HomeMy WebLinkAboutArts & Culture - 2015-11-17
ARTS ANDCULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES
NOVEMBER 17, 2015CITY OF KITCHENER
PRESENT:Wayne Addison
Judy Allred
Danielle Deveau
Shirley Madill
D. Morton
Eric Rumble
Dave Schnider
Kristy Smith
Kate Swift
Sam Varteniuk
Linda Zensner
REGRETS:Mark Derro
Shantal Myers
STAFF:Silvia DiDonato, Manager, Arts/Culture
Emily Robson, Coordinator, Arts/Culture
Justin Watkins, Service Improvement Facilitator
Carrie Kozlowski, Recording Secretary
CALL TO ORDER: Kristy Smith, Vice Chair
1.0Acceptance of agenda: Agenda reordered, accepted as amended.
2.0Declaration of conflict of interest: Danielle Deveau re: item 5 (Arts/Culture Strategy), as
Danielle performed the work to be discussed. Danielle to refrain from voting on this item, if
applicable.
PRESENTATIONS
3.0Corporate digital strategy: Justin Watkins
Digital Kitchener: a new initiative to create the City’s first community digital strategy.
Purpose: to seek out opportunities that will use information, technology and digital
resources to improve the way we live our lives.
Have investigated best practices elsewhere (focus on digital literacy, tech hubs,
infrastructure, inclusion, democratic internet access, etc.), but will seek a strategy that is
specific to Kitchener.
Aim to have report to council be June/July 2016. City won’t be the leader on all initiatives.
Facilitator role is appropriate for certain initiatives.
More opportunities to participate and offer input in January 2016.
Things to consider:
How might we use information and technology to become a more innovative city?
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What can we do to increase technology skills and access in Kitchener?
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How can increasing technology skills and access make neighbourhoods stronger and our
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city a great place to live?
How might we create a more digitally evolved city?
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ACAC suggestions:
Focus on mapping: spaces, cultural events, partnerships, transit, road conditionsas a
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means to provide access to instant information.
Use digital tools to promote arts/culture events. Create a tool to suggest activities and
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events nearby to users, so when people leave a restaurant, a menu of nearby
entertainment possibilities (concerts, art exhibitions) is available at their fingertips.
Provide free Wi-Fiacross the city.
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Advocate for expanded availability of Google fibre.
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Provide smartboard-like touch screen technology at Ion stops.
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November 2015-ACAC Minutes
ARTS ANDCULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES
NOVEMBER 17, 2015CITY OF KITCHENER
Develop translation technology for newcomers(i.e. translation of community events
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pages).
Find ways to use technology to disseminate information about arts/culture activities in
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the suburbs.
ACTION: ACAC to send further thoughts and ideas to staff.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
4.0Ontario Culture Strategy:Emily Robson
Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport drafting the first-ever provincial cultural
strategy.Now collecting input to inform the strategy both online and at town hall events
(Region of Waterloo not a site for a town hall).
Via a letter from City Council, Kitchener will provide inputon the strategy, specifically by
sharing information about current City of Kitchener programs, events, and activities that
support culturelocally, andsuggesting items the strategy should address. Staff distributes
the draft letter.
Suggestions provided in the draft letter:
Recognize that local governments are ideally positioned to support deliver and support
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cultural assets.
Fund municipal economic development initiatives that support creative and cultural
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industries.
Support partnership and collaboration between municipalities, arts/culture/creative
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industries, heritage, libraries and professional arts organizations to create resources,
tools, training and knowledge sharing opportunities to strengthen arts and culture.
ACTION: ACAC to send comments to staff.
5.0Kitchener arts/culture strategy—background and summary of consultation: Danielle
Deveau/Emily Robson.
Danielle undertook a summary/synthesis of community consultation relating to arts/culture
that occurred in 2015, and considered how it might inform the development of a Kitchener
arts/culture strategy by grouping the findings into themes.
Danielle was well positioned to undertake this research, as she worked on a local cultural
inventory as part of her studies at University of Waterloo, which involved physically mapping
cultural assets.
Relevant feedback originated from consultation on Centre in the Square’s mandate,
Kitchener’s economic development strategy (Make it Kitchener), JM Drama Registry Theatre
strategic refresh, Kelly Hill Statistical review of arts/culture in the region.
As the feedback received wasn’t collected in the context of the development of a cultural
plan for the city, It is a particularly rich data set.
Feedback arising from Make it Kitchener consultation has a bias toward business
development, Danielle’s findings recognize that. Kitchener is strong in its initiatives to
provide democratic access to the arts, but could strengthen support of the creative
economy.
Staff is now aligning Danielle’s findings with Make it Kitchener economic development
strategy by determining relationships between the themes identified in Danielle’s research
andMake it Kitchener, and considering whether the information is sufficient to inform and
arts/culture strategy.
Now that the synthesis of existing consultation has been completed, this is where we stand
in the context of Kitcheners need for a cultural strategy:
Complete: Background (what do we have, what have we done); Consultation (what do we
want).
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November 2015-ACAC Minutes
ARTS ANDCULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES
NOVEMBER 17, 2015CITY OF KITCHENER
Still to be completed: Analysis (what do we need); action plan (how do we get there);
Recommendations (how do we implement? How do we facilitate?).
Challenge: When considering statistical arts/culture indicators for City of Kitchener alone,
our performance is good.But when we compare the Region with larger urban centres, we do
not comparewell.
Key findings:
City’s role: Comments indicate that the community believes that the City has a role
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(leadership, funding).Desire for City to intervene with property owners to decrease
vacancies andfacilitate arts uses or below-market space. Expectation for City to
promote, leverage and negotiate support and employment in arts Culture. Challenge:
some of the expectations exceed the city’s mandate and ability to act. To address this,
could facilitatestronger collaboration between the City and parties (technology sector,
universities).
Arts hub: Some form of artshubis seen as a need. Could be clustered, near downtown
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core, and could include an arts district, theatre district, and/ormusician district.
Subsidized space or rent controlis desired. Community wonders if there arecity-owned
spaces that could be used for this purpose. Although live/work spacesarebeyond the
mandate of the city, they were a big topic as part of the Make it Kitchener discussion.
Arts incubator:Investment in incubating the arts, not just tech is desired. Extend start-
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up support to the arts. Facilitate a greater link between the technology sector and
cultural sector. Develop an accelerator centre or incubator (like Communitech)for the
creative cultural sector.
Collaboration: search for opportunities for collaboration between artists, municipalities,
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region, post-secondary institutions, and industries. Highlight regional strengths in arts
and culture.
ACAC Comments:
The United Nations have now recognized Culture as the fourth pillar sustainable
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development, along with economy, environment and society.
It’s important to value arts/culture for its own sake as a contributor to quality of life,
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not strictly as an economic driver. Important for the health of our community to support
arts/culture as a recreational pursuit.
INFORMATION ITEMS
6.0City Updates: Silvia DiDonato
Kitchener’s Economic Development Strategy went before Council on November 16. Included
ACAC’s recommendation to support the strategy. Council support was almost unanimous.
7.0Public Art Working Group (PAWG) update: Shirley Madill
No update, Novembermeeting was cancelled.
8.0Downtown Action and Advisory Committee (DAC) update:Linda Zensner
Considered Digital Kitchener strategy.
Received a presentation about development at 8 Queen St. N (Old Goudies store, connected
to THEMUSEUM). Building currently being renovated; completion scheduled for February
2016. Over30thousand sq ft. Some tenants already lined up. Space for retail and a two-
level bar. Developers see this as an opportunity to meet the need for suitable space for
startups to settle following ‘incubation’ phase at Communitech Hub.
9.0Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) update: Shantal Myers
No update in Shantal’s absence.
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November 2015-ACAC Minutes
ARTS ANDCULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ACAC) MINUTES
NOVEMBER 17, 2015CITY OF KITCHENER
10.0Council Report:Dave Schnider
Council received a report from Creative Enterprise Initiative (CEI)regarding its new
mandate. Staff distributes a report summaryto the committee.
In the report, two strategic priorities have been identified for CEI:
1.Help residents of Waterloo Region find incredible things to do in tour community that are
engaging and entertaining and
2.Facilitate creative projects that tie the Region together with innovative programming
that promotes collaboration across our sectors and encourages interaction amongour
residents.
On December 7, Council to consider 2016 funding forCEI(historically, CEI has been allocated
$46,000 for operations, $44,000 to support small and emerging arts groups).But options
exist, including deferringdistribution of the operating funds, and/or allocating the$44,000
for emerging arts groups into the city’s tier two grant process.
(Councillor Schneider leaves meeting)
Question: what does ACAC think of the two strategic directions as identified by CEI?
ACAC comments:
Strategies are vague.
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An implementation plan specifically identifying action items is needed.
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CEI has successfully delivered worthwhile workshops on topics of interest to artists and
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arts groups, but this activity is not represented in the suggested strategies.
Strategies fail to recognize the region’s existing strengths.
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Regarding strategy 1, who will ‘curate’ the content? Will a trained curator be hired?This
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may be an overstatement. Could be a data-manager. Will Grand Social be the delivery
vehicle? It requires refinement to present information in a consistent, meaningful way
useful for users. Needs more tools and stronger partnerships. Grand Social did not allow
for collaboration, information was not accessible. ACAC validates that the need for a
digital repository of events/activities is valid and a good activity to engage in. However,
strategic approach doesn’t seem to harness the latest technology: ‘delivered to
subscribers inboxes’ seems old-school. Postering the digital world via social media is a
baseline activity. CEI could consider an actual tangible publication (like Now Magazine in
Toronto) to get the word out about events in the region. Whatever tool is used it must
be accessible.
Regarding strategy 2, other organizations are fulfilling this role to undertake digital
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creation.
Overall, ACAC noted that CEI’s first strategy strongly resonated with the committee.
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ACTION: ACAC members to provide comments by November 23, 4pm, to inform a staff report that
Council will consider when determining CEI funding on December 7.
11.0Members’ updates
Registry Theatre: Thanks to THEMUSEUM for the loan of the projector.
Charlotte’s Web will run from December 3-6, with shows at 2pm and 6pm.
ADJOURNMENT: The chair adjourned themeeting at 5:50 p.m.
December meeting cancelled.
NEXT MEETING:January 19, 2016, 4:00 p.m., Conestoga Room, ground floor, Kitchener city hall
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November 2015-ACAC Minutes