Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Standing Committee on Planning and Environment

FROM:

Director, Office of Cultural Affairs

SUBJECT:

Application to Cultural Capitals of Canada program

 

RECOMMENDATION

CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

This Report is consistent with the policy framework being recommended to Council in a companion Report entitled "City support for Festivals and Celebrations - Policy Review and Recommendations".

Council has previously approved participation in matching funding programs with senior governments, most recently with the BC 2000 and Canada Millennium programs.

Council has adopted the Vancouver Arts Initiative goal to "establish annual City-sponsored commissions and monetary awards to honour artists in all disciplines".
(VAI Report 1993)

Council has adopted Blueways goals to "encourage recreational and cultural activities such as ... water-based festivals" and to "recognize and celebrate Vancouver's Marine history". (Blueways Program Report, 1998)

SUMMARY

This report recommends that the City apply to the Federal Cultural Capitals of Canada program to compete for recognition and matching funds to advance civic cultural objectives for a waterfront celebration and City awards previously endorsed by Council. The proposed application is consistent with these Council objectives and addresses the requirements of the Cultural Capitals program. It includes a water-based celebration on False Creek inviting creative participation by the public, and a recognition program to honour artists and community achievements in arts and culture.

The application requires City matching funds, and staff recommend a commitment of up to $250,000 in principle, as a lever in generating a total budget of $1,000,000 for the proposed initiatives. Given its track record in cultural development, staff believe that the City of Vancouver is in a strong position to compete for the Cultural Capitals recognition award.

PURPOSE

This report-back seeks Council authorization to submit a proposal to the Government of Canada's Cultural Capitals of Canada program, and, conditional approval in principle to provide up to $250,000 in City matching funds and services if Vancouver's application is selected and its initiatives receive funding from the Cultural Capital of Canada program.

BACKGROUND

As noted in the July 23, 2002 report from the Director of Cultural Affairs, the Federal Department of Canadian Heritage has announced a recognition and matching funding awards program focussed on municipal cultural development actions. This two-year program is structured as a competition among Canadian cities for matching funds of up to $500,000. The factors considered in making the award include:

A. Recognition for the extent and quality of cultural planning, policies, and services
B. new cultural policy initiative
C. A celebration component

Staff propose applying to the first deadline on October 18, 2002, for a decision anticipated in February of 2003. Council approved preparation of an application on July 23, 2002 and the current document is the report-back. Please see Appendix A for Cultural Capitals guidelines.

DISCUSSION

A. Recognition of excellence in cultural planning

The Cultural Capitals of Canada program assesses excellence in past cultural planning actions. This provides an occasion to focus on Vancouver's cultural development track record and to seek national recognition for the City's comprehensive approach to development in this field.

The City of Vancouver's commitment to cultural planning dates from 1968 when responsibility for cultural development was established in the Social Planning Department. As the city developed and the cultural sector expanded, the Office of Cultural Affairs was created and assigned responsibility for advising Council on issues and strategies related to the not-for-profit cultural sector, to develop and manage cultural policies and programs, and to participate in urban planning and development. The work of staff has been guided by the City's cultural objectives:

A broad set of actions in pursuit of Vancouver's cultural, social and economic interests are now undertaken. A partial list includes:

· Cultural planning as a function of city planning
· Development of new cultural facilities and infrastructure
· Cultural Grant programs as a strategy for cultural development
· Core funding for major exhibiting institutions and arts organizations
· Civic, Private Sector and Community Public Art programs
· Artist Residency and City of Vancouver Book Awards
· Regional cultural planning initiatives

Recent examples of City's innovative cultural development commitments include provision of new facilities and artist live-work studios through bonusing arrangements, and the work of the Vancouver Arts Stabilization Team, Canada's first arts stabilization program. Community cultural development is also encouraged by grants for building capacity in culturally diverse arts groups and funds enabling local residents to collaborate with artists in producing community-based public art. Recently, Council dedicated 10% of all bus shelter advertising facings to no-cost community advertising, and devoted funds for Vancouver to host the inaugural national conference on municipal cultural planning later this year. The City of Vancouver's comprehensive approach to cultural planning and development will make it nationally competitive in the recognition component of the Cultural Capital award.

B. New policy initiative

As discussed in the Background section, the Cultural Capitals competition also requires demonstration of a new policy initiative. The new policy framework for festivals and celebrations presented in the companion report meets this requirement. (See "City Support for Festival and Celebrations-Policy Review and Recommendations report".) The framework provides a tool for responding to community celebrations and facilitates civic response to matching opportunities arising from unique programs like Cultural Capitals. Among other things, the policy recommends support, on a matching basis, for events that reflect the City's distinct character.

C. Celebration component

In considering the celebration component of the Cultural Capitals program, staff looked at existing city priorities and community interests. City priorities have been articulated in the 1988 Blueways report encouraging water-based celebration, and the 1993 Vancouver Arts Initiative, recommending annual City-sponsored awards and commissions. Consultations about the Cultural Capitals award with a number of arts, cultural, maritime and media organizations provided an overall theme, that of celebrating creativity and communityparticipation in creative expression. With this in mind, staff are presenting a multifaceted proposal called "Creative City", through which everyone can participate in celebrating Vancouver's unique character, diversity, and the creativity of its people.

The proposal includes a celebration of the waterfront involving the public directly in creating a central element of an evening event, and an awards ceremony to be broadcast on televison and include related activities such as artist studio tours. Taken together, these activities, which are described in more detail in the following section, are designed to bring artists into the community and members of the community closer to the work of artists.

C1. Creative City: awards program

As developed for the application, the civic award program would honour a wide range of achievements in Vancouver's arts community and celebrate the vital contributions of diverse community-based organizations and individuals, as well as business partners of the arts, among others.

The program is intended to foster a number of related cultural activities that would extend the awards' impact over time. This includes commissions for creation of new work that could result in presentations to the public in the following year and provide opportunities for artists to work "in residence" with Vancouver students. These commissions would remind the public of the ongoing value of the awards and create a legacy of works.

In order to de-mystify the creative process for the general public and to encourage their deeper involvement, the awards event would be followed by a set of guided tours of artist studios, cultural districts, news media organizations, publishers and other venues where creative work takes place. Taken together, the awards, commissions and tours emphasize the depth and breadth of creative talent at work in Vancouver and heighten public, media, and sponsor engagement.

The Alliance for Arts and Culture has indicated its interest in delivering the awards component, and CBC has expressed interest in being host broadcaster. Presented at the Orpheum or Queen Elizabeth Theatre in the fall of 2003, this model of an evening ceremony and televison broadcast has been successfully implemented in Toronto for the past fifteen years.

Additional partners might include Arts Starts in the Schools Society, Tourism Vancouver, the Vancouver Board of Trade, Community Centre Associations, as well as foundations, corporate partners, print media sponsors and other participants.

C2. Creative City: waterfront celebration

An event highlighting Vancouver's connection with the sea and the creative expression of its artists and residents would add a high-profile signature celebration to Vancouver's festival calendar.
Vancouver has made substantial strides in the last decade in making its waterfront accessible, notably the completion of the False Creek seawall, which now offers a new view of that water body as a kind of maritime stage. A celebration of the waterfront taps into the rich diversity of cultural traditions about water and the sea, providing occasions to honour First Nations culture, recall our maritime heritage and learn about the ecology of False Creek. Experience with the Illuminares Lantern Festival suggests that events created by community participation strengthens the sense of belonging across different ages and cultural heritages.

In keeping with the theme of creative expression by the community, staff propose city-wide workshops to create "celebration" constructions which then become the central feature of an evening spectacle in which illuminated sculptures, kinetic floats, temporary fountains and decorated boats form a large-scale parade running the length of the Creek. Daytime programs of land-based installations and performances as well as ceremonies and on-water events would round out the celebration.

Staff note the City's role is that of a catalyst and that this concept will evolve further as community partners become involved. Potential partners include Public Dreams Society, CMHC/Granville Island, Maritime Museum, Science World, as well as the Park Board, Native Education Centre, a variety of arts and cultural organizations, the boating community, marine industry, corporate and media sponsors, and many others.

A preliminary estimate of the budget for all Creative City activities, with the amount of matching funds is set out below.

Revenue

   

Expenses

  

Cultural Capitals

$500,000

      

City Contribution

250,000

      

Earned revenues

150,000

  

Creative City awards, commissions and tours

$350,000

Sponsorships

100,000

  

Waterfront event

650,000

Total

$1,000,000

  

Total

$1,000,000

Staff recognize that activity in future years could benefit from the initial investment, notably in the carry-over of sponsorships and the identification of the core audiences involved; however, analysis of the actual outcomes would be needed before projecting programs into 2004. Future City involvement and levels of support would be the subject of a detailed report back.

Benefits and legacies

Designation as the 2003 Cultural Capital of Canada would provide both short and long-term benefits for cultural and economic development in the City.

Federal funding associated with designation would allow a full-scale trial of a waterfront celebration that could fill a perceived gap in Vancouver's current festival calendar. This could more closely identify the City with its maritime character and better reflect the presence of First Nations and the expression of culturally diverse traditions in Vancouver.

Designation would launch programs that bring artists into the community and members of the community closer to the work of artists, generating more neighbourhood-based arts activity and raising community interest and participation in the work of artists .

The 2010 Winter Olympic bid, which, in turn, could deliver very significant cultural development legacies of its own, would be enhanced by a February 2003 designation of Vancouver as the Cultural Capital of Canada.

The national and international recognition arising from designation would add to Vancouver's reputation as a livable city, create media attention, and increase interest in our unique arts, cultural and heritage offerings in the cultural tourism sector. Arts, cultural and heritage organizations seeking national-level sponsorships would be able to draw attention to their location in a Cultural Capital of Canada, strengthening their ability to form new marketing partnerships and the possibility of levering additional Federal funds.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Recommendation A provides for conditional approval in principle to allocate up to $250,000 in matching funds for event organization costs and for the cost of civic services such as policing and facilities. Source of funds to be Contingency Reserve in the 2003 Civic Budget, as identified in recommendation C of the companion report "City Support for Festivals and Celebrations". A civic contribution could lever up to $500,000 in Federal matching monies, and $250,000 in sponsorship and earned revenues. Future City involvement and level of support would be the subject of a detailed report back.

CONCLUSION

Staff note that the City of Vancouver has an opportunity to gain national recognition as a creative city and to receive both national recognition and Federal matching funding to achieve its cultural and economic goals. The Director of Cultural Affairs recommends approval of A and B.

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