Minto Cultural Plan

The Minto Cultural Roundtable held it’s first meeting on February 23, 2012.

The Roundtable provides strategic direction and key decision making on on-going cultural development and implements projects and tasks related to the Municipal Cultural Plan.

Members of the Cultural Roundtable are appointment by Council and include:
Councillor Mary Lou Colwell, Town of Minto Council Representative
Wesley Bates, Minto Arts Council
Dorelene Anderson, Grey Wellington Theatre Guild
Bob McEachern, Palmerston Railway Heritage Museum
Marg Shannon, Harriston- Minto Agricultural Society
Glen Hall, Minto Chamber of Commerce
Barb Burrows, Wellington County Libraries (Palmerston Branch)
Rene Gibson, Youth Rep
Amy Belair, Lyle Gowan, Matthew Langdon & Amy Dunlop, Public at Large
Belinda Wick-Graham, Business & Economic Manager
Gordon Duff, Treasurer
Mandy Hansen, Marketing Coordinator
Mayor George Bridge (ex-officio)

At the first meeting members:

• identified stakeholders in an effort to develop a communication and engagement strategy
• identified areas of interest
• reviewed the Cultural Plan
• identified priorities

Below are photos from the first meeting.

The next meeting is scheduled for March 15th at 4:00 p.m. at the Town of Minto Office.

Artist Wesley Bates presents an idea to communicate the Cultural Plan initiatives to the public.

Results of Stakeholder Analysis

Councillor Colwell Dot Votes!

Dot Voting

On Tuesday June 21, 2011 the Council of the Town of Minto approved the Municipal Cultural Plan.

To view the Cultural Plan click here.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the creation of the Town of Minto Cultural Plan. On Tuesday June 21st at 7:00 p.m. Project Consultant Greg Baeker will be presenting the final Cultural Plan to Council for approval. We encourage you to come out and hear the final presentation and discover how you can become involved in implementing the plan.

Town of Minto Council Chambers
5941 Hwy 89
Harriston, ON N0G 1Z0

On Wednesday March 2 approximately 30 people attended a community forum that marked the half-way point in the Cultural Plan process.  The purpose of the meeting was for the consultants to present an overall vision and set of strategic directions to the community before proceeding to develop the detailed plan. There was strong discussion and input which helped shape and refine both the vision and directions.

The consultants also reported on the findings of the cultural mapping work to date, and demonstrated the interactive web-based map that will be used to help better promote and raise awareness of Minto’s rich cultural resources. The  final map will be completed in April and will include a feature that enables community stories to be shared using the same interactive map.

Stay tuned for more information!

The Municipal Cultural Planning Forum has been rescheduled for Wednesday March 2, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Harriston Libary.

The Wellington Advertiser (Jan.  28, 2011)  talks about the upcoming Minto Cultural Planning meeting in Harriston on Wednesday Feb. 9, 2011. At the meeting, consultant Greg Baeker will present his preliminary findings taken from the results of the previous community meetings. An overall vision and set of strategic directions have been developed and now community input is needed.

Click here for the full article.

We all know that a major shift is underway in the nature of the economy across Ontario and beyond. It is a shift away from manufacturing and agriculture as the foundation of many local economies toward a creative economy driven by ideas, innovation, knowledge, collaboration and creativity. It is an economy in which people ‘are paid to think.’

Smaller rural communities like Minto face especially strong challenges given the reliance on agriculture – with all of its proud history and continuing strengths today. But the longer term trends are toward knowledge-based creative jobs and Minto’s challenge, like all communities is to diversify its economic base. Creativity, culture and quality of place are powerful drivers in renewing rural economies as witnessed by success stories such as Prince Edward County.

However, it is useful to ‘take stock’ in a statistical sense of where Minto finds itself in this emerging creative economy.

For highlights of Minto’s creative economy, click here.

The Town of Minto’s Cultural Plan is nearing its halfway point. An overall vision and set of strategic directions have been developed that now need community input. Come and help shape this important plan at a Community Forum to be held on Wednesday February 9, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Harriston Seniors’ Building.

Wesley Bates, an internationally renowned author and artist, spoke on behalf of the Minto Arts Council when the Minto cultural mapping project was announced. He commented on the great strides the community has made in the 11 years he has lived here in terms of “self awareness – knowing who we are as a community.” Bates added, “This cultural mapping project will be a valuable tool to do further planning.”

MPP John Wilkinson spoke of Minto’s “vibrant, creative arts community” and noted that “there are a lot of hidden gems” in communities like Minto, and “the people who run the various events and groups don’t necessarily know each other.” By getting them together, many creative ideas will emerge.

Cultural mapping and its importance

Cultural mapping is a systematic approach to identifying, recording, classifying and analyzing a community’s cultural resources. Cultural mapping focuses on two kinds of cultural assets: tangible and intangible.

Cultural mapping is essential to cultural planning as it builds a stronger base of information to support municipal planning and to help grow the local creative economies. Mapping also strengthens networks and collaboration among cultural, community and business groups and promotes increased awareness of cultural assets for residents as well as visitors or tourists

The Mapping Process in Minto

The first step of mapping cultural assets is the consolidation of existing data from multiple sources and coding that data accordingly, based on a consistent set of categories of cultural resources called the Cultural Resource Framework (CRF) .

In larger communities, the cultural mapping process involves consolidating information from a range of existing sources like Statistics Canada, local Yellow Pages, various municipal databases, etc. In a smaller community like Minto these traditional sources of data were not as plentiful and the project turned to members of the Steering Group for the cultural plan and drew on their knowledge of the community and its rich cultural assets. Over several meetings, and through contribution from both Steering Group members and Town of Minto staff, a robust list of cultural assets has been identified.

To date, the following numbers of assets have been identified – and we know this is only the beginning!

The cultural mapping information is being converted into an interactive digital map that will enable people in the community and visitors to learn more about local cultural resources – enhancing their experience of our community.

Stay tuned for updates on these interactive maps.