cktimes.ca Archives for Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent


Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent

With Jim and Lisa Gilbert

Arts, heritage and culture in Chatham-Kent

Thursday, August 29, 2002

Jim & Lisa Gilbert as they appear at Heritage Days, held annually in
Chatham.

Arts, heritage and culture are the cornerstones and the very heart and soul of any society and every community. A sincere and wide-spread appreciation and encouragement of these cornerstones is the hallmark of a civilized, progressive and successful community. In fact, we firmly believe that a community cannot experience growth and prosperity without an appreciation of these things.
A community that fails to recognize, promote and encourage these aspects or downplays their importance is doomed to mere existence devoid of progress, success and achievement on ALL levels. Communities that experience economic success, without fail, support, encourage and revel in their arts, heritage and culture. Economic prosperity, progress as well as employment stability have strong and undeniable links to arts, heritage and culture. For example.....Stratford, Ontario.
Before the Stratford Shakespearean Festival came into existence the city-fathers of the community, had been able to attract only five businesses in the last twenty-five years. After the Festival became a reality, Stratford attracted twenty-five businesses in five years! Get our point?!
That is why we get very upset when someone in Chatham-Kent complains that they do not want their tax dollars supporting artistic ventures ( i.e.. Capitol Theatre project for example) because they “won’t be going to attend those silly plays anyway”! It is like Lisa and I saying that we do not want another industry coming to Chatham-Kent because we “won’t be working at the damn place anyway”!!
This kind of reasoning defies logic!! The spin off jobs, industries and services that a new cultural attraction will generate are extensive and mind-boggling. This is not to mention the taxes that will enter the coffers of Chatham-Kent . If you want to see the kind of economic activity that arts, culture and heritage can generate take a drive to Stratford and spend a day or two; however, make sure you book your hotel room at least six months in advance or you’ll be sleeping in your car!
We hope that we can use this column in John Gardiner’s exciting new “E-zine” venture to serve as a rallying force for the arts, culture and heritage community of Chatham-Kent. It is time, we feel, to unite the arts community and promote, encourage and support all the exciting things going on within Chatham-Kent with regards to arts, culture and heritage.
We also want this column to have, at times, a bit of “an edge! We feel that the time has come to “take off the gloves” and stop “pussy-footing around” when it comes to arts, culture and heritage. It is time we started, as a united group without personal bias or vested interests, to fight for what we know is right! A cultural loss in Wallaceburg should be felt as severely in Ridgetown and Wheatley. We should be not “asking for whom the bell tolls” but instinctively know that “it tolls for us all”! Every community in Chatham-Kent has lost too much when it comes to these areas and we must take back our arts, culture and heritage! We should not be forced to accept the trivial, denigrate the talented and the intellectual nor accept the lowest common-denominator as the status quo. We deserve better!
We want to hear from you! Not only from those who agree with us but from those who question our positions or who feel that we have not adequately addressed all the issues or have unfairly presented an issue or situation. This forum has tremendous potential to promote change, celebrate things that we hold precious and work together to create a positive climate within Chatham-Kent for arts, heritage and culture. Mr. Gardiner has given us the opportunity, why don’t we use it!?
We look forward to hearing from you!



Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.