The importance of culture

Culture is the lifeblood of a vibrant society, expressed in the many ways we tell our stories, celebrate, remember the past, entertain ourselves, and imagine the future. Our creative expression helps define who we are, and helps us see the world through the eyes of others. Ontarians participate in culture in many ways—as audiences, professionals, amateurs, volunteers, and donors or investors.^{footnote 1[1]}

In addition to its intrinsic value, culture provides important social and economic benefits. With improved learning and health, increased tolerance, and opportunities to come together with others, culture enhances our quality of life and increases overall well-being for both individuals and communities.^{footnote 2[2]}

Individual and social benefits of culture

Intrinsic benefits

Participating in culture can benefit individuals in many different ways, some of which are deeply personal. They are a source of delight and wonder, and can provide emotionally and intellectually moving experiences, whether pleasurable or unsettling, that encourage celebration or contemplation. Culture is also a means of expressing creativity, forging an individual identity, and enhancing or preserving a community’s sense of place.

Cultural experiences are opportunities for leisure, entertainment, learning, and sharing experiences with others.^{footnote 3[3]} From museums to theatres to dance studios to public libraries, culture brings people together.^{footnote 4[4]}

These benefits are intrinsic to culture. They are what attracts us and why we participate.

Improved learning and valuable skills for the future

In children and youth, participation in culture helps develop thinking skills, builds self-esteem, and improves resilience, all of which enhance education outcomes. For example, students from low-income families who take part in arts activities at school are three times more likely to get a degree than those who do not. ^{footnote 5[5]} In the US, schools that integrate arts across the curriculum have shown consistently higher average reading and mathematics scores compared with similar schools that do not.^{footnote 6[6]} Many jurisdictions make strong linkages between culture and literacy and enhanced learning outcomes, in both public education and in the development of valuable workforce skills. ^{footnote 7[7]}

Cultural heritage broadens opportunities for education and lifelong learning, including a better understanding of history. Ontario’s cultural heritage sector develops educational products and learning resources in museums and designed around built heritage and cultural landscapes.

As trusted community hubs and centres of knowledge and information, public libraries play an important role in expanding education opportunities and literacy, overcoming the digital divide, supporting lifelong learning, and preparing people for work in the knowledge economy. ^{footnote 8[8]} Participation in library activities has been shown to improve literacy and increase cognitive abilities.^{footnote 9[9]}

E-learning is on the rise in both academic and professional settings. Games are being used to enhance math, writing, and other academic skills, and to motivate employees. There are over 120 specialized e-learning companies in Ontario.^{footnote 10[10]}

Better health and well-being

Participation in culture contributes to healthy populations in several ways. Creativity and cultural engagement have been shown to improve both mental and physical health.^{footnote 11[11]} Culture is being integrated into health care, notably in the UK, but also increasingly in other jurisdictions, including Canada.^{footnote 12[12]}

A growing body of research also demonstrates that the arts can improve the health and well-being of older adults. Participation in the arts can relieve isolation and promote identity formation and intercultural understanding. ^{footnote 13[13]} Vancouver’s Arts, Health and Seniors Project found that active participation in the arts had positive health benefits, such as social cohesion and emotional and physical well-being. Both the perceived health and chronic pain measures showed improvement over time.^{footnote 14[14]}

In First Nation, Métis and Inuit communities, culture is “simultaneously art, creative expression, religious practice, ritual models and markers of governance structures and territorial heritage, as well as maps of individual and community identity and lineage.”^{footnote 15[15]} The link between past efforts to eradicate Indigenous cultures and health issues in today’s Indigenous communities is increasingly recognized. Research has shown that revitalization of Indigenous cultures plays a key role in supporting the health, well-being, and healing of individuals and communities.

Vibrant communities

The benefits of culture for individuals can spill over to society as a whole.^{footnote 16[16]}

Culture helps build social capital, the glue that holds communities together. By bringing people together, cultural activities such as festivals, fairs, or classes create social solidarity and cohesion, fostering social inclusion, community empowerment, and capacity-building, and enhancing confidence, civic pride, and tolerance.^{footnote 17[17]} The social capital created through culture increases with regular participation in cultural activities.^{footnote 18[18]} Cultural engagement also plays a key role in poverty reduction and communities-at-risk strategies.^{footnote 19[19]}

Culture is important to the vitality of all communities.^{footnote 20[20]} Research in the US has shown direct connections between culture and community revitalization in Chicago neighbourhoods. Social networks created through arts initiatives based in the community resulted in direct economic benefits for the neighbourhood, such as new uses of existing facilities, and new jobs for local artists. ^{footnote 21[21]}

Our diverse cultural heritage resources tell the story of our shared past, fostering social cohesion.^{footnote 22[22]} They are intrinsic to our sense of place. Investments in heritage streetscapes have been shown to have a positive impact on sense of place.^{footnote 23[23]} Benefits include improved quality of life for local residents, a feeling of pride, identification with the past, and a sense of belonging to a wider community.

Culture helps cities to develop compelling city narratives and distinctive brands, with unique selling points for tourists and business investors. Culturally rich districts also enhance competitiveness by attracting talent and businesses. Cultural heritage is also a factor in rural development, supporting tourism, community renewal, and farmstead conservation.

Economic benefits of culture

The culture sector helps support the economy through direct and indirect job creation. It also helps spur innovation in other sectors^{footnote 24[24]} in the form of productivity advancements, regional development, community branding, and increased local tourism.^{footnote 25[25]}

Contribution to job creation

Economic opportunities created by culture have taken on greater importance as economies transition from the industrial model, and work based on physical labour, to a new model in which knowledge and creativity drive productivity and growth. Knowledge-based economies favour ideas to stimulate innovation, and they develop specialized services and highly customized products to create value.^{footnote 26[26]} Information, technology, and learning are central to their performance.

The culture sector is the foundation for Ontario’s growing creative economy sector.^{footnote 27[27]} In 2010, culture contributed nearly $22 billion to Ontario’s GDP, representing 3.7% of the province’s economy.^{footnote 28[28]} There were about 280,000 culture jobs in Ontario in 2010, or 4.1% of all jobs in the province.^{footnote 29[29]} Almost half of all culture jobs in Canada were located in Ontario as of 2010.^{footnote 30[30]}

Interactive Digital Media (IDM) is poised to be a key driver of growth and employment in Ontario’s cultural industries and the overall economy as cultural media products such as games and interactive experiences become more prevalent. According to the most recent Canadian Interactive Industry Profile, nearly one-third of the “core” IDM industry, specifically companies engaged mainly in content creation, were located in Ontario. They contributed estimated revenues of $1.1 billion in 2011 and accounted for over 17,000 jobs.^{footnote 31[31]}

Ontario is the number one film and television production jurisdiction in Canada in terms of production volume, revenue and employment;^{footnote 32[32]} and the third-largest film production location in North America after California and New York.^{footnote 33[33]} Film and television production contributed $2.3 billion in expenditures in Ontario (accounting for 40% of the national total) and supported 44,410 direct and indirect jobs in 2013-2014.^{footnote 34[34]} Film and television productions supported by the province contributed $1.3 billion in expenditures, supporting over 28,000 full-time direct and spin-off jobs in 2014.^{footnote 35[35]}

With leading computer animation, visual effects, and post-production facilities engaged in cutting edge innovation, and a strong network of training and research centres such as the Canadian Film Centre and the Screen Industries Training Centre located at Pinewood Studios, Ontario is positioned to remain one of the leading centres of film and television production and post-production in North America.^{footnote 36[36]}

Contribution to tourism

Culture makes a significant contribution to the tourism industry in Ontario, further supporting job creation and encouraging infrastructure development. In 2010, cultural tourism generated $3.7 billion in GDP and resulted in 67,700 jobs for Ontarians.^{footnote 37[37]}

The many festivals and events hosted each year in every corner of Ontario, coupled with the province’s museums, art galleries, and historic sites, are magnets for cultural tourists. Almost 90% of the 21 million North Americans who visited Ontario among other destinations over a two-year period sought out a cultural activity on their visit.^{footnote 38[38]} Of visitors from outside the province who stayed at least one night (1.3 million visitors), 25% attended festivals and sporting events.

There are significant opportunities to grow cultural tourism through marketing cultural heritage assets. Historic sites in Ontario had over 3.7 million visits in 2011, placing built heritage in the top five most popular tourist attractions in the province.^{footnote 39[39]}

Music tourism offers Canadian artists a means of showcasing their talents and promoting their work. Local music scenes can help brand communities to attract tourists from Ontario and around the world. Three-quarters of those who attended the Jazz on the Mountain at Blue in 2013, hosted by the town of Blue Mountain Village, travelled from over 100 kilometres away. In Ottawa, almost 12,000 travelled over 40 kilometres to attend the Ottawa Folk Festival in 2014. In that year, the Folk Festival drew an audience of over 54,000, up from only 2,500 in 2010.^{footnote 40[40]}

Cultural planning

Increasingly, municipalities are recognizing the contribution of culture to sense of place, quality of life, and community and economic prosperity through a process called “cultural planning.” Cultural planning is led by local governments and involves broad community engagement to identify and leverage a community's cultural resources, strengthen the management of those resources, and integrate them in all facets of local planning and decision-making.^{footnote 41[41]} The process is part of a global trend toward more place-based approaches to planning and development that take into account four interdependent pillars of community sustainability: economic prosperity, social equity, environmental responsibility, and cultural vitality. Cultural planning helps create the environment for culture to flourish.

To date, 69 municipalities, representing nearly three-quarters of Ontario’s population, have developed cultural plans and engaged in cultural mapping exercises to identify their unique and valued cultural resources. Maps can include cultural resources both tangible (e.g., cultural workers, spaces and facilities, cultural heritage and natural heritage resources) and intangible (e.g., stories and activities) that reflect the distinct cultural identity of the community.^{footnote 42[42]}

Cultural plans have contributed to downtown, waterfront, and neighbourhood revitalization. They complement economic development and community growth plans, as well as tourism and population retention strategies, and expand opportunities for youth. For example, St. Catharines’s 2015 cultural plan strongly positions culture as a key economic driver, crucial to combatting the loss of manufacturing jobs. It also positions culture as a source of new business, youth retention, and a means of revitalizing downtown St. Catharines.^{footnote 43[43]}

The City of Ottawa’s 2013 cultural plan has already resulted in outcomes such as development of an archaeology-related public awareness initiative, a pilot program providing training for youth, support for First Nation, Métis, and Inuit cultural initiatives, investment in local culture (e.g., Arts Court and Ottawa Art Gallery), and music industry development.^{footnote 44[44]}

For First Nations and Métis communities, the focus of cultural mapping is typically on conserving cultural heritage, traditions, and language. Cultural planning processes have resulted in language plans and policies, place-name maps, videos of Elders’ stories, and the recording of traditional knowledge, as well as cultural tourism and economic development opportunities.^{footnote 45[45]}