Culture Days – Who are you and what do you do?
Marlee Robison – I am a retired art historian and event planner. One of the organisations I am involved with is the Erie Ridge Cultural Action Team (CAT) of which I am Chair. Our focal point is the development of cultural activities in our area. Chatham-Kent is an amalgamated community of 22 scattered towns with a total population of approximately 107,000. The Erie Ridge CAT runs along Lake Erie at the eastern end of the municipality.

CD – What made your 2010 Culture Days activities unique?
MR – We created the “Passport to Culture” – a sort of cultural Doors Open. The Passport featured 8 stops covering a wide range of cultural assets in this area of Chatham-Kent in our predominantly rural area.  With funding from the Community Futures Development Corporation, we designed and printed maps and posters, as well as supplied ballot boxes for draw prizes. We tried designing maps that people would want to keep, highlighting local cultural centres.

Chatham-Kent’s diverse history includes early Black settlements. The Buxton National Historic Site and Museum on the original site of the Elgin Settlement, one of the last stops on the Underground Railway for hundreds of fugitive slaves, offered free admission for the day and organised guest artists with deep roots in the Buxton community. Three bead makers from the New Hope Beaders took part using handmade beads from Uganda to make jewellery. Profits from the sale of the jewellery funds schools in the Rift Valley in Tanzania.

We included Ridgetown weekly Farmers’ Market, which features locally grown produce and handmade craft items. A number of crafters did demonstrations on the day.

Two specialty gift shops participated. Mitton’s Jewellery Ltd. (established in 1897 and still run by the Mitton family) arranged the first solo exhibition of local jeweller, Brenda Braun. Mittons, which has received a Mayor’s Heritage Award, now stocks Brenda Braun’s jewellery on a regular basis as result of the Culture Days event. The second store, Antiquated Joys, exhibited painted pottery, glassware, and furniture by Lynda Goldhawk.

Another stop on the Passport trail was the Blenheim Freedom Library and Museum which celebrates the history of veterans in the area. The museum, housed in a former church, contains uniforms, medals, and biographies of veterans who served in the first and second world wars. The library houses 1,500 reference books and videotapes. During the Culture Days event, Veterans talked to people about their experiences and interacted with visitors.

The Blenheim Historical Society is housed in Heritage House of Blenheim & District, a family home dating back to the 1870s. The home was restored and furnished and is now used for the community archives and collections.

The Mary Webb Cultural and Community Centre is housed in the former Highgate United Church. This successful adaptive re-use is in the early stages of transformation into a venue for entertainment, presentations, education, cultural and community activities. For Culture Days, volunteers gave guided tours of the centre and the CK Etsy artisan group demonstrated and sold home crafts.

Finally, we were really excited when the local library asked to participate. The library put up a display of European centres: travel books about Europe, fiction books with stories taking place in European location, and videos of European countries. People from different communities were invited to speak about their culture.

CD – What inspired or surprised you about Culture Days?
MR – Rural communities can be seen as isolated, so by taking part in something that was across Canada, we were given a chance to confirm that we were a part of the national community.  We were pleased that our efforts were acknowledged in our community and that we were one on a list of 26 participants to be highlighted across the country in the Globe and Mail.

CD - What did you learn from your experience of Culture Days that would be useful for other activity organizers to know?
MR - Arts and culture is everywhere. People enjoy learning about different things. Stores and libraries are cultural centres. People need to be open to what is around them. Passport to Culture was a good name, because it was seen as an awakening journey. We would like to do more music and literary arts in the future.

The Mary Webb Centre has already had concerts by a number of Juno winners and now has a poetry reading evening coming up featuring award-winning poets.

CD - What do you feel is the impact of culture in your community?
MR - We are mainly an agricultural community. We are also a manufacturing community, but this industry has had a decline. Municipalities are starting to understand that culture and heritage create jobs - not just for artists, but also for the people who work around culture, bringing new money into the economy. Visible culture brings a higher quality of life attracting entrepreneurs and businesses.