By Pepper Parr
April 26th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
Our waterfront is used by thousands of people – on really nice weather days there are close to people traffic jams.
The city makes great use of the space for festivals – these are organized events that are for the most part free but they don’t reflect much of the colour or culture of the city.
Great audience – but a passive audience.
The Sound of Music draws thousand who are passive attendees – they listen to the music. Those on the stage are, for the most part people from out of town who are here to advance their music profile and provide what is basically free entertainment.
Rib Fest draws thousands who sit and eat and listen some music.
The sand castle competition was popular but the city cut the program – it won’t be held this year.
The Children’s Festival has events that children take part in but there isn’t any animating of the space by the children.
Surely there is room for events that are small in nature that give groups or collectives an opportunity to express their creativity.
A pop up play, a scavenger hunt for kids; wouldn’t it be something to see the gymnasts doing their routines in Spencer Smith Park?
There was a time when the eastern end of the Beachway was home to Joseph Brant – what must that part of the city been like in Brant’s time?
How would one express that dramatically? Great opportunity for the Museum people to do something at Brant’s house; they already do wonderful work at Ireland House where some of the most creative small community events take place.
Something to think about.
Toronto has created an Animating Our Waterfront, which is a pilot program that will provide funding to individuals, organizations, collectives and groups to support free arts and cultural programming in selected parks and public spaces developed by Waterfront Toronto over the last decade.
The Cirque – one of the No Vacancy programs that took place in the Village square knew how to animate their event. All it takes is some imagination and and a little Chutzpah
The objective of this program is to host arts and cultural programming that celebrate these new public spaces and invite Torontonians and visitors to enjoy them. For the purposes of this program, “arts and cultural programming” includes the presentation of dance, music, theatre, visual arts, performance, literary and media arts, community- engaged artwork, cultural celebration, and any combination of the above. They are looking for projects that include themes like place-making, civic engagement, education, health and wellness, and environmental issues are encouraged.
Why couldn’t Burlington do something like this?
The Love My Hood funding might be one of the ways to help pay for things like this.
