The power of art-making and arts participation to help rural communities flourish will be examined by John Brotman, executive director of the Ontario Arts Council. The impact in rcommunities of the Historic Places Initiative (HPI), a federal–provincial–territorial partnership to preserve and promote historic places, will be discussed by Stephen Irving, Francesco Manganiello, Rebecca Sciarra, and Chris Wiebe, all members of the Rideau Heritage Initiative pilot project. Deborah Hossack, registrar of for the Historic Places Initiative at the Ontario Ministry of Culture, and Pam Blackstock, director of the Historic Places Policy Group at ParksCanada will act as discussants. These presentations have been made possible by the generous support of the Policy Research Group (PRG.)

A summary of this workshop is available online. For more information on this topic please visit the companion online In Focus publications: To Save a Butterfly, Must One Kill It? The Historic Places Initiative in a Rural Context, Community Arts in Rural Settings and Commentary: Community Arts in Rural Settings.