2025 Creative City Summit Preview: Cultivating Culture, Navigating Change

In-person and virtual delegate passes now on sale!

Photo: Farhan Hussain

2025 Kingston Creative City Summit

October 7 – 9, 2025 | Kingston, ON

Hosted by the Creative City Network of Canada (CCNC), the Creative City Summit, taking place in Kingston, Ontario, October 7 – 9, 2025, is an annual national gathering that brings together culture professionals, municipal leaders, artists, and community partners from across the country to share ideas, innovations, and practical tools for building dynamic, diverse, and resilient communities.

This year’s theme, Cultivating Culture, Navigating Change, invites participants to explore how cultural work can bridge the past and present, strengthen local ties, and help communities adapt with confidence in a rapidly shifting landscape.

With both in-person and virtual delegate passes now on sale, including a reduced price youth, student, or artist pass, this year’s Summit offers a rich and timely program designed to address the evolving realities of cultural work in communities across the country.

Here’s a glimpse at some of the highlights you can look forward to:

Keynote: Michelle Chawla, Director and CEO, Canada Council for the Arts

CCNC is honoured to welcome Michelle Chawla, Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts, as our opening keynote speaker.

Under Chawla’s leadership since 2023, nearly 90% of the Council’s annual government funding supports the arts sector directly, reaching over 3,500 artists and 1,900 organizations across 2,000+ Canadian communities.

With expertise spanning public policy, governance, and large-scale transformation initiatives—and a background that includes leading roles at the Canadian Commission for UNESCO—Chawla brings a broad and thoughtful perspective on the importance of culture in community resilience.

Her bilingual (Québécois and Punjabi) roots and commitment to ensuring the vitality of arts at all levels make her a fitting voice to help launch this year’s theme!

Peer-to-Peer Learning: Meanwhile Spaces Pilot Project

CCNC is thrilled to platform a Peer-to-Peer session to spotlight the Meanwhile Spaces Pilot Project, an innovative collaboration led by ArtsBuild Ontario (ABO), the City of Waterloo, and partners including the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, Why Not Theatre, and Lowland Properties Group.

This bold two-year pilot explores how municipalities and arts organizations can partner with private property owners to temporarily activate underused spaces—offering low or no-cost venues for artistic creation, presentation, and community use.

Highlights of the session include:

• Insights from the project’s beginnings, development, and early implementation;
• Lessons learned in zoning, permissions, and municipal-developer-artist collaboration;
• A preview of sector-wide tools, including a forthcoming Handbook and Impact Report (Fall 2025) to help other municipalities scale this model;
• Reflections on future improvements and how short-term activations can lead to lasting space solutions.

This is a must-attend session for municipal culture workers interested in addressing space shortages, revitalizing downtowns, and testing creative property models.

Photo: Farhan Hussain

Public Art Study Tour: Exploring Kingston’s Cultural Landscape

For those joining in person, the Public Art Study Tour offers a rare, curated view of Kingston’s evolving public art landscape. This three-hour guided bus tour will showcase new and established works across the city’s waterfront and public spaces, including pieces by Brandon Vickerd, Peru, Nicholas Crombach, Yves Cozin, Kosso Eloul, and Ted Bieler.

The tour culminates at Manidoo Ogitigan (Spirit Garden), a living landscape by Métis artist and landscape architect Terence Radford, located in Lake Ontario Park. Here, participants will enjoy an in-depth talk exploring the project’s roots in relationship-building between the Alderville First Nation and the City of Kingston. The garden’s design incorporates significant cultural symbols, including three wampum belts that reflect treaties and histories shared between Indigenous and settler communities.

Refreshments will be served as the tour concludes—offering space for reflection, dialogue, and connection.

Reconnect, Refresh, and Network

The Summit isn’t just about learning—it’s also a place to build relationships with peers from across the country, share insights with colleagues from municipalities large and small, and meet members of CCNC’s Board of Directors, working groups, and committees. Whether you’re looking for fresh ideas, new collaborations, or simply the chance to reconnect in person, the 2025 Creative City Summit promises meaningful moments of exchange.

Register now for in-person or virtual passes—and be part of this important national conversation on how we can cultivate culture and navigate change together.

Indigenous and racially marginalized municipal and Band Council employees can apply for a new discount program to attend the Creative City Summit at 50% off of the regular member rate. Up to 15 discounted passes will be available. Please submit your application by June 16, 2025.

Creative City Network of Canada
135 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON K1P 5J2
www.creativecity.ca
info@creativecity.ca
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Akimbo is a media partner of the Creative City Summit 2025.