By Pepper Parr
January 8th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
Is here a threat to the nascent growth that has been percolating in the cultural field in Burlington?
Last year there were a number of events that took place which added to the health of local culture – one being the national Culture Days initiative that was developed to create a source of information on events taking place across the country and to promote those events.
Local artists could post their event and communities were encouraged to work locally with artists from every discipline possible.
Donna Grandid, a noted Burlington artists was front and center during a recent Culture Days event.
Burlington climbed aboard the Culture Days train last year and the year before that and the sense was that the city would continue to put resources into the event.
Apparently the city isn’t going to have any staff working on the Culture Days initiative in 2016.
Why not ? – the view appears to be that if artists want the event to happen – then let them make it happen.
Burlington’s growth as a cultural destination is not yet at the point where it can fly on its own; it is going to need nurturing for a number of years.
Burlington has a manager of culture events who has some support from a part time assistant. There are times when culture file gets very busy and additional support is needed.
Angela Paparizo and Trevor Copp – both strong advocates for a more robust Burlington with a higher cultural profile.
Angela Paparizo is the manager of culture events and was reporting to the one general manager the city had. It isn’t clear yet who Paparizo will report to now that the city no longer has any general managers. The understanding is that city manager James Ridge now chairs the Cultural Action Plan implementation committee.
There was some talk that the culture file will move back into Parks and Recreation where it languished for years.
Culture and sports are two different animals and in Burlington they have not mixed very well in the past.
Fortunately for the arts crowd, the city is in the process of finalizing its operations budget – this is the time for the arts community to delegate and ensure that the gains they have made do not get lost while the city manager figures out what he wants in the way of an organizational structure.
Ridge is focused on getting a Strategic Plan in place; getting a budget approved and then getting back to the Official Plan review that sort of got put on hold.
While there is a Cultural Action Plan along with a Committee to implement that plan, other than the city manager’s blessing it doesn’t appear to have much more propelling it.
The Strategic Plan has cultural arms and legs sticking out all over the place – but as one commentator put it – is the city going to walk the talk?
There is that old phrase that reporters use when they want to figure out what’s going on – follow the money.
How much has been allocated to culture? And then where are the human resources to support what has to be done if culture is to get to the point where it has lift off.
The city has an excellent Performing Arts Centre that has experienced several years of strong successes; the Art Gallery has new leadership – the Museums are still there with Ireland House is a sterling example of how local history can be made part of the cultural scene. Poor Joseph Brant is not getting the same treatment – but with different leadership that too might change.
Maureen Barry, CEO of the Burlington Public Library and a consummate professional has overseen the move deeper into electronic media yet keeping real books on shelves.
There is a clear cluster of cultural nodes in this city – they need to be pulled together and given strong executive leadership.
Who could do that – Maureen Barry – she will shoot me for saying this – but she is one of the best executives we have in the city with a better big picture of culture than anyone else on the horizon.
That’s just an opinion.
