Whistler Arts Council

Whistler2020 is our community's shared vision and plan for continued success to the year 2020 - and an ambitious step on a longer journey to a sustainable future. Rooted in our values and a science-based approach to sustainability, Whistler2020 is long-term, comprehensive, community-developed, community-implemented, and action-focused.  

Whistler2020 has sixteen strategies with ongoing action-planning by community task forces and on-the-ground implementation through the involvement and commitment of a broad spectrum of implementing organizations throughout the community.

The Whistler Arts Council participates on the Economic Task Force and the Arts, Culture & Heritage (ACH) Task Force. The ACH Task Force is made up of a number of representatives from the cultural community – representing both organizations and individual artists.

Each year, the ACH Task Force identifies priorities and action items to further the community towards the 2020 vision.

To view the most recent action items as determined by the Arts, Culture & Heritage Task Force,  please click here

To review the vision and the plan, visit whistler2020.ca

In 2006, WAC established an Office of Community Cultural Coodination (OCC) to advance some of the action items recommended by the ACH Task Force, including a regional economic impact study of arts, culture and heritage in the Sea to Sky Corridor. A regional steering committee has been established, and funding was been secured from the Resort Municipality of Whistler, the Squamish Lillooet Regional District, and Arts Now. The Vancouver firm of Ference Weicker has been engaged to undertake the study, which will be complete by June 2008. More information
 
Other activities of the OCC include creation of an arts and culture strategy for 2010, involving:

• Participation in development of Whistler's Live Sites program. More information 
• Commissioning of artistic new works. More information
• Contributing to Whistler's designation as a 2009 Cultural Capital:
  Jim Abbott, Member of Parliament for Columbia-Kootenay and parliamentary secretary for Canadian Heritage announced that the municipalities of Trois-Rivières, Quebec; Coquitlam and Whistler, in British Columbia; and Fredericton and Caraquet, in New Brunswick, have been designated the Cultural Capitals of Canada for 2009.
  
  The Cultural Capital of Canada designation is awarded for merit, as determined by the quality of a proposed project and earlier achievements by the candidate community that demonstrate an ongoing commitment to the arts and culture. Funding is provided to support special projects that celebrate the arts and culture.
  
  More information relevant to local artist participation will be posted when the project has final approval from the Government of Canada.