Blog | Policy reflections on co-creating cultural strategy through civic engagement

In April 2025, I took part in a panel discussion as part of the sixth annual DemocracyXChange (DXC) in Toronto, a summit that connects, celebrates and equips people who are taking action to strengthen democracy. The panel I took part in was titled Arts and Culture as Democratic Engagement and featured the experiences of two citizen-centred engagement processes in Calgary and Toronto that incorporated creative practice in the development of arts and culture strategies for each city.

The following is my reflection on what took place and where the discussion identified a path ahead. In this reflection, I lay out the engagement processes that were developed and deployed in Calgary and Toronto, the role that artists and arts workers can play in co-creating cultural strategy and the ways in which the arts and culture can contribute to democratic resilience and social cohesion.

Civic engagement and the arts and culture: Examples from Calgary and Toronto

Leading up to 2014, arts development in Calgary evolved through a series of foundational steps that shaped the city's cultural landscape. Although public funding for the arts in Calgary dated back to the 1950s, the city lacked a formal civic arts policy until 2004. The creation of Calgary Arts Development (CADA) the following year marked a significant turning point, providing a professional, centralized granting body to support, grow and strengthen the city’s arts sector. In 2012, Calgary was named a Cultural Capital of Canada and launched Alberta’s first Citizen Reference Panel (CRP) to develop an arts strategy. The CRP consisted of an innovative, three-phase public engagement process that included: input from over 100 artists and arts workers; a 36-member citizen panel selected by civic lottery (created by MASS LBP); and the development of 35 sector-validated recommendations, later refined into four key focus areas.

This process led to the 2014 launch of Living a Creative Life: an arts development strategy for Calgary (LCL), Calgary’s first city-wide arts strategy created with support from MASS LBP. The actions undertaken during the process redefined artists as vital contributors to civic life and informed initiatives such as city-wide storytelling projects, a cultural infrastructure strategy and the annual LCL Congress. As a result, the arts became central to urban development plans, CADA’s funding grew substantially and the arts and culture sector gained recognition as a key player in city-building among other civic stakeholders.

Shifting focus to Ontario, the City of Toronto’s cultural planning has evolved through key milestones, beginning with the city's first major cultural plan in 2003, which was followed by an updated version in 2011 amid political pressures and proposed service cuts, such as library closures. In 2022, a post-pandemic approach focused on deeper community engagement was introduced, eventually leading to the development of Culture Connects: An Action Plan for Culture in Toronto, released in 2024.

Led by the City of Toronto, Toronto Arts Council and designed by Monumental, the Culture Connects engagement process featured two streams: deep engagement through eight community conversations with artist and members of the creative community and broad outreach via virtual town halls, surveys and artist-led discussions. Key insights included: a broadening of how culture is defined; recognition of systemic barriers faced by artists (e.g., housing and transit); and a strong call for sustained accountability and relationship building within the sector.

On engagement: Embedding public voice into cultural strategy

Effective engagement requires both broad and deep participation: recognizing citizen input not just as consultation but as discourse that leads to directives and mandates. In the case of these two initiatives—which focused on building arts and culture plans using arts and culture processes and context in the process itself—, the processes led to more inclusive representation, as they brought together artists, residents and diverse voices to co-create cultural direction. At one community session in Toronto, a stand-up comedian was invited to lead—and it was a huge success. At the 2025 Democracy Exchange (DXC 2025), something equally powerful happened: Andrew Zitcer and Shannon Litzenberger led a 90-minute embodiment session where 40 strangers used simple movement-based activities to build trust and connection—something that might take hours in a typical setting. To close the event, the dynamic duo Choir!Choir!Choir! brought everyone together in a joyful sing-along of freedom anthems, filling the room with music, laughter and hundreds of social media moments. When was the last time you left a conference with real insight, a big smile and a full heart?

International examples also highlight this approach: in Germany, museums (such as Bundeskunsthalle, an art gallery in Bonn, and SKD, a decorative arts museum in Dresden) are actively incorporating citizen-generated recommendations into their programming; another example is Nottingham’s New Art Exchange gallery, which features a permanent citizen board that plays a key role in the gallery’s governance. These are just few examples of models that underscore the value of embedding public voice into cultural decision-making. And there has been extensive research, on the direct correlation between increased rates of cultural participation and inclusion leading to higher engagement in civic and democratic life. The most recent data can be found in the European Commission’s Culture and Democracy: the evidence - How citizens’ participation in cultural activities enhances civic engagement, democracy and social cohesion. 

Artists can play a vital role in civic engagement, not only as cultural leaders but as active citizens whose voices shape the fabric of community life. As one reflection shared during the panel at DXC warned: if the desire is to generate more innovative and creative input and discourse, “exclude creatives at your table at your own peril.” Panelists shared that engagement efforts that successfully involved artists—particularly as facilitators—saw increased local participation, driven by flexible formats and minimal constraints. The lasting impacts of this approach include powerful storytelling projects, the integration of cultural strategy into city planning and the creation of meaningful, long-term partnerships. These efforts also laid the groundwork for major ongoing investments in arts infrastructure.

What is this moment asking of us? Calls to action for artists and the sector

This moment calls for civic engagement with a deeper, more responsive approach using culture-led civic and citizen engagement—one where participants truly feel heard and their input shapes decisions. Using an arts-focused approach in this manner will lead to higher trust, better use of data and meaningful responses to community feedback. It will help make visible, tangible commitments that are essential to building credibility and momentum. Arts and culture-embedded processes can help governments face the challenge of engaging with artists not only on issues that impact the arts sector but across a wide range of civic issues. Doing so can benefit governments in developing a greater openness to critique and a willingness to embrace new, sometimes uncomfortable conversations.

The inclusion of artists and cultural workers in civic engagement goes beyond expression or entertainment—cultural stakeholders play a big role in bringing people together and strengthening communities by helping us see things from different perspectives and showing us how to reflect and connect with others more deeply. Cultural experiences can break down divides and get more people involved in shaping our shared future. And research supports these claims. The European Commission’s report (cited above) highlights the measurable impact of cultural engagement on democratic resilience and social cohesion. The findings demonstrate that participation in cultural activities correlates with increased civic involvement, greater tolerance and stronger community bonds.

In Democracy as Creative Practice, editors Tom Borrup and Andrew Zitcer invited artists and creatives “to offer arts-based solutions to the threats to democracies around the world, practices that can foster more just and equitable societies.”[i] In their introduction to Part Two of the book entitled “Introduction to Aesthetic Strategies”, Diane Ragsdale and Shannon Litzenberger write:

“...each of the chapters in Part Two utilizes artistic experiences and processes as a mechanism for bringing people together across divides around difficult or controversial issues. They intentionally engage historically unheard voices and encourage divergent perspectives to be expressed with the aim of fostering a more democratic culture, which we conceptualize here as a ‘rehearsal for pluralism’.”[ii]

Arts and culture offer transformative opportunities for civic engagement when we move beyond models of scarcity and competition toward a mindset of abundance and collaboration. This includes valuing and compensating artists for their vital role in democratic processes and recognizing the broader benefits of cultural participation, which are strongly linked to increased civic engagement and social cohesion. By integrating artists and creative practices into formal engagement and consultation processes, we can rebuild trust in institutions and foster deeper community connections. Ultimately, artists must be seen not just as creators, but as citizens—and all citizens should be active contributors to shaping inclusive, vibrant communities.

Patti and the Cultural Policy Hub extend their thanks to the team at the DemocracyXChange and the following people who took part in the panel: Sarah Yaffe (Mass LBP); Sara Udow (Monumental); Pat Tobin (City of Toronto); and Kelly Wilhelm (Cultural Policy Hub).