Ottawa's next Municipal Culture Plan

As part of roadshows (meeting communties in every ward) and community pop-ups, a simple, low-barrier approach was used to gather input on culture in Ottawa. Interactive boards invited residents to respond to key questions like:

• What does culture mean to you?
• How do you describe Ottawa’s culture?
• Where do you experience culture in Ottawa?
• What are your favourite cultural activities, programs or events?
• Who are your favourite Ottawa artists, creators, cultural groups or organizations?
• What idea(s) do you have to improve culture in Ottawa?

Residents engaged with the boards in ways that felt most comfortable, writing responses, drawing, underlining ideas they agreed with, and building on what others had shared. This flexible format made it easy for people of all ages and backgrounds to contribute, encouraging spontaneous and authentic input.

The boards became collaborative spaces, capturing a wide range of perspectives while also revealing shared themes across communities.

To ensure each contribution could be captured and analyzed, optical character recognition (OCR) technology was used to digitize the boards. This process translates handwritten and visual input into data that can be quantified and better understood.

The result is a richer understanding of how residents experience culture, helping to inform future planning and support a more inclusive cultural landscape in Ottawa.

Cities usually take a similar path when creating culture plans, starting with research, connecting with the community and cultural leaders, and turning ideas into action. Ottawa followed this same approach, with a strong focus on hearing directly from residents and those involved in Ottawa’s cultural scenes.

The process began with research into what’s happening both locally and in other cities, looking at Ottawa’s current cultural landscape while also learning from trends and best practices elsewhere. This research will be shared in the final Culture Plan in a clear and accessible way, so residents can see what helped shape its direction.

Community engagement is central to the process. Through Engage Ottawa, surveys, Cultural Liaisons, interviews, and outreach in every ward, residents, artists, and organizations shared their ideas and priorities. The Culture Plan team also worked closely with City staff and key partners to make sure the plan builds on existing work and brings different areas of expertise together.

All of this input has helped shape key themes and priorities, which are now being turned into clear actions and strategies.

Ottawa’s Next Culture Plan will be a roadmap for the future, grounded in community voices, elevated by sector experiences, and designed to support cultural growth across the city.

It has been a busy year! Thank you to everyone who shared their time and voice with the Culture Plan team! Ottawa stepped up to shape its next Cultural Plan.

• 17,302 informed and 6,168 actively engaged participants
• 24/24 roadshow stops completed across the city
• 84 external meetings and 43 internal consultations
• 36 cultural liaison sessions
• 23 community events and 21 partner events

Engagement reached across sectors and communities:

• 277 staff conversations
• 84 external organizations
• 118 non-city participants
• 43 city teams

From broad awareness to in-depth dialogue, the process created multiple opportunities for participation online, in community, and through targeted outreach.

These numbers reflect the scale, reach, and depth of engagement and a strong, citywide commitment to shaping Ottawa’s cultural future.

Ottawa’s cultural ecosystem is vast, diverse, and deeply rooted in communities across the city. Today, we’re pleased to launch the Cultural Groups and Organizations Inventory, now available on Open Ottawa.

For those interested in a more visual experience, the inventory will also be available as an interactive map on GeoOttawa later this summer.

This inventory is the first of three major datasets to be released as part of the cultural mapping work supporting the new Municipal Culture Plan. It will be followed by an updated Cultural Spaces Inventory and a new Artist/Creator Inventory. Together, these datasets will offer a detailed snapshot of the people, places, and practices shaping cultural life in Ottawa, serving as a valuable resource for cultural leaders, researchers, planners, and residents alike.

The inventory brings together information on 932 cultural groups and organizations, including non-profit organizations, businesses, informal collectives, and student groups. It reflects the linguistic, cultural, and geographic diversity of the city, including 280 francophone or bilingual organizations offering services in French, 271 ethno-cultural organizations, and 22 Indigenous cultural organizations.

Developed in collaboration with residents, artists and creators, and cultural workers, this inventory draws on insights gathered through pop-up and community events, interviews with cultural and community leaders, and extensive research. It will continue to evolve over time. If you know of a group that should be included, or notice information that needs updating, we invite you to help keep the dataset current [link to update form].

To support comparability and analysis, categories and subcategories align, wherever possible, with the Canadian Framework for Cultural Statistics. This ensures that the dataset is well-suited for sector-level research and policy development.

Explore the inventory on Open Ottawa and discover the depth and reach of Ottawa’s cultural sector.

The Culture Plan team hosted three online validation sessions with the culture sector across Ottawa, bringing together nearly 100 community cultural leaders. These sessions provided an important opportunity to hear directly from participants and ensure the Culture Plan reflects the diversity, strength, and creativity of our city’s cultural ecosystem.

Ottawa is home to more than 900 cultural groups and thousands of artists whose work shapes the cultural life of our communities. The insights shared through these sessions help strengthen the direction of the Culture Plan and support ongoing collaboration across the sector.

A What We Learned report summarizing feedback from these sessions is available. This input continues to inform the next phase of work as the Culture Plan is refined, with the goal of bringing it forward to the new term of Council.

Thank you to all participants for sharing your insights and contributing to this stage of the Culture Plan. Your collaboration continues to guide and inspire this work.

In early March, our three Culture Liaisons, two Francophone Liaisons and one Rural Culture Liaison successfully completed a key phase of community outreach work for the Culture Plan.

The Rural Culture Liaison supported engagement across rural communities by developing and carrying out an outreach plan to gather input from residents and local organizations. The Francophone Liaisons focused on Francophone arts, culture and heritage, ensuring that Franco-Ontarian and Francophone newcomers voices and perspectives were meaningfully represented in the Culture Plan engagement process.

Together, this team helped us reach communities that are often underrepresented and ensured their experiences, priorities and cultural contributions were captured in this stage of the project.

Their work has strengthened the depth and diversity of community feedback, informing the 2026–2031 Culture Plan.

Ottawa is a large city with many different voices and experiences. Ottawa’s Next Municipal Culture Plan needs to ensure it benefits from reaching rural, francophone, Inuit, and Indigenous communities across our city.

To help us achieve this, we are working with Cultural Liaisons. Our Cultural Liaisons are community members who are organizing opportunities to connect with and capture these voices over the next few weeks. If you’re interested in hosting one of our liaisons or would like to learn more, please email Culture@ottawa.ca.

The City of Ottawa is moving closer to launching its Municipal Culture Plan, a roadmap to strengthen and celebrate our city’s cultural identity. Phase 1 has successfully laid the foundation for this transformative initiative.

Key achievements

• 16,000+ residents reached: Nearly 6,000 participants shared ideas through events, interviews and surveys

• Citywide participation: Every ward hosted at least one in-person session, supported by additional events with community partners and City staff.

Community insights

• Culture matters: Residents told us that culture thrives in our stories, art, food, and shared traditions. They want more opportunities to experience culture in their local communities.

• Top priorities: Better access to cultural experiences through improved transportation and affordability. More information about what’s happening at a local level.

• Key barriers: Information, transportation and affordability.

Next steps

We are looking forward to exploring the common themes of access, inclusion, infrastructure, innovation, honouring the land, and storytelling as we draft the culture plan.
In early March we will be hosting focus groups to review and shape the draft action plan.

Brilliant Voices, created by Britannia Woods Community Services, is a youth-led creative arts program that uses photography, videography, storytelling, and media as tools for self-expression and community connection. The program helps youth develop creative and technical skills while learning, creating, and supporting one another.

Brilliant Voices has worked with the culture plan team to advance cultural engagement and ensure underrepresented voices help shape Ottawa’s cultural future. Through this collaboration, youth participated in community gatherings, sporting events, and cultural festivals - interviewing residents and capturing authentic stories about what people want reflected in the Culture Plan.

Story spotlight: Maliha’s moment

At the “In Our Voices” youth showcase hosted by Britannia Woods, 16-year-old Maliha, a Brilliant Voices participant, confidently presented a short video she filmed and edited herself. Her project captured cultural events and interviews with residents, weaving together stories that reflect Ottawa’s diverse identity.

For Maliha, this was more than a creative exercise; it was a chance to ensure her community’s voice is heard in shaping Ottawa’s Culture Plan. Programs like Brilliant Voices show why connecting with underrepresented communities is essential: they transform voiceless perspectives into powerful contributions that make the Culture Plan truly inclusive.

After connecting with more than 536 of you online, our survey is now officially closed! Thank you for your opinions and comments in helping us improve Ottawa's cultural scene. Make sure to check us out often at engage.ottawa.ca to know what the Cultural Plan team is doing next.