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This article offers a research update on a 3-year programme initiated by the Kamloops Art Gallery and the University College of the Cariboo in Kamloops, British Columbia. The programme is supported by a ‘Community–University Research Alliance’ grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the collaboration focuses on the cultural future of small cities – on how cultural and arts organisations work together (or fail to work together) in a small city setting. If not by definition, then certainly by default, ‘culture’ is associated with big city life: big cities are equated commonly with ‘big culture’; small cities with something less. The Cultural Future of Small Cities research group seeks to provide a more nuanced view of what constitutes culture in a small Canadian city. In particular, the researchers are exploring notions of social capital and community asset building: in this context, ‘visual and verbal representation’, ‘home’, ‘community’ and the need to define a local ‘sense of place’ have emerged as important themes. As the Small Cities programme begins its second year, a unique but key aspect has become the artist-as-researcher.
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Correspondence and offprint requests to: L. Dubinsky, Kamloops Art Gallery, 101–465 Victoria Street, Kamloops, BC V2C 2A9 Canada. Tel.: 250-828-3543; Email: ldubinsky@museums.ca
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Dubinsky, L., Garrett-Petts, W. ‘Working Well, Together’: Arts-Based Research and the Cultural Future of Small Cities . AI 16, 332–349 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s001460200027
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s001460200027