District of West Vancouver Launches New Arts & Culture Strategy

IMAGE: DISTRICT OF WEST VANCOUVER

The District of West Vancouver's new arts and culture strategy, which was initially announced in late 2016, will launch this month. This will include consultations, led by the District in communication with consulting firm MDB Insight, to include stakeholder meetings, open houses and cultural cafés.

A steering committee of representatives from various sectors has been formed to work with the consultant and staff. Residents can sign up for ongoing updates on the process on the District of West Vancouver's website.

The District has released an overview of the new strategy, which is excerpted below.

West Vancouver's New Arts & Culture Strategy: An Overview

One of the Council’s eight priorities is to update the District’s Arts & Culture Strategy. Arts and culture in West Vancouver incorporate a broad array of programs and services, community groups delivering arts programs, individual artists from all arts disciplines, participants, audiences and volunteers.

WHY A NEW ARTS & CULTURE STRATEGY?

•  Arts and culture contribute to the social fabric of the community by increasing community pride, social interaction, sharing of ideas, community identity and community wellness.
• The most recent comprehensive Strategy that guided the District in the delivery of services was the 2005–2014 Celebration & Collaboration: Arts & Culture Strategy.
• Over the last ten years, a number of planning processes have been conducted in West Vancouver around cultural services and facilities. These plans incorporated considerable community and stakeholder input and will provide a foundation for the new Arts & Culture Strategy.

WHAT WILL THE NEW ARTS & CULTURE STRATEGY INCLUDE?

• a five-year plan (2017–2022) that identifies key initiatives, timelines and metrics to guide the District’s delivery of arts and culture services and programs. Arts and culture also link to a number of other sectors such as economic sustainability, tourism, and education
• Arts Facility Needs Assessment—a review of current facilities used by the District and community
• Cultural Scan of community groups providing arts and culture services in West Vancouver
• a comprehensive community engagement process that articulates the community’s vision and priorities for arts and culture services, programs and facilities
• a process to develop key principles and criteria for decision-making to enable the District to prioritize its allocation of resources for the delivery of arts and culture services
• an implementation plan that aims to develop a collaborative, coordinated and community-based approach to enhance the quality, access and delivery of arts and culture services in West Vancouver
• an annual review process to ensure progress towards the vision and accomplishment of key priorities. 

TIMELINE FOR THE ARTS & CULTURE STRATEGY

UPDATE (Jan. 16, 2017): The previous version of this post laid out a provisional timeline for the implementation of the arts and culture strategy. The website for the strategy has since removed that timeline and replaced it with the following note:

The consulting firm MDB Insight has been contracted to work with District staff to develop the scope of the strategy and lead the community consultation process. A timeline for the community consultation meetings will be posted soon.