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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSD-06-092 - Cultural Capitals of Canada ) R Community Services Report To: Date of Meeting: Submitted By: Prepared By: Ward(s) Involved: Date of Report: Report No.: Subject: Community Services Committee September 5, 2006 Cheryl York, Arts/Culture Co-ordinator, Community Services Cheryl York, Arts/Culture Co-ordinator Ext 3381 All August 23, 2006 CSD-06-092 Cultural Capitals of Canada RECOMMENDATION: That the submission of a City of Kitchener application to the Department of Canadian Heritage for its 2009 Cultural Capitals of Canada designation program be endorsed; and That commitment of the City's 250k share of the proposed 2009 program budget, to a maximum of $667,000 in new funds, be approval in principle, and referred to the 2007 Capital Budget process, subject to final confirmation prior to January 13, 2007, as required by the Department of Canadian Heritage. 1.0 BACKGROUND: Council was first presented with the concept of Kitchener making an application to the Cultural Capitals of Canada program in March 2006 (CSD-06-038) as one of three focus projects in the 3-year Culture Plan II implementation strategy. A successful application to the Canadian Heritage designation and funding program would enable significant development of community identity through arts and culture, cultural tourism strategies and collaborative partnerships. On June 19, 2006, Council approved further work on the preparation of a detailed application to the Cultural Capitals of Canada program (CSD-06-079), with direction to bring a subsequent report forward for Council's consideration. This report, CSD-06-092, details the results of the work carried out by the Cultural Capitals of Canada application steering committee since June. Since 2002, the Department of Canadian Heritage has presented the Cultural Capitals of Canada program, designed to promote arts and culture in Canadian municipalities through recognition of excellence and support for special celebratory cultural activities. The designation includes the naming of the municipality as a "cultural capital" and the provision of funding towards a designation-year program of events. Up to two million dollars may be available to assist the winning municipality. The amount of the financial award depends on the program budget developed by the municipality. The application deadline for the 2009 awards is October 15, 2006. A steering committee was struck in January 2006 to develop the material for a Kitchener application. The project steering committee has met on a regular basis since then. Members include Allan MacKay, Alf Bogusky, Rex Lingwood, Roger Farwell, Robert Achtemichuk, Martin DeGroot, Rick Haldenby, Cheryl Ewing, Dan Donaldson, Jamie Grant, Majdi Bou Matar, and Special Events, Communications and Culture staff. 2.0 REPORT: 2.1 Deoartment of Canadian Heritaae Proaram Obiectives To promote the arts and culture in Canadian municipalities through recognition of excellence and support for special activities celebrating the arts and culture and the integration of them into overall community planning. Designation as a Cultural Capital of Canada enables the community to invest in arts and culture, and increase and improve cultural services. 2.2 Kitchener Aoolication Obiectives Kitchener's objectives in applying for this funding opportunity are to celebrate, expand and publicize our community's culture, to strengthen its arts and culture infrastructure through alliance-building and marketing strategies, and to create cultural legacies. 2.3 Consultation and Community Suooort As noted in the June report, tasks to be completed in the preparation process included broad community consultation, research, and the development of program concepts, budgets and work plans. The City contracted the Waterloo Regional Arts Council to carry out extensive community consultations to enable budget and program development (See Appendix "A" for list of co ntacts ) . Consultation included inviting detailed project descriptions from several key organizations to build the foundation of the 2009 program. In response, a wealth of arts and culture events have been proposed. The business and the arts communities have welcomed the news of this application process and given overwhelming support to the steering committee's efforts. The Prosperity Council has communicated, through this consultation process, the need for elevating Kitchener's profile internationally in order to attract a labour market that thrives on arts and culture activities being available in the community. Economic development benefits of arts and culture activity can be realized in Kitchener through a high profile project like the Cultural Capitals of Canada designation. The KDBA has also expressed strong support for Kitchener's application. A 2009 marketing campaign would place Kitchener in the forefront of national cultural news coverage and establish a foundation for future years' cultural tourism planning and implementation. The private sector will be invited to participate in this year of high-profile events. 2.4 Theme~ and Samole of Prooosed 2009 Desianation Year Proiects At the steering committee meeting held August 11 , 2006, the previous broad theme of "celebrating Kitchener's tradition of innovation and exploration", cited in CSD-06-079, was refined to the phrase: "GRAND ASSEMBLY". The words evoke Kitchener traditions of community/social assembly, creative assembly, industrial assembly and new technoloay assembly, all within the context of the Grand River watershed. The act of assembly is made possible through sharing and collaboration, two key characteristics of our community today and the bedrock of our heritage. A sample of the proposals received to date include: - Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound's commissioning of a "sound installation" to be permanently installed in a downtown location during their 2009 festival - Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area's (CAFKA) expanded biennial program with an international scope and the development of a 'virtual exhibition' featuring new works created especially for the world wide web - The Multicultural Theatre Space (MT Space) in collaboration with Theatre and Company, will produce the "International Multicultural Platform for Alternative Contemporary Theatre" (IMPACT). The week-long festival will bring national and international contemporary theatre works that are not language dependent to Kitchener. - The University of Waterloo School of Architecture, through collaborations between graduate students and local arts organizations such as the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, will produce "Architecture Town" to celebrate the influence of design on life in our region. - Tapestry Multicultural Arts Network (TMAN), an expansion of the Tapestry Festival, will reach new audiences, expand influence in the community, assist cultural tourism initiatives and empower multicultural community groups to showcase a multitude of artistic forms. - Kitchener Waterloo Opera (KW Opera)'s new production "Tyendinaga" in English and Mohawk will premiere in 2009 after four years in development. The new opera is based on the life of the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant who sold land along the Grand River to German Town settlers. -Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery (KWAG) will present a new program: 'Artists/Architects Project', to develop working partnerships between architects and artists that result in the creation of temporary sculptures and art installations. In addition, a new work would be commissioned through the 'KW AG Acquisition Program: Partnership with private and public venues'. -Waterloo Regional Arts Council's Artist-in-Residence Project (WRAC A.I.R) In response to Culture Plan II recommendation #16 regarding the integration of arts and culture programming in non-traditional settings, and as an expansion of its 2006 project, WRAC will link artists from all arts disciplines with host organizations including the business sector and neighbourhood organizations. - Waterloo Regional Arts Council Documentation Project Again, in response to a Culture Plan II recommendation, WRAC will develop a range of strategies to enable the effective documentation of arts and culture events, activities and achievements in our region. Focusing first on the documentation of the preparations and delivery of the 2009 program year events, the project will continue beyond 2009 to provide training for community groups in documentation techniques. - Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (CCGG) - Autumn 2009 Celebratory Event From September 2009 to early January 201 0, CCGG will present an expanded exhibition program. "Shattered" and "Stochastic" will feature ceramics and glass art works that speak to two distinct themes, created by 35 to 40 national and international artists. -Industrial Artifacts Symposium Since 1996, the Industrial Artifacts Program has been placing discarded, historic industrial machinery in the public realm. A symposium is proposed to engage many people in dialogue on industrial culture, to explore the role the community plays in preserving and re-interpreting its heritage, and to present Kitchener's Industrial Artifacts Program to national and international audiences. - Other Proposals Preliminary proposals and expressions of interest have been received from: Waterloo Regional Children's Museum: "Engineers On Board"; Neruda Production's "Cabaret Cafe"; Beckett School of Music's "Music Plus"; Digital Media Working Group; University of Waterloo's School of Drama; Grand River Conservation Authority; Grand Philharmonic Choir; New Quarterly "Literary Festival"; Festival of Neighbourhoods; Lost and Found Theatre; Joseph Schneider House, Doon Heritage Crossroads, Victoria Park Historical Gallery, and Oktoberfest. To accommodate grass-roots proposals as they develop through 2007, a portion of the overall project budget will be reserved for this specific purpose. 2.6 Aoolication Preoaration Process and Timeline A workshop will be held during the week of September 4, 2006 to assist organizations to refine their proposals. Finance and Community Services staff will provide information and guidance. The Cultural Capitals Steering Committee at its meeting on August 30, 2006 recommended community representatives to form an ad hoc selection committee. Meeting during the week of September 18, 2006, the selection committee will review all proposals and select the ones that will be included in the application. The formal application will be prepared between September 25 and October 6, and submitted to the Department of Canadian Heritage during the week of October 9. Further Council motion to ratify this Council's support for the application and funding commitment will be sought from the newly-elected Council on January 8, 2007. This ratification motion is required by the Department of Canadian Heritage before January 13, 2007. 2.7 Administration of the Desianation Year The City of Kitchener will contract project management staff as needed to manage the pre- planning of the events calendar, the organizing of opening and closing events, comprehensive marketing campaign, and the administration and audit of funds. 2.8 Kitchener as the lead municioalitv Informal discussions with the region's municipalities indicated support in principle for the Kitchener application. Other municipalities will have opportunities over the next 2 - 3 years to contribute tangible support to the 2009 program through their own funding mechanisms to organizations and events based in their jurisdictions. 3.0 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: The winning municipality in the over 125,000 population range will enter an agreement with the Department of Canadian Heritage to receive an award of up to 2 million dollars. The award amount is based on the proposed program budget for 2009 on a 75/25 cost-sharing basis (2 million/$667,000). Thus the potential available amount of funding for programming totals 2.6 million dollars from the municipal and federal governments. Additional funding from other municipalities, granting agencies and the private sector may service a total project budget of $4 million. The Department of Canadian Heritage, when informed that this is an election year in Ontario municipalities, advised that Council could endorse the application in principle by the October 15, 2006 deadline. However, a letter of explanation must accompany the application and, by January 13, 2007 a resolution, passed by the new Council to commit a specific funding amount, is required. It should be noted that the timing of the final commitment to the funding of this project is prior to the Finance and Corporate Services Committee discussion of the 2007 - 2016 10-year capital forecast on January 15, 2007. However, prior to that date, Council members will have already received a copy of the draft capital forecast and had an opportunity to see the impact of its inclusion on the timing of other projects in the forecast period. 4.0 COMMUNICATIONS: As noted above, the subject of a Kitchener application has been discussed in several community forums, including the City's Culture Plan II Teams, Arts and Culture Advisory Committee and Public Art Working Group. Senior staff has reviewed the development of the project and related reports. Cheryl York, Arts/Culture Co-ordinator AP APPENDIX" A" Waterloo Regional Arts Council Cultural Capitals of Canada Community Consultation Progress Report, August 11, 2006 Activity Report As eee arts community consultants, we assisted in the creation and distribution of the eee questionnaire to members of the ad hoc group. Project ideas were submitted via questionnaires by the following organizations: CAFKA MT Space/Theatre & Co Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery Open Ears University of Waterloo School of Architecture KWAG Tapestry Waterloo Regional Arts Council A CCC one-pager was sent to a larger group of arts organizations and meetings were held with the following groups to solicit further input: Alliance for a Grand Community (CCC ad hoc members are part of Alliance) Visual Arts Alliance (CCC ad hoc members are part of Alliance) Centre in the Square (Jaime Grant is also part of CCC ad hoc group) eyeGo to the Arts - (Cheryl Ewing is part of CCC ad hoc group) Grand Philharmonic Choir Cambridge Galleries Lost and Found New Quarterly Homer Watson Cambridge Centre for the Arts Waterloo Community Arts Centre Joseph Schneider Haus Doon Heritage Crossroads Grand River Conservation Authority KW Arts Awards Festival of Neighbourhoods City of Kitchener Arts & Cultural Advisory Committee K-W Oktoberfest Waterloo Regional Childrens Museum (held this morning, verbal report) Prosperity Council - Roger Farwell (held this morning, verbal report) Perimeter - email communique-Michael Duchennesdoesn'twish to formally submit a proposal. Notes there may be Einsteinfest in 2009. Meetings set for next week and pending: Nicholas Rees/lndustrial Artifacts Project Sunshine Chen; Isabel Cisterna/Neruda/Cafe Cabaret Digital Media Cluster Group: FilmKW, CCAT, Canada's Technology Triangle, Communitech, Grand Exposeition; Six Nations - Paula Whitlow Virgina Eichhorn - to discuss aboriginal element Grand River Transit Bill Lebron - MusicPlus The Record - Fred Kuntz Blues, Brews, Barbeques - Dan Graham Waterloo-Wellington Museum & Gallery Networking GRCA Board of Directors