Mapping Niagara’s arts, culture and heritage assets is an important step in planning for and showcasing arts, culture and heritage in Niagara.
There are a couple of ways to talk about mapping these assets. For example, when a municipality undertakes the cultural planning process under the municipal cultural planning framework, one of their first steps is the creation of a database of cultural assets to understand what they have already, and properly plan for the assets over the long-term. So, with recently undertaken cultural plans in local municipalities like Pelham, St. Catharines, and Niagara Falls, there might be more current information available.
Maintaining such a database is a resource-intensive process, with contacts, websites and emails changing often. Each municipality has to consider this as part of its ongoing operations and the value such database maintenance will provide.
In the case of Niagara Region, an online mapping tool is available called Niagara Navigator on which people can search for what are referred to as ‘fixed’ assets, including public sites such as schools, libraries, museums, art galleries and historically designated buildings or sites that have significance in Niagara. The location of these sites does not change often, and while Niagara Region updates the Niagara Navigator information regularly, ‘fixed’ assets are sites that are mostly fixed in place.
To access Niagara Navigator, go to: https://www.niagararegion.ca/exploring/navigator.aspx. The landing page includes a link to A Summary of Helpful Tips. For assistance utilizing the Niagara Navigator tool, contact: Bartosz Derbis: Bartosz.Derbis@niagararegion.ca
There are also other resources available regarding cultural assets, that showcase various locations and groups, such as Cniagara.ca. This user-populated website includes a list of current cultural events happening in Niagara, as well as a list of venues for such events.
Many of the 12 local municipalities in Niagara also have a listing of local arts, culture and heritage groups and sites on their individual websites.
Other examples exist of cultural asset mapping-related tools in Niagara, such as the South Coast Arts and Culture Route, which maps studios and galleries on a self-directed route through a few of the local municipalities in the southern part of Niagara.
Source: Niagara Region
Retrieved from: Not available online; received through email with Terri Donia, Planner, Niagara Region
