At the end of September, the Town of Okotoks and the Okotoks Arts Council jointly sponsored a community consultation meeting on the arts. It was the second such session, and it brought together representatives of the Okotoks arts community and interested people from the town.
“Near the end of 2018, council adopted a culture, heritage and arts master plan,” said Allan Boss, Okotoks Culture & Heritage team leader. “Its mandate was to create opportunities to bring the arts community together.”
Because of the pandemic, it wasn’t until the spring of 2022 that Boss and Russell Thomas, president of the Okotoks Arts Council, were able to co-produce the first Face-to-Face consultation meeting.
“Culture & Heritage used to be part of Okotoks Community Services Department,” Boss explained. “It comprises the Okotoks Museum & Archives, Okotoks Art Gallery, the Rotary Performing Arts Centre, a public art education program and Visitor Services.
“Town council has directed that arts and culture should be an economic driver,” he said. “We identified two things that would help achieve that – designate September as the Month of the Artist in Okotoks and hold a second meeting to talk about the arts as an economic driver.”
One of the concepts Boss took away from last month’s meeting was that the arts should be considered a “social profit” sector.
“It’s not a ‘not-for-profit' sector,” he argued. “There is profit there. It’s social profit and like economic profit, it helps build the community.”
Thomas and Boss agreed that if the arts are to become an economic driver, the principal role for people currently working in the arts is to continue to create art. “That’s typically what they’re really good at,” Boss said. “The question was how to get others – how to get businesses for example – to collaborate with arts groups and help create opportunities that would benefit both of them?”
Okotoks council recently approved an Arts & Culture Activation grant program to help social profit organizations and individuals put on events in the community. It will go into effect next year. Council also recently passed a public art policy. “One way you build an identity is to fill your town full of really great art,” Boss said. “This policy will help make our community even more beautiful than it is by putting more art into it.”
Of course, in any discussion of how the arts can become an economic driver in a smaller community, the example of Stratford, Ontario always comes up. I asked Boss if he thought something like that was possible in this part of Canada.
“Oh, 100 per cent,” he replied. “Coming up with a festival idea that brings people in is certainly possible. I think it must arise from the bottom up, but it could possibly be encouraged by something like an Arts Activation grant, which presents an opportunity for members of our community to put on a special event. Maybe something could grow from that.”
