Cultural Strategic Investment Fund 2011-2012 Grant Recipients

The Cultural Strategic Investment Fund (CSIF) helps build a strong and stable cultural sector by funding projects that will contribute to Ontario's cultural development and achieve economic and creative growth. The fund strategically invests in projects that enhance the culture sector and support Arts Education, Cultural Diversity, Francophone Community Development, Aboriginal Engagement, Cultural/Heritage Tourism and Heritage Preservation, Libraries and Archaeology.

In 2011-12, the Cultural Strategic Investment Fund will provide $1.5 million to support 51 creative projects across Ontario.

Ajax Public Library - $10,794
Defense Industries Limited (D.I.L.) Online Exhibition
Ajax Public Library will create an online exhibition of the DIL years, providing broad public access to images, video and audio recordings from this era. This online exhibition will also include stories from people who lived in Ajax at this time.

Alliance culturelle de l'Ontario - $23,105
Carrières en arts
The Alliance culturelle de l'Ontario will organize six open house days across the province in order to reach over 250 youth, municipal employees and other community members. The project will help to showcase regional artists and strengthen ties between the community and the arts. Data collected and tools created during the open house days will serve as references to develop an online  platform - a resource centre for youth, for artists and for the community, in order to strengthen ties between all three.

Arts Council of Muskoka - $47,160
Knowledge Network Initiative
Arts Council of Muskoka will embark on a collaborative initiative with Nipissing University in order to provide support to individuals and enable them to succeed within the local Creative Economy. They will offer monthly discussions to individuals who are - or aspire to be - successful members of the Creative Economy workforce, interactive workshops and seminars that will focus on skill development topics, and a creative symposium that will feature the program participants and showcase the local creative economy to educate the community. This pilot project will focus on the community of Bracebridge.

Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands - $47,615
Made in Haliburton
The Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands will create an online e-commerce marketplace featuring the work of all local artists. The Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands will coordinate this project, using staff with extensive arts marketing and communications experience and working directly with local established web designers, artists and marketers. The marketplace would allow the Arts Council to gain increased exposure for the work of local artists.

Association des auteures et auteurs de l'Ontario francais - $20,400
Caravane litteraire
The Association des auteures et auteurs de l'Ontario francais  will create a literary caravan which would travel across isolated regions of French Ontario. This joint project will involve three Franco-Ontarian publishing houses producing books for youth (les Éditions l’Interligne, les Éditions David and les Éditions du Vermillon) and local libraries. The caravan will be in the form of a mobile library which will have books for children and youth and will also feature participating authors travelling as part of the caravan’s tour. The focus is on artistic education  and targets rural areas where there are no libraries and little access to books. The eight cities that are part of the literary caravan’s tour are: Kirkland Lake, Chapleau, Casselman, Blind River, Elliott Lake, Penetanguishene, Welland and Sarnia.

Attractions Group of Ontario - $50,000
Cultural and Heritage Passport Magazine
Attractions Group of Ontario will create a magazine that promotes culture & heritage sites across Ontario and that provides a place for community-based culture and heritage organizations to penetrate new markets. By marketing collaboratively, individual cultural organizations will benefit from the expanded reach that the collective marketing dollars provide. This magazine will increase the profile of culture and heritage products and programs throughout the province of Ontario which in turn will lead to increased cultural tourism.

Bracebridge Public Library - $11,906
Creating a Web Site to Grow With the Need of our Community
Bracebridge Public Library will mount a new website for itself, and will also enhance the presence of the Friends of the Bracebridge Public Library by including a website for their organization with the framework of the library’s website. The library will partner with The Friends of the Bracebridge Public Library, a non-profit organization, and a group of students from the local high school, to provide input into the design and development of the website, acting as consultants to the web designer/programmer.

Bunker Military Museum - $49,600
Bunker Military Museum Relocation and Development
Bunker Military Museum will preserve and restore a very large private collection that includes military artifacts dating from the Boer War to the present. Unlike other military museums that feature battles and campaigns, this collection emphasizes the service experiences of the everyday soldier. The Town of Cobalt has supported these goals and facilitated the start of this process.

Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation - $22,794
A Naval History: Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812 and Kingston's role
The Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation will promote community-based cultural heritage tourism through a strategic collaborative museum exhibition with the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston. The exhibition will run during the spring and summer of 2012 to commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812. Using the War of 1812 as its theme, this exhibit will focus on the Royal Navy Dockyards during the period 1812 to 1814.

Centre Culturel Louis Hémon - $21,334
Notre patrimoine et le pionnier de la francophonie
The Centre culturel Louis-Hemon will undertake a research project focusing on the life and times of author Louis Hemon (Maria Chapdelaine) and will engage youth in telling the famed French author's history through murals and art exibitions. This will be done as part of a commemoration of the centenary of Hemon's death.

City of Kawartha Lakes Public Library - $28,151
Archival Digization Project
The City of Kawartha Lakes Public Library will preserve and make available digital images of four local collections of archival records, artefacts, newspaper clippings and photographs, in collaboration with the local municipality’s Clerk’s Office. The four collections include: "From the Heartland; nineteenth Century Buildings of Victoria County," World War II Service Files, the "Ford Moynes Collection," and a Preamalgamation Artifact Collection.

Community Arts and Heritage Education Project - $15,000
Connecting with Community - Creative Partnerships - What about the Books
In collaboration with the Thunder Bay District Catholic School Board, the Community Arts and Heritage Education Project will develop alternative ways of using resources and delivering information, new ways of looking at the library collections, and allow for delivery of services in alternative venues. Using books, artists and heritage programmers will engage the community in exploring word typography, illustration, writing, calligraphy, papermaking, book making and binding, oral history, graphic books, memoirs and digital media.

Conseil Des Arts De Hearst Inc - $33,881
Place À l'Hospitalité - Place des Arts de Hearst (PAH)
The Conseil des Arts de Hearst will develop a marketing plan that will establish the community as a francophone tourism destination in northern Ontario.

Conseil des Arts de Nipissing Ouest - $24,700
Activités culturelles et artistiques communautaires pour jeunes adolescents et adultes francophones
The Conseil des Arts de Nipissing Ouest will plan and showcase artistic and cultural Francophone shows  in Nipissing West. The project will involve planning, organizing and implementing inclusive cultural community activities to support socio-economic development and promote cultural tourism in Nipissing West.

DAREarts Foundation Inc. - $43,740
Nee-tum-Ochee-bek (First Roots) Aboriginal program
DAREarts Foundation Inc. will build upon previous accomplishments and strengthen relationships in remote Aboriginal communities to decrease the sense of isolation experienced by youth and will continue to develop ways for youth to build skills and achieve greater awareness of themselves, their surroundings, and their opportunities. The Foundation will accomplish this by increasing access to the arts for children and youth in high-risk northern Aboriginal communities through new and existing partnerships. They will also provide a holistic approach toward skills development, through artistic accomplishments that are grounded in Aboriginal culture and tradition.

Delta Mills Society (The) - $49,588
Lets Get Grinding:  A Heritage Tourism/Local Foods partnership
The Delta Mills Society will create a dynamic place for the Old Stone Mill National Historic Site in the existing network of Local Flavours. They will strengthen existing partnerships and research and develop new partnerships within the existing network of organizations involved with the Local Flavours initiative. This partnership will build on the capacity and successes realized in 2010, allow the Delta Mills Society to create a new innovative revenue stream, and will also attract new audiences.

Education Through Media - $36,767
The Digital Interactive Design Development and Innovation Project (The DIDDI Project)
Education Through Media will develop a media-lab to function as a training space for media artists and arts educators. Education Through Media will also facilitate mentorship opportunities and an outreach program rooted in the promotion of the arts industry and professional development. This will be accomplished while delivering workshops that targets youth between the ages of 14 - 29 who come from racialized and ‘at-risk’ communities, aboriginal youth and young women.

Emo Township Public Library - $3,580
Playaway View Pool Collection
The Emo and Rainy River Public Libraries will establish a jointly-administered collection of "Playaway View" video products. These products are all-in-one video players with pre-loaded, digital video content. This will allow library users in both communities to enjoy the full benefit of the entire collection for 18-24 months, and will build a bridge between the administrative silos of their two agencies while sharing the cost.

Factory Theatre Lab - $28,158
Off-Bathurst Street Audience Project
The Factory Theatre Lab will analyze the audience of three leading alternative theatres, extending a collaboration that began with the creation of the Off-Bathurst Theatre District, in order to more effectively communicate with likely patrons and potential new audiences. A geodemographic analysis will determine patron overlap and distinct audiences; the derived audience segmentation will allow target marketing, particularly to diverse audiences. The Factory Theatre Lab also will bring in a consultant with experience in marketing to diverse cultural groups to support the continued expansion of audiences through a review of marketing approaches and audience segmentation.

Federation of Ontario Public Libraries - $24,967
Examining preschool literacy programs in Ontario Public Library
The Federation of Ontario Public Libraries (FOPL) will develop a research team in collaboration with the FOPL Steering Committee and library staff to carry out case studies of 10 preschool literacy programs. The research will provide a systematic analysis of ways in which the library programs align with research-supported practices for developing early skills and attitudes. The research will also examine contextual variables that might contribute to differences and similarities across the preschool literacy programs, examine how children engage with the materials and learning activities in the early literacy programs, and examine how the library preschool literacy programs foster family interactions, attitudes, and habits that support literacy development in the homes of participating children.

Gallery Stratford - $50,000
Stratford Digital Arts Programme Winter 2012
Gallery Stratford will launch Stratford’s digital cultural identity by uniting technology and the arts in order to develop a digital visual arts programme. Together, the Stratford community and international practitioners of the digital arts will create a centre of digital cultural expertise. The centrepiece of the digital arts programme or festival would be an outdoor digital arts installation running over a period of eight weekends. The programme will attract cultural tourists, during the traditionally weak winter season, reach new markets create jobs.

Guelph Public Library - $44,722
Guelph Discovery Portal
The Guelph Public Library (GPL) will enhance and expand its online services and embrace social networking tools through the creation of the Guelph Discovery Portal. The Portal will replace the GPL’s existing website and will function as the primary link to the library’s online catalogue and the library’s collections and services. This new website will fully embrace the power of social media and augment the library's current web-related efforts by targeting Guelph's increasingly diverse community, highlighting the multicultural services offered to the unique neighbourhoods GPL serves.

Harbourfront Centre - $50,000
Great Lakes:  Strategic Development and Funds Development Phase
In the second phase of their Great Lakes project, the Harbourfront Centre will build on the concept planning and testing already completed in phase one. The Centre will develop a communications/media plan and brand, implement a comprehensive fundraising strategy, confirm financial and community partnerships, and articulate a detailed programming plan. This phase will result in new business opportunities for Harbourfront Centre in the form of sponsorships and support from new sectors, and through targetting new local and international audiences.

Heritage Toronto - $38,000
Heritage Diversity Project
The Heritage Diversity Project will develop new relationships between Toronto heritage organizations and culturally diverse community organizations. The aim is to increase the access of diverse communities to established heritage organizations, develop mutually beneficial partnerships and knowledge-sharing within the heritage sector. Toronto’s diverse cultural communities will be more connected to the history of their local Toronto neighbourhoods, finding their community's place in those neighbourhoods. The Project will help cultural communities to conduct research, document their stories and share them through websites and other cross-platform mediums.

Homer Watson House & Gallery - $37,576
Bringing Home Heritage Project
Homer Watson House & Gallery will highlight Watson's international fame with an exhibition which will draw from The Royal Collection in London, England, Ottawa’s National Gallery and the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. This exhibition will be entitled “Coming Home” and will be celebrated with supporting events such as educational art programming, and an academic lecture series. The project aims to raise cultural awareness of the homestead and the region.

Hot Docs - $29,500
Youth Leadership Collaborative Project
Hot Docs will help youth to develop their leadership skills and increase their competitive advantage in the high-growth creative industries, specifically digital media and documentary film. Hot Docs will develop interactive training modules/workshops, career management sessions and networking events, as well as exploring industry focused career opportunities. Ontario youth will develop transferable skills that will enable them to explore and pursue meaningful economic opportunities, and contribute to a strong and stable cultural sector.

In the Orchard Programming for Arts - $43,056
The ART - 2 - Market Project
In the Orchard Programming for Arts will bring Contemporary Arts and Culture to the town of Pelham through a local Artisan Market - a multi-faceted arts project. ART – 2 – Market will assist youth participating in Art ² workshops to market and sell their artistic creations, helping emerging artists to become ‘Artisans’. In The Orchard (ITO) will encourage the development of small business through mentorship and one-on-one business development and will also develop the project into a sustainable ‘Recycled Art Collective’ that can be used as a model for other communities where the Salvation Army operates.

Le Chenail Inc. - $35,000
Portail d'entrée communautaire et touristique a la culture et au patrimonial d'Hawkesbury
Le Chenail will undertake a project to promote the cultural development and heritage of the community of Hawkesbury. Through new products and by attracting new visitors from the general public, it will contribute to developing cultural and heritage tourism for the benefit of residents, visitors and tourists. The highlighted themes related to culture and heritage will be interpreted and illustrated by participants in a community exhibit. The bilingual gateway, comprising banners, a travelling community exhibit and interpretive panels, shall be launched at the same time as an interactive and evolving Internet website, web2, linked to the sites of partners and new social media.

London Community Players - $26,000
Multicultural Theatre Initiative
London Community Players will develop a collaborative program with arts organizations and social agencies working with newcomer, refugee and immigrant communities. Through the program, they will build a Multi-Cultural Theatre Arts group, based on the model of MT Space in Kitchener. This project will be accomplished through a series of information sessions, workshops and theatre training programs.

London Heritage Council - $34,350
Citizen Culture
London Heritage Council will create a program called The Citizen Culture access pass which will enable new citizens to become more familiar with the culture and some of the most prominent cultural institutions of London and of Canada. The pass will be free to new Canadians and provides complimentary admissions for a family for one year from the date they are sworn in as new Canadians.  The pass will then be expanded to Londoners, visitors and tourists.

Marmora & Lake Public Library - $21,178
Langley Archives Digitization Project
Marmora & Lake Public Library, in collaboration with Marmora Economic Development and Tourism, will digitize and provide online access to the Langley Archives. A searchable genealogical database will be created, consisting of birth, death and marriage announcements, as well as articles of local interest. Through this digital service, they will reach new audiences within the community and long distance, and  preserve and protect a unique and irreplaceable resource and a piece of Ontario's history.

Mouvement d'implication francophone d'Orléans - $33,250
Création d'un modèle d'éducation artistique, par l'expérience, chez les jeunes
The Mouvement d'implication francophone d'Orleans will invite youth to develop a strategy to support its arts education programs and service offerings for youth.

Museum of Health Care in Kingston - $10,949
An Exhibit "Discovering  the Mysteries of Our Skin"
The Museum of Health Care in Kingston will develop an arts education program designed to increase opportunities for children to understand health and health care by providing an introduction to the marvels of the human body featured in a specialized children's gallery. Our first theme featured in the new gallery will explore "skin." The Museum will explore the different characteristics of skin through a series of interactive activities. The Children's gallery space will provide community-based learning opportunities for people of all ages and abilities.

Native Canadian Centre of Toronto - $5,314
Aboriginal Cultural Retention Workshops
Native Canadian Centre of Toronto will host 18 workshops that will circulate throughout the GTA through Toronto Public Library catchment areas in June 2011. It will give the Centre an opportunity to reach out to Aboriginal urban children, youth, adolescents, Elders and other interest groups to learn of Aboriginal History and Traditions. This particular partnership fosters the creation of a network that will assist in strengthening the cultural sector of Aboriginal people.

Norfolk County Public Library - $4,680
Mobile Netbooks
Norfolk County Public Library will collaboratively undertake a cultural practitioner-based research and development project that will better document the current visual, media and craft-based resources that exist in six municipalities across Northern Ontario. The Mobile Netbooks project will allow people to sign out netbooks to use in the library. The netbooks will be used to teach computer skills, English, better business practices, social networking skills, etc. Children will also be able to use these netbooks to complete homework assignments and do research.

Orillia Public Library - $4,235
Computer Training
The Orillia Public Library will partner with Chippewas of Rama First Nation Library to develop computer training manuals and lesson plans to engage members of the community in computer literacy activities. The manuals will be used in instructor-led courses and self-guided lessons that target specific age groups with an emphasis on seniors, youth and disadvantaged individuals.

Parkwood Foundation - $40,000
Ontario's Historic Gardens Showcase
The Parkwood Foundation will celebrate Ontario’s rich garden history in 2012, with a week-long showcase of sites, enlivened by additional programming and other heritage/horticultural content. This will motivate travellers to get out and explore and allow Ontario's historic gardens to create new, collaborative approaches to tourism marketing and explore themes of tracing the history of garden design and horticulture.

Pelee Island Heritage Centre - $36,227
100 Gateways to Canada's Southermost Community
The Pelee Island Heritage Centre will, in essence, turn Pelee Island into a museum by fostering 100 site interpretations which will encompass the whole island. The Centre will give new audiences the opportunity to learn cultural and natural heritage while enjoying the out-of-doors. The Centre will also provide the Pelee Island Library with research text and audio and feature visiting and resident artists at select interpretation markers, heightening awareness of the connection between heritage and the arts by highlighting the island’s historic themes.

Six Nations Polytechnic - $49,000
Haudenosaunee Visual Arts Digital Archive (VADA) Project
Six Nations Polytechnic (SNP) will create a Haudenosaunee Visual Arts Virtual Archive (VADA), that could be accessed through the Indigenous Knowledge Guardians (IKG) and where appropriate, through the IKC link on the SNP website. Specifically, Six Nations will organize a collection of digital images in a database archive of archaeological, historic and contemporary artistic expression. The focus will be on Haudenosaunee heritage arts, published materials and produced teching units identifed and produced in Haudenosaunee languages. In addition, Six Nations Polytechnic will hold 2 community workshops on traditional Haudenosaunee arts, teaching those that are most endangered or essential to reflecting Haudenosaunee culture.

SKETCH Working Artists for homeless and Street-Involved Youth - $47,850
SKETCH in Commuities Project
SKETCH will work with several organizations in Toronto that wish to incorporate arts education into their own current services for at-risk and marginalized youth. SKETCH will conduct arts education programming in these centres throughout a one-year period, so that workers in these organizations can learn about how to plan, coordinate and deliver SKETCH’s multi-tiered youth engagement model. The project will employ professional contract artists along with the SKETCH Team to conduct arts programs in the collaborators’ settings in disciplines including: Visual Arts and Crafts; Textiles; Music and the Recording Arts; Dance and Movement; Arts Marketing and Exhibition Programming.

SkyWorks Charitable Foundation - $37,995
Real Change - Girls Filmmaking Mentorship Project
The SkyWorks Charitable Foundation will train and support twelve young women, age 14-19, from diverse racial, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, over the period of 20 weeks to make their own films for social change. By doing this, the foundation will encourage and mentor young women, empower youth to engage with public issues in a new way; strengthen the vitality of the cultural sector by helping to foster gender, racial and cultural diversity of perspectives within the media, arts, and civic leadership; contribute to academic research; and establish the basis for an ongoing mentorship program for young women. To carry out this project, the foundation will collaborate with a number of organizations and existing programs.

Smith Falls Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario - $34,000
Smiths Falls Railway History Program
Smith Falls Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario will put together an exhibit and travelling exhibit, gather oral histories that will capture the stories of the men and women who dedicated their lives to the railway, and develop an interactive website featuring the oral histories, archival photographs and historical information gathered. In addition, the Museum will develop and deliver a curriculum-based education program to complement the other program components, and will market and promote the program.

Stork Club Big Band Museum and Hall of Fame - $18,000
Music & Memories Outreach Project
The Stork Club Big Band Museum and Hall of Fame will combine technology, visual media, memorabilia and live performance entertainment in an effort to engage new and wider audiences in the gathering and re-telling of their cultural history. The Museum will invite visitors to record their stories, encourage written accounts, hold performances by trained volunteers and teach new audiences about an era they may never have known. This project will be hosted in various locations throughout Elgin County and surrounding areas, making it accessible to a wider audience.

Thousand Islands Foundation for the Performing Arts (1000 Islands Playhouse) - $19,280
Community Arts Education Outreach Program
1000 Islands Foundation for the Performing Arts will establish a partnership with the Community high school to provide arts education to local youth.  Playhouse artists and technicians will actively work with youth by teaching ongoing theatre arts classes focussing on performance, design, stage management and production management. The classes will be augmented with a community project produced by the Thousand Islands Playhouse which will enable the participating youth to actively use the skills they have learned and to partner with other cultural organizations in the community.

Timmins Symphony Orchestra - $10,040
Heart of Gold: A Timmins 100th Anniversary Celebration Event
The Timmins Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the founding of Timmins in 1912 after the devastation of the Great Porcupine Fire through a full-scale musical, Heart of Gold. The Timmins Museum will mount a historically-focused lobby display and develop a curriculum-based study guide for schools. The local amateur theatre company, Take Two Theatre, will contribute in-kind production services, the Timmins High & Vocational School Historical Society will document the written and oral stories about the Great Porcupine Fire, and young and old will be entertained by over 80 local volunteer actors, singers, dancers and orchestra members.

Toronto Blues Society - $12,640
Digital Dollars Workshop Series
The Toronto Blues Society will develop a series of workshops designed to educate musicians from diverse communities on how to navigate the digital landscape. With traditional musical sales avenues and formats rapidly disappearing, this knowledge is vital to any artist’s career. They will present expert speakers who will share strategies and tips on handling digital sales, distribution and marketing.

Toronto International Film Festival Inc. - $50,000
TIFF's Higher Learning Digital Resources
Toronto International Film Festival Inc. (TIFF) will digitally document approximately 45 in-person “master class” events to provide training resources and educational material to various sectors across Ontario and for new cultural audiences. TIFF will create new educational tools and resources and create a connection point where various sectors can come together and create competitive collaborations. This will position TIFF as a leader in providing educational and professional digital content related to film, strengthen organizational capacity to ensure increased effectiveness of programming and reach untapped audiences.

Toronto Performance Theatre Alliance (TAPA) - $25,000
TAPA Audience Project
Toronto Performance Theatre Alliance will ultimately help to strengthen and celebrate Toronto with the ultimate goal of increasing audience attendance and participation in arts and culture on a city-wide basis. Toronto Performance Theatre Alliance will conduct sruvey and focus group research to discover concrete ways in which to increase engagement in theatre, dance and opera in Toronto. Audience surveys will be created and distributed city-wide to all TAPA members, and then analyzed through focus groups to research and identify Toronto audience behaviour, identify trends and study organizational services.

Township of Springwater Public Library - $13,650
S.P.A.C.Y (Springwater Performing Arts for Children & Youth)
Township of Springwater Public Library will develop a theatre program for children and youth which will be offered jointly by the Township and the three library branches within Springwater. The project will engage children and youth and will provide a fun and innovate opportunity to participate in a cultural program designed to foster inclusion, community pride and spark an interest in the arts. The program will encompass workshops and a theatrical performance developing a unique cultural experience and will also fill the existing void of performing arts within Springwater Township.

West Perth Public Library - $19,576
The Rural E-Project
West Perth Public Library will address the needs of teens/youth and make the library more relevant to them. New technological equipment – e-readers, e-books, video equipment, hardware and software will enable the library to offer new programs and update current programs specifically focused on the youth of the community. New technology will connect the youth to the community, and teach technological skills that will be an asset in many career paths.

York Region Arts Council - $25,000
YorkScene.com Web Portal Expansion
York will expand the existing YorkScene.com architecture for the York-Region Arts Council to each municipal link on the site as part of a collaboration with York Region Tourism as well as Metroland. The York Region Tourism site is also being re-launched July 2011 and will point to YorkScene on its home page for “Things to Do” in York Region while Metroland's YorkRegion.com event calendar is featured on all sites. Expanding YorkScene.com to profile cultural activity within each of York Region’s nine municipalities will significantly boost local cultural tourism and increase demand for local cultural assets.