With a municipal cultural plan on the verge of approval, Hamilton's arts community is embracing the document as a testimony of the city's "philosophical shift."

Stephanie Vegh of the Hamilton Arts Council said the lengthy report "catches the city up to the conversation that the rest of the arts community is already having."

The plan - which will be presented to the general issues committee on Wednesday - outlines eight goals, 12 recommendations to embrace and cultivate "culture" in Hamilton - as well as 78 "actions" to make them happen.

While none of the report's recommendations struck Vegh as particularly new or surprising, she is optimistic that this will act as a framework for future decision-making.

"I can remember a time when city council was downright antagonistic toward the arts community," Vegh said, adding that having an official cultural plan is a sign of a "philosophical shift."

Council approved a policy in June 2012, embracing the "international consensus that culture is the fourth pillar of sustainable development."

For the most part, "they're not so much actions as much as philosophies . but I think they are the sorts of things that will manifest as actions the next time the city's faced with things like zoning etc..," Vegh said.

But others are more specific in their direction, such as setting annual and long-term targets for cultural investment spending in the city's budget, and creating a round table of community representatives (like Vegh) to act as a catalyst for future initiatives.

Alice Sabourin, senior project manager in the city's tourism and culture department, said they spent three years doing research and public consultation - collecting input from 2,326 citizens - for the report.

"We didn't want to just copy what other cities have done, we really wanted to make sure it reflected what the people in Hamilton are doing and saying," she said.

"This is not intended to replace anything in terms of grassroots development. We see this as a community and city collaboration . some of the actions in there will be led by the city and others will be more appropriately led by someone in the community."

Tim Potocic, organizer of the annual James Street North Supercrawl festival and Hamilton's Citizen of the Year, said the report is a good step for the city - and long overdue.

"I think action is coming, and this report needed to get documented so that actions could get happening," he said.

Award-winning local singer-songwriter Terra Lightfoot is excited about the plan's potential.

"Where the cultural plan would fit in for us is helping to create new (or strengthen existing) venues for music and art. We would love to have the option of choosing from a number of 400-to-500 capacity venues in town. The city just hasn't gotten that far yet," she said.

Throughout its public consultation, the city found that funding is a major concern of cultural leaders - something that is not addressed in the report.

Potocic said this was to be expected, and that municipal arts funding is being discussed simultaneously, with the latest report heading to the general issues committee on Dec. 4.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

"I think there is a lot happening," Potocic said.

"There are a lot of balls rolling around and they all are connected."

- Hamilton is rising from the ashes