Cultural Plan
As the fourth pillar of sustainability, the City of Kelowna takes culture seriously and desires to integrate it into all aspects of civic planning and life in Kelowna. To achieve this, an updated cultural plan is being developed that will encourage and integrate local culture within all neighbourhoods of Kelowna.
While the City realizes that as an organization it does not create culture, operating as a municipal government it can take a role in facilitating and promoting culture by providing vision, goals and adopting strong policies.
A year and a half in the making, council reviewed the Cultural Plan
on October 31, 2011. Council directed staff to move forward with non-monetary recommendations and return with recommendations from the plan during annual budget deliberations and as needs and opportunities arise.
Background
Cultural development in Kelowna began in the early 1970's when a committee formed to study the possibilities of developing a 'Cultural Arts Centre' in Kelowna. In 1989, a Mayor's Task Force was established to create our first cultural policy. Updated most recently in 2010, this policy gives form, support and provides direction for the cultural development in the city.
Over the past 20 years, significant progress has been made to integrate arts and culture into overall community planning and deliver cultural services to residents and visitors. Early work led to the establishment of a number of cultural facilities, the Cultural District, a granting process, and the establishment of a Cultural Services branch in 2001.
A New Strategy
Today, there is a need to evaluate the City's progress over the last two decades and begin to integrate a new strategy that will see culture in Kelowna within the Cultural District and our community neighbourhoods.
Prior to the launch of the Cultural Planning process, Cultural Services conducted an online survey to get some preliminary feedback on the public's thoughts on Culture in Kelowna. The survey was launched at two events on May 5, 2010. Both the Survey Summary and Economic Impact Assessment are available for download.