Culture and Heritage Priorities Plan (CHPP)

About the Plan

Our culture and heritage includes many different components and perspectives that make this region unique. The municipality supports culture and heritage in many ways, including festivals, public art, heritage buildings, natural landscapes, archives, and museums just to name a few. The Culture and Heritage Priorities Plan (CHPP) clarifies the municipality's vision, principles and priorities in supporting culture and heritage to more effectively guide culture and heritage related investments and decisions.

Vision

Halifax will value culture and heritage – protect, grow, and express it.

We will:
• Celebrate culture to strengthen our sense of place and belonging.
• Support connection and inclusion through cultural expression.
• Create a region that reflects the diversity of the people who live here.
• Uphold the principles of Truth and Reconciliation.
• Be stewards of our heritage and cultural resources and look to the past to enrich the future.
• Value and support creators, artists and performers, in the region.
• Promote the cultures of the region and share our stories.

Pillars

Stewardship is about taking care of our cultural resources. It means protecting and nurturing the culture and heritage assets - such as buildings, stories, places, programs or events - that are important to us. This value ensures that all of the municipality’s actions are underpinned by the desire to maintain heritage, archaeological and intangible cultural assets at all times. 

Connection is about building bonds between people and encouraging diverse forms of remembrance, restoration and creation. This pillar involves: recognizing and valuing the unique, yet often underrepresented or untold, histories within our region; and celebrating the narratives of struggle, survival, resilience and perseverance to reflect underrepresented forms of culture actively. Connection can also relate to confronting painful truths of erasure and past harm while taking steps to address present-day institutional discrimination and inequities. 

Celebration is about expressing culture and heritage in a meaningful way. Our region should reflect people of all ages, abilities, geographies, religions and cultural heritage to create a welcoming environment. This value ensures that we will support culture and celebrate our differences in ways that build collective understanding, social connectivity and creativity. 

Access is about providing opportunities for everyone to participate in and enjoy culture and heritage. Enhancing access means reducing barriers, promoting participation in existing programs and events, and creating equitable access to resources (amongst diverse geographies and communities) so that everyone can celebrate and enjoy our culture and heritage.

Goals

Express Culture Through Place
Placemaking speaks to how we build the municipality. The municipality has the ability to help strengthen communities and tell stories through community design and the built form, which includes the preservation of heritage buildings and structures. The physical environment reflects who we are as a municipality; it helps celebrate the stories of specific people and places by protecting public spaces, settlement patterns and the land. Placemaking can also help guide new development to reflect existing cultures, emerging cultures and environmental principles.

Municipal policies, land use by-laws and administrative orders shape placemaking, development and community design and influence how culture, art and heritage are physically represented.

Support Cultural Capacity
Cultural capacity is about how the municipality will replenish or develop cultural services, such as cultural facilities, events, programming and use of spaces. The municipality provides cultural support and services throughout the region in many different forms, including investments in institutions like libraries, museums and archival resources, community and recreation centres. By looking into the future and better defining the municipality’s role in cultural capacity building, we can create a stronger network of resources through partnerships, collaboration and coordination across the region.

Providing the infrastructure that houses and supports cultural activities is a key municipal role. Through its annual capital and operating budget process, the municipality makes decisions that impact regional cultural capacity.

Value Creativity
Valuing creativity relates to developing platforms for showcasing creativity within the culture and heritage sector. We value artists and creators because they play a unique role in developing culture. The municipality strives to encourage and support excellence in artistic expressions through measures such as events and providing funding to professional arts, non-profit and community organizations. By sharing resources and developing partnerships among arts, culture and heritage groups, as well as the municipal and private sector, we can enhance the vibrancy of the region.

Through partnerships, grants and community events, the municipality contributes to the cultural and artistic character of the municipality. Municipal support to organizations helps provide a platform for the many diverse voices that make up our municipality.