The town of Salisbury has been selected for a pilot project to support the development of a municipal cultural policy for 2024-2025.
It was chosen by a committee made up of representatives from the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB) and ArtslinkNB.
It is in partnership with several other organizations including the Association Acadienne des Artistes Professionel.le.s du Nouveau-Brunswick (AAAPNB), and the Association Francophone des Municipalités du Nouveau-Brunswick (AFMNB) and UMNB.
Mayor Robert Campbell says this will help to identify and define arts and culture in the community.
“We’re definitely a community that’s a small town that thinks big and does big things. We really want to be recognized for that. But we also want from the perspective of our residents, to grow basically an enhanced community that brings people together and, really defines from a diversity and we’re more than just recreation.”
Campbell says they plan to look at their strategic plan and to find out what is needed in the community, from an arts and cultural perspective.
It has been 250 years since Salisbury was founded so Campbell adds this project comes at a perfect time.
“Essentially, it’ll help define future councils and the current council on decisions, going after funding opportunities and really having that focus on what that (arts and culture) means for our community,” Campbell adds.
“Whether that’s dance, or theatre, whether that is painting, whatever. It’s actually going to be defining that and then looking at areas that we can grow our community. As we bring in newcomers, things are also changing. How do we grow our community to be vibrant and, and welcoming and be more inclusive.”
Arts and Culture hold an important place in the municipal space. It underpins what makes our communities places people want to live in” said Dan Murphy, Executive Director of the UMNB. “We received significant interest from municipalities throughout membership, and are pleased that the Town of Salisbury will be the pilot community for this important element of building community identity through the arts as we work through municipal reform”.
