About Cultural Capitals

The Role of Arts, Culture and Heritage in Whistler’s Sustainable Future

Whistler is a young community.  While its pioneer heritage dates back almost a century and its First Nations’ heritage further still, Whistler as we know it today has yet to reach the big 5-oh.  The average age of its permanent residents is far younger.  Arts, culture and heritage programming is vital to the development of a strong sense of belonging and common experience as well as crucial to the young community’s ability to express its character, understand itself and carve out its place in the world.  

Arts, culture and heritage events are also an increasingly important economic component of Whistler’s success as a four-season resort  Market research indicates visitors to Whistler are increasingly looking for arts, culture and heritage components to enrich their resort experience.  As a component of our drive for sustainability, culture represents one of the principle growth opportunities the resort will embrace to continue to attract a world-wide audience.

Whistler Village offers an unspoiled natural stage to hold a broad variety of festivals and events.  Drawing on local, regional, national and international talent, the resort strives to provide broad-based entertainment to enhance our guests’ experience and generate additional tourism.  As the local arts community matures, it is becoming an integral part of the Whistler experience for our guests who tell us they want more authenticity and local flavour as well as for our increasing cultural tourists. 

Whistler: 2009 Cultural Capital of Canada

Whistler’s designation as a Cultural Capital of Canada for 2009 recognizes and validates our growing excellence in arts and culture programming.  Becoming a Cultural Capital will accelerate our efforts to mount cultural projects and festivals and will greatly enhance our profile as a centre of artistic expression, creativity, exploration and achievement.  As a Cultural Capital, we’ll be able to promote and invest in arts and culture more heavily, emerging from this exciting year with a rich legacy to build on.  Read more about the Cultural Capitals of Canada Program [ link ]

Benefits of the Cultural Capital of Canada Funding for Whistler

Whistler’s arts community has benefited greatly from the success of two home-grown festivals, both of which have whole-heartedly embraced local cultural programming.

The Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival set the model other mountain town cultural festivals have tried to emulate, though none have reached the same level of success.  Though it started out 14 years ago as a celebration of sport, the cultural elements added along the way — music, photography, filmmaking, art, theatre and written word — have eclipsed the sport components.  The Festival’s 72-hour Filmmaker’s Showdown, widely copied at festivals around the world, jumpstarted a generation of local filmmakers.

The Whistler Film Festival, through its short film commission program, Whistler Stories, has encouraged BC filmmakers to capture the unique stories that, woven together, reveal some of the unique contributions and characters that enrich our community.

Aside from these notable exceptions, Whistler’s arts, culture and heritage community tends to be smaller scale and nascent in its development.  Through the Cultural Capital of Canada program, we’ll be able to nurture and grow this vital community component and attract even more talent from outside the community.  Our inclusion in the program will help, among others:

• The Whistler Theatre Project.  This past summer marked the first successful attempt by a professional theatre company to mount a festival of performing arts in Whistler.  This success offered a huge opportunity to further develop local talent that will go on to create, produce and perform in future programming.
• The Whistler Museum is in the formative stages of redeveloping its historical and cultural presence in town.  It’s ability to tell our story and archive the history of this unique town will be greatly enhanced.
• The Whistler Arts Council grew out of the passion of founding volunteers.  With a paid executive director since 2001, it has developed strong programming reflecting the richness of our local arts community and provided outlets for aspiring, home-grown talent.
• Maurice Young Millennium Place, the hub of Whistler’s cultural community, celebrates its 7th anniversary this year.  While a cultural programmer in its own right, it has given the local arts, culture and heritage community a physical home.  Its used extensively by all as a performance centre and planning and dreaming venue.
• With just three seasons experience, Whistler’s Writers’ Festival is rapidly developing both its own distinct personality and the local writing community.  Each year, its workshops and readings become more ambitious as the success of its alumni grows greater.