Cultural Mapping Haliburton County
A Cultural Resources Inventory and Map for the Haliburton Highlands
Cultural resources reflect our history and landscapes, and the people that shaped them. Our culture has been shaped from our early days as a logging community to our present day distinction as an arts community. Haliburton County has a rich cultural heritage worthy of documentation, protection and celebration.
A collaboration of the Arts Council–Haliburton Highlands, Township of Minden Hills, Haliburton County Development Corporation, U-Links, and the County of Haliburton have undertaken a project to create a cultural resources inventory and map for the Haliburton Highlands.
A cultural map for a community is a tool for economic development and involves systematically identifying, documenting and making better known a wide range of local cultural assets. Cultural mapping benefits communities by:
o promoting increased awareness of cultural assets for residents as well as visitors or tourists;
o strengthening networks and collaboration among cultural, community and business groups;
o building a stronger base of information to support municipal planning and to help grow the local creative economies; and
o complementing existing information being collected by municipalities and other community groups by consolidating many existing sources of information to create ‘super database’.
A cultural map is essential for developing a Municipal Cultural Plan, which is used by local municipalities to plan for, and make decisions about, cultural facilities, revitalize downtowns and neighbourhoods, coordinate planning for festivals and events, promote tourism, attract new businesses, preserve natural and cultural heritage, and for long term planning.
Cultural mapping has been a priority for the Province of Ontario for several years. In 2009, the Ontario Ministry of Culture launched the Creative Community Prosperity Fund, a $9 million program to support municipalities undertake cultural mapping and municipal cultural planning. In 2010, the Township of Minden Hills received a $53,000 grant from this fund to conduct cultural mapping across Haliburton County and to develop a Municipal Cultural Plan for the Township of Minden Hills. More recently the Municipality of Dysart received $42,000 to develop its cultural plan.
A steering committee consisting of Daniela Pagliaro (Minden Hills Cultural Centre); Jim Blake (Haliburton County Development Corporation); Amy Brohm (County of Haliburton Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Marketing); Kim McBrien and Donna Gagnon Pugh (Arts Council ~Haliburton Highlands); Joanne O'Keefe and Jane Tousaw (County of Haliburton Planning & GIS Department); and Heather Reid (U-Links) is guiding the project. Consultants Kate Hall and Barrie Martin have been retained to coordinate the cultural resources inventory and work with the County to map these resources in its Geographical Information System (GIS).
Cultural resources or assets can be tangible, e.g., a specific location, building or industry; or intangible, e.g. stories. In the first phase of the project we will be inventorying the tangible assets. Our initial focus is on identifying for mapping, the creative cultural industries, cultural spaces and facilities, and cultural heritage features, e.g. sites and buildings. In the future information will also be collected on community cultural organizations, cultural occupations, festivals and events, and natural heritage features.
The Arts Council’s database and the County’s GIS will be used to capture all of the cultural asset information and display it on maps to be used for planning purposes.
How to get involved
If you are a member of the Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands, you are already involved. Membership information about your business/organization is already part of the database for cultural mapping. Your membership package came with a Cultural Mapping permission form. If you wish to have your studio or place of business included on the County’s public GIS map, you must sign this form and return it to the Arts Council office.
If you are not a member of the Arts Council or, if as a member of the Council, you have information on other cultural resources and features we invite you to submit information under the following categories:
Creative Cultural Industries - craft arts, music, publishing, performing arts companies, arts education, advertising, etc.
Cultural and Creative Spaces and Facilities - art galleries, museums, libraries, theatres, community centres or anywhere were cultural and creative activities can take place
Cultural Heritage Features - buildings, churches, historic sites, cultural landscapes, etc.
Decide which category best describes your cultural resource(s) and select the corresponding form (s) from below.
Download and complete a form for each resource you would like to submit.
Submit completed form (s) by mail, fax, or email to: Cultural Mapping Project, 1344 Barry Line Road, Haliburton, ON K0M 1S0, 705-754-3436, barrie.martin@sympatico.ca
Please be assured that any information you provide will be used only for the purposes of cultural mapping, planning, and promotion.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact the project consultants Kate Hall at 705-489-2110, kvhall06@gmail.com or Barrie Martin at 705-754-3436, barrie.martin@sympatico.ca
Cultural Mapping FORMS (Word .doc format)
Cultural Heritage Asset Inventory Form
Cultural and Creative Spaces and Facilities Asset Inventory Form
Creative Cultural Industries Asset Inventory Form
Cultural Mapping FORMS (.pdf format)
Cultural Heritage Asset Inventory Form
Cultural and Creative Spaces and Facilities Asset Inventory Form
Creative Cultural Industries Asset Inventory Form
Cultural Mapping Resources
Cultural Mapping Toolkit
Overview of Cultural Mapping from AuthentiCity
Putting Cultural Mapping into practice (from AuthentiCity)
South Georgian Bay’s Cultural Mapping Project
