Agnes Jamieson Gallery Minden Hills Museum R.D. Lawrence Place

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• Agnes Jamieson Gallery Minden Hills Museum
  R.D. Lawrence Place

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Organizational History

• Mission Statement
• The Minden Hills Cultural Centre contributes to
  the life of our community by helping residents
  and visitors explore the arts, our heritage and
  the environment.
•   Explore, Experience, Enjoy
• Agnes Jamieson Gallery, the Minden Hills Museum
  and the new R.D.
• Lawrence Place.
• Citizens donated significant collections to the
  Township (Lapine, 1972).
• Dr. Agnes Jamieson.
• 1979 plans began to build a new library and
  create a Museum.
• 1981 the Agnes Jamieson Gallery opened.
• 1982 Sterling Bank moved to same location to
  become the Museum.
• In 2004 gallery expansion Capacity Building
  Strat Plan.

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Minden Hills Driving the Creative Communities
Process Through Heritage Institutions

• One of 4 rural townships that comprise
  Haliburton County.
• 2-3 hours north of Toronto, in Canadian Shield
  country below Algonquin Park.
• Permanent population of 5,526 (2006).
• Swells to 60,000 with seasonal
  residents/cottagers.
• Approx. 200,000 visitors to County annually.
• Poorest region in Ontario (2006).
• Haliburton County is one of the most per-capita
  arts-rich regions in Ontario.
• Cultural renaissance in Minden over the last 5
  years - several up-scale
• restaurants, commercial art galleries,
  restoration re-opening of Beaver
• Theatre, Toronto Film Fest circuit.
• August 2009 Mindens town council officially
  made cultural planning a priority.

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Municipal Effectiveness in Creative Economy
Key Ingredients Support to Cultural
Institutions/Creative Businesses Financial
Investment Strategic Community
Partnerships Human Resources/Creative
Thinkers How can your institution contribute to
the economy?
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Minden Hills Cultural Centre the Creative
Economy

• Contributes to regional economy, quality of place
  and quality of life.
• Conjurors of County Town
• OAC Recommender Gallery
• Human resource development (writers, researchers,
  artists)
• Gathering place
• Tourism
• Education
• Repository of local heritage
• Deep understanding of local community
• Network of key volunteers
• Strategic partnerships (HCDC, CIA, BIA, Service
  Groups, Arts Council, HHWEN, HMA, Foundation,
  County Ec Dev Tourism)

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Minden Hills Commitment to the Creative Economy

• Increased support to Minden Hills Cultural
  Centre by 300 between 2004
• and 2009.
• Increased museum curator to F/T equivalent and
  hired a part time collections
• assistant
• Helped fund renovations to the museum, including
  new collections storage
• R.D. Lawrence Place, which holds the literary
  estate of the late R.D.
• Lawrence (Canadian literary icon,
  conservationist and field naturalist) was
• built.
•  Minden Hills was the only community in 2007 to
  receive federal infrastructure
• funding for a cultural project (5,000 square
  foot library expansion).
•   Invested in a major expansion to the Agnes
  Jamieson Gallery.
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• Invested in a new department head position to
  oversee Cultural Centre
• operations.

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Minden Hills Commitment to the Creative Economy

• Supported Doors Open Ontario, with 22 sites and
  over 4,000.
• Instigated the creation of a County-wide
  steering committee for Creative
• Cultural Planning and Cultural Mapping.
• Council passed a resolution prioritizing
  cultural planning in a proposed
• economic development plan.
• Cultural Centre initiated 2 community based
  research projects a) scan of
• best practices in Cultural Planning and
  inventorying intangible cultural
• assets b) R D of a mechanism to quantify
  economic impact of cultural
• activities in Minden Hills.
• Investment in increasing quality of place
  through Riverwalk project.

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Economic Development Heritage Institutions
Haliburton County Development Corporation has
been a consistent partner in all aspects of the
rapid growth and development at the Cultural
Centre. Agnes Jamieson Gallery The Royal
Canadian Academy of Arts Two Chairs exhibition
has been touring for two and a half years and is
currently in Nova Scotia The Mary E. Black A
Gallery
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Stamp Project

• HCDC funds allowed us to purchase Mindens 1st
  legal Canadian postage stamps which celebrated
  the grand opening of R.D. Lawrence Place.
• Sale of the stamps as a fundraiser was very
  popular, helping RDLP meet our goals for 2008.
• There was enough from 2008 sales to go ahead
  with a 2009 stamp Sesqui stamp celebrating
  Mindens 150th and the Minden Hills Museum.

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R.D. Lawrence Commemorative Anthology

• HCDC Support meant
• Dozens of writers were allowed to be published,
  some for the first time
• Assisted RDLP in meeting their mandate of
  fostering a love of reading and promoting the art
  of writing
• The anthology has been sold to people from
  literally around the world, exposing new
  audiences to our Haliburton writers
• The anthologies left in 2009 are now being sold
  as a fundraiser and in the Foster A Bookworm
  project. People can buy a book and it will be
  given for free to a local student as a means of
  fostering interest in reading, and to inspire our
  local students to write by showing them what our
  local writers have achieved.

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Results the media equipment and furnishing are
used every day in a variety of ways.- we have
supported local writers, actors, and performers
by allowing them to use our space to connect with
an audience.- we have used the equipment for
educational talks for children, seniors, adults
and special groups like the Rangers.- over 3,200
visitors have made use of this equipment and
every one of them has walked away having learnt
something about wildlife, conservation, culture
and our history.
R.D. Lawrence Place media/furnishings grants
The highlight of the RDLP experience for hundreds
of tourists is watching our documentaries, people
often remark on how educational they are and how
inspired they are by the stories told. This
wouldnt have been possible without the grant.
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Innovative Heritage Programming -
Conjurors of County Town A River Needs to Run,
2008

• HCDC has supported
• hiring of an intern.
• development of several young actors, a few seen
  above, who
• have developed their skills to pursue at a
  university level.
• development of local playwrights, the production
  of our own
• stories about our history, and been an economic
  driver for the
• community and the centre.

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Minden Hills MuseumSesquicentennial Coin
HCDC support of the coin project as a museum
fundraiser has been a resounding success. The
moment the coins were announced the orders
started pouring in. While this is a fundraiser,
it has also been a means of promoting the museum,
Minden heritage and the Sesquicentennial year and
events. Over a 100 people attended the official
April 1 launch of the coin and stamp. The coin
commemorative package includes cherished heritage
photographs of Minden that will be passed down
for generations. Just today a national coin
collectors site picked up the information.
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The Creative Economy

• Innovative activity in the public, private, and
  not for profit sectors
• that leads to new wealth and an improved quality
  of life in Haliburton County and is supportive of
  a healthy, natural environment.

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The Creative Economy isDriven By

• IDEAS
• INNOVATION
• KNOWLEDGE
• COLLABORATION AND
• CREATIVITY

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PLACE MATTERS

• Just as infrastructure and taxes are a
  competitive advantage for classic industrial
  development, quality of place and lifestyle
  amenities are competitive advantages to develop
  the creative economy.

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CULTURAL RESOURCES

• Cultural resources play a key role in enhancing
  quality of place and enhancing local creative
  economies.

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LOCATIONLOCATIONLOCATIONMinden borders onthe
largest economy in Canada,the 5th largest in
North Americaand 12th largest in the world.
This geographic position presentstremendous
tradingopportunities in the new
creativeeconomy.
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Conclusions Recommendations
Study your community, not just your
collections Listen to your visitors ask them
lots of questions Educate community, Educate
council, Educate yourself Develop strategic
partnerships Ask yourself how you can help
develop your community Track economic impact not
just attendance Read about creative economies
learn to speak about it Learn to speak
Economic-ese Initiate inventorying of cultural
assets KEEP TRYING