By Cecilia Nasmith
Cobourg council got a look at the town's new Cultural Master Plan at this week's committee-of-the-whole council meeting.
Lauren Millier represented MDB Insight in making the presentation, saying her firm had done more than 50 cultural master plans previous to Cobourg's.
Such a plan is a process of identifying and leveraging cultural resources, strengthening their management and integrating those resources across all facets of decision making, Millier listed.
This includes community cultural organizations, cultural enterprises that create and produce art, cultural and heritage programming, cultural spaces and facilities that host such programming and activities, cultural- and natural-heritage sites and resources, and festivals and events that showcase local talent and animate public spaces.
The numbers were amazing – 424 cultural assets (across a broad range of categories), major cultural activities in the downtown, 40 cultural organizations (mainly focusing on music and visual arts), 270 cultural organizations and enterprises (including individual artists), 49 cultural-heritage assets (mostly heritage properties) and 760 buildings on the town's heritage registry.
During the process, Millier added, “we engaged with well in excess of 500 individuals from a wide range of demographics.”
Consultation opportunities began more than a year ago and included telephone and on-line surveys, stakeholder interviews and focus groups. Millier is confident that the recommendations that emerged reflect what they heard from the community at large.
These include a number of governance recommendations that include establishing a Cultural Advisory Committee and holding an annual cultural summit.
Six strategic directions are also set out – embracing and communicating a shared vision of culture across the town, improving communications and collaboration within the cultural sector, promoting the town's rich history and heritage, growing culture-led economic-development programs, strengthening tourism products by leveraging unique cultural assets, and increasing communication and engagement among youth and volunteers.
“I didn't know there were so many arts-and-culture places and organizations in Cobourg,” Councillor Adam Bureau said.
“That is one of the reasons why I think this plan is good. It's going to bring them together so we can promote each and every one of them as a team instead of in silos.”
