Cultural Plan meetings off to a good start: Sickinger - May 23, 2019

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

Huron County Cultural Development Officer Rick Sickinger is greatly encouraged after the first consultation session on the new cultural plan held in Blyth last week.

The session, held in Memorial Hall, was standing room-only and brought together dozens of local stakeholders and residents interested in arts, heritage and culture. The cross-section and diversity of those who attended, he said, was impressive and it made for an extremely productive day to get the cultural plan ball rolling.

“I was very delighted with the turnout,” Sickinger said. “It was a full house with lots of passion and enthusiasm.”

He said that organizers came away with plenty of ideas to focus on in the coming months, including a list of approximately 20 “key topics” residents would like to see emphasized in arts, culture and heritage in Huron County in the coming years.

Organizers worked with chart paper, documenting some of the key areas of focused discussed that night. Those notes then made their way back to the Huron County administration offices for further discussion among staff members.

In the coming weeks, Sickinger said he would be conducting one-on-one interviews with local arts stakeholders and others to get some further ideas, but he says the process is off to a great start.

The next step, Sickinger said, will be to create an online survey to conduct further research and collect feedback from residents who were unable to make it to that first seminar.

The research being conducted right now, he said, will point to areas of focus that the residents highlighted. When staff get together to discuss the ideas further, it will then be determined whether the county has the resources to carry out the recommendations. That entire process will all roll out in due course.

For more information on the Huron County cultural plan or its arts, culture and heritage sector, visit the Huron County website at huroncounty.ca.