NORTH BAY COMMUNITY FORUM RESULTS
The North Bay Cultural Plan Community Forum took place on March 3, 2011 in Council Chambers at City Hall between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. The event attracted approximately 50 enthusiastic participants who had a lot to say about Culture in North Bay!
The purpose of the discussion at the Forum was to help shape a broad vision and set of guiding principles and directions for the Cultural Plan. No report can do justice to the rich conversation that occurred at the event. This report is intended to summarize some of the consistent or recurring themes emerging from break-out discussion groups. Each group was asked to discuss the following three questions.
Identify 5 keywords that should be reflected in the Cultural Plan vision
- What should be the guiding principles for the Plan – here it’s useful to think in terms of ‘We value’ statements
- What should be the priorities for the Plan? What are 5 ‘big ideas’ or strategies that would advance the vision and principles?
Discussion and Findings:
Question 1: Identify 5 keywords that should be reflected in the Cultural Plan vision.
The following were the most frequently cited words.
- Community
- Economy
- Heritage
- Diversity (and inclusion)
- Creativity
- Participation (and access)
- Vitality
- Expression
- Collaboration
Questions 2: What should be the guiding principles for the Plan – here it’s useful to think in terms of ‘We value’ statements
With this question, there was a good deal of repetition of some of the keywords identified in Question 1. Among the most frequently cited:
- We value diversity, inclusion and acceptance
- We value the creativity of individuals and the community-at-large
- We value our environment and natural beauty
- We value access and participation in cultural life
- We value community and belonging
- We value a vibrant and sustainable culture
- We value the arts and heritage
- We value children and youth involvement
Question 3: What should be the priorities for the Plan? What are 5 ‘big ideas’ or strategies that would advance the vision and principles?
Here rather than choose, all top ‘big ideas’ from all groups have been included. Additional ideas for each group are found in the Appendix
- Year round cultural market (i.e. St. Jacobs)
- Cultural Council
- Communications Strategy
- Realize and commit to the nation that the most vibrant arts/cultural community in Canada is North Bay (7 dots)
- Make art and sport equally important to all Northern Ontarians (7 dots)
- Promote creative opportunities to our children and teach them to get along/work together (4 dots)
- National Standards (4 dots)
- New festival vision that incorporates heritage, arts and culture
- Year round Farmers’ Market
- Full-time, passionate community liaison for implementation of the Cultural Plan by city, grants and volunteers
- New festival linking arts, heritage and culture
- Year-round farmers market
- Full time City staff person devoted to culture (x 3)
- Communications portal (and promotion)
- Stronger profile and role for CBACH
- Stronger marketing and promotion
- Integrate culture in all municipal planning
- A greater variety of festivals
- North Bay as the most vibrant arts/culture community in Canada
- Make arts and sports equally important to all Northern Ontarians
- Promote creativity
- Hire, arts & culture admin
- Communication portal (events in city, promote cultural industry)
- Spokesperson/group for CBACH - arts/heritage/culture
- Advance viability of CBACH
- Market what we have – cooperative marketing of cultural industries
- Integrate into all aspects of municipal governance and commitment to public art (public & private)
- Variety of festivals to bring people together
Click here for a detailed summary of the responses from the forum. North Bay Community Forum- Detailed Notes
The City gratefully acknowledges the Ministry of Culture for their financial support.
