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Welcome!

It seems it was just yesterday we were entering the 2017 tourism season, and now another is already here -Spring Forward indeed! At the recent 2017 Ottawa Tourism Awards, we were proud to cheer on a number of our Member nominees: Bytown Museum, Canada Science and Technology Museum, Haunted Walk Ottawa and Ingenium. Congrats to All!

And, on behalf of the Ottawa Cultural Alliance (OCA), I’m excited to be serving on a new
Ottawa Cultural Tourism Working Group together with other enthusiastic colleagues from Ottawa Festivals, Ottawa Tourism and the City of Ottawa –who look forward to leveraging new opportunities for this important sector.

The OCA was very pleased that 269 respondents completed the online survey informing our Arms-Length Cultural Development Feasibility Study to gain a better understanding of the state of our cultural community. And, that many attended initial consultations to provide direct input. Plan to participate in the next round of consultations, as we explore new models for advancing culture in Ottawa in future.

Key to that, will be the success of our emerging cultural professionals. On that front, we were delighted with our recent Capital Heritage Mentorship Program networking event – with Mentors and Mentees highly engaged in sharing and honing career advancement tools. I was invited to participate in an Ontario Museums Association 2018 conference panel regarding our successful Emerging Cultural Professionals Conference, but recommended/it was agreed that our own emerging professional, Outreach Manager Kimberley Lai should instead present this new mentorship model -which she has developed and led so professionally. We’re grateful to the Ottawa Community Foundation for their investment in this program, and hope we and other heritage regions can build on it!

Another young cultural professional, our new Communications Coordinator Cassandra Marsillo, is most ably coordinating our e-communications, including this newsletter.
She welcomes any heritage news ideas you have to share -and we welcome her!

We’re also very pleased to welcome our newest Member, The Great India Festival – and look forward to supporting and promoting their truly great festival and work.

We look forward to seeing All Members at our June 5th AGM at the Bank of Canada Museum and 3 Brewers. New Members will also be most welcome!

And, we hope to see you at one of the many doorways of Doors Open June 2-3!

Catherine Lindquist, Executive Director