An interview with Dave Pollard, Treasurer of the Bowen Island Arts Council. BIAC recently was given permission and direction from council to coordinate an update of the s Cultural Master Plan bylaw.
Dave, what is a Cultural Master Plan and why is ours being updated?
Many Canadian communities have such a plan. It identifies the community’s artistic and cultural assets (resources, facilities, programs and skills), assesses how those assets meet the community’s needs, and makes recommendation on what might be done to address unmet needs. This enables better coordination of activities among Bowen’s artists and cultural organizations, and helps identify priorities for new projects and investments. Our plan hasn’t been updated since 2002, so it’s long overdue for an update.
What will the Plan contain and how will it be developed?
As in 2002, we will start with Guiding Principles, which articulate why arts and culture are so important, and convey the shared beliefs of our community about the focus, current state, and deficiencies in current programs and resources, as determined by an extensive series of open focus groups, interviews and surveys of Bowen Islanders. This will help us identify the major plan Themes – the main objectives for our cultural programs and investments, and major streams of activity for cultural support organizations and the municipality to pursue over the next decade or so. From that, we can identify recommendations for action and strategies to follow.
To articulate this clearly to readers and users, the Plan will likely also include a Future State Story of what artistic and cultural life on Bowen Island will be like if the Plan is effectively implemented, a model of our critical assets now vs then, and a continuous learning component to help us amend the Plan each year as circumstances change, and assess our progress.
Who will be involved?
The Steering Committee overseeing the Plan will, we expect, consist of a cross-section of Bowen Islanders in the arts, recreation, tourism, education, municipal government, economic development, heritage, healing arts, First Nations, and youth and seniors, as well as members of the community at large (the “consumers” of art and cultural “products”). We have just put out an invitation to the public to be part of this Steering Committee. We hope to involve a significant percentage of Bowen Islanders through our focus groups, interviews and surveys, to ensure all views are considered before making recommendations. Finally, the Plan report will be reviewed by the community, the Steering Committee, the Bowen Island Arts Council, and the Municipality, before it becomes, like the 2002 Plan, a municipal bylaw. We expect the process to take approximately 12 – 18 months.
Who will be charged with implementing the recommendations?
The Bowen Island Arts Council will have primary responsibility for administering and/or overseeing implementation of the recommendations, and will report annually to Council on its progress.
How can citizens get involved or find out more?
The invitation to join the Steering Committee can be found in this week’s Undercurrent. For more information about the Plan, readers can contact me ([email protected], or BIAC’s Executive Director Jacqueline Massey ([email protected] or 947-2454).
