The Haliburton Highlands is into its second week as an Ontario Culture Days provincial festival hub.
The official flag-raising was held last Friday (Sept. 18) at the County of Haliburton office in Minden. The County has also officially proclaimed Sept. 18 – Oct. 4 ‘Haliburton Culture Days.’
The two-week, three-weekend, festival features more than 70 free activities and experiences across the Highlands.
The initiative is being spearheaded by the Arts Council – Haliburton Highlands, with support from numerous community partners, artists, cultural organizations, and volunteers.
Arts council vice-chairperson, Sharon Kennedy, said the designation recognizes the strength of the local arts and cultural sector and the collaborative efforts of organizations throughout the County.
Culture Days, itself, is a Canada-wide celebration that has been running for more than 15 years, with each province putting its own spin on it. The local hub designation came in the spring. In April, the Arts Council held two community information sessions to let folks in the County know about it, and get some ideas flowing about how they could get involved.
While many are piggybacking on existing events, such as Hike Haliburton and Colourfest, others are new. Kennedy said they are using some existing offerings as Ontario Culture Days require anchor events. However, she said many of these events have an added twist. “The same programs, but we’ve tied culture days’ activities into those and tried to expand on what people do.”
She noted the Arts Council has a couple of writers’ events and readings. There’s a children’s book reading as part of the arts and culture picnic at the Minden Hills Cultural Centre Saturday (Sept. 26) There’s a writers’ workshop Friday (Sept. 25) at Castle Antiques, “structured for the public, rather than those already experimenting in the genre, so it’s a chance for people to test it out and see whether they would like that kind of thing and want to learn things,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy added Oct. 4’s ‘two guys on a bench’ had never been done before, and will be featured at the Dominion Hotel, followed by the public wrap party for Culture Days that evening.
Culture Days events are free, or pay-whatyou-may, and offer everyone the chance to explore creativity, be inspired by artistic expression, and join in imaginative, handson activities.
Kennedy said the number of local events is on par with the Greater Toronto Area. “It’s been fantastic.” When it’s over, a survey will gauge who came and whether or not to make it an annual event.
“The idea is to get some metrics on it. The intention wasn’t so much as a tourism driver but that’s the spillover benefit.”
Kennedy said the real intent was to engage the public to a greater degree.
“If they say I’m not an arts person or I’m not into heritage; that they dip their toe in the water and attend one of these free events and go, ‘oh, that’s what that’s all about or ‘I tried my hand at this’.
“It is to showcase and open the doors for everybody and make it easy to pop around where ever your schedule permits and experience some of the stuff that’s always happening, but if you’re not going to our galleries year-round, you have an opportunity to check some things out.”
People can view the full calendar of Haliburton events at onculturedays.ca.
