The 27 people who took the time to attend the city’s Cultural Master Plan open house Wednesday, came prepared with concrete suggestions about how to make St. Albert a more vibrant community.
The attendees did not present a unified force because they represented every facet of St. Albert’s jeweled cultural community.
Artists, historians, actors and retired politicians mingled and chatted with representatives from the various city cultural departments. For the most part they agreed that St. Albert is a fortunate, artistic community, and they welcomed the fact that for the first time the city is developing a master plan for culture that is separate from its leisure and recreation services. But they were clear in asking the city for a more refined commitment that will sustain the community’s cultural identity for years to come.
“It’s about time!” said Paul Radchenko, in reference to the fact that the City of St. Albert previously did two leisure services studies, but had never before drawn up a plan that outlined cultural needs.
“It’s not that we don’t have culture. We do! But there are a lot of gaps and no concerted way to pull it in together,” said Radchenko, who represented the public on the Cultural Master Plan committee.
Radchenko stressed the need to define the community’s cultural needs not just for today, but for the long term, in much the same way as the city plans for essential services such as sewers. To do that takes vision, he said, but a sustained plan that helps the cultural community to grow, will also attract people who further enrich the community.
“People will gravitate here if there is a vibrant arts community. We need a master plan package that celebrates and builds the community.”
“This is not a checklist of all that needs to be done in 10 to 15 years,” explained Cultural Services Director Kelly Jerrott. “Instead, it’s a plan that helps organize and provides structure. It’s a living thing that will change as the community changes.”
Potter Elke Blodgett, however, worried that by over-defining the culture and the needs of the city, there was danger in limiting the creativity of the arts community.
“These definitions are all clichĂ©. It’s all obvious. You can’t plan art. Art grows out of art and it grows from other artists,” Blodgett said.
But St. Albert’s 150th Anniversary Committee chair Margaret Plain disagreed.
“We need to state the obvious so we know what we have and what we want in the future,” Plain said.
Actor Maureen Rooney was more concerned about the fostering of the local arts and theatre community.
“I’d like the plan to stress the nurturing of local artists. We need locally produced sculptures, and we need local actors in the children’s festival,” Rooney said.
St. Albert artist Monk is excited by the Master Cultural Plan but she also believes it does not go far enough.
“We need to take down barriers, so that for example, a young mom can take watercolour painting classes while her kids are in hockey at Servus Place. We need to use our schools at night for theatre and for the arts. We need to use our hallways in our buildings for creative pursuits and if we did that, imagine what a turned on, active, creative community we would be,” Monk said.
A total of 15 people attended the open house for the City of St. Albert’s Recreation Master Plan held earlier in the week.
The combined capital cost to complete both master plans was $150,000.
The two reports will be brought forward to city council in the new year. The complete surveys are online on the city’s website and the surveys are open until the end of November.
