›› Nichola Reddington
Victoria is home to an incredible mix of artists, designers, performers, entrepreneurs and innovators who contribute to a vibrant arts and culture scene.
The City of Victoria is developing Create Victoria, a five-year Arts and Culture Master Plan designed to nurture conditions for this creativity to flourish. The plan will align ideas, people, and resources around a shared vision and a set of goals, strategies and tactics to realize Victoria’s full potential.
Introduced last month during Thinklandia, the City invites you to “Make Your Mark” by providing input to inform the Create Victoria plan, on how we can build on our strengths to become a world-class hub for creativity, innovation and artistic excellence.
The City is seeking input on what types of arts and culture citizens currently participate in, and what should the City make a priority for cultural investment over the next five years. The public is invited to drop by the Create Victoria pop-up booth at events around town this fall to learn more about the arts and culture plan, meet staff, ask questions, and contribute ideas to the Creative City wall.
Since 2010, more than 250 City-owned and community-run arts and culture resources have been mapped. To ensure Victoria’s arts and culture scene is accurately represented moving forward, and to help the City identify opportunities and gaps, the community is invited to add venues, organizations, businesses and public art to the City’s online “culture map” at artsvictoria.ca/create.
In January, the City will launch a range of engagement opportunities such as community workshops and presentations, focus groups, one-on-one interviews and an online survey to provide citizens with opportunities to make their mark, have their say, and help shape our creative city.
Public input will inform the development of a Cultural Policy and the City’s Arts and Culture Master Plan to create a comprehensive, strategic framework to guide and set direction for future decision making. The public will have opportunities to provide feedback on the draft plan in early 2017.
