Calling all artists and arts organizations. The city is compiling information for an interactive online culture map and it wants you to get involved.
The more input it gets, the more comprehensive and successful the end product will be, said Andrea Gammon, community cultural co-ordinator with the city’s Cultural Services department.
“Right now, collecting the information is the key,” she said, offering the city’s website at www.stalbert.ca/exp/arts-culture/map where anyone can offer details of what they do as a way of collecting all of the pieces of the puzzle. If one piece is missed, you can still see the big picture even though it isn’t quite complete.
The project started with the city’s latest cultural master plan, which put identifying St. Albert’s cultural assets as a focal point in order to then grow the entire cultural community further.
As a baseline in order to do that, the city needs to know what it has and what it doesn’t have to start.
“There hasn’t been a really comprehensive inventory of our cultural assets that’s been done to date. There’s bits and pieces here, there and everywhere but the idea was to assemble it all in one location and make it a lot more visible literally. We keep saying that St. Albert is the Botanical Arts City and we do have a lot of arts but to put that front and centre and identify them and allow people to see what that means.”
This kind of information tool has been trending across larger communities across the country including Edmonton. She used the example of Hamilton, Ontario, which led to it discovering something it didn’t know before: it has a very strong musical community. City administrators were then able to conduct further economic and artistic development with all musicians and the music scene, leading to collaborations and cross-promotions, making what is strong even stronger.
Gammon says that anything is possible. She has already been surprised to learn how many photographers are in town.
Her hope is simply to show the world a comprehensive picture of St. Albert’s arts and culture scene. The map’s main purpose is to raise awareness of current resources in “one central location … so you’re not having to hunt and peck everywhere.” It will also allow cultural participants to connect with one another as a tool that will foster them individually and collectively.
So far, she has received lots of feedback and interest as people have expressed how pleased to see this effort finally being undertaken. Categories of information that the city is looking for include cultural enterprises, facilities and spaces, community cultural organizations, festivals and events, and natural and cultural heritage assets.
As that data collection goes on, information technologists are working behind the scenes to develop a map that will not only be user-friendly and look good but will contain useful information for both users inside and outside the city in terms of tourism.
The city is aiming to have the map up and running in the fall of this year, just in time for Alberta Culture Days and StartsFest, two events that will also be included on the map. Once it is established, it will be constantly updated and evolving.
A demonstration of the interactive map will soon be installed on the computer screen in the lobby of St. Albert Place.
