Developing culture

NRU
June 27, 2018
Rob Jowett

Brampton has unveiled its first cultural master plan aimed at supporting and investing in local talent as a way to create a local identity and drive its economy.

Its new culture master plan is intended to help the city transform from a suburb into an urban centre, as detailed in its 2040 Vision. The culture plan details how to develop a young and diverse talent pool and the overall arts community to help drive its economic goals.

“I want Brampton to be cool,” Mayor Linda Jeffrey told NRU. “I’m not sure that when people think of Brampton they think of the arts – yet. But I hope they will in the future.… [Brampton] could be… an off-Broadway to Toronto. It could be a place where plays and artistic expression is practiced or tried out here first before it hits the big market.”
The master plan identifies six goals. They include allocating more city resources to cultural services, finding and creating space for artists to work and collaborate, developing talent, and promoting the city as an arts and culture destination.

“It’s… about getting Brampton to the point that we can confidently say that it’s a viable place for creative workers and cultural entrepreneurs to live, create, and conduct their business,” says special projects coordinator Victoria Mountain.
She says the key to achieving these goals is in changing the way the city does business.

“Part of the approach to doing this successfully involves shifting from a top-down municipal programmed delivery approach to a really co-curated bottom-up approach where we are making direct investments in local talent and really recognizing Brampton creators as valuable partners to us in producing this content,” she says. “We really want Brampton to be seen as a place where you can take risks and where there’s some really interesting new cutting edge stuff coming out of here.”

Implementing the master plan will help the city retain its talent. Fully 60 per cent of Brampton residents commute every day to work somewhere else. Jeffrey says that this is because the city has focussed on other priorities rather than place-making. That will begin to change with the coming Ryerson University and Sheridan College campuses, which will offer the city’s youth the opportunity to remain in Brampton.

“We as a city have focussed on building houses, but that doesn’t support a city. You need commercial/industrial development, you need jobs, you need good education institutions,” she says.

Brampton’s culture master plan will be considered by council at its meeting on June 27. The master plan was prepared by consultants Lord Cultural Resources and Nordicity.