‘Are You On The Map?’ Launches
The Bermuda Cultural Map Trust announced the launch of ’Are you on the map?’, a campaign designed to offer organizations and individuals involved in Bermuda’s creative and cultural industries a no-cost marketing and cross-promotion opportunity.
The Bermuda Cultural Map Trust is a Bermuda-registered charity whose vision is to provide a platform for Bermuda’s creative and cultural assets and explore how they can contribute to Bermuda economically, socially and culturally.
The Trust oversees the development and management of the Bermuda Cultural Map, a Google Maps-based directory that is fully editable and extendable with user-controlled updates.
“The main goal of the Bermuda Cultural Map is to enable the growth and development of a vibrant sector of the Island’s economy,” noted Trustee Dr. Edward Harris, who added that the term “ creative and cultural industries” refers to entities involved in Bermuda’s culture as well as businesses, individuals and organizations with creativity at their heart – design, music, publishing, architecture, film and video, crafts, visual arts, fashion, TV and radio, advertising, literature, computer games and the performing arts.
“Because of the interactive nature of the map, the community can work together to nurture culture and creativity in Bermuda as well as explore revenue-generating potential that the Map represents.”
Dr. Harris explained that through the Are you on the map? campaign, an invitation is being extended to the community to join almost 600 other entities already registered on the web site.
“In the past decade, “cultural mapping” has emerged as an authentic, collaborative and practical way to identify the variety of resources within a community and make them accessible to everyone,” said Dr. Harris.
“The United Nations Creative Economy Report (2008) noted that the creative economy, as the crossroads of arts, culture, business and technology, recorded an 8.7% average annual growth rate from 2000 to 2005 across all regions and contexts.
“ Many communities around the world have leveraged cultural mapping to bolster the creative and cultural industries segment of their economy. We have no doubt the Bermuda Cultural Map will enable similar benefits here.”
Dr. Harris noted that the Trust owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Greg Baeker of “AuthentiCity”, a Toronto-based consulting firm that is considered a leader in cultural mapping: “Dr. Baeker and his colleagues guided us in the early stages of establishing the Bermuda Cultural Map and we are deeply grateful for their expert assistance,” said Dr. Harris.
“AuthentiCity has helped pioneer municipal cultural planning and cultural mapping tools and methodologies in Canada and remains one of its leading practitioners. The firm has completed projects for communities of all sizes and circumstances in Canada and internationally.
“We are also grateful for the input and feedback that we received from the Departments of Statistics, Forward Planning, and Community and Cultural Affairs as we developed the parameters of the Bermuda Cultural Map. The personnel at these departments were supportive and enthusiastic about the potential the Map represents.”
Dr. Harris said that a Bermudian, Frances Marshall, has been engaged as the Administrator of the Bermuda Cultural Map: “We are indeed fortunate to have Frances on board to manage this project.”
“Her impressive background in research as well as web development has ensured that a detail- and results-oriented outlook is brought to all aspects of the Map’s development and that the objective of establishing a solid platform for Bermuda’s creative and cultural assets is achieved.
“We invite all members of the community to visit the Bermuda Cultural Map at www.bermudaculturalmap.org. It is an exciting repository for what makes our Island unique. There are simple instructions for those in the creative and cultural industries who want to register and take advantage of a robust, dynamic and free online presence.”
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