Last week I shared how the arts are one of the best ways to develop creativity skills. Those skills can be taken into every other area of life, so we definitely benefit personally from learning to be more creative. But how do arts and culture and creativity benefit us as a community? According to an organization called The Creative City Network of Canada, here are some of the benefits they have discovered. Arts and culture… • provide direct economic benefits to a community • create job growth in the cultural sector and spawn “spin-off ” businesses • promote and enhance cultural development • improve the ability of communities to attract skilled workers • help a community gain a competitive advantage as a “destination city” for cultural tourism • create new spaces for community activity and interaction • improve the sense of place as well as the physical and emotional state of a community • increase community vitality and bring positive changes • develop creative learning communities • increase the quality of life • bridge commerce, culture and business • foster a sense of ownership, belonging and pride within a community I can easily see all of those benefits coming to Cochrane as we encourage and support the growth of arts, culture and creativity here. So how can we do that? I shared four things in my presentation. 1. better understanding the value of the arts to us as a community, and not making the mistake of seeing it as frivolous and unnecessary 2. educating our community about what we already have and the potential we see 3. developing a strong and united arts community 4. providing a place where the arts and creativity can be nurtured and developed I think it is part of CIAS’s mandate – and that of the whole arts community – to educate the community about the value of the arts and about what we already have here. It’s also our mandate to develop a great vision that will get people excited about the potential we have here. I have heard the comment quite a number of times that, "yes, we do have lots of good arts here, but everybody just stays in their own little circle." I agree that it is the arts community that needs to come together and develop a strong and united community. I loved the idea a caller expressed to me recently – that a partnership is always stronger than a single member. We have the potential to accomplish far more when we see our purpose as supporting and building each other up, helping each other grow into our artistic and creative potential. If we can do that, we can do some really amazing things. I think it is the town together with the arts community and other interested partners that needs to find a way to provide a physical place where the arts and the community as a whole can come together and grow. I want to give a special thanks to the town for its leadership in this already by creating the Tri-Site Advisory Group and including arts and culture in their discussions. I had the opportunity to attend the Tri-Site Open House last week Wednesday. I got to see and meet some of the other parties who want to be included in those developments. I think there are quite a number of them that we could work together with going forward and I am hoping to explore those possibilities in the days ahead. For the rest of what I shared, you can access the full presentation here: http://www.cochranearts.com/cias-art-centre-presentation-to-tri-site-group/. Next week’s edition of The Eagle will be coming out just prior to our first CIAS arts event – the Kickstart Party on Sep 29, 2-5 pm, so be sure to watch for it as I’ll be filling you in on all the exciting details!
