Municipal Cultural Planning and Cultural Indicators: Charting the Course

Abstract

This article describes how cultural organizations in the City of Ottawa, Canada, recently engaged in a collaborative process to develop a sound evidence base for municipal cultural planning that involved a wide range of public, private, and non-profit sector actors, the academic community, and arts and heritage professionals. It also provides a critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of a collaborative approach to cultural data gathering and research at the local level.