Arts Council Calendar Gets Broad Exposure

A considerable amount of hard work by a lot of people has resulted in greatly
improved exposure for the latest edition of the Events Calendar sponsored by the
Haliburton Highlands Arts Council. The Arts Council has successfully establised partnerships with all of the municipalities across Haliburton County so that, when they open their tax notices, each and every taxpayer will find a copy of the calendar to post on their refrigerator or be kept for reference in a prominent
spot. There is little doubt that this unique fold-out calendar is tremendously informative and a striking method of conveying much of what’s happening from May through October when it comes to a local tours or arts, culture and
heritage events. The calendar also includes information specific to each individual municipality like the promotion of Dysart’s 1st Annual Sportsmen’s Show. As a special addition, the calendar also has tear off donation forms for Community
Care Haliburton County and the Haliburton Highlands Health Services Foundation. During discussions at the Council level over the past month or more, the decision to participate and partner hasn’t been a given by any means and with a few municipalities, there seemed to be an initial knee jerk reaction that it wasn’t
something they needed to involve themselves in. Each Council has traditionally prepared and included their own newsletters, breakdowns and explanations of budgets and tax rates, landfill cards, or donation forms for HHHS Foundation.
For that reason they have been extremely reluctant to approve requests from other organizations wanting to get their message out to residents with the tax notices. Over and above the members of the Arts Council and
their Coordinator Kim McBrien or her Marketing Associate Mark Arike, the Events Calendar project has had individual champions within each municipality who either agreed to work with the Arts Council, provide information unique to their area or simply do a bit of a sales pitch to bring their own Council on board. With a bit of encouragement from people like Algonquin Highlands Councillor Carol Moffatt,
Minden Hills Cultural Centre’s Daniela Pagliaro and Tracey Green, Arts Council member and one of the core members of the Highlands East Cultural Association, the project may not have had the same level of success. There is no doubt that there have been concerns that this has been a bit of a last minute project, that there could have been more flexibility or better scheduling, or that more preparation
could have gone into the project. There may even have been the odd little breakdown in communications from time to time when trying to explain opportunities for self promotion to the municipalities (like each municipality having two unique panels to promote their communities plus additional copies for free distribution to their visitors), but what project doesn’t come with headaches?
However, there is absolutely no doubt that it will be a boon for the Arts Council to see their calendar distributed free to so many more residents. Working with the municipalities within a tight time schedule was undoubtedly tough for everyone
involved, given the time of year. To gather the extent of detail required for the calendar while the municipalities dealt with other priorities like record snowfalls, year-end calculations and 2010 budget preparations was a real challenge to overcome. Dysart Councillor Janis Parker has played no small part in the success of this project. While Parker has been a member of the Arts Council for many years she has only recently become an actual board member, and with any project that she tackles, she is an extremely enthusiastic participant. Parker is on the Council’s marketing committee, and she thought the idea of inserting the calendar into the tax notices would be a great way to get the information out to all of the taxpayers.
“What better way to let everyone in the County know what’s going on?” she asked.
However, even Parker will admit that her involvement in the project has been a balancing act and some may even perceive her involvement as a bit of a conflict. Although she is a new member of the Council, her company, Parker Pad &
Printing Ltd., has printed the arts directory for the past four years and is doing the printing again this year. Parker said, “The Arts Council is simply drawing on my area
of expertise.” And she has been extremely accommodating in ensuring that the weight of the stock paper used is carefully chosen to ensure that by inserting the calendars into the tax notices they will not exceed the standard postage
requirements. “We called everyone involved and went over all of the items, prepared mock ups and were open throughout the process to design a brochure that wouldn’t put the envelopes over the limit for postage.”
At press time, the Dysart et al version of the Events Calendar was the only one that had been printed and is ready for distribution. The other three calendars, each slightly tailored to the individual municipalities, will follow over the next few weeks. Parker assured the Voice that there is still a small (albeit very small) window of opportunity to get in additions, deletions or amendments and asked that inquiries go to Mark Arike at the Arts Council. In no small measure, Parker credits both
Reeve Murray Fearrey and the Dysart Council for their timely support of the
project and giving the Arts Council the confidence that this new partnership could
really happen. Fearrey championed the project and took mock ups of the calendar to the Reeves of each municipality to get their thoughts before the Councils were formally approached for a decision. Despite their own reluctance in previous years to include additional inserts with the tax notices, Parker said “The Dysart Council was very much on board with this project.” Parker likened the Arts Council’s efforts
to ‘full court press’ going all out at the last minute to get all the information they needed to complete the calendar. She said that the Arts Council is hoping that the taxpayers like the brochure well enough that they will ask for it as an annual addition. It will certainly be an excellent reason for residents to open their tax bills this year.