Ottawa's next Municipal Culture Plan

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.

The City of Ottawa’s Cultural Development and Initiatives team is looking to hire two francophone culture liaisons to undertake research and support engagement informing the development of the City of Ottawa’s next Municipal Culture Plan 2026-2031.

The feedback collected through the work of the francophone liaisons will be used to support the inclusion of francophone perspectives, voices and needs in:

• The creation of a City-wide definition of culture to be used across the City of Ottawa’s departments and programs
• The development of a five-year action plan to better support cultural access, participation and expression for all
• Mapping and gap analysis of Ottawa’s cultural spaces, resources and artists

Successful candidates must have lived experience of, or demonstrated deep connection to either or both:

• The Franco-Ontarian community in Ottawa
• Francophone newcomer communities in Ottawa

Skills profile

Ideal candidates will have the following knowledge and skills:

• Experience working with diverse communities
• Experience (formal or informal) facilitating conversations among community members, including navigating different points of view
• Knowledge of either:
  1. The franco-Ontarian community and culture of the Ottawa area
  2. The diverse francophone newcomer communities of Ottawa
• Involvement in francophone community and cultural organizations, groups or projects
• Fluent in French

Work to be delivered

• Engagement plan outlining the way the liaison will connect with francophone residents and cultural groups
• Budget for delivering engagement activities
• Planning of conversations, interviews and other engagement activities
• Facilitation of planned conversations
• Preparing data for analysis by City staff
• Summary report of findings
• Presentation of findings to community for validation
• Sharing community-validated findings with the City of Ottawa’s Arts and Heritage Development Branch

Timeline

This work will be carried out between November 2025 and December 2025

What does it pay?

This is a temporary, short-term contract of up to $10,000 (inclusive of HST).

This contract does not constitute employment with the City of Ottawa.

Payment breakdown

Estimated rate per hour: $81.90

Planning and budgeting (16 hours)

Preparation of engagement sessions (30 hours)

Engagement sessions with community members (10 x 3 hours)

Validation sessions with community members (10 x 1 hour)

Compiling and preparing information (20 hours)

Report writing (10 hours)

Sharing findings with City staff (3 x 2 hours)

Total anticipated hours: 122

Project budget

This position comes with a project budget of $5,000 to spend towards organizing and delivering engagement activities including, where needed, venue rentals, supplies, and honoraria.

Selection process

All applications will be reviewed by a panel of City staff and a representative of a local francophone community organization.

Applications are expected to include:

• A letter or video of interest that outlines your connection to francophone culture in Ottawa
• A résumé or CV including community involvement and/or volunteer work

How to apply

Please send your application to culture@ottawa.ca by Tuesday, October 21, 2025.

Alternative formats, such as audio/visual applications, will also be accepted.

Questions? Need more information?

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please reach out to Thomas Radford at Thomas.Radford@ottawa.ca or 1 (613) 413-2062.

For more information about the City of Ottawa’s next culture plan 2026-2031 please visit Engage Ottawa - Culture Plan. For more information about the City of Ottawa’s cultural development work please visit City of Ottawa - Cultural Development.