Culture Days: Always growing, always innovating

SaskCulture has always looked for ways to help people understand the value and diversity of arts, heritage and culture in Saskatchewan. Culture Days, which began in 2010, has continued to have a big role in building this awareness and uniting the cultural community in its promotion.

Since she started her role in 1999, SaskCulture’s Communication Manager Diane Ell has made it a priority to help residents gain a better understanding of cultural activity, its impact, its diversity and its availability, both locally and provincially. For years, she worked with other cultural leaders in the community to promote the many benefits of cultural activity, including increased confidence, self-esteem, and opportunities for expression for individuals and increased economic benefits, pride and social capital for communities. She is extremely pleased with the impact that Culture Days has had in the province over the years.

Q. How did Culture Days begin?

A. The cultural community has always been interested in some form of shared promotion of arts, heritage and culture — that was the idea behind the creation of Culture Builds Community! back in 2000. At a cultural community summit in 2006, members of the cultural community spoke up about wanting a more focused promotion for arts and culture. They asked SaskCulture, and its partner SK Arts, to consider a Culture Week or Day in the province. As this conversation continued, SK Arts had identified Quebec’s popular La journee de la culture, held every September, as an idea. Other organizers in Eastern Canada had already been discussing the possibility of this type of promotion. So, by the time the coordinator, for the newly formed Culture Days initiative, called to discuss our involvement in a Canada-wide movement, SaskCulture was ready to jump on board.

What did SaskCulture hope to do?

SaskCulture was optimistic about the idea of Culture Days. It emerged as an innovative opportunity to highlight the arts in the province, including the many talented artists, performers, cultural workers and cultural experiences available. For SaskCulture, the opportunity also included highlighting the province’s heritage, including museums, the land, stories, and traditions, as well as showcasing the diversity of cultures that helped shape Saskatchewan.

Culture Days offered us all a more united, persuasive call to action. It was also an opportunity to connect with cultural organizations and organizers across the country.

Key to the success of Culture Days was getting cultural organizers to jump on board. We asked them to open their doors to offer a glimpse into their area of cultural experience. As part of this initiative, they needed to identify free, interactive activities that would help the public get a better understanding of cultural activity. And ultimately, after Culture Days was over, participants would get more involved in these cultural pursuits throughout the year. In addition, SaskCulture hoped that Culture Days would build awareness of its funding programs and other opportunities in the cultural network.

What did Culture Days in Saskatchewan look like in the beginning?

Building momentum for any type of initiative from scratch is always a challenge. Fortunately, community leaders were ready for something that brought people together around cultural activity. There are so many creative people in this province — we only needed to share the idea, and many artists, cultural organizations, and community leaders banded together to explore possibilities.

To help share the idea and build interest and momentum, SaskCulture developed the Culture Days Animateur position. Yes, we had an Animateur right at the start! Laura Hale, a mixed-media visual artist, was hired to visit different communities and meet with organizers. As part of her work, she drove around the province in a Culture Days van and demonstrated how an interactive arts activity could engage community members, help build awareness and get people involved. She invited locals to try a wire art activity, which encouraged them to create, express themselves and contribute their creations to a larger wire art project.

In the end, the first Culture Days, held in September 2010, engaged 23 different communities offering over 180 cultural activities, resulting in over 7,000 participants attending registered activities.

What were the most notable Culture Days innovations?

Showcasing how Culture Builds Community

Culture Days emerged during the same period of time when thought leaders, such as Jane Jacobs and Richard Florida, were encouraging everyone to remember how arts and cultural activity added value — contributing to social capital, “place-making,” and creating communities where more people wanted to live. The province was focused on proving that Saskatchewan was a great place to settle and raise a family. We saw Culture Days as an opportunity to advocate for increased support for arts and culture in communities large and small. Along with the Culture Builds Community! idea, Culture Days provided tangible examples we could share with governments and businesses to demonstrate the impact of arts and culture.

Activating Animateurs to engage others in interactive cultural activity

Saskatchewan was the first province to introduce the Culture Days Animateur, thanks to SaskCulture’s support. The role, right from the beginning, was to help communities understand the concept, as well as encouraging creativity in sharing various activities with potential cultural participants. In the first year, we had one Animateur, by the next year, we had three artists, who helped encourage community cultural leaders and potential participants to get involved in Culture Days. The Animateurs were very helpful in demonstrating interactive ideas. And, they definitely helped to increase participation levels. Unfortunately, by 2017, resources were pared back and the program was put on hold. By 2020, the funds were designated to support a more responsive Culture Days Hub Sponsorship Program.

Encouraging hubs of activity with funding support

Although SaskCulture had experimented with a few different funding programs, the Culture Days Hub Sponsorship has been incredibly effective in building stronger arts and culture partnerships in communities. By working with other community groups, organizers were able to more effectively offer more innovative activities and reach new audiences. Since its introduction in 2020, almost 100 different communities have formed a hub and engaged thousands of people each year.

Advancing Truth and Reconciliation

Following the launch of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2020, SaskCulture successfully supported a specific focus on Truth and Reconciliation as part of Culture Days by adding it as a priority in its Hub Sponsorship program. In the past few years, approximately 30 per cent of Hub Organizers have included Truth and Reconciliation activities.

Communities see benefits and return each year

The key indicator of success is that organizers return year after year. These organizers appreciate how Culture Days has been part of showcasing the diversity of local arts and culture. For example, the development of Nuit Blanche — a night of artistic activity showcased outdoors, held in both Regina and Saskatoon — has been a perfect fit for Culture Days. Each community has created a Culture Days that best meets their individual needs. I get a little emotional when I hear stories of community success, such as the creativity used to engage communities, and stories of teamwork and belonging that happen each year during Culture Days. Stories about activities that engage newcomers, multi-generational activities where Elders share stories and traditions with youth, or gatherings that inspire community belonging, are frequent occurrences during Culture Days.

Besides these successes, Culture Days has contributed to the development of annual planning committees and coordination, as well as a variety of cultural planning resources that are shared across the country. After 15 years, there have been over 4,000 registered cultural activities just in Saskatchewan alone. There have been over 540 communities involved and over half a million instances of participation. These are just estimates, the real numbers are probably much higher.

What do you see as the future of Culture Days?

After 15 years, the momentum behind Culture Days continues to grow. In fact, we are seeing a resurgence of interest in recent years. People want to get out again. More and more communities are recognizing the need to get people out and involved. And, there is a good response to things to do that are “free”.

It’s a good time to refocus efforts on building awareness of the benefits of cultural activity, reaching new audiences, building social capital, and even supporting new physical capital, such as community murals or enhanced venues. Audiences and participants in cultural activities come and go, so cultural organizations should always be working to get new people involved. Putting the spotlight on arts, heritage and culture during Culture Days, both locally and nationally, is a great opportunity to attract those who might not normally be included.

Culture Days is designed to inspire creativity and innovation. Successful ideas seem to inspire even further creativity. We’ve already seen opportunities where participants try conducting orchestras, try different instruments at a musical petting zoo, be part of creating community murals or quilts, visit neighbourhood art pop-ups or art walks, participate in outdoor dance workshops, learn recipes for food from different countries, engage in round dances as part of concerts, hear historical stories while on a community walk or cemetery tours, and much more. These ideas, mixed with an individual community’s own unique character, inspire even more new ideas, creating brand new experiences for all.

I hope more and more organizers see Culture Days as an opportunity and make it part of their annual plans. For communities, participation in Culture Days can be an investment in their community members’ expression, involvement, growth and community pride.