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A year of laying a foundation for culture

Whistler’s run as a Cultural Capital of Canada comes to an end in March; what has the $500,000 arts, culture and heritage program accomplished?
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Pique readers have probably noticed a little black and white icon that, up until Dec. 31 had run on the front page of the paper for the past year, and many have probably wondered what it stands for.

The symbol denotes the community's designation as a Cultural Capital of Canada, a title that was bestowed on us by the federal government's Department of Canadian Heritage in late 2008.

As part of the honourary title for 2009, the community received $500,000 in funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage to support a range of local arts, culture and heritage projects within the community. That money was augmented by an additional $166,667 in funding from other sources, including the Resort Municipality of Whistler. That added up to a whole lot of dough for the arts, culture and heritage groups that were selected to take part in Cultural Capital programming.

John McCormick is a consultant for the Resort Municipality of Whistler, the central organization that has worked on developing Whistler's participation in the Cultural Capital program. He has been managing the program since its inception in 2006 with the "Celebration 2020: a natural step towards cultural sustainability" plan, through to the projected completion date this summer.

"It's been very successful," McCormick said. "It's been great to work with the federal government on this; they've been excellent partners."

The budget from May 2009 shows a range of organizations scheduled to receive funding, including the Whistler Arts Council, Whistler Museum, MY Millennium Place, Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre, Crankworx, Vicious Circle writers group and the Whistler Film Festival Society. While some of the money went towards augmenting existing projects, like the museum's heritage walks and WAC's annual ArtWalk, an original theatre production was also created with the seed money. As well, the funds allowed Crankworx organizers to add another artistic component to their event with the Art Meets Technology visual arts project.

"I'm happy with it because the projects or the programs that were involved are happy," McCormick said.

Even with the increased funding from Cultural Capitals, the Vicious Circle has decided to cancel next fall's Whistler Readers and Writers Festival, deciding instead to focus on holding workshops throughout the year.

"When you plant seeds, some catch hold and some don't," McCormick said.

Though Whistler's run as one of the 2009 Cultural Capitals wraps up at the end of March, McCormick and other stakeholders are still in the midst of executing a few projects.

They are still developing the original commissioned theatre piece, SNOW: A Whistler Musical, and organizing the arts and culture component of the parade for the Paralympic closing ceremonies.

Last but not least, there is still work to be done on the Whistler Arts Culture and Heritage plan, which will provide a "roadmap" to the artistic community leading up to 2020. The roadmap is taking shape with $60,000 of Cultural Capital funding devoted to this "key initiative."

"Really, I think the overarching reason why we applied for funding through Cultural Capitals was because we saw this as a great opportunity for us to continue to develop partnerships and develop a more cohesive arts, culture and heritage community," McCormick said.

The 10-year plan has been in the works for a while; the PERC report commissioned last year to examine the relationship with MY Millennium Place and the Whistler Arts Council was part of this project. Members from the arts, culture and heritage sector joined the task force to spearhead the initiative.

The completed plan is expected to make a number of recommendations that will "empower" the arts, culture and heritage sector to move forward.

"It's the thing that might resonate most of all, ultimately," McCormick said. "It's a big legacy."

The plan was left for last because up until now, the other Cultural Capitals projects were more urgent, and with the Olympics coming up the focus has been on the immediate, rather than the long-term, future.

"Certainly the Games don't allow us to sit around in a room and do the heavy lifting that's going to be required to create the kind of the roadmap that we want to have coming out of this project," McCormick said.

 

The federal government has granted Whistler an extension, so even though we're not meeting the Cultural Capital program deadline Whistler hasn't lost the $60,000 in funding to create a long-term plan. Most of the remaining work will be done after March, with the plan expected to be complete by early summer.

"The intention is to get the right work done rather than just meeting a deadline, and these plans are ongoing plans," McCormick said.

The designation resulted in a large influx of funding into the arts, culture and heritage sector; an influx that many artists and organizations may sorely miss once the funding dries up, especially with the significant cuts in provincial funding that took place last fall.

"I don't think anyone had any expectation that this particular funding was going to continue, so we were dealing with specific projects that were put together and modified over a three-year period in terms of how they would look. And what it does is it certainly creates an example of what can be done," McCormick said.

He added that groups that received Cultural Capital funding will also be able to provide a solid track record for their project if they decide to seek funding elsewhere in future years.

"They've now got a nice resume of what this project looks like," McCormick said.

While the 2009 Cultural Capital program technically comes to a close at the end of March, Whistler will always be a Cultural Capital of Canada. Now, McCormick and the other arts, culture and heritage stakeholders are looking to take advantage of other funding opportunities outside of the Cultural Capital program.

To find out more about Whistler's Cultural Capital programming, visit www.whistlerculturalcapitals.ca.