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Culture Plan: Next Steps

In order to effectively address the needs of the community and align our resources with the strategic directions identified, further analysis and information is needed.

Many of these next steps are already underway; other assessments and plans will be initiated in the coming months.  Those processes already underway include:

Grant Review

A comprehensive review of the City’s arts and cultural grants, awards and support programs that will result in improved operational processes, minimal adminsitratvie burden on applications and staff, and the development of clear guidelines and performance measures.

Facilities Priority Plan

A roadmap to begin to plan and prioritize ways to work with community and partners to address the gaps, needs, and opportunities for the retention, renovation, restoration, and construction of facilities, spaces and places for the creation, production, exhibition and experience and enjoyment of artistic expression in all its forms.

Public Art Review

A review of the City’s current public art programs – Civic, Private Sector, and Community - to ensure that art in the public realm reflects the finest in contemporary art practices, improved operational processes, minimized administrative burden on artists and staff  and establishes a sustainable funding formula for the future.

Cultural Tourism Strategy

In 2006, in recognition of the economic benefits that can accrue from large scale cultural events, City Council directed staff to develop a coordinated eight month planning process with stakeholders to develop a strategy to maximize the benefits and add value for tourists looking for unique cultural experiences.

Additional analysis and plans to be conducted include:

Economic Partnership Plan

Working in partnership with the Vancouver Economic Development Commission, and coordinated with the Cultural Tourism Strategy, develop a plan to catalyze activities and collaborations between business and the arts,  strategies to ensure Vancouver increases economic potential through the creative sector, and strategies to increase investment and new sources of financial support for the non-profit cultural sector.

Awareness and Participation Plan

A strategy to raise the profile of the sector in the general public, positioning of Vancouver as a creative city undergoing a diverse cultural renaissance.  This plan will identify ways to work with the community to disseminate information and promotion of “What’s On in Vancouver”, support major marketing initiatives associated with collaborative or themed programming, and work in partnership with key stakeholders including the arts and cultural sector, Tourism Vancouver, the Vancouver Economic Development Commission, the Vancouver Board of Trade and others to raise the local, national and international profile and awareness of the arts, culture and creative industries in Vancouver and to ensure access to information about civic and community arts and cultural programs, services and activities.

Neighbourhood Cultural Plans

We will work with the Planning and Social Planning Departments as well as the Parks and Recreation and Vancouver Public Library staff to integrate cultural planning into our community and interdepartmental initiatives such as CityPlans Community Visioning, EcoDensity and Social Development Plans.  We will explore opportunities to integrate cultural planning into neighbourhood-based civic activities, programs and systems, and research best practices in developing the unique cultural identities of city neighbourhoods.  The Neighbourhood Cultural Plan should begin by developing, with the community, culture plans for the Downtown Eastside, Strathcona, Mount Pleasant and Grandview-Woodlands communities where the City’s largest concentration of artists currently live and work.

The Learning City Plan

The Learning City Initiative Coalition, under the leadership of the Vancouver Public Library and the Vancouver School Board, represents more than 35 different member organizations and agencies committed to advancing literacy and lifelong learning. Vancouver, through collaboration and partnership, has developed a lifelong learning strategy, which addresses the learning needs of all citizens from infancy through to later life. This strategy builds on the capacities of individuals, groups and organizations to contribute to the social, economic and environmental health of the City, while addressing barriers and gaps which inhibit learning from occurring.  The Vancouver Public Library will take a lead role in integrating the arts and cultural learning objectives of this plan into the larger Learning City Plan initiative.

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