Cornwall ON – Arts and Culture are huge buzz words right now across Ontario; especially Eastern Ontario. It’s not like they didn’t exist before; but communities are starting to truly realize that to retain your young people and attract others to an area a strong and vibrant Arts and Culture scene can play a large role.
Of course it’s more than that and many bureaucrats and government types don’t really think in true terms of what Arts and Culture truly are. Many people don’t really think about the scope of Arts in Culture which leak into every facet of our lives.
A few weeks ago there was a meeting at the Cornwall Civic Complex where the results of an extensive exercise was shared with the public. Those results essentially were that there was a need for an Arts Centre and possibly an Arts Council in this region (Stormont, Dundas, and South Glengarry) and it inspired me to think about how we at The Cornwall Free News could help.
Which is why next week we will be holding a press conference to announce our Partnership with the Arts for SD&SG which will be a pilot project lasting for the balance of 2011.
Essentially, (details will be released next week) all venues, events, and organizations will receive free coverage and advertising on The Cornwall Free News. Not just a few lines of text, but full page ads to promote their efforts which can contain multi-media components and be in both official languages (and any others!).
In addition, and to me this is the most exciting part, is that every cultural participant IE Artist will also have the opportunity for free ads as well. We’ll be announcing our sponsors and partners for the program next week at the conference as well.
Now it’s going to be up to the Arts and Culture community for this region. I think we need to promote the amazing talent of this region, nurture it, and promote it. Now it’s up to see if we can all partner and elevate the profile of everyone that contributes to the fibre of our Artistic community.
More to come, and if you have any feedback or questions feel free to post below or email us at info@cornwallfreenews.com
Jamie Gilcig – Editor – The Cornwall Free News
Looking forward to an update on this initiative. Exciting news!
Is this an exclusive deal Jamie? Are you the only media sponsor for this? What price did you pay for this sponsorship. Are YOU receiving public monies for this? Fair questions for you in light of your comments on Lift Off and other company’s sponsorships.
Hi Bob, absolutely happy to have full transparency. We initiated a partnership. IE we provide a subsidized service. The Arts and Cultural community pay zero dollars and the partners and sponsors make a minimal contribution to help cover the costs. In these days of realizing the importance of Arts and Culture in our communities it’s time for people to step up and try and be supportive and helpful. I’m very happy to participate in this, and I’m very pleased to see the support this initiative is gaining.
I for one would love to see other media offer to do the same. As a matter of fact if any of the local media wish to partner or help sponsor this program the door is FREAKING WIDE OPEN 🙂
Hope that answers your question.
Jamie
Can you have some guitar hero contests to drop off the kids while checking out the works, or to bring people that would not normally show up?
Good on you for going over and above!
hi Jamie,
I think that is FANTASTIC!!!! When is the press conference I’d love to attend….
Laurie
Hi Laurie,
Stay tuned. I’m just coordinating so that we can have as many partners present as possible. Sometime between Thursday and Saturday would be my best guess today.
Absolutely fabulous news Jamie, if you keep showing initiative like this then you might make Mayor next election.
Oh man, I don’t think I’d want Stan endorsing me for anything.
Wow! Amazing news for the arts. How generous of you and your paper to do such a wonderful act. Hopefully you will get the support that you require and the people will use this to their best advantage.
Thank you Miss Steak. So far I’m amazed at the governmental support in the area. I think many of the people I’m speaking with are truly starting to see the potential of supporting the Arts in the area. Sadly the corporate support for this program has not clicked in.
Hopefully before our Press Conference and unveiling of the program at the end of next week we’ll have a few surprises to share 🙂 I can tell you I’m impressed by the response from many in the Arts and Culture community as this has huge potential for them.