SOLUTIONS: MAKING TORONTO
A MORE CREATIVE CITY
Toronto is often touted as the cultural capital of
Canada, yet we know we can do more to promote the arts in
the city. Nancy Duxbury, Director of Research and Information
at Creative City in Vancouver reports on what is happening
in on the West Coast. And it’s exciting!
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The Making the Case research initiative
is a partnership between Canada Council for the Arts
and the Creative City Network. The objective of the
research initiative is to develop a credible, comprehensive,
and useful base of research and information related
to key arguments for "making the case" for
the importance of arts and culture in Canadian cities
and communities. The project builds upon the collection
of materials contributed by the members of the Network
over the last few years.
This research project involves graduate
students from Simon Fraser University (School of Communication)
and the University of British Columbia (School of
Community and Regional Planning). In Phase 1 of the
project, the students are reviewing and synthesizing
the Creative City Network's Making the Case web-based
resource library, conducting wide scans of online
and print-based materials to identify further resources
and create links, and writing accessible, useful summaries
and guides to the research and other resources available
on the impacts of the arts and culture in communities.
The research findings will then be presented online
in a variety of attractive and useful formats.
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The Creative City Network's collection is a unique resource
in Canada that includes published research and other resources,
as well as original profiles of arts and cultural initiatives
in Canadian communities of all sizes from coast to coast.
The network has a proven research, writing and publishing
capacity and has developed a high level of credibility for
its resources and innovative activities.
This partnership initiative recognizes the value of developing
and maintaining this unique resource, and building it over
time - enhancing its underlying research resources as well
as developing imaginative presentation formats. We anticipate
that the "Making the Case" resource will be useful
for a wide range of advocacy and educational purposes, and
help to illuminate the wide range of arts and cultural initiatives
making a difference in Canadian communities.
If you want to see what it’s all about
now, just click on http://www.creativecity.ca/resources/making-the-case/index.html.
And there’s more!
The Creative City Network of Canada has launched ACAD-L,
a discussion list for academics with an interest in local
cultural development and creative cities.
The Creative City Network of Canada is interested in building
linkages among faculty members and students who have indicated
an interest in issues of local cultural development, "creative
cities," and related topics.
We receive emails from many students and academics indicating
that they are researching or teaching about these (and related)
topics, and we know that they share many interests in common.
However, to our knowledge, there are no cross-linking networks
based on this theme which enable academics in multiple disciplines,
institutions, and locales to connect with one another on
an ongoing, informal manner.
So, we have launched ACAD-L@creativecity.ca.
The purpose of ACAD-L is to improve communications and
networking among academics (faculty and students) working
in these areas. We believe that this nascent academic community
is an important complement to the Creative City Network's
growing community of practice of municipal cultural planners
and cultural development professionals.
The development of linkages between an academic community
and a community of practice is a key element in the development
of a professional field and, we believe, a necessary ingredient
in fostering local and national cultural development. As
public policy increasingly looks to understand and act at
the "local level," we believe these connections
will be invaluable to the effective evolution of cultural
(and related) policies and practices.
As a first step, we would like to foster greater awareness
of common interests and complementary initiatives in this
rapidly evolving field of study, and facilitate informal
discussion among you so that networks of colleagues with
shared areas of interest find one another. In time, we also
hope to facilitate linkages between researchers and municipal
cultural planners on issues of mutual interest/concern.
This listserv will serve as an ongoing channel of communication
for this initiative.
To join ACAD-L, send your full contact information and
a brief note on your research and teaching interests to:
eileen@creativecity.ca
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