What is Cultural Planning?

Cultural planning is a process that takes stock of existing cultural resources and asks how they can be maintained, enhanced, or developed to continue to improve our lives and the vitality, livability, and success of our community.

Why does culture matter?

Every community has a personality that reflects its history, diversity, "sense of place," and the values, needs and dreams of its residents. Many things contribute to how people experience their community: traditions, neighborhoods, weather, schools, leadership, businesses, parks, housing and the ebb and flow of events and activities. One thing is essential in shaping a city's personality- how people see, feel and connect with our cultural life.

A community's culture is expressed in many ways - through art, music, theatre, dance and film - also in food, architecture, cultural traditions, media and new ideas.

Why plan?

Arts and cultural activities certainly unfold on their own through the energy and dreams of creative individuals and organizations. Sometimes these activities are helped by providing spaces, funding, collaborations and other resources. Planning will map out Erie County's arts and cultural assets, needs, opportunities, resources, and priorities to help create strategies and action plans for the community to further develop the cultural sector.

Why plan now?

With the advent of income from the gaming revenue, the importance of the arts and culture in our community is paramount. Around the world, creativity is being touted as an indispensable resource for civic vitality and prosperity. A recent study rated the impact of the cultural sector in Erie County: $14.9 million in annual economic activity, thousands of jobs and thousands of dollars generated in City tax revenue.

Everyone in Erie County is invited to be a part of answering the above questions. Over the next year, there will be numerous opportunities for people to contribute their voice, vision, values and ideas about the future of Erie County's cultural life. These will then be transformed by participants into a concrete action plan for future cultural development to be implemented by the whole community over the next 5 – 10 years.