Culture Days: Celebrating Arts & Culture from Coast to Coast
What is Culture Days?
Culture Days is a collaborative pan-Canadian volunteer movement to raise the awareness,
accessibility, participation and engagement by all Canadians in the arts and cultural life
of their communities. The National Steering Committee, in collaboration with provincial
committees are self-mobilizing at the grassroots level to collaborate in the
implementation of concurrent annual province-wide, and free public participation events
each September beginning in 2010. In support of these annual provincial events, Culture
Days will drive a major annual national communications & public relations campaign to
help re-position arts and culture in the public eye.
Culture Days was initiated and is supported by the Canadian Arts Summit in
collaboration with Culture pour tous (producer of Quebec's Journées de la Culture), The
Banff Centre and with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
We look forward to developing this exciting project further with your support and
involvement and wish to take this opportunity to thank the hundreds of people who have
contributed to the project's advancement thus far. Together we aim to affirm that the arts
and cultural sector continues to grow as an inspiring beacon for all our communities
across Canada.
What does Culture Days Look Like?
During three days each September, participating cultural groups and municipalities are
encouraged to provide opportunities free of charge for the public to learn more about
their particular cultural activity. The BC dates for September 2010 (Friday to Sunday)
will be September 24-26 to coincide with events across the country. Cultural groups,
who want to attract new audiences or engage more participants, can open their doors for a
few hours or more to provide free, interactive cultural experiences or demonstrations that
are open to the public as part of this nationally promoted Culture Days initiative.
Cultural activities can be as simple as holding an open house for a few hours, providing
demonstrations for school groups, offering opportunities to learn about a particular
cultural heritage, or having cultural worker’s open up their studios. Others might want to
give guided tours, hold a workshop, or give a public performance. The opportunities to
promote cultural activity in British Columbia are endless!
Where Are We?
Many Provinces across Canada are participating in the 2010 launch of the national
project, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nunavut, PEI and Quebec.
In most cases, the provincial government and/or private sector has provided substantial
financial and in-kind support to facilitate the participation of its cultural and arts
communities in this pan-Canadian event. Fully participating provincial partners have
developed paid positions tasked with leading and coordinating local partnerships,
fundraising, promotional campaigns and outreach to their cultural and creative sectors
and civil society. We are not quite there in BC.
A nascent BC volunteer task force has been formed, however, and continues to grow to
represent broader communities. This task force is seeking ways to raise funds through
public and private investors and to gain broad and inclusive support, partnerships and
participation. Conversations have occurred with the BC Arts Council, Provincial Art
Service organizations and with existing community engaged projects such as BC Culture
Week and The BC Culture Crawl. The Alliance for Arts is taking a lead in initiating a
provincial dialogue, to encourage participation and to identify stakeholders and
community champions.
But can BC participate as a full provincial partner in the 2010 inauguration? There seem
to be other issues on our minds these days. With the current funding crisis and the
unknowns about future funding, we cannot realistically expect that this project will be unreservedly embraced by a beleaguered cultural sector. As such we have not proactively
sought to tap the already scarce resources out there for this year, but we do recognize that
individual arts groups may be eager to participate. Current consultations with the broader
arts and cultural community suggest that the best course of action is for BC to plan to
“officially” participate in 2011 and remain “low-key” in 2010. This means we are not
fundraising for 2010 or seeking to mount an extensive local media or promotional
campaign, but will focus on securing the necessary resources, alliances and partnerships
for the 2011 Culture Days.
Those organizations, individuals, municipalities and groups who do wish to participate in
the inaugural edition are encouraged to do so. Interested people should take advantage of
the national tools and PR opportunities provided. Participants do not need to develop
new initiatives necessarily, but can plan to include existing ones during concurrent (BC)
dates so that they can be included in the national campaign.
Why do we need Culture Days in BC?
This is an opportunity to work together to promote the value of arts, culture and heritage
activities to British Columbians. We all know how important it is for us to develop
relationships with our audiences and communities. Culture Days aims to be an inclusive
national “movement” based initiative that relies on the collaboration and solidarity of the
arts milieu and civil society in general, This project may be seen as an excellent
opportunity for our province to build deeper relationships within our communities and an
opportunity to rally together in the long-term for the health and stability of our sector as
well as to showcase/reinforce the invaluable contribution our arts and cultural sector
(artists and creators) make(s) to our province, culturally diverse communities and all
citizens. We have an opportunity to demonstrate what our sector contributes to the
health, education, economies, and quality of life of our communities.
Culture Days provides an opportunity to encourage residents to explore new cultural
activities, volunteer and celebrate culture in their own communities.
Who is involved in Culture Days?
Anyone who wants to be can be involved! Any cultural group, individual artist or
cultural worker, including community-based, professional and those who work in
heritage and creative industries who want(s) to provide one or more free, interactive,
engaging cultural experiences that are open to the public during the last weekend of
September, can register their event(s) in the Culture Days database at
www.culturedays.ca
(March 2010)
Each province has established its own Provincial Task Force to help guide the provincial
Culture Days program; nationally, a Culture Days Steering Committee is guiding the
National Culture Days public awareness campaign (from June to September each year);
national sponsors include the Globe and Mail, which includes the development of Culture
Days resources, a Culture Days web site and database, as well as the coordination of
national partners.
How do groups or individuals in BC get involved in Culture Days 2010?
The Culture Days National office will make an “Open Model” activity registration
system for Culture Days accessible to all across the country that will be on-line in March
2010. This year, Culture Days in BC will take place September 24-26, 2010:

Sign up for Culture Days electronic updates at Subscribe to the Culture Days
newsletter; Inscrivez-vous à notre liste d'envoi
 Identify an activity that you or your organization could promote to the public
during Culture Days;
 Ensure the activity is free, open to the public and provides an interactive
engagement experience;
 Register your event at:
www.culturedays.ca
(March 2010)
What about Culture Days 2011?
If you want to contribute or participate in preparing a collective and coordinated approach
for BC to participate more fully in 2011:
Contact the Alliance for Arts and Culture by calling 604-681-3535 or e-mail us directly at
info@allianceforarts.com.Please indicate “Culture Days 2011” in the subject line.