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Themes

1. A ‘Culture of Abundance’ – Celebrate Our Strengths

2. Culture-led Economic Development

3. Culture and Tourism

4. Cultural and Local Food

5. Enriching County Identity

6. Coordination and Collaboration in the Cultural Sector

7. Cultural Spaces and Facilities

8. Organizing for Success

9. Aligning Plans and Strategies

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Theme 1: Celebrating our Cultural Assets

• Natural and Cultural Heritage – Oil Heritage District Designation (World Heritage Site) – ‘wow factor’

– Heritage Sarnia-Lambton – strong network

– Major Environmentally Significant Areas + Waterfront Trails + Natural Heritage Strategy

– Strong agricultural heritage

– Waterfront – 75 km of lake and river front

• Growing and vibrant arts community – Downtown Sarnia – success of First Fridays and Art Walks

– Grand Bend – strong local fine arts community

– Strengths across the County—Petrolia, museums, libraries…

• Cultural hubs across the County – Downtown Sarnia – Gallery Lambton, Library, Commercial galleries, Stones ‘n Bones…

– Oil Heritage District

– Downtowns across the County – e.g., Grand Bend, Forest, Petrolia…

• Network of facilities across the County – 30 libraries and heritage sites as nodes of cultural activities and opportunities

– Initial work on mapping cultural assets completed 2007

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Theme 2: Culture-Led Economic Development

• Culture-led economic development opportunities not well understood within municipalities and across the community

– Culture major contributor to quality of place to attract and retain people and talent

– Rapidly expanding creative cultural industries

– Culture not ‘silver bullet’ but one part of economic diversification strategies

• Economic restructuring – Evolving industrial base - manufacturing and resource-based to creative economy jobs

– CRINK Economy

• Changing demographics – Declining and aging population - like most rural areas in Ontario

– Strategies in place to address and manage – e.g., youth attraction/retention, health care professionals, etc.

– Immigration is low, especially in County;

– Lambton College—impact of students, foreign students…

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Theme 2: Culture-Led Economic Development (cont’d)

• Responses – Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership

• Ambitious agenda for economic transformation – Green energy, etc.

• 2007 Strategic Plan – stronger focus on creativity and culture

• Potential strategic leadership role in culture-led economic development – but new staff requirements

– Lambton College

• Powerful resource to support emerging creative economy – e.g., Partnership with University of Western Ontario on Research Park

• President expresses strong support for cultural plan and its economic importance

– Culture-led Economic Development Summit?

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Theme 3: Culture and Tourism

• New Regional Tourism Organization (RTO1) Opportunity – Priorities include agri-tourism, waterfronts, motorcycle tourism, etc – strong synergies

with Lambton strengths – e.g., strong trails system

• Cultural vitality of downtowns – Sarnia - new anchor in Gallery Lambton

– Need for critical mass of activity – festivals, events, farmers markets, etc. in all downtowns to increase vitality and appeal

• Central cultural mapping hub or portal

- use of social media

- Potential application of cultural mapping and storytelling tools

• Exploit synergies across cultural, culinary and agri-tourism– Market research confirms strong links + festivals, tourist events…

– Tourism packaging and marketing

• Leadership role for renewed Tourism Sarnia-Lambton– Marketing and promotion

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Theme 4: Culture and Local Food

• Strong local food connections, history in county• Culinary Tourism (eg. Butter Tart Trail)• Expanded economic opportunities:

– Farmer’s Markets

– Farm-gate tours, sales, tourism…

– Support for local producers, farmers

– Local hospitality industry

• Links with Lambton College Hospitality program…• Downtown revitalization

– But role of arts, food, heritage, culture, downtown living/ live/work space not full appreciated (by residents or Council)

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Theme 5: Enriching County Identity

• Cultural plan can help contribute to building a positive shared identity for the County

– Profiling success stories and stories of creativity

– Connect urban and rural – long-time residents and new

• Profile defining characteristics of County’s culture– Rich agricultural heritage and stories

– Unifying story of waterfront and the river

– Proud story of oil heritage and innovation

– Profile stories of creativity and innovation throughout its history

• ‘The lure of Lambton’

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Theme 6: Coordination and Collaboration in the Cultural Sector

• Strong achievements among heritage groups through Heritage Sarnia-Lambton• How do we support comparable networking and collaboration in the arts

community?– What new mechanisms might support Sarnia (Lambton?) Cultural Council??

• Potential networking and partnership mechanisms to be explored– Requires staff support to maintain momentum and motivation of volunteers

• Better connect individual artists working in isolation • Potential for cultural mapping systems to support collaboration and networking • Support by municipality for arts, cultural achievements…

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Theme 7: Cultural Spaces and Facilities

• Extraordinary network of existing County spaces and facilities– 26 branch libraries + 4 heritage facilities

– Many additional cultural spaces owned or operated by government, non-profit or commercial groups

• Need for a systematic inventory of cultural spaces across the County– Including spaces in churches, schools and facilities with potential cultural uses.

• Inventory can inform the development of a more integrated (‘whole systems’) understanding of this spaces and facilities

– Leading practices in other communities to identify different spaces addressing different kinds of cultural needs and activities

– Analysis can assist in identifying gaps – including better-focused mandate and role for Lawrence House

• Changing nature of libraries – As role of libraries as repositories of books declines, there is an opportunity to re-purpose

these spaces as cultural centres with a variety of uses and purposes

– 2014 Sarnia Centenary project??

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Theme 8: Organizing for Success

• Complex governance structure – Challenges of rural/urban – County/local municipalities

• Culture-led economic development – potential leadership roles– Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership – strategic lead on full creativity and culture

agenda?

– Tourism Sarnia-Lambton – role in extended marketing and promotion

• Lambton County Cultural Mandate – Define an explicit mandate and set of responsibilities for the County (beyond those

addressed by the Cultural Services Division)

– Cultural Services Division

• Within the larger County mandate, clarify Divisional roles in support of larger County mandate and support for Cultural agenda

• New County Cultural Committee (and potential Heritage Advisory Committee)?

• New Lambton Cultural Alliance or Sarnia Lambton Cultural Council?

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Theme 8: Organizing for Success (cont’d)

• Overriding Governance Model – various options and scenarios to consider – Clarify and define stronger role for County Cultural Committee

• See various models – including London’s Creative City Committee, C-K…

– Other potential mechanisms

• Some form of Cultural Roundtable or cross-sectoral partnership body

• Potential for annual Cultural Summit

• Formal representation of culture on Community Roundtable

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Theme 9: Aligning Plans and Strategies

• New Official Plans for both Lambton County and Sarnia– Cultural Plan themes should be woven into both new OPs

• Integrated Community Sustainability Plan– Currently underway with strong interest in incorporating culture as the ‘fourth pillar’

• Capacity building for culture – Need for strong shared knowledge and understanding across departments

– Need for information and indicators/benchmarks to assist planning and decision-making

– Examine leading practice and tools in other municipalities

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