The City of Hamilton’s Culture is moving from the Community Services umbrella to Planning and Economic Development where it will merge with the existing Tourism division under EcDev.
The move is effective February 6, 2012 and reflects an increasing point-of-view at City Hall of the arts as an economic investiment in the community.
As politicians are more likely to “invest” taxpayer money than “give it away to the arts”, the move of Culture into the EcDev fold could result in more city funding of events such as SuperCrawl and the new Gage Park festival.
[quote_box author=”Debbie Spence ” profession=”Communications Officer, Planning and Economic Development Department “]
Effective February 6, 2012 we are excited to be creating a new Tourism and Culture Division. The Culture Division in Community Services will be merging with the Tourism Division, forming one new Division under the Planning and Economic Development Department. (The Farmers’ Market will remain with the Community Services Department.) The tourism/culture merger will create a number of great synergies further promoting tourism and culture as economic drivers for Hamilton while continuing to deliver a number of exciting programs for our citizens that help improve the quality of life in all socioeconomic levels.
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