There’s a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to cultural mapping in Minto – and now there are numbers to prove it.
About 30 people including committee members attended the March 2 meeting. As Minto’s cultural mapping project approaches its midway point, another public meeting was held, this time appropriately enough, in the basement of the Harriston library.
Harriston’s turn of the century library is one of the numerous Carnegie libraries established throughout North America. The building is slated for renovation and expansion by Wellington County.
That will make the building more accessible and include space to showcase Minto’s heritage and cultural assets.
Economic development officer Belinda Wick-Graham provided background to the cultural project started in 2010.
There were three public meetings to gather and map information. Last April, Minto received a grant of $55,000 from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to fund its work.
AuthentiCity is leading the Minto cultural plan and cultural mapping project and is a nationally recognized leader in that field. The company has completed projects for municipalities of widely differing sizes and contexts across Canada.
Dr. Greg Baeker, senior consultant and founder of AuthentiCity, is author of Rediscovering the Wealth of Places: A Municipal Cultural Planning Handbook for Canadian Communities published in 2010 by Municipal World.
He spoke about the results in Minto and directions the process could take. Part of the presentation, included an interactive website map to identify and showcase Minto’s assets.
Most of the night was spent looking at vision statements and directions. Though more specific strategies would be ironed out later, Baeker said the idea was to test the waters to determine if the committee is headed in the right direction.
He noted the website www.mintoculturalplan.ca was created, which includes updates as the process continues. “The idea is that the website will not stop when the plan is completed, but that it be a continuing resource for cultural networking and so forth.”
Baeker explained such mapping is a systematic way of identifying and documenting cultural resources and assets in the community.
He said Minto “is the smallest community which has undertaken a cultural mapping in Ontario – by a long shot actually.”
The next smallest was Prince Edward County, with a population of 25,000.
“We’ve had some challenges, but in some ways, we are breaking ground in doing this type of work in a small rural community.”
Rather than using existing methods, the data had to be gathered “from the ground up” Baeker said.
There are two types of mapping – tangible assets of the community, and intangible – stories of the community.
The process is at the stage where a broad vision is being created, along with a set of directions for the plan “We wanted to test that with the community before we get too far down the road.”
Baeker said cultural assets are defined on a framework set out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as a consistent way for municipalities to gather information.
The following numbers were presented for the broad categories used for the mapping: creative cultural industries, 47; community cultural organizations, 14; spaces and facilities, 4; cultural heritage, 97; natural heritage, 15; and festivals and events, 21.
He suggested there are likely more locations where cultural activities could take place and one suggestions is to create an inventory where they could take place.
Wick-Graham said the numbers “are just the start.” Those numbers were generated by the steering committee. “There’s probably way more other people who can be added to the list as well.”
Baeker said “In a sense, cultural mapping is never done.”
While the cultural plan and web-map sites are currently separate from the town’s website, the information will be linked through it.
Minto Mayor George Bridge asked what consideration there is to providing a hard copy of the cultural map for those without computers.
Baeker said it had not been talked about locally, the Georgian Bay has a large scale hard copy map.
Wick-Graham said the intent is placing those maps in local public libraries.
Baeker added that place mats were generated as well, to get the message out.
Bridge said the group has identified its cultural assets, so it would be useful for people just driving through town, or for those without a computer – to just pick something up. “If we’re going to have it, we should be able to come up with some type of hard copy.”
Those attending then discussed various vision statements and potential strategies for the final plans.
Bridge said, “The feeling is that everyone who volunteers tends to cross over into other areas. I think that has to go further and further as we move along here … for us to get things done.”
Committee member Bob McEachern said the main issues are building awareness of the project and where to go from here.
“We have to convince the community. This sounds so artsy fartsy … because it is. And we live in a very practical community.”
He said “The question will be Why the hell are we doing this? We [steering committee members] have to be able to answer that.”
McEachern said one way of doing that is the committee talking to other groups.
“We all belong to various groups,” McEachern said.
Bridge said another good point raised was, “If you get the cultural map out there, people would realize it is not just about artists. Cultural mapping is a different thing.”
Bridge said there are numerous individuals people may not have considered under the label, cultural. He felt getting physical copies of the map in public spaces such as libraries would help people see.
“Then residents might come on board.”
Glen Hall backed them up.
“The moment I started to hear about this I thought what the heck are we doing? Then I got to the first meeting and started to hear it being explained.”
Hall asked how it worked getting the message out in other areas – “to get over that hurdle of people thinking it is artsy fartsy.” He said that after someone’s been at a steering committee for 15 minutes “the light bulbs start going off as to why it is so important to focus on this.”
Baker said it is just being able to cite the number of cultural assets in the community connected to the economy and the quality of life. He, too, believes providing that map is a big part of changing the attitudes toward the project.
Based on the feedback, a draft plan will be done and posted on the website, reviewed by council, and subsequently brought to a community open house later this year.
