Posts Tagged ‘revitalize communities’

Other Ways To Get Involved

April 19th, 2010 by Culture Days

As an inclusive initiative driven by solidarity and collaboration, Culture Days relies on your participation.

There are many ways to get involved. Virtually anyone can organize an activity. Or consider participating in one of the following ways:

Offer a venue

If you have a venue such as a classroom, theatre, office space, public space, studio, arts centre, gallery, lobby area, commercial building or other easily accessible space, consider offering the use of your venue to artists or other activity organizers as the location for a Culture Days activity. If you don’t know any artists or cultural groups, send a message to the Provincial Task Force in your region – they may be able to put you in touch with an artist or group that is looking for space.

Volunteer or help support an activity

Spread the word about Culture Days to your community leaders, artists, and cultural groups by circulating our newsletters, talking about the movement at local events, and posting our logo or poster up in support of the celebration. Or maybe you could be the go-between person who helps put the artist in touch with the folks with the office space that they would like to see animated with an interactive art experience during Culture Days. If you work in the business sector, suggest to your colleagues to invite artists to work with your business group as a great team-building exercise.

Activate your community
You run a business, you coordinate community groups, you lead school/ social activities, you are an active Facebook/Twitter/etc. user, you have a blog… In short, you know people, and you can get the word out to them. Spread the word about Culture Days and suggest to people in your network to become part of the experience – as an audience participant, an activity organizer, a supporter, or in any other role you can think of! Sign up for e-updates or follow us on Twitter so you can be among the first to know what’s happening. Post a tip on our Facebook page to help others activate their community.

Let us know what you think
If you have an opinion, an idea, a suggestion, a tip, or any other contribution to send our way…Get in touch! Culture Days is an open movement and a self-mobilizing network. We look to everyone, including you, to help shape the development of this grassroots initiative.

Declare your alliance
If you work for a municipality or a regional community, encourage your municipal cultural planning department to make Culture Days part of its annual programs. In Québec, where the inspiration for Culture Days originated, 276 municipalities have signed the official Declaration of Journées de la culture and 234 municipalities directly organize cultural activities during the weekend-long celebration of local arts and culture.  Download the simple, 1-page official Declaration of Journées de la culture and let us know if you think this would be a useful tool to help bring every municipality and regional community on board as a Culture Days collaborator.

Arts & Culture in Society

March 24th, 2010 by Culture Days

Arts and Culture Play A Fundamental Role In The Development of Canadian Society

A society’s or a people’s culture is expressed in many different ways – including painting, writing, theatre, dance, pottery, quilting, museums, landmarks, sculptures, architecture, and many more. To quote one of our national collaborators, the Creative City Network of Canada:

  • Culture is a way for individuals and communities to express and engage themselves with family, friends, and their neighbourhoods, their communities. Culture can be used to renew or revitalize municipalities, regions, even a country. It can build community identity and pride, strengthen bonds, improve quality of life on all socioeconomic levels, and engage children and youth in education and their environment.
  • Culture can be the catalyst for positive change, engaging all ages and communities. Diversity can be embraced through culture, building trust and understanding. And culture can act as the economic engine that drives municipalities toward growth and prosperity.

The Creative City Network has published a series of 6 papers collectively entitled, Making the Case for Culture. These documents “detail how and why culture is key to our betterment”. Click on the image below to be taken to the Creative City Network’s website where you may download or read the papers online.