Thank you for your coverage of the Cowichan Valley Regional District’s recently released five-year Creative Cowichan Arts & Culture Master Plan. We need vibrant arts and cultural communities to share joyful, tragic, heartfelt, and comic perspectives on ourselves in these complex times.
Portrayals in paintings, songs, books, plays, dances, and all the other arts disciplines bring us together to celebrate and question who we are and how we’ve got to this place in history. Encouraging people to participate in the arts has social, health, and economic benefits that are especially important in Canada's multi-cultural communities.
Allocating more funding for the arts in municipal and regional budgets will be challenging in the coming years, but the five year plan does emphasize the need for securing sustainable funding streams. It also identifies innovative approaches for promoting arts and cultural activities.
The heart and soul of most arts and cultural organizations in the Cowichan Valley are the hundreds of volunteers who make activities and programs happen. Join them and help to make the recommendations in the five-year master plan come true.
Craig Spence
Chemainus
