Culture Plus: A strong new partner for NB’s cultural workforce
An important player is taking the stage in NB’s cultural sector. Several years of collaboration within the cultural sector has led to the establishment of the Cultural Human Resources Council of New Brunswick (Culture Plus), a not-for-profit, bilingual organization committed to ensuring the vitality of the cultural workforce through life-long career development and training.
In addition to initial training and education, opportunities to increase skills throughout one’s career are required for true professional growth. This not only pertains to workers in other sectors, but to the entire cultural workforce as well. Many currently available training programs aimed at professional development and life-long learning are not adapted to the needs of workers in the cultural sector. Culture Plus will strive to help cultural workers acquire new skills, improve their professional prospects, and become more innovative.
“Through this initiative, New Brunswick artists and organizations will be assisted in their ability to grow their businesses and further contribute to the employment and economic prosperity of the province,” says Richard Hornsby, Chair of this new organization.
Roundtable meetings on Cultural Human Resources took place in 2012-2014 for the purpose of designing a new structure, which would be representative, recognized and inclusive. One unanimous observation made from this consultation process within the cultural sector was that it is time for New Brunswick to establish a cultural human resources council.
The Department of Heritage, Culture and Tourism, as well as the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour had both agreed that the initiative should be community-based. Elected during the organization’s Inaugural General Meeting in February, members of the Board of Directors are indeed active representatives of the cultural sector: Richard Hornsby, Christopher Evans, Nadia Khoury, Tim Borlase, Jacinthe Comeau, Patricia Dunnett, Peter Larocque, and Peter Thomas.
Giv’er Miramichi is about “What’s up, what’s new, what’s happening”. We are focused on building people up, supporting one another and celebrating our successes.