The territorial government is collecting the public’s feedback to help create a new arts strategy.
The survey is available on the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center’s (PWNHC) website and the department of Education, Culture and Employment’s (ECE) website.
September 28, 2018.
The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre (PWNHC).
It takes about 20 minutes to complete and was designed and developed by consulting firm Nordicity, in co-ordination with ECE and the department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI).
“The goal of the project is to develop a new arts strategy and accompanying action plan for the NWT that articulates GNWT values and priorities to better serve the public and arts sector stakeholders,” said Jacqueline McKinnon, ECE’s manager of communications and public affairs in an email.
The first NWT Arts Strategy was released in October 2004 and two following progress reports were released in 2006 and 2013. Though the GNWT has twice undertaken status reviews to determine how well its services were aligned with the strategy’s vision, the original document was never updated, explained McKinnon.
Under the new strategy, the government’s definitions of terms like ‘arts’ and ‘arts sector’ will be updated “to be more current and clearly defined as informed by the research,” stated McKinnon.
While the strategy is a joint initiative of ECE and ITI and both departments will be responsible for its implementation, ECE will lead its development.
A specific implementation date hasn’t been determined, but work will begin in 2019-2020, and the strategy will be in effect for 10 years.
“A review of the strategy will be conducted after five years (or as needed) to ensure the strategy remains relevant,” stated McKinnon.
“The initial Action Plan will be followed by a series of multi-year Action Plans to identify specific actions to be completed in support of the Strategy’s vision, goals and priorities.”
The public survey was launched Dec. 14 and is open until Jan. 8.