It’s been an exciting month for Culture Days in BC with Info + Ideas sessions touring around the province in preparation for Culture Days 2013! The sessions are an opportunity for artists, arts and cultural groups, municipal cultural staff, community arts councils, business improvement associations, and local media to learn about the many available resources, tools, and tips that can make Culture Days activities a success. Come attend this free session to learn how to get involved this year and network with other Culture Days activity organizers to find out what is being planned in your community. Please see below for the list of remaining sessions:

What is Culture Days?

Culture Days is a collaborative movement to encourage awareness, participation and engagement of all Canadians in the arts and cultural life of their communities. Now in its fourth year, this Canada-wide celebration represents the largest-ever public participation campaign undertaken by the arts and cultural community in this country. Culture Days will feature free hands-on activities that invite the public to participate in the “behind-the-scenes” world of artists, creators, historians, architects, curators, designers at work. Through this exchange, artists and creators have a unique opportunity to engage people of all ages in their creative practice. Culture Days will take place September 27-29, 2013, in all provinces and territories.

To register your Culture Days activity, please visit www.culturedays.ca

For information specific to BC, please visit www.bc.culturedays.ca

If you have any questions about participating in Culture Days, please contact:

Nazanin Shoja, Culture Days BC Coordinator

Tel: 604-681-3535 ext. 214

culturedays@allianceforarts.com | www.culturedays.ca

Follow us on Twitter @BCCultureDays

Like us on Facebook at BC Culture Days

The post Last Week of Culture Days BC Info + Ideas Tour appeared first on culture365.

PART ONE: Review and Research.

Last year, Humber College and Lakeshore Arts made a joint venture to produce several Culture Days activities for the South Etobicoke Lakeshore area in Ontario. The activities they coordinated amounted to 18% of Toronto's total Culture Days output - not too shabby for a first-year collaboration. This year Humber College and Lakeshore Arts are back at it again, but they want more. More activities. More community involvement. More of a Culture Days imprint on the community. Together they decided to combine funding and recruit a 'Culture Days Intern'. This paid internship position would work with both institutions to coordinate the overall involvement of South Etobicoke in Culture Days 2013. Students from a wide variety of Humber’s diverse post-graduate and undergraduate programs, such as PR, Event Management, and Fundraising Management, were interviewed. After what I would like to think was an exhaustive search of endless upon endless candidates, guess who they selected?

So here I am. I work three days a week, splitting my time between Humber College and Lakeshore Arts. I'm tasked with creating a greater Culture Days participation for the area. But how does one do that? How do two institutions go about creating a large, unified Culture Days participation initiative within their community? Do we advertise in the local newspapers? Do we hire a giant Goodyear blimp with the words "Join us for Culture Days!" emblazoned on the sides?

Well, here's how we’ve been going about it so far:

First, I reviewed everything that we did last year. The good, the bad and the ugly. It's important to note where your strengths lie and what holes need to be plugged. Humber's Lakeshore Campus offers numerous venues for Culture Days activities. Last year, we had ghost tours, a drawing workshop, a jazz educational concert, and much more. The campus also boasts a large student body and a diverse set of programs. Lakeshore Arts, being a local community arts organization, is able to draw on its network of artists from around the community. These are our strengths: numerous venues, diverse programs and student body, and a network of artists. On the flip side, we noticed that drawing a large number of attendees for certain activities was quite difficult. Getting the word out at a grassroots level can sometimes be the hardest part.

In order to coordinate all these activities across Humber and the community, I created an activity form for local activity organizers to fill out (similar to what is required to post an activity on the Culture Days website). We'll use the information collected from these forms to create an activity guide that will be distributed around the community.

Once the activity form was complete, I started touching base with the different program faculties within Humber. We've started brainstorming possible activity ideas, focusing on the strengths of each program and what they can bring to the table. For example, the School of Creative and Performing Arts is looking at doing a mask workshop where participants will learn the ins and outs of theatrical mask building.

Next up is acquiring sponsors so we can cover artist materials as well increase our marketing reach. I’ll let you know how that goes in my next post, so stay tuned!

As for the blimp idea, after a valiant effort it was quietly pushed to the side. But there's always next year...

The post A Student Voice appeared first on culture365.

 In-person Workshops

Orillia: The City of Orillia is hosting an Information Session on Wednesday, June 19, 2013. The event will take place from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM at Orillia City Hall in the Thudhope Boardroom. To pre-register for this event, please visit the following link:

 http://culturedaysorillia.eventbrite.ca

Urban Arts (GTA): Urban Arts (located in the former city of York) is hosting an Information session on Thursday, June 27, 2013. The event will take place from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM at Urban Arts located at 19 John Street in Weston.

 Online Webinars

Heritage Webinar:  Members from the heritage sector are invited to participate in an information session presented in partnership with the Ontario Museum Association on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 2:00 PM. To register, please visit the following link:

https://ccionetwork.adobeconnect.com/omaculturedaysevent/event/registration.html?campaign-id=OMACultureDays

Province-wide Webinar: Ontario Culture Days invites anyone who was unable to attend an in-person Information Session to our first ever province-wide webinar on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 3:00 PM. Presented in English, this session will be hosted by a bilingual moderator, who is happy to answer questions in both English and French. To register, please visit the following link: 

https://ccionetwork.adobeconnect.com/cdprovincewideinvite/event/registration.html?campaign-id=Province-Wide

The post Last Chance to Attend a Culture Days Information Session in Ontario! appeared first on culture365.

Cultural engagement and arts participation, regardless of what form it takes, are the catalysts for Culture Days. In the second part of a chapter originally published in "Pluralism in the Arts in Canada," Helen Yung navigates the theory and the practice inherent in enabling Canadians to take culture, sometimes literally, into their own hands. To read the first part of the chapter click here!

Helen Yung, whose specialties include cultural diversity and community engagement, makes installations, interactions and interventions, including storytelling, scenography, technology, and experiences like humour, delight and surprise. You can follow her foibles at www.helenyung.com or on Twitter @helenyung.

While the Culture Days vision is described in the media, for brevity’s sake, as a massive arts and culture party, the reality is that the most meaningful, transformative part of Culture Days will happen in thousands, eventually millions of small magical moments on the ground. The heart of Culture Days lies in the 1-to-1 interactions between artists and the public.

When I think of Culture Days, I see light bulbs above people’s heads. Thousands of light bulbs lighting up in thought bubbles floating over the people engaged in these 1-to-1 interactions. These light bulbs represent many connections: “oh, I like this,” or “oh, I miss this,” or “oh here it is!” or “oh what about this?” …and as well, “oh i never thought…” or “oh wait ‘til I tell ____ about this,” or just plain old -- “oh wow.”

Rather than let the event slide by, as artists and culture-makers, take the weekend to do something unexpected. Even if you already do cultural mediation (outreach, audience development, arts education, community arts, or participatory projects) think of what you haven’t done and do that.

Consider this:
If you really did want new audiences, you would have them by now. Suppose that this were true.
You know where they are. You know where they live, work, and play. Why haven’t they seen your work yet?
In other words:

1. Who is this new audience? (Identify them very specifically: where do they live, what do they do, how do they survive, what interests them. List everything you know about them.)
2. Why do you want them? (Be honest.)
3. What is it about the way you work that prevents you from interacting with this group? (Be brave.)

The greatest barrier to successfully attracting the new audiences that we (claim to) want, I think, is ignorance. We don’t know the people that we (claim to) want to bring in. Often we don’t know who, specifically, we’re talking to, in terms of new audiences, and therefore we don’t know who didn’t show up or why. This is where my (not really) infamous mall idea comes in.

Research published by the International Council of Shopping Centers estimate that 92% of Canadians over the age of 12 have visited a shopping mall in the past 30 days.

That's a staggering number: 92% of Canadians. OK, in truth, that’s dated data from the early 2000s, before online shopping became more prevalent but I still think I am on to something here. There are far more Canadians of diverse socio-economic-cultural backgrounds going to the mall than going to the theatre. (Or the gallery, museum, etc.)

And so, here is my soap-box rally: Let’s go to the mall. Whether it’s for Culture Days or on any other day, let’s go to the mall.

If Art needs audiences and we believe in Art for all, then Art stands to benefit from more artists and arts workers making more trips to the shopping mall.

The easiest way to learn about new potential audiences (AKA people you don’t know) is to simply go where they are. You don’t need a consultant. You don’t need a grant. You don’t need permission. Just go where they are, and be the SOHBs (Sensitive Observers of Human Behaviour) that you have trained to be. This is not a metaphor or a thought experiment. This is a prescription, a mission, a manifesto, a self-help exercise, a set of suggestions I earnestly urge you to follow.

Take a page from the social media playbook: Don't expect people to come to you. (Known as the “build it and they will come” mentality. Hubris.) Go to where they already congregate. Join the conversation. Be authentic. This means, among other things:

• Listen, listen, listen. Listen before you participate. And when you do participate, start small, listen some more, adjust your participation, and keep listening.
• Be a good guest. Don't walk into someone else's party, get on a chair, and invite everyone to leave this party to come to yours. Be a good guest. Enjoy, appreciate, contribute, follow up afterwards with thanks.
• Make friends. You might not like everyone, but if you don't like anyone, why would you want any of them to come to your party anyway? Why should they be interested in you? What makes you think they should come where you are, show up to appreciate what you do, what you’re about, if you can’t, if you won’t, show up to where they are, and learn to appreciate them on their terms, on their turf?

Going to the mall is about going back to the original social medium -- good old-fashioned talking to people in real life. Have conversations with strangers. Observe people’s behaviours and interactions. Take notes. Glean insights. In anthropology and marketing, this is called ethnography.

It must be stressed – you really need to talk to people. Don’t just talk to them in your head; go have a conversation with mall-goers for real. If that’s not enough, pick a spot and try improvising a bit of theatre. Intervene on the lives of strangers with your art. Use your tools as an artist to have a meaningful exchange with the strangers around you. Go home. Go back to the mall the next day, the next week, every week. Listen, watch, chat, and try some more.

Keep listening and keep watching. Do this, and share with one another the results of what happened, what you noticed, how you reacted, and how the mall-goers reacted to you. In other words, do something akin to what Peter Brooks did, famously, in the 1970s: Take your art into the Sahara desert, into Africa, into unknown lands, into the suburbs (where most malls are located) to people who have never heard of you, to people who are used to living without you and whatever it is that you’re selling. Cross the waters, stay and be persistent with your efforts. Watch your art, your training, your ego, your ideals, your assumptions, your paradigm fall apart. Be thrilled.

Create your art (and presentation practices) anew in this blinding context of (in)difference.

. . . . .

It’s been two years since I first presented this idea at Magnetic North and declared the suburbs the terrain of the new avant-garde. In all honesty, I still have not followed my own shopping mall prescription. And my reasons might not be so different from yours…

1. I don't like the mall. The air is bad.
2. Fluorescent mall lighting gives me a headache. Plus it’s bad for my skin.
3. I don't need to buy more stuff.
4. The mall is far away and public transit takes effort.
5. The mall is boring. People are boring. And lonely. If we start chatting, I will have to listen and they might not stop talking. Their stories might make me feel bad. Or I might yawn. That would be rude.
6. It’ll be embarrassing.
7. Nobody cares.
8. I will be uncomfortable.
9. I will make other people feel uncomfortable.
10. What will I say? What will I do? How will they react?

It’s a jumbled, confused list. And as I go on listing reasons for not doing the very thing I’ve advised you to do, the truth becomes ever more clear: These objections are precisely the reasons to do it.

At bottom, these objections more or less relate back to one objection: I foresee discomfort. I am scared and feel anxious. The freedom is troubling. It may be very awkward. What if I suck?

To which, I can only berate myself in words borrowed from another writer: “Are you a woman, or a mouse?”

Laziness, cowardice, and conformity are the three flipsides of courage.

Are you a theatre radical, a pioneer, a bold, gutsy artist, or did you train yourself all these years to peter out when it is, in fact, your time? Am I here to make art for my friends only, or do I make art that is vital, that must be witnessed by thousands of people?

The thing is, going to the mall isn’t just about getting new audiences. If the prospect scares you and me, it’s because deep down we both know it will change our practice. Surely for the better?

The shock, the vulnerability – it will make my work (and how I work) more interesting, leaner, bolder, and more street-savvy, which is to say, more popular.

Or, at the very least, I will make new friends. And you can usually guilt friends into coming to see your work.

I am determined to take my own advice. This year, I am going to the mall more often.

To find out more about Helen's project on re-imagining performance and public engagement, please follow this link.

And visit Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives website to purchase a wonderful book where the full article was published: Pluralism in the Arts in Canada: A Change is Gonna Come. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

The post How to increase your audience size by 300% overnight. Part II of II appeared first on culture365.

Museum of Antiquities by Michelle Brownridge

MB: Can you tell me a little about the museum and what sort collections you have?
TH: The primary purpose of the museum is to foster awareness of the larger fabric of civilization into which our Canadian and provincial heritage is woven. The museum is primarily concerned with the collection and exhibition of artifacts pertaining to Western civilization between 3000 BCE and 1500 CE.
MB: What would a visitor experience when they visited the Museum during Culture Days?
TH: The theme for our Culture Days event was “Weapons and Warriors”. Volunteers dressed up in costumes and armor related to each specific culture and was part of displays in the museum’s gallery. Visitors could take part in chainmail-making demonstrations and could try on chainmail tunics and headgear. On the lawn in front of the museum, a Viking camp was set up where participants learned about the daily life of medieval Vikings. The highlight of the event was a Viking combat demonstration, which showed visitors the different kinds of weapons and fighting techniques used by Vikings. Another popular activity was the children’s helmet-making craft station, where kids could choose one of three types of helmets to make: samurai, Corinthian, and Viking. The helmet craft was so popular with the kids that we nearly ran out of supplies!
MB: Do you consider your Culture Days experience a success?
TH: Given that it was the first time doing the event, we were not sure as to the kind of response we would get. We were pleasantly surprised and very impressed by the number of people who came to our event. We had nearly 300 visitors pass through the museum that day, which was a record for us.

Museum of Antiquities by Michelle Brownridge

MB: What about Culture Days was valuable or positive for your organization?
TH: The turnout and response we received from visitors was very encouraging. The event helped us to target and bring in a new audience who had not heard of the museum of Antiquities before.
MB: Do you have any advice for first time activity organizers?
TH: Because this was our time doing Culture Days, we planned something on a fairly small scale, yet with diverse displays and activities. As a result, we were able to determine which types of activities or combinations of activities were most engaging for visitors.
MB: Do you plan to participate in Culture Days next year?
TH: We will most certainly be taking part in Culture Days next year. We plan to expand on this past year’s event by having a medieval camp set up in front of the museum made up of several tents with various activities related to daily life in the middle ages. We plan to include the weapons demonstrations as well, since these were very popular last year. We hope to continue to build on the event and eventually host it as an annual medieval festival.
MB: Is there anything else you would like tell our readers?
TH: The Culture Days weekend is a great outreach opportunity, which is of great benefit to a small museum such as ours. I strongly encourage other museums to take part in Culture Days if they have not already done so.

You can register your Culture Days activities here and don't forget to check out the Video Tour of the Museum of Antiquities produced by Media Access & Production (eMAP) at the University of Saskatchewan:

*This interview was originally published in Engage magazine. 
 

The post Culture Days Q & A with the
Museum of Antiquities appeared first on culture365.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The post National Congress on Culture
Photo Gallery appeared first on culture365.

Last year, British Columbians celebrated 403 Culture Days activities in 61 communities across the province, a 95% increase from 2011! This year, in preparation for Culture Days 2013, BC Culture Days will be offering Info + Ideas Sessions around the province to share the many available resources, tools, and tips that can make your Culture Days activities a success. Come out to meet and network with other Culture Days activity organizers and find out what is being planned in your community. The sessions are free to attend and open to everyone, including artists, arts and cultural groups, municipal cultural staff, community arts councils, business improvement associations, and local media.

Scheduled sessions are listed below:

What is Culture Days?

Culture Days is a collaborative movement to encourage awareness, participation and engagement of all Canadians in the arts and cultural life of their communities. Now in its fourth year, this Canada-wide celebration represents the largest-ever public participation campaign undertaken by the arts and cultural community in this country. Culture Days will feature free hands-on activities that invite the public to participate in the “behind-the-scenes” world of artists, creators, historians, architects, curators, designers at work. Through this exchange, artists and creators have a unique opportunity to engage people of all ages in their creative practice. Culture Days will take place September 27-29, 2013, in all provinces and territories.

To register your Culture Days activity, please visit www.culturedays.ca

If you have any questions about participating in Culture Days, please contact:

Nazanin Shoja, Culture Days BC Coordinator

Tel: 604-681-3535 ext. 214

culturedays@allianceforarts.com | www.culturedays.ca

Like us on Facebook at BC Culture Days
Follow us on Twitter @BCCultureDays

The post Culture Days Info + Ideas Sessions in British Columbia appeared first on culture365.

Feeling connected and a sense of belonging is paramount for Canada’s newest citizens; after all, it takes courage to start fresh in a new country. This is why the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, a non-profit charity dedicated to celebrating Canadian citizenship and ensuring Canada’s newest citizens feel welcome and included, created the Cultural Access Pass (CAP) program.

The Cultural Access Pass is a gift to Canada’s newest citizens and their children. It opens doors by offering a year of free access to almost 1,200 Canadian attractions from museums, galleries and historic sites to national and provincial parks.

Cuthbert M., CAP Member, says:

The CAP Program introduces you to all things Canadian from an artistic point of view. You cannot get that hands-on experience in any book.

New citizens can explore the best in Canadian culture from coast-to-coast like the Museum of Vancouver, Banff National Park, Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax - just to name a few!

CAP is in a league of its own. There isn’t another program in the world like it! This welcoming offer ignites a shared passion for Canadian cultural experiences, connecting attractions and new citizens for the long term.

Yan W. says:

It opens the door and it doesn’t cost you anything. By taking in these types of cultural experiences, you realize that life can be beyond what’s tied up in daily activities.

With the support of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, CAP is introduced to every new Canadian citizen at their citizenship ceremony (approximately 170,000 people each year), and to date, more than 60,000 new citizens have participated in the program.

Eric P, CAP Member, says:

I have no doubt that this will enrich me more about the heritage & current developments on arts and culture of Canada. Again, merci.

More CAP details, including a full list of participating attractions, can be found here: culturalaccesspass.ca.

The post Opening doors to Canadian culture for new citizens appeared first on culture365.

I am busy preparing to present a 3-hour workshop for the University of Waterloo’s Economic Development Program this morning, and I had to take a moment to thank event organizers at Culture Days for providing such phenomenal programming to all Canadians.

The presentation I am making to 43 fellow economic developers and community leaders will include a segment on Cultural Tourism, and Culture Days in particular. I share this with you because I cannot find a better example of a national opportunity to build tourism product at a grassroots level than Culture Days.

In the session tomorrow, I look forward to showcasing Culture Days as a key opportunity for cultural tourism development and will share the dynamic videos presented at the Culture Days National Congress last Friday in Toronto.

Over the past three years, I have had the pleasure of being a part of the development of Culture Days in my role as Tourism Manager for the Regional Municipality of Durham, and it has been such a delight to watch artists and creatives from all walks of life engage in the program.

From an economic developers persective, Culture Days is a dream come true. What better way do we have to connect and celebrate our cultural community than through a free, interactive, community celebration?

In Durham Region, we have invested time and resources over the past 3 years to support Culture Days, and what an investment it has been.

In 2009, we hosted a an initial discussion about the value of promoting creativity in our communities at a symposium called The Art of Transition. The purpose of the event was to connect and celebrate the creative community in Durham. Over 300 artists, community leaders, and other members of creative industies came together at the Art of Transition Symposium; and we realized then that there was a real hunger for regional collaboration to drive the creative economy. People were all fired up, and the momentum has continued to build through the promotion and co-ordination provided by the Culture Days program.

At The Art of Transition Symposium, we learned that culture alone accounts for almost 20 billion of Ontario’s gross domestic product and this number continue to grow.

According to our keynote speaker Dr. Richard Florida:

Economically successful and vibrant cities are those that engage the creativity of their residents and maintain an authentic and environmentally sustainable setting. It pays for a municipality to take a proactive role in culture development.

Culture Days provides a wonderful platform for every community, whether it be a small hamlet such as Blackstock, Ontario, where I live, or a major city like Toronto. All communities are welcome to engage, and celebrate the culture that makes their community so unique.

I encourage all municipal leaders to make culture days a priority in your communities – I know that it has made a difference in ours!

Looking forward to continuing the #culturedays conversation, and sharing stories over the summer via the wonderful Culture Days social media platforms. Have you joined in the conversation?

Take a risk, be brave, share your stories and passion….. artists do this every day!

Kerri King
Connect with me on Twitter @kerrikingdurham

The post Is Your Community Engaged in
Culture Days? appeared first on culture365.

"Digital, diverse, and non-linear"

Early feedback indicates the Congress was an exciting and surprisingly intimate conversation between some 1000 participants in person and online. For a little taste (or flashback if you were there), check out this awesome video that our friends at Motion Pantry made…

It was a little tough to knock this snappy little video out so quickly, but the Congress was just such a great experience and the delegates were so passionate that Motion Pantry and I could not resist sharing a wee little somethin' as soon as possible. We also thought it would be a great way to help celebrate the launch of the new Culture365 blog. Keep checking back often for more content from the Congress, including more in-depth interviews with delegates and speakers by the two roving video teams on site. (Congress delegate & blogger ThriftyByDesign from British Columbia posted some photos of some filming in action.)

Guess what else? If you missed the Congress or just want to re-live the invigorating experience all over again, you don't have to wait. Yes! You can watch the (unedited) Congress video archives immediately here. You can also go back in time by viewing the Flickr gallery.

As I was saying, "digital, diverse, and non-linear…" From British Columbia to Prince Edward Island, the 250 registered delegates who attended the Congress in person were out there posing questions and sharing different perspectives with the speakers while simultaneously tweeting, posting pictures on Instagram, and some even joined the Live Stream (while at the Congress in person) for a dip in the e-conversation every now and then.

Speaking of Instagram, did you see the Art My Paper Clip online gallery? Congress delegates had a lot of fun making art out of paper clips with the assistance of some stellar artist-animateurs. Featuring the common paper clip as an emblem of Culture Days' role in facilitating knowledge exchange as well as artistic development, the interactive exhibition was created to engage Congress participants with the Culture Days themes of "create, participate, celebrate." Thanks to all the artists and animateurs who helped bring this element of the Congress to life!*

As mentioned before, registered delegates were joined by another 750 digital participants who tuned into the discussion via the Live Stream and the Twitter hashtag #culturedays. Web analytics indicate we had viewers tuning in from all across Canada - from urban centres to rural communities - and even from as far away as Barcelona, Houston, Chicago and Portland. As host of the Congress Live Stream experience, I am super proud to say that Mediaco and I did a pretty awesome job. Just look at some of the great feedback we got:

I was so engaged, and in the end, became addicted to the Live Stream's "second screen experience," and unexpectedly, cancelled the rest of my day, returning after break to follow to the end. I have also never talked about attending a webcast during a dinner conversation before, but I certainly did that evening!

The AV quality was surprisingly high and made the online experience more inviting than anticipated.

Live streaming was excellent. Very professional.

This experience makes me want to participate in others definitely! And I think you should do it for all your events as people cannot always be there in person so you gave the content for free to anyone, I think it is what sharing the culture about!

If the congress happened in Montreal, I would like to go, otherwise I'd be very happy to get the panels through live feed again

On Twitter, a steady stream of tweets rolled in from participants inside the room, viewing the Live Stream and even some just following the hashtag #culturedays - we were trending in Canada by mid-morning!

Here's a quick selection of some choice tweets:

• @BlancheIsrael This is actually the definition of heated panel #edgeofmyseat #culturedays
• @TimCrouchFlute: Love what movies can teach us for arts presentation #culturedays #cineplex
• @simon_brault: Marc Lemay (Patrimoine) parle d'un changement depuis 10 ans: les organismes artistiques se branchent + sur leurs communautés #culturedays
• @AGMengage: Great news from @antoni_ssf = #CultureDays launches new blog today! CultureDays.ca/Culture365 – celebrate culture 365 days a year!
• @VirginiaEichhor – "For the arts/business relationships – it is no longer about 'asks' but about dev'ping real partnerships" #culturedays Igniting Passion
• @artisticforce: What is the new economic model that unites gov't, private, charitable, and ind. artists who are the ones not on payroll.
• @scifichar: Keynote speaker Robert Sirman is giving an inspirational talk @CultureDays congress. I am even more motivated to increase my civic footprint

• @Troutinplaid: One of the good parts of #culturedays is events like National Congress 2013 that can engage the whole community on arts value & strategies
• @jacobzimmer: "Brand" is the new language – it too shall pass. Don't have to use the word, but need to understand the concepts. @AyrSpace #CultureDays
• @jacqua83: Arts and culture is not an activity but a dimension of life. – Louise Sicuro #CultureDays
• @BalletCreole: Shannon Thunderbird: I just want to create accurate + vivid memories of my ppl. #culturedays
• @HenkonPEI: All day talking culture in the Royal York ballroom. Where Ella, Eartha, Dietrich & Count Basie all played. Inspiring day. #CultureDays
• @scrawley4: The first annual Culture Days Congress was extremely vibrant with a shared passion to engage Canadians in creativity. #culturedays

Before the Congress ended, Culture Days squeezed in a quick online survey with attendees. A few early stats: 81% of respondents said the Congress experience met their expectations and 75% said they would be back next year. (Next National Congress on Culture: 2014 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.) Many left helpful comments, suggestions and feedback. Whether you attended the Congress in person or online, if you haven't had a chance to fill out the survey, you can do it now by following this link. It's exceptionally short - will only take you 3 minutes. Here's a sampling of some comments from survey respondents:

Great to network. Wasn't sure what to expect. Interesting amalgam of guests and participants.

Overall great experience. Would love to see breakouts and workshops in future iterations of the Culture Days Congress.

I had been looking forward to this Congress and I feel gratefully rejuvenated. I also think I feel less alone out here as an artist now. It is hopeful that through dialogue and interaction those of us in the different art fields can feel connected to support each other. Thanks for the live steaming because it is quickly becoming my favourite way to connect and stay connected.

Well, if that doesn't say A Job Well Done, I don't know what would. It's a wrap! I'm signing off, for today at least.

But wait - be sure to come back! There's still lots more neat content to come. And consider contributing your takeaways from the Congress to the new Culture365 blog; you can adding your voice to the blog by commenting below or writing a blog post here.

What's to come: Look out for a series of Culture Days case studies and a full report put together by Lara Evoy on various themes that emerged throughout the Congress. Lots more tips and inspiration to glean from there! As well, at the Friday dinner, it was announced that Culture Days will unveil a new National Awards program in the coming weeks: Next year, at the Congress in Winnipeg, Culture Days organizers will be recognized with awards that highlight their exceptional public engagement efforts. Details on the program and nomination process will be announced soon. So stay tuned! More great news and content on its way to a computer screen near you. Just make sure you've subscribed to the Culture Days e-newsletter or follow Culture Days on Twitter to get the latest updates.

The post A “digital, diverse and non-linear” review of the National Congress 2013 appeared first on culture365.