Have your say and support advocacy on key arts issues in Prince Edward County and beyond!
In 2024, we are carrying out an initiative aimed at enhancing arts events in the County Arts Lab – our home on the Main Street level of the Picton Armoury – and developing a placemaking strategy to help promote Main Street Picton as an arts and culture destination. This project is supported by the My Main Street program, the Canadian Urban Institute, and the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).
Art at the Heart of Picton Placemaking Strategy by Andrea Dawes
A full roll-out of the Strategy and new Art at the Heart of Picton branding collateral will take place in early 2025. Click here to read the full Press Release and here for a PDF version of the Placemaking Strategy.
November 28, 2024 – Over the past year, County Arts has been hard at work ensuring the needs of local arts organizations were front and centre during the redesign of the municipal community grants program. We surveyed fellow Arts Councils to learn more about municipal support for their work, surveyed local Arts Organizations on their needs, and then worked with Dominique Jones from The County Foundation to propose to municipal staff and refine the idea of a Prince Edward County Arts Fund seeded with Municipality Accommodation Tax (MAT) revenues – something that both of our organizations have been envisioning for some time.
Council has now accepted this proposal in principle, setting the course for $75,000 in dedicated arts funding in 2025: $50,000 from the MAT and $25,000 from The County Foundation, with a goal to grow this Fund further through private contributions.
Based on the needs of local artists and arts organizations, County Arts advocated for an annual funding amount of $200,000: a figure that would adequately respond to the needs of local arts organizations, help the municipality meaningfully fulfill its commitments to supporting the arts, and bring enormous and wide-ranging benefits to our community.
However, through the leveraging of this initial investment, we look forward to seeing the Fund grow and ultimately achieve this visionary target that reflects the assets and needs of our unique artist community. We have been heartened by the commitment of both The County Foundation team and municipal staff to exploring and incorporating this unique approach, and applaud Council for taking the first step in an exciting journey towards an arts funding landscape that reflects the uniqueness and impact of Prince Edward County’s arts community.
Click here to read the comment made by County Arts Executive Director Janna Smith at the November 14th COTW meeting, and click here for the November 27th Picton Gazette article.
October 1, 2024 – We are thrilled to share the release of a new Hill Strategies profile of PEC artists based on data from the 2021 Census. The article confirms what we have always known to be true of the incredible depth, breadth, and uniqueness of the artist community in Prince Edward County.
Click to read our Highlights Overview and the full Hill Strategies article, and view the images below for a high-level summary. We thank Kelly Hill of Hill Strategies for his work on this project, as well as the Corporation of the County of Prince Edward whose support helped make it possible.
October 10, 2024 – In 2023-24, County Arts led the community engagement and planning process to develop a 2025-30 Public Art Plan – Prince Edward County’s first – in collaboration with Municipal staff. We are thrilled to announce that the Public Art Plan was approved at the October 10th 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting, and staff recommendations to develop and fund a public art program, led by County Arts in partnership with the municipality, were accepted.
For more information, please see:
In the lead up to the 2024 provincial by-election in the Bay of Quinte, County Arts ran a candidate survey to ensure that the arts and its many benefits are top of mind for local candidates, and that voters have the necessary information to make an informed, pro-arts decision at the ballot box. Click here to see the results.
In July 2024, we ran a campaign to advocate for and help secure the future of our local arts and community sectors while the municipality of Prince Edward County was running their 2025 budget consultation. We prepared a letter that residents could personalize and email to Council and the Municipal staff running the 2025 Budget engagement process, asking them to advocate for increased funding for the Municipal Community Grants program that keeps pace with inflation and population growth and reflects the true, immense value of our hardworking nonprofit sector; and increased arts funding levels, including reliable, adequate funding for arts organizations.
References: Community grant amounts: 2018 / 2019 / 2021 / 2022 / 2023 / 2024 / Operating budget amounts: 2018 / 2019 / 2021 / 2022 / 2023 /2024 / (2020 amounts not included due to pandemic-related anomalies)
In the lead up to the 2022 provincial and municipal elections, County Arts spearheaded comprehensive campaigns to ensure that the arts and its many benefits were top of mind for our local candidates, and that voters had the necessary information to make an informed, pro-arts decision at the ballot box. Click to view our complete Provincial and Municipal Election Packages, including the results from Community Surveys, Candidate Surveys, and more!
