Engagement forum to inform municipal culture plans

This week, the Cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo, alongside the Region of Waterloo, launched their first-ever collaborative, online engagement forum on arts and culture.  

The Arts and Culture Engagement Hub provides a virtual space for community members across the region to share their perspectives on the cultural landscape. The input shared by community will serve to inform upcoming culture plans, and other strategic initiatives, in each municipality.  

The online portal is an opportunity for residents to share their perspectives on arts and cultural experiences they have, and wish they had, in their community. Cultural practitioners are invited to share their opinions on what it is like to work in the cultural sector in Waterloo Region and insights about best practices that they have been seeing in other communities.

To help gather the information needed, Environics Research will conduct a series of engagement opportunities. Consultation with community, including participants from the townships, has involved earlier phases that included one-on-one interviews and focus groups with community leaders and arts practitioners. The online hub and engagement forum is the third phase in this collaborative campaign intended for all residents in the region to participate.  

 Whether you make your living in the arts, enjoy the arts as a hobby, or just love checking out arts and culture events on the weekend, your input is important!    

The online engagement forum is now live and will be open through June 12. A final report summarizing the consultation findings is expected to be available later this year.  

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For more information, please contact:

Lynsey Slupeiks, Manager, Corporate Communications, Region of Waterloo
lslupeiks@regionofwaterloo.ca