or another department. I have no immediate answer - I'm not questioning anyone's role or ability. I simply would like an open debate on culture and where it fits within our municipality.**
Culture isn't merely a sideshow or sinkhole for taxpayers' money. Study after study has shown cultural activities and industries create jobs, improve regional economies, and encourage collateral, supporting industries to thrive. One government report notes,
Cultural activities and events have positive spinoffs into the hospitality and retail sectors, too. Studies show people travelling for cultural tourism tend to stay longer and spend more money in the area where they visit (see here for one study).***
Cultural tourism should be coordinated across all activities, events and interests, not simply done individually. As this report notes about Ontario's cultural tourism,
Perhaps what we need to consider is taking culture away from sports and recreation, and instead linking it with tourism. Or even creating a new department where both are overseen cooperatively (perhaps in partnership with the existing Georgian Triangle Tourist Association). It would have to be closely connected with the BIA, as well, because most of the events and activities will take place within the downtown. We need the BIA to buy in and collaborate to create the cultural destination package.
Whatever we do, we need to do it soon, and with commitment to action and resources, not just words. Collingwood's future lies in its ability to attract visitors on a regular and consistent basis, not in its dwindling industrial base.
~~~~~
* A small example: since its move to the new building, the Collingwood Library has seen visits and attendance more than double. I was told more people use the library than use every other recreational or community facility, combined.
** In a similar vein, the Province has a ministry for Tourism and Culture and another for Health Promotion and Sport. Culture is not subservient to sport and recreation, provincially, but shares the limelight with tourism, which makes sense to me. The ministry's mandate is, in part, to support "...delivery of high quality tourism and recreation experiences to Ontarians and visitors to Ontario. Promoting a sustainable, customer-focused tourism industry and an active population helps improve our quality of life, increase pride in our communities, and increase economic growth."
***Also see this article about the "creative city" concept. Cultural renaissance can also lead to a revitalization in heritage, as this article points out. Festivals and events act not only as tourist draws, but as forums where the community itself can interact, engage and renew itself.
Collingwood, on the other hand, has oodles of culture. We have art, music, theatre, film, events, musicians, actors, artists, craftspeople, writers... we just don't have much of a coherent program to implement any policy or strategy for culture, overall.
It's not from lack of trying. We have an Arts & Culture Advisory Committee, we have a staff person whose focus is culture. We have a Strategic Plan that lists as one of its primary goals:
Further establish arts and culture as integral to the community:
- Develop a comprehensive, integrated arts and culture strategy—including the potential for a Performing Arts Centre for the Town;
- Embrace policies to support local artisans and creative cultural tourism;
- Demonstrate municipal support and undertake capacity-building initiatives for arts and culture.
Quote
The Town of Collingwood is dedicated to enhancing Arts and Culture as an integral part of our community.
Vision for Arts and Culture in the Town of Collingwood
A vibrant, dynamic arts and culture community, as established in the Sustainable Community Plan, is essential to the growth and overall good health of the Town of Collingwood supports and encourages arts and culture through policy development, research, advocacy, education and financial support. The goal is to help individuals, groups and organizations realize their full creative, social and economic potential to the greater benefit to all citizens.
Collingwood’s Vision includes:
Vision for Arts and Culture in the Town of Collingwood
A vibrant, dynamic arts and culture community, as established in the Sustainable Community Plan, is essential to the growth and overall good health of the Town of Collingwood supports and encourages arts and culture through policy development, research, advocacy, education and financial support. The goal is to help individuals, groups and organizations realize their full creative, social and economic potential to the greater benefit to all citizens.
Collingwood’s Vision includes:
- Downtown Collingwood as a vital arts and cultural core, a source of pride for the residents and a recognized arts and culture destination;
- Opportunities and access to arts and culture as the right of every person;
- Recognition of the value creativity and imagination as necessary to a vibrant, developing community; supporting the development of the human imagination through arts, culture and education;
- Arts and cultural festivals and events throughout the year to enrich and enhance our downtown, neighbourhoods, parks, public spaces and places of work and as a valuable economic engine for our community;
- Communication networks that link artists and artisans, arts groups and organizations to one another and to the community at large; an infrastructure that includes databases, resources for education and funding, media and promotions;
- Our evolving identity as a sense of place, heritage, innovation, diversity and inclusiveness, celebrated and explored through the arts;
- Long–term investment and collaborative planning (including capital partnerships with the Town, organizations and groups) that sustain Collingwood’s cultural health and the strength of its vital cultural organizations; where support for our arts community promotes Collingwood as a significant arts destination sustaining artists and cultural institutions into the future.
So we have the policy framework laid out and agreed upon, but where are we now, in terms of our cultural community?
Not much further, if any, than the grand gestures and visionary statements made in the Strategic Plan and Sustainable Community Plan. Mostly it's been fulsome verbal support with neither the resources nor money to back the fine words.
Do we have a comprehensive plan to support and grow cultural events? I'd suggest we have ad hoc, sporadic and entrepreneurial approaches to culture and events, but no real strategy. Most major events plan at least a year in advance, often longer, to book space and acts.
Aside from Elvis, we plan budget-to-budget, often giving organizers a few months to try and accomplish their goals - if, that is, they get funding. To build and maintain a credible, cultural tourist attraction, we need to plan for events and activities two, three, five years down the road, and ensure they have long-term support and funding, not need to re-apply year-by-year.
Collingwood used to be a blue-collar, industrial town. That changed when the shipyards closed in 1985, and we've been losing industries ever since. We have fitfully remade ourselves into a tourist-hospitality-event-driven town, not as the result of any direct policy or strategy, but rather we fell into it by necessity. And as such, we haven't really put our collective hearts into the transformation. Nor have we backed up our ideas with the requisite funding.
We need - not merely want - more visitors to the region to help bolster our economy. To achieve that, we need to be able to offer them something they can't get elsewhere. Festivals, theatrical events, concerts, heritage, art exhibits and expositions all help create that sort of attraction.
We need to have a well-established and sufficiently planned and funded program to develop and support cultural tourism with long term goals, to identify and brand our community as special, different, exciting, appealling and fun.*
We have many recreational opportunities here, both active and passive. But they are not sufficient to draw more people to the area. We also have a greying population, much of which comes from the urban Toronto area, which expects a higher level of cultural opportunities than we currently have to offer.We have the competency and the resources. We just need the political will to invest in them. We also need to rethink our bureaucratic hierarchy and determine if culture is best ordered as a minor subset of our parks and recreation department, or if it should have greater prominence in that or another department. I have no immediate answer - I'm not questioning anyone's role or ability. I simply would like an open debate on culture and where it fits within our municipality.**
Culture isn't merely a sideshow or sinkhole for taxpayers' money. Study after study has shown cultural activities and industries create jobs, improve regional economies, and encourage collateral, supporting industries to thrive. One government report notes,
Quote
Cumulatively, Ontario is a cultural force with much employment in and output from culture industries. Firms within each culture industry in Ontario form clusters and also cross-pollinate, generating employment and industrial growth in other culture and non-culture industries. Keeping these industries humming are the many consumers in Canada’s most populous province who buy or use culture products and services.
Cultural activities and events have positive spinoffs into the hospitality and retail sectors, too. Studies show people travelling for cultural tourism tend to stay longer and spend more money in the area where they visit (see here for one study).***
Cultural tourism should be coordinated across all activities, events and interests, not simply done individually. As this report notes about Ontario's cultural tourism,
Quote
There are few examples of promoting and packaging cultural products across the cultural tourism typology. For example, cultural tourism packaging tends to occur within each sector - institutions tend to package together (a museum package of four museums) rather than with lifestyle/heritage attractions or events. Packaging across the typology would create a more attractive cultural tourism destination for the larger market of tourists motivated greatly, and in part, to participate in cultural activities.
The most effective approach is to create a popular destination by packaging cultural tourism products with other, non-cultural tourism products... tourists who participate in cultural activities with the average tourist indicates that those interested in culture possess characteristics sought after by the tourism sector as a whole.
The most effective approach is to create a popular destination by packaging cultural tourism products with other, non-cultural tourism products... tourists who participate in cultural activities with the average tourist indicates that those interested in culture possess characteristics sought after by the tourism sector as a whole.
Perhaps what we need to consider is taking culture away from sports and recreation, and instead linking it with tourism. Or even creating a new department where both are overseen cooperatively (perhaps in partnership with the existing Georgian Triangle Tourist Association). It would have to be closely connected with the BIA, as well, because most of the events and activities will take place within the downtown. We need the BIA to buy in and collaborate to create the cultural destination package.
Whatever we do, we need to do it soon, and with commitment to action and resources, not just words. Collingwood's future lies in its ability to attract visitors on a regular and consistent basis, not in its dwindling industrial base.
~~~~~
* A small example: since its move to the new building, the Collingwood Library has seen visits and attendance more than double. I was told more people use the library than use every other recreational or community facility, combined.
** In a similar vein, the Province has a ministry for Tourism and Culture and another for Health Promotion and Sport. Culture is not subservient to sport and recreation, provincially, but shares the limelight with tourism, which makes sense to me. The ministry's mandate is, in part, to support "...delivery of high quality tourism and recreation experiences to Ontarians and visitors to Ontario. Promoting a sustainable, customer-focused tourism industry and an active population helps improve our quality of life, increase pride in our communities, and increase economic growth."
***Also see this article about the "creative city" concept. Cultural renaissance can also lead to a revitalization in heritage, as this article points out. Festivals and events act not only as tourist draws, but as forums where the community itself can interact, engage and renew itself.
