{"id":6965,"date":"2014-06-11T17:22:15","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T21:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=6965"},"modified":"2014-06-11T17:22:15","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T21:22:15","slug":"cultural-plan-focuses-on-collaboration-and-bridging-gaps-in-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/cultural-plan-focuses-on-collaboration-and-bridging-gaps-in-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultural Plan focuses on collaboration and bridging gaps in Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aurora might have cultural institutions scattered throughout the Town, but one thing it does not have is a plan to bring everything together with common goals and vision.<\/p>\n

That, however, changed this week as Council formally endorsed the long-gestating Cultural Master Plan. <\/p>\n

The Plan has been in the works for the past year and charts a number of initiatives to be put in place from advertising and promotional strategies, to tourism plans, to make Aurora\u2019s culture work for the Town, and for each other. <\/p>\n

After being given the green light, the green light, the next steps will include bringing forward a \u201ccultural mapping\u201d project which would then pin down some of the fine details of costs related to the many endeavours on the plan. <\/p>\n

For many sitting around the Council table it was a step that was long overdue. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis solidifies some of the ideas we have discussed over the last several years,\u201d said Councillor Sandra Humfryes. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t nail anyone down to anything in particular. It just allows the municipality to support the plan at a high level [that we] want to see grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor John Abel also voiced his support of the plan, stating that it would foster using Aurora\u2019s cultural assets to attract new businesses and create \u201cinclusiveness\u201d to newer parts of Aurora.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we just bring in one business, it pays for this endeavour so many times over,\u201d said Councillor Abel. \u201cIt enriches the attractiveness of our community, it speaks very much of what direction Aurora is going, and that [we\u2019re unique and have] a lot to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cultural Master Plan also serves to unite many of Aurora\u2019s cultural \u201cassets\u201d and organizations where before they often operated on their own, argued Councillor Michael Thompson. He said having a common framework would be helpful in knowing where investments should be made.<\/p>\n

Clarity on costs, however, would be key to going forward, in having a clear picture where all of Aurora\u2019s tax dollars are going, and have been going, into the complete cultural tapestry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when this comes before us at budget time, there needs to be that whole approach to it in terms of what we are spending on cultural assets as a complete balloon and we can make those clear and understanding decisions to our investment in this community and it needs to be done [in the fiscally responsible way] this plan speaks to,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to make those choices to ensure that there is value for the rest of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Councillors, on the other hand, wanted those dollars and cents pinned down before they could go onto the next step. Al Downey, Aurora\u2019s Director of Parks and Recreation, told Councillors that the steering committee thought it was important for Council to see the recommendations as they were, with dollar figures to come when Council decides which of the initiatives they might want to explore implementing further.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt it was premature because we didn\u2019t want Council to feel they were obligated to provide X number of dollars to move forward these recommendations,\u201d said Mr. Downey.<\/p>\n

This was a missing piece of information Councillor Wendy Gaertner said gave her some pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in support of the Cultural Master Plan, I think the committee has done amazing work, but I would like to know what the financial responsibilities would be, how much we have to spend extra in admin and exactly what the financial responsibilities of the Town would be,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is long overdue [but] I can\u2019t endorse a plan until I know what we might be spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also hesitating on the plan was Councillor Evelyn Buck. She said she would not be able to endorse it because it would be interfering with cultural organizations like Theatre Aurora that have grown and evolved on their own with minimal assistance from the Town. Although she said she appreciated the committee for \u201cputting their heart and soul\u201d into it, she \u201cregretted\u201d not being able to get behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern is I am very much aware of the richness of the cultural scene in Aurora and how it has been for the past 50 years,\u201d she said. \u201cI am concerned that if the municipality gets involved in it, because it has been so healthy and vigorous, I think the independence of the various groups that have initiated programs and kept them going will be affected by a municipal corporate plan.
\n\u201cI hesitate to endorse bureaucratic oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mayor Geoffrey Dawe said he agreed with the concept of no additional bureaucracy to the private sector, he cited the recent economic downturn being more impactful beyond Canada as being due to \u201cregulations properly implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we are looking at trying to regulate the cultural industry or the cultural view,\u201d he said. \u201cI see this as a document that set up how we work with these groups in partnership. We do support Theatre Aurora, we do support the Cultural Centre, we do support the museum and we support these already.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s make sure we are supporting them in a manner which is most fitting of our town.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora might have cultural institutions scattered throughout the Town, but one thing it does not have is a plan to bring everything together with common goals and vision.<\/p>\n

That, however, changed this week as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1Ol","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-11 05:45:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}