Programming Ideas

A well-planned event starts with clear goals. Before diving into the details, take a moment to define what you want to achieve—whether for yourself, your community, or both. Consider these key questions as you plan:

• Do you want to showcase artists or community talent?

• Are you interested in partnering with other artists, community partners, or collaborators?

• Are you aiming to increase engagement from a specific audience?

• Are you addressing a particular need or interest within your community?

Key Considerations

• Format: In-person, online, or self-guided

• Venue Options: Libraries, community centres, your own studio space, rented local venues, local arts organizations, theatres, local cafés, parks and other public areas, etc.

• Funding and Budget: Do you have a budget in place? Are there funding opportunities available for your event (government grants, sponsorships, partnerships)? Could you collaborate with others to share costs or apply for joint funding?
  
  Look through a list of funding opportunities from across the country to be aware of:

  

  Funding Opportunities

  Whether you’re planning for Culture Days events or other arts, culture, and heritage programs, here is a list of funding opportunities with upcoming or rolling deadlines from across the country to be...

  More learning:

• Watch: Public Arts Equity in Action Webinar

• Watch: Access Journey for the Event Organizer Webinar

Culture Days offers a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with artists, organizations, community partners, and venues to plan events that celebrate and support arts, culture, and heritage in your community. By partnering with others, you can enhance your event's impact and reach while pooling resources and creativity.

• Who can you partner with? Consider artists, organizations, community groups, or local venues that could support your event.

• Sharing Resources: Can you collaborate to share space, materials, staff, or other resources?

• Connect with your local and regional Culture Days offices and organizations

Event organizers including public libraries, performing arts centres, theatres, museums, and municipalities can adapt already planned programming in a variety of ways to participate in Culture Days, attract new audiences, and strengthen community ties! Here are some ideas on how to adapt planned programming to fit Culture Days event eligibility: 

• If you are hosting an exhibition, offer a gallery tour or art walk led by gallery staff 

• Offer open rehearsals, backstage tours in theatres, libraries, studios, and other creative spaces

• Invite audiences for free or PYWM artist talks before and/or after an event 

• Designate a selection of free or PWYM tickets to your event

• Consider free admission to your gallery space during specific times during the Culture Days run 

• Organize a creative gathering as part of a current program, where local community members can come together and participate in activities like sketching, crafting, and collaborative art-making.

• Venues could offer a ‘Free Series’ as part of their annual programming. 

Explore more event programming ideas and tips in BC’s Adapting Programming | Culture Days Page.

• Artifact preservation workshop: Ask the public to bring an artifact from home and show them how to preserve their treasured pieces

• Walking tour of historic neighborhoods, historic plaques, and culturally significant places

• Talk and/or presentation with elders and local knowledge-keepers 

• Sensory and hands-on learning opportunities

• Collect and share oral histories 

• Historic food, crafts, and games

• Collaborative pop-up museum: Invite the public to contribute a work of art, story, or artifact

• Community Time Capsule 

• A story or poem contest 

• Genealogy and Family Tree activities: Make use of library resources, archives, and online tools

• 3-D Printing workshop

• Multilingual storytelling session

• Celebrate local talent: Meet-ups, talk backs and readings by local authors

• Library After Dark events: Host an ‘Adults read things they wrote as kids’ night or poetry reading

• Build a collaborative project. For example, collect postcards from community members and display them to share the memories and moments from a special place

• Host a Braille reading lesson

• Facilitate a youth fashion show

• Host an open mic night! 

• Back-of-House tour: Spotlight props and wardrobe departments, dressing rooms, rehearsal halls, set design, etc.

• Pre-show talk back 

• Improv workshop for beginners

• Play readings for aspiring playwrights

• Stage combat and/or sound effects workshops

• Open rehearsal

• Stand-up comedy night featuring local comedians

• Actor for a Day: Let members of the public try out a role in a scene from a signature or upcoming show

Dance

• Rhythmic/Movement Therapy classes

• Lessons for different ages, abilities, and levels of experience

• Dance outside the box: Develop site-specific work in a unique or unexpected setting

• Flash mob!

• Sampler class: Lead 4-5 micro classes in different styles

• History of Dance presentation: How, where, and why did your dance discipline develop? 

• Collaborative choreography: Create a new work for the public WITH the public

• Sneak peek at your upcoming show or season

Museums and Heritage

• Artifact preservation workshop: Ask the public to bring an artifact from home and show them how to preserve their treasured pieces

• Walking tour of historic neighborhoods, historic plaques, and culturally significant places

• Talk and/or presentation with elders and local knowledge-keepers 

• Sensory and hands-on learning opportunities

• Collect and share oral histories 

• Historic food, crafts, and games

• Collaborative pop-up museum: Invite the public to contribute a work of art, story, or artifact

• Community Time Capsule 

Visual Arts and Craft

• Studio tour

• Collaborative community mural

• Art Therapy workshop

• ‘Make & Take’ art swap

• Knit-in and yarn bombing

• Walking or biking tour of local public art

• Matting and framing lesson

• ‘En Plein Air’ workshop

Music

• Invite the public to conduct your choir, orchestra, or symphony

• Songwriting workshop with a local musician 

• Community jam sessions or coffee shop open mic night

• Beatbox workshop

• Build your own instruments for kids: Pellet drums, ankle bells, tambourines, etc.

• Webcast concert and virtual chat with a conductor, composer, etc.

• Recording studio tour and demonstration

• Studio tour

• Collaborative community mural

• Art Therapy workshop

• ‘Make & Take’ art swap

• Knit-in and yarn bombing

• Walking or biking tour of local public art

• Matting and framing lesson

• ‘En Plein Air’ workshop

• Invite the public to conduct your choir, orchestra, or symphony

• Songwriting workshop with a local musician 

• Community jam sessions or coffee shop open mic night

• Beatbox workshop

• Build your own instruments for kids: Pellet drums, ankle bells, tambourines, etc.

• Webcast concert and virtual chat with a conductor, composer, etc.

• Recording studio tour and demonstration

• Sensory-friendly and/or relaxed screenings 

• Hands-on Stop-motion and Claymation workshop

• Silent film screening with live music

• Special FX demonstrations

• Storyboarding workshops

• Exhibit vintage film and video equipment, processes etc.

• Outdoor/public space screenings

• ‘Make a film in a day’ workshops

• Home food preservation workshop: How to pickle, can, ferment, and dry

• From Harvest to table: Food Foraging activities  

• Decorative fruit and vegetable carving

• Tastings: Wine, cheese, coffee, olive oil, locally-grown apples, etc.

• Explore traditional food cultures: Chinese tea culture, polish cuisine, Jamaican flavors, etc.

• Farm, brewery, or orchard tours

• Community and/or at-home gardening and composting 

• Harvest festivals

• A nature photography-based hike

• Community-based nature walk highlighting local plants and wildlife

• Seminar on climate change effects in your community 

• Bird watching 

• Community garden harvest activities 

• A trip to the docks: Learn more about fish and wildlife in your area 

• Wildflower pressing workshop 

• En plein air painting session

Many of the programming ideas listed above can be adjusted to be multidisciplinary, like the following examples:

• Have a musician interpret the work of a visual artist and vice versa

• Pair a writing workshop with a hiking group: Poets compose site-specific poetry to be recited on a hike during Culture Days

• Provide theatre or dance costumes or props for volunteers to model for a life drawing class

• Hold an ‘action photography’ workshop with a dance class as the subject

• Choose a theme or creative prompt and invite artists of different artistic mediums to submit their interpretations

• Host an afternoon of outdoor foraging to make natural dyes

• Collage poetry workshops

Many of the programming examples on this page can be adapted for an online platform, but here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Online film or documentary screening

• Live-streamed concert or musical performance

• Virtual Book Club

• Online workshop presented by a local actor

• Live-streamed poetry reading

• Online storytelling round-table

• Virtual danceathon or choreography lesson 

• Digital beading workshop 

For a list of online platforms on which to host your program and other tips, check out our Online Programming Resource.

Self-guided activities are great because they allow participants—both individuals and groups—to go at their own pace. Self-guided programs can be uniquely tailored to your community, or developed for ‘do-it-at-home’ accessible participation.

• Self-guided public art walking tour

• Do-it-at-home arts and craft projects: Still life painting, Zine-making, sewing class

• Outdoor/nature scavenger hunt

• Story writing, poetry, or journaling prompts

• DIY baking or cooking lesson  

• Artwork show-and-tell for children

• Audio adventures: themed storytime, heritage podcasts, dramatic readings

• Create an at-home herb garden

Now that you’ve planned your event, it’s time to build excitement and invite your community!

When promoting your event, consider:

• How to leverage local networks: Connect with arts councils, libraries, schools, local businesses, arts organizations and cultural centres to expand your reach.

• Cross-Promotion: Partner with collaborators to share each other’s events through social media, newsletters, at other events, and community boards.

• Media Outreach: Engage local newspapers or publications, radio stations, and local social media influencers to help spread the word.

• Join the Culture Days Campaign: Find posters, social media graphics, design elements and guidance in the Culture Days Marketing Campaign Kit (Google Drive). You can also find assets to build your own materials and customize to your needs.
  
  Take your marketing and media strategy to the next level with the Promotions and Media Relations Guide! Look through it for expert tips to get your audiences to take notice and action:

  

  Promotions and Media Relations Guide

  Nuit Blanche Saskatoon, SK. 2023. Photo by Jae KimGetting StartedYou’ve planned your event, and now it’s time to get everybody excited about attending it! This Guide has been developed to give you the...