Culture Days - spreading awareness of Canadian arts and culture.
We painted, we danced, we braved the stage. From the smallest hamlet to the busiest metropolis across Canada, the first annual Culture Days weekend was a fun-filled success.
Grounded in the belief that “a vibrant arts and cultural sector contributes directly to a healthy and stable society”, it started as a grassroots movement to encourage participation in and awareness of Canadian arts and culture, both on the local and national scale. It’s mission is inspired by the fact that every Canadian, regardless of age, gender, nationality, or ability, has the right to engage in the cultural life of their community. With this idea, arts organizations from across Canada called out to community leaders from Squamish to Toronto to provide a wealth of free artistic activities over this past weekend, September 24-16. And what a response – the past three days were filled with over 4,500 activities like face-painting, guided tours, book readings, plays, concerts, and comedy shows.
Events like Culture Days are becoming increasingly important as government attentions remain on economic and development issues. All too often, arts and culture projects are deemed “disposable” or “frivolous” when they actually offer a bevy of economic opportunities as well as a chance for communities to build relationships and national unity in a county so diverse (Antoni Cimolino, general director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, explains this beautifully in the Globe and Mail).
Even more importantly, Culture Days offered a prime chance for children and youth to become involved in the arts. Families took advantage of the free activities as a fun way to spend their weekend, community centres used arts and culture projects to give troubled teens an outlet for self-expression, and arts schools got to showcase the work of their students and promote artistic education, which is proven to have benefits that extend far beyond the classroom.
Canada has lagged in it its development of an artistic identity, but with events like Culture Days are key to improving this aspect of Canadian life. With a little more effort, we can look forward to Culture Years.
