Dear Members of the Arts, Culture & Heritage Community,

Hope you have had a great Fall and are looking forward to the holiday season! The Roundtable has been busy at work on many projects - here is our news:

1. Hold This Date - The second annual Halton Hills Cultural Symposium will be held Friday, January 22nd (evening) and Saturday, January 23rd (all day) at the Cultural Centre Gallery in downtown Georgetown. We will be highlighting the work done over this year, beginning to shape a "brand" for Halton Hills, and undertaking some ambitious thinking about potential partnerships within the arts, culture and heritage sectors of our community. Registration details and an agenda will follow soon but in the meantime please hold this date as we need you there!!! 

2. Roundtable News

• In response to our Symposium's priority to build a Halton Hills signature event that draws tourists and showcases our arts, culture and heritage resources may we present: "The Big DADDY Festival - Celebrating the Significant Man in Your Life, June 19/20, 2010". A working group has been meeting since the summer to begin planning this event and with your help at our last Quarterly Network meeting we have chosen a Father's Day theme and date and are currently building the details. If you would like to contribute to this group, please give Beatrice a call; more details about individual and group volunteer opportunities will be available at the upcoming Symposium.
• Our Culture Matters Independent newspaper insert is now four months old and while we are still fine-tuning some details we have had a very positive response thus far. Remember to email Beatrice your arts, culture and heritage group/activity calendar information by the 20th of the month for insertion into the following month's list. Please also consider purchasing an ad in this section particularly if you are going to take out an ad anyway. It positions your message much better to the right audience group and also helps build awareness of the cultural community and activities in Halton Hills.
• Community Website & Box Office - It has been a busy quarter for grant applications including two which focus on funding the start-up of our arts, culture and heritage community-based website/online box office, another Symposium priority. Our working group's plans are well-developed at this point and we are ready to move ahead with this project. More information about the many ways that your group can benefit from this site will be available at the January Symposium.
• The HHCR has now incorporated. We thank the Georgetown Choral Society for its administrative support during our inaugural year. The Roundtable also welcomes Wayne Pries to our Board as our sports and heritage community link. 
• Community Outreach - In order to develop our community's arts, culture and heritage sectors the Roundtable is committed to assisting your group whenever possible with whatever stage of development you are at. This Fall we have assisted groups with writing grant applications, providing event volunteers, making presentations on volunteer recruitment, linking groups to community experts, advising re project start-up and promoting new community events. If you think that your group would benefit from our expertise and/or network contacts please contact Beatrice at the number below - we are here to help!

3. Network News

• The Halton Hills Sports Museum recently celebrated its grand opening at the Moldmasters Complex in Georgetown to rave reviews. Congratulations to the many volunteers involved in this initiative - the results are very impressive! You can check out this valuable heritage resource at www.hhsm.ca. 
• The Artist-in-Residence Program at the Gellert Centre has openings for later December and the winter season. If you or your group would benefit from increased community exposure this is the opportunity for you. For more information see the attached program description or contact Jamie Smith at (905) 877-7915 x2517.
• Last January we also talked a fair bit about creating community hubs and pathways to connect them through our natural heritage. In this realm of thinking, we are pleased to see the launch this Fall of the Halton Hills Cycling Master Plan which will develop connecting pathways within our community over the coming years. For more information or to give your input on the draft plan go to www.haltonhills.ca/cycling/index.php.
• If we had an award for perseverance it would have to go to the members of Heritage Acton who have toiled for ten years to restore Acton's Old Town Hall to its former glory. We recently got a sneak peek at the close-to-finished renovations and were astonished at how spacious and beautiful the site is going to be. Stay tuned for opening tours in the spring. 
• The Town of Halton Hills has recently launched a community-wide Sustainability Committee with a mandate to plan for all four pillars of community wellness (economic, social, environmental, cultural). This effort will build on the Town's recent successful work in the environmental area. Thanks to Chris Macewan for representing the Roundtable and cultural sector on this important initiative; we will keep you up-to-date on this committee's progress.

That's all the news for this month. Please help the Roundtable become a vital community resource by keeping us informed about your news and your needs. We look forward to hearing from you!

Hi Everyone,

Just following up on our last message; hope you are able to join us this Thursday, September 17th from 7-9 pm for the next Cultural Roundtable Quarterly Meeting being held at the St. John's United Church, Allen Room, 11 Guelph Street in Georgetown (on the north side just east of the bend at Main Street). Come and hear about our theme options for the annual festival next June - we need your input! There will also be a general update on what is happening as well as a local cultural gem... and could you please take a moment to RSVP your attendance via return email so we can plan for numbers?

Thanks and hope to see you there, Laurent & Beatrice

Dear Members of the Cultural Community,

Happy Summer! We have so much to tell you about this month - here we go:

1.   Roundtable News

• It's Here! As so many of you have requested the first monthly Halton Hills Culture Page will be launched in the Independent newspaper in early September with an events calendar, a focus article (Dickens Plus Festival - see details below), community cultural group and event announcements, and sponsoring ads. This feature page is intended to be a conduit of information for the Halton Hills community at large about all of the arts, culture and heritage events, groups, businesses, and resources available within our community. To make this page shine we need your information and support. If you or your group would like to contribute information (e.g. event dates, audition calls, group notices) please contact Ken Hall at ken@kenhallart.com. To purchase ads please contact Amy Sykes at ASykes@independentfreepress.com. The monthly deadline for both inputting information and purchasing ads is the 20th so that the page can be featured at the end of each month to announce the next month's news so get that information in soon! Thanks to Roscoe Petkovic, Ken Hall and Maureen Walker for their work in putting this together.
• Our next step in the Community Branding exercise is to solicit funds for the project. Laurent and Beatrice will be visiting community patrons, businesses, and service clubs during the month of September; please let us know if you have any suggestions about who we should meet with about this important undertaking. 
• The newly formed Festival Working Group has met twice to come up with exciting and feasible options for an annual community-wide cultural event for both residents and tourists starting next year. We will be telling you more about these options at our Quarterly Meeting in September.
• The Community Website & Box Office Working Group continues to work away on the components and operations of the proposed site. We are now sourcing out box office and website software options to see what is the best fit for our needs and how much these resources will cost.
• Congratulations to Beatrice Sharkey who was the successful candidate for the 18-month Roundtable position!
• Hold This Date! Our next Quarterly Network Meeting will be held Thursday September 17th from 7-9 pm, location to be determined. The focus will be on Festival planning. Hope you can join us!  

2.   Network News

• The Town of Halton Hills is launching an Artist-in-Residence Program at the Gellert Centre this fall - a great chance to showcase your work to a broad audience. The details are attached. Please pass this information on through your networks to anyone you think may be interested.
• Georgetown Globe Musical Productions is currently putting together a project plan to refurbish the old Armoury building in the Georgetown Fairgrounds to make it a permanent home for the group. They hope that with the help of the Town of Halton Hills and some potential grant sources  the Armoury will become a vital community resource once again... best of luck with this endeavor Globe!

• Fabulous Free Fiesta! For the first time ever the Halton Hills community is invited to a traditional Mexican corn roast to celebrate the contributions of local seasonal Mexican workers. The event takes place on Sunday August 23rd from 12 noon – 5 pm at Andrews' Scenic Acres and includes fresh corn served at noon, traditional Mexican music by “Mexico Amigo Mariachi” at 2 pm, and a hands-on Mexican ceramic art workshop by the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art also starting at noon.

• Do you have an event that would benefit from local exposure? Make sure to post it on the Town of Halton Hills Online Events Calendar at:

  http://www.town.halton-hills.on.ca/events/calendar-form.php.

3.  Volunteer Help Needed

• The Roundtable is now ready to go through the process of incorporation and is looking for a volunteer to undertake this detail-oriented task. The approximate time commitment is 10 hours total over six weeks. Please contact Beatrice at the number below if you can help.
• The Halton Hills Tourism Committee continues to disseminate tourism and cultural information at local events. If you would like a chance to talk about all that Halton Hills has to offer for three hours at the Leathertown Festival in Acton on Sunday August 9th and/or the Rock-n-Roll Classics event in Georgetown on Friday August 21st please contact Doug Penrice at DougP@haltonhills.ca to book in. No experience is necessary and you get a cool green Tourism Ambassador t-shirt!
• A new cultural event is being planned for September 25th and 26th in Glen Williams called Dickens Plus. The event is intended to bring locals and tourists into the community by celebrating Dickens and the Victorian era. All proceeds will be donated to CASHH.  The Friday evening will be a Victorian Murder Mystery Night for adults and the Saturday activities will be geared to families. Picture Queen Victoria look-alike contests, historical tours, hands-on Victorian crafts, vocal performances, pick pockets, vintage cars, a Town Crier, Fagan from the musical Oliver and lots more. The event is looking for both youth and adult volunteers for both days as well as vendors for the 26th; please contact Bryan Turner at 905-877-6421/brymar@cogeco.ca.

That's all the news for this month. Please help the Roundtable become a vital community resource by keeping us informed about your news and your needs. We look forward to hearing from you!

Dear Members of the Cultural Community,

We have been hard at work in many ways over the last month and want to provide you with an update on our progress:

• The Halton Hills Cultural Roundtable had its first meeting in May and is off to a great start with a nice mix of returning and new members. For your information member names and contact information are attached. We will be meeting monthly and always welcome both input and issues being brought forward from this email's broader network - please help us to keep relevant and informed!
• We are pleased to report that the Roundtable received THH Council Endorsement at its May 12th, 2009 meeting where the CAO's report was approved. This is an important step for our group as the recommendations included:
• The Town's support for the Summary Report and Action Plan's priorities
• The Town's wish for ongoing communication between the Roundtable and THH staff including identifying and exploring partnership opportunities
• The Town's support for the development of a community information website as long as its design ensure efficiency, effectiveness and minimal duplication
•  The Town's openness to hear from the Roundtable their ideas regarding the development of a Cultural Plan
• Laurent has made several presentations about the potential benefits to our community of undertaking a branding exercise.The response has been very positive and we are now developing a project plan and assessing the financial requirements and partnerships needed to move ahead on this. The Roundtable believes that having a clearly articulated Halton Hills brand will provide an essential cornerstone to being able to market and develop our cultural resources for the future. More on this topic next month...
• The Roundtable's Ontario Trillium Grant application is in it's final stages of approval having passed the review committee and reference stages. The final decision is due at the end of June and we are collectively holding our breath in anticipation!
• The Community Website & Box Office Working Group has made significant progress over the past few months in determining the scope of the project and learning best practices from other community websites. We have now completed a project plan and are beginning to determine the contect and operational requirements for both developing the site and ensuring its long-term viability. Stay tuned!
• The newly formed Halton Hills Tourism Committee, led by THH Councillor John Duncan, has met several times to talk about the current state of tourism in our community and how we can build a stronger presence for the future. In the short-term the group has decided to provide leadership to the dissemination of tourism and cultural information, and collection of tourist profile data at the gates of six of our community's most prominent events over the course of the summer. The Roundtable has committed to supplying the volunteers for two of these events so we need your help for one of the following shifts:
  • Highland Games, June 11th, Georgetown Fairgrounds: noon - 3:00 p.m. OR 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
  • Classics Against Cancer, June 21st, Cedervale Park in Georgetown: 7:00 - 11:00 a.m. OR 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 
  • Note: No preparation is necessary - just show up at the event gate for your shift, get on your bright green Tourism Ambassador t-shirt, grab your orientation sheet and spend a few hours talking to those arriving about our community's arts, culture and heritage resources, and filling in a survey about their profile. It promises to be an enjoyable day! Please email your availability to Beatrice at sharkey@look.ca.
• While we are on the topic of volunteers, we are now ready to form the Annual Cultural Festival Working Group. This topic was overflowing with participants at the January Symposium and we are hoping that many of you involved in that discussion will join the working group. Since the plan is to host the event next June and there are grant opportunities with September 1st deadlines we want to get started planning this month. Please forward your interest to Beatrice at sharkey@look.ca. This task will be great for creative, hands-on volunteers - hope you can join us!
• The Roundtable was so impressed with the recent Dominion Garden Park's opening event which exemplified a wonderful integration of arts, culture and heritage activities and physical elements that we sent the attached congratulatory letter to the Town Council. Be sure to check out the park which is sure to become a focal point for our community in the years to come.
• Roscoe has initiated discussions with the Independent and Free Press about having a monthly Culture Page feature which would include an events calendar, arts, culture & heritage announcements and ads, as well as a monthly article about an interesting aspect of Halton Hills culture. We have some initial topics in mind (e.g. profiles, geo-caching, home of little NHL, movies made in Halton Hills) but are now looking for both topic ideas and writers to fill a 12-month time period. Please email Beatrice at sharkey@look.ca with your article ideas and/or to become a volunteer writer.
• Do you have an event that you would like to have province-wide profile? Simply visit www.tourismpartners.com to complete your free registration and have your event listed in the Celebrate in Ontario website.
  

That's all of the news for now. We looking forward to hearing from you about the volunteer opportunities!

Hello everyone, here is the latest news:

• Our next Town Council presentation, originally scheduled for this evening, has been changed to Tuesday, May 12th at 6:30 p.m.  We hope you can join us!
• Our first Quarterly Network Meeting was held last week to review the Roundtable's terms of reference and augment/approve the proposed slate of members.  We welcome Alice Rice, Carolyn Martin, Chris Macewan, Dave Kentner, Dianne Penrice, Jamie Smith, Jane Diamanti, Jane Fogal, Kay Mathews, Ken Hall, Laurent Thibault, Roscoe Petkovic, and Tom Bentley as the first Halton Hills Cultural Roundtable!
• Copies of the Symposium Summary Report and other meeting materials are now available online at http://www.hhculturejourney.com or you can request a hard copy by return email. We will continue to update you monthly on our progress.

Dear Members of the Cultural Community,

First Quarterly Meeting/Roundtable Start-Up - As signaled to you in previous communications, the Advocacy Committee is now pleased to invite you to a very important meeting on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. at the Gallery of the Cultural Centre in downtown Georgetown.

You will recall that a major outcome of January's Symposium was the need to create a permanent body that will be representative of the cultural community in Halton Hills and provide cultural strategic leadership. The purpose of this public meeting is to formally launch this organization which we propose be called the Halton Hills Cultural Roundtable.

You will find attached a founding document that outlines the details of what is being proposed. Our plan is to have a thorough discussion, modify the document by consensus, and then formally approve it. Please read it carefully and come prepared to contribute to a constructive dialogue. In addition, if you have any initial comments or observations before the meeting please don't hesitate to contact us at the numbers listed below as we welcome your input. For further background information on the Symposium outcomes go to http://www.hhculturejourney.com/index.html. 

A slate of volunteer members will also be proposed for your approval so that the Roundtable can start up and get to work immediately. While we have already put out a call for Roundtable volunteers in our March email we still have a couple of spots left so if you are interested please contact us this week.

Can you also forward this meeting information on to interested parties within your group's/business' email contacts? And so that we can plan the meeting logistics, please indicate by return email whether you can attend.

Next Town Council Presentation - On Monday, April 27th at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Council chambers we will be presenting our event summary report and initial project update to Town Council. As with all such meetings the more community support that is shown in terms of attendees the better so please mark your calendar with this date and plan to come. Copies of the event summary report will be available online as of the 27th or you can get an early bird copy at the Quarterly Meeting on the 22nd.

Barber Mill Heritage Project Attachment  - You will recall that one of the Symposium's discussion themes was the repurposing of heritage buildings for cultural purposes and their potential link to other hubs through pathway systems. The Credit River Heritage Society is in the very initial stages of looking at this possibility for the Barber Mill property. We are attaching a letter for your consideration (in both Word and Jpeg formats) as they begin fundraising for their project's start-up costs.

That's all of the news for now. We are really looking forward to re-connecting with you on April 22nd - hope you can make it!

Hello Everyone,

We have been hard at work over February. Here's a quick update on our progress:

• A draft Cultural Roundtable proposal has been developed which includes:
  • How this group will be formed,
  • The optimal range of participants and perspectives needed to make it successful,
  • The activities it will oversee, and
  • How it will communicate not only with the arts, culture and heritage sectors, but also with the broader community.

This topic is to be the centrepiece of our first quarterly meeting to be held on Wednesday, April 22nd from 7-9:30 p.m. at the JET's gallery. So please hold this date; more information will follow!

• In other areas:
  • We've met twice with potential partners for the community website. Our next meeting will be held in early April with more research about other communities' best practices in this area, the possibility of having a community-wide ticketing function, the optimal range of components for the site, and easily recognizable URLs (www.myhaltonhills.com?). A great start has been made on a framework; now -- ASAP -- we need volunteers with some technical and community expertise (see below) to give this project some legs. Stay tuned -- this is going to be a really exciting resource to highlight arts, culture and heritage within our community!
  • Our next presentation to Town Council will be on April 6th (time TBA); hope you can join us to show your support. Beforehand, we will discuss the resolution (page 40 of the Presentation to Council Feb 2/09 slideshow at www.hhculturejourney.com) put forth last month with senior Town staff. We are very hopeful that the Town will become an active partner with the Cultural Roundtable to raise the profile of arts, culture and heritage within our community.
  • We've made several presentations to community groups about the Symposium and our goals. With our 10-minute and 30-minute presentations, we are ready to provide this information to be shared with your group or to attend one of your group's meetings to present. This is part of our strategy for getting this information out and attracting volunteers, so we welcome your calls!
  • We're applying to the Town's Municipal Assistance program for a (very) little support for project set-up, and have completed our Trillium grant application for seed money and part-time staffing funds (results to be announced by June 1st). Meanwhile, we'll learn whether we  have funding for website development within the next two weeks. These applications count, but not nearly as much as finding the wide range of volunteers we need to move our project forward. Thus...
• The priorities from the Symposium (now incorporated in our Action Plan, attached) reveals the range of volunteers needed to make these projects happen. Our "Call for Volunteers" (also attached) shows our need for Roundtable Executive members, project volunteers (note the staggered project start times), and the very important support functions to keep it all running smoothly. At the Symposium we saw your enthusiam for the goals we all set. Are you eager to get started? Well, if everyone offers to fill one of these many roles, we will be off to a great start. We are a fun group to work with... we are organized... and we have a common vision of a wonderful future for arts, culture and heritage. Come and join us!!!

That's all the news for now. Contact us directly for more information; we want to hear your preferred volunteer commitment by March 20th. We look forward to working from you!

Hello Again,

Some great news this week! Our resolution to Town Council regarding exploring potential partnership opportunities with the Town for our event's action plans was approved unanimously. Thanks to those of you who were able to attend. If you were unable to make it you can link through to our website www.hhculturejourney.com to see a copy of the presentation entitled " February 2nd 2009 Town Council Presentation".

Our next steps are to write the summary report, research possible funding sources and gather together volunteers for the various projects. We will let you know how you can help after our committee meets next week so stay tuned - the Journey continues!

Dear Symposium Participant,

Thank you so much for your participation at the Halton Hills Cultural Symposium two weeks ago. We are so pleased to have had this time with you to discuss our community's rich fabric of arts, culture and heritage resources and develop a common vision and goals that we can all move forward with. The future is looking great!

We wanted to give you a quick update on our next steps so that you can both stay informed and involved in the work going forward:

• The materials from the event are currently being posted on the website at www.hhculturejourney.com.  Please take some time to scan through them and consider sharing them with friends/family/other community members/the community groups you belong to whom you think may be interested in where we are heading.
• As requested at the event, we are attaching a participant list with contact information so that you can continue the relationships that were begun at the event. It was one of our main hopes that this would happen and we were really pleased to see how many of you made new connections.
• Beatrice, Jane D. and Laurent met last week with the Town's senior management team to both fill them in on the event's activities and results as well as get their advice on how to proceed with potential partnerships with the Town. From these discussions we have decided to make a two-prong presentation to Council including the February 2nd 6:30 p.m. meeting (in Council chambers at the Town Hall) where we will present the event's highlights, and then a more fulsome presentation towards the end of February when the final report has been developed. Your attendance at these meetings will send the message that a broad component of our community is behind this planning and we hope you will be able to make it!
• In our next email we will be outlining the volunteer help needed for beginning the action plans. Many of you have already expressed a general interest in contributing and we are very thankful for this. You should also know that the current advisory committee members (Laurent Thibault, Jamie Smith, Janet Friskney, Jane Fogal, Jane Diamanti, Kay Mathews, Roscoe Petkovic, Alice Rice, Ann Lawlor and Chris Macewan) have agreed to continue on during this transition period so no balls get dropped. 

That is all our news for now - please contact us at the numbers/emails below for any further information. We will send you another update after the February 2nd meeting and look forward to working with you towards this exciting future!