Is there a Canadian city that could be considered our cultural capital? Any choice would be controversial in this country that is both fractured by regionalism and remarkable because of its difference. Europe has figured out a way to do just this though.

Since 1985, dozens of cities have been declared “European Capitals of Culture,” sometimes two or three sharing the title for a year. The idea behind this European Union program is to focus attention and cultural investment on particular EU cities, one by one, and generate spin off effects that often come with robust cultural scenes, like urban regeneration and a raised international profile.

What if Saskatoon or Lethbridge, with their strong art scenes, were Canada’s cultural capital? Or St. John’s? Perhaps Rimouski? They’re cities we’ve heard of as Canadians, but unless we’ve been there or have relatives and friends living there, they may just be names on the map. For 10 years, Heritage Canada ran a “Cultural Capitals of Canada” program, but the Harper government cancelled it in 2012. Niagara, Calgary, Charlottetown and Fredericton were among cities declared capitals, but the program had little national profile and low funding, and lacked the big, sustained splash the EU program has. We should bring it back, but do it bigger and better.

Aside from the political and economic power a city may have, we know about cities via their cultural reputations. That is, the creative things people do. In the EU, cites as big as Liverpool, Madrid and Berlin have been culture capitals, but so have small places like Cork in Ireland or Paphos in Cyprus. Each embraced its capital roll in its own way.

In 2018, the tiny fortress city of Valletta, Malta, will become the EU’s capital of culture. Last week I was able to attend one of the conferences the Valletta 2018 Foundation has been holding in the run up to their big year. As a second generation Maltese person, I’ve been privy to Valletta’s historic and contemporary charms, and I’m excited to see this near-ancient place get more attention and an infusion of new energy.

What’s most interesting about the Valletta 2018 plans is how the city itself is the muse; not just its history and architecture, but who lives there now and the future of the place. Valletta, like cities around the world, is being rediscovered after urban living went out of fashion for a few decades, and is experiencing the usual problems of affordability and rapid growth. Valletta 2018 projects will deal with these issues and more.

Robust arts and culture scenes are not just for entertainment. The Toronto Arts Foundation, the philanthropic charity that “encourages artistic excellence and increases access to the arts throughout the City of Toronto through private sector investment,” issues a “Toronto Arts Facts” report each year. Their 2016 report says Toronto’s arts and culture sector contributed $11.3 billion to the provincial GDP, and they peg the number of Torontonians employed in the culture sector at 174,000.

Culture plays a big role in other Canadian cities as well, but with around 80 per cent of this country’s population living in cities, they remain underappreciated and often unfamiliar. A Canadian culture capital program could be a celebration of each of our cities and the people who create them daily, and connect us more with the country’s 21st century reality.

Back here in Toronto, the Arts Foundation says 23,700 artists live in Toronto, twice as many as any other Canadian city, a number that could lead to some capital conclusions of our own. Toronto is also a city with an abundance of arts and culture festivals, and there’s likely one or two, sometimes more, going on each week.

Many of Toronto’s big festivals are centrally located downtown, like Nuit Blanche and Luminato. This is not a bad thing and why the city’s core is exciting. But culture happens everywhere, and those nearly 24,000 artists live all over the city. Perhaps Toronto could have a municipal version of what the EU does, a “Neighbourhoods of Culture” program where every year two or three neighbourhoods are the focus of arts investment and attention.

There’d be yearlong reasons to visit, say, Weston, Bendale or Leaside, and those neighbourhoods would become known to many more people. If Canada is fractured in a meta way, Toronto is in its own micro way. Culture can be a bridge at both levels, and it would serve Canada well to celebrate its deep urbanity nationally and locally.

Shawn Micallef writes every Saturday about where and how we live in the GTA. Wander the streets with him on Twitter @shawnmicallef

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