We love to see people in person to talk about the things that are most important to the people who live here, study here, work here, or those who have inherent rights to this land.

We hope you can join us for a conversation.

Conversation Cafés

We are hosting three sessions to dig deeper in culture plan topics in small group conversations with the community. Everyone is invited.

Please register to attend one of the following dates and locations:

• Tuesday, August 1, 7 to 9 p.m. in The LOFT space at Longo’s, 24 Clair Rd. W.
• Thursday, August 3, 10 a.m. to noon – Guelph Little Theatre, 176 Morris St.
• Saturday, August 5, 10 a.m. to noon – Guelph Civic Museum, 52 Norfolk St.

At each session, we will enjoy light refreshments and create a mosaic together while talking about culture in the community. We'll be looking at several topics including:

• What does the word 'culture' mean to you
• What is special about culture in Guelph
• What is missing from the culture scene across the community and how we can best address those gaps, and
• What role should the City play in culture

Please note: If you wish to bring your children along, activities for kids aged 4 and up will be available during the session on Saturday, August 5 at the Museum. Please let us know who to expect when you register.

Register here to attend a conversation café

Indigenous Sharing Circle

We're creating a safe space on the evening of August 15 specifically for people who identify as Indigenous to Turtle Island (First Nations, Inuit, Métis and those of mixed Indigenous ancestry are all welcome).

Join us outdoors and come together in circle with City staff to share your thoughts, wisdom and wishes for culture and Indigeneity in Guelph.

A light meal will be provided and recognition for your time can be arranged.

Contact tracy.suerich@guelph.ca for location and details.

Can't attend? No problem

If you can't attend a conversation café or sharing circle but would like to connect with our team directly, we would love to hear from you.

Please reach out to us

Gregory Peddie
Coordinator, Cultural Programs and Events. City of Guelph
519-822-1260 extension 2629, TTY 519-822-9771
gregory.peddie@guelph.ca

The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport with the Province of Ontario describes cultural planning as “a place-based approach to planning and development. It is a process for identifying and leveraging a community’s cultural resources, strengthening the management of those resources, and integrating those resources across all facets of local planning and decision making.”

We have understood for some time that Guelph would benefit from a robust Culture Plan to guide investment, collaboration, promotion, and growth of the local culture sector. During this time of post-pandemic recovery, there is an opportunity to develop and implement a Culture Plan that aims to stabilize and rebuild the local creative sector, while firmly establishing culture as a driver for a thriving Guelph.

Culture supports four essential pieces of a thriving city:

• Economic prosperity
• Social equity
• Environmental responsibility
• Cultural vitality

The Culture Plan will define and leverage the City’s cultural identity; quantify and build capacity; foster collaboration and coordination between the City and the local creative community and ensure cultural considerations in City planning and decision-making processes. It will be representative of the diversity in Guelph, inclusive of multiple perspectives, and equitable in approach.

Community Plan

While we were creating the Community Plan with hundreds of voices from across Guelph, we hosted an Arts and Culture sector workshop on December 18, 2018. This work contributed to the foundation of the culture plan to come.

There we heard that the arts and culture scene in Guelph inspires people to become residents of this great community.

• Art is extremely important to communities.
• It breaks down barriers, creates safe places to explore and express yourself and brings community together.
• “Art is not a beautifying element—it is core to the success of a vibrant and growing community as well as an economic driver.”
• Funding is the major barrier/obstacle for most arts and culture organizations.
• Arts and culture builds bridges across all generations.

We also heard about gaps and barriers getting in the way of the arts and culture community achieving success, including funding, connectivity and partnerships, supports and facilities. We also heard need for a strategic plan for culture.

Then what happened?

Over the course of the pandemic, engagement on the culture plan occurred as sub-conversations as we worked on in a number of other projects including the Central Library in the Baker District development and the Parks and Recreation Master Plan.

Create, Play and Stay

In 2022, we teamed up with Tourism and Economic Development to explore where culture and creative industry fit into the landscape of a thriving network of businesses and opportunities that attract people to our city.

Here we hosted further conversations with leaders in the culture industry and online engagement for the broader community to explore:

• What’s working well already
• What are our weaknesses
• What are our primary cultural assets
• What Guelph could look like in 10 years
• Partnership, and
• Community priorities

What now?

And now we’re back to fill in some gaps in what we’ve heard and who we reached in earlier engagement activities, and to dig a little deeper and understand what may have changed over the course of the last five years.

We do expect some impacts on the municipal budget for the implementation of Culture Plan.

This plan will go forward for Council approval in October 2023, and the multi-year budget (for 2024-2027) will be presented this November. Staff have identified a range of budget requests to fulfill the plan based on what we've heard so far in order to meet the deadlines the City’s budget process.

Though the budget is set for a four-year period (and capital projects like new facilities and equipment are on a 10-year projection), the budget is opened up each year to ensure we have budgeted appropriately to meet the needs of the community. The finished Culture Plan may influence changes to the budget in coming years.