Richmond Culture Days draws national praise
29 November 2021
Richmond has once again been named among Canada’s Top 10 cities for its annual Culture Days festivities of free, creative activities. The City also ranked fifth among mid-size cities nationwide.
“Richmond has a proud history of supporting a vibrant arts and culture community and has placed among Canada’s Top 10 cities every year since 2012,” said Mayor Malcolm Brodie. “This ranking once again highlights the quality of our events and creative festivities and demonstrates our city’s commitment and support to engage the community in the arts scene.”
National rankings are based on the number of registered activities and programs offered during Culture Days (September 24 – October 24, 2021) and are categorized based on population size. The overall national ranking went to St. Catharines, Ontario while cities such as Calgary, Toronto and Winnipeg joined Richmond in the Top 10 list.
Richmond offered 63 activities, including online opportunities, in 2021 and an estimated 1,500 community members of all ages participated in the Culture Days opening weekend at the Richmond Cultural Centre. Following all health and safety protocols, arts and cultural groups and individual artists offered free hands-on workshops, demonstrations, performances and learning opportunities to take visitors behind the scenes or into the thick of the creative process.
Visual and graphic artist, Jeni Chen was Richmond’s BC Culture Days Ambassador, one of nine across the province. She offered in-person and online art journaling workshops during her tenure, and designed Richmond’s 2021 Culture Days graphic that appeared on volunteer t-shirts.
Additional highlights of Richmond’s 2021 Culture Days included:
- The opening of the Richmond Museum exhibition Reinventing Richmond, which will run until September 2022;
- Launching the 10th Annual Richmond’s Writer-in-Residence program featuring novelist, Sonya Lalli; and
- Community participation in the creation of Barigord Studio’s stop-motion film featuring dancing characters and a model of the Richmond Cultural Centre created entirely from Lego bricks.
Founded in 2009, Culture Days is a national celebration of arts and culture that has grown to be the largest cultural event of its kind across Canada. This year, an estimated 3.4 million people participated in activities aimed at building community and fostering connection through the arts. The next Culture Days will begin on September 23, 2022.
For details, visit culturedays.ca or www.richmond.ca/culturedays. For year-round information about arts and culture in Richmond, visit www.HowArtWorks.ca.