A Cultural Master Plan for Community, Culture and Public Art

In 2006, Barrie introduced its first cultural plan, which outlined the city’s cultural development path. Since that time, Barrie has experienced significant economic and demographic growth that has led the City to review how it supports its cultural sector.

In collaboration with MASSIVart, Barrie is revising its existing Culture Plan, “Building a Creative Future,” and integrating the City’s first Public Art Strategy to create a cohesive vision and identify new potential and priority locations for art throughout the city.

The City’s updated Culture Plan aims to guide Barrie’s cultural development over the next decade, shaping the City of Barrie’s decisions, policies, programs, and investments to enhance the City’s vibrant local creative sector.

The project is divided into three key components that work together to help shape the future of art and culture in Barrie:

Culture Plan Update

The updated Culture Plan’s Arts & Culture Action Plan aims to:

• Create a 10-Year Vision for Culture: Shaped by Barrie’s community, a vision will define how the City of Barrie can support the creative sector over the next decade.
• Develop Goals and Targets: The plan will include community, engagement, and economic goals for the creative sector and how to measure and monitor success.
• Measure Progress & Impact: Integrated tools will help the City of Barrie monitor progress on the goals and evaluate their impact.

Arts & Culture Action Plan Goals

The Action Plan is a guideline for implementation that seeks to:

• Foster Economic Growth: The plan will support economic growth by identifying unique cultural industries and assets in Barrie and emphasizing their role in enhancing quality of life, boosting tourism, and attracting talent and investment.
• Prioritize Activities: The plan will identify and prioritize actions, potential programs, timelines, responsibilities, and investments to ensure effective implementation.
• Enhance Retention and Capacity Building: Actions will correspond to growing the creative sector in Barrie through retention and capacity building.

Public Art Strategy Goals

The Public Art Strategy will build on the Culture Plan framework by delving into community desires for public art and address the following:

• Develop a 10-Year Vision: This vision will guide the future of public art in Barrie, considering factors like location, scale, and types of art installations.
• Identify Priority Sites: To boost community engagement and cultural visibility, new and priority sites for public art across the city will be identified.
• Outline Funding Models and Implement Best Practices: The strategy will identify funding models and adopt best practices to engage the community effectively.
• Enhance Public Art Policy: The City’s existing Public Art Policy will be refined to align with industry and municipal best practices, creating a robust framework for future initiatives.

The Process for Updating Barrie’s Culture Plan

MASSIVart is collaborating with cultural strategist Bridget MacIntosh, an award-winning strategist and creative producer, to support the research and analysis of Barrie’s cultural landscape and investments and help craft the Culture Plan Update and Arts and Culture Action Plan.