Definitions of "Culture"

MUNICIPAL CULTURAL POLICIES AND PLANS

City of St. Catharines - Municipal Cultural Policy

The City of St. Catharines understands that culture is a collection of traits that are spiritual and material, intellectual and emotional, involving the whole person and community.  The City embraces an inclusive definition recognizing the heritage of the region, the ethnic diversity of the City and the contribution of the living arts to the community.

“Culture” is a broad term encompassing all manner of human activity; a Municipal Cultural Policy necessarily must be more specific.  For the purposes of this policy, the term “culture” will mean the arts, cultural industries and heritage resources.  The arts include music, theatre, dance, visual art, media arts and literature.  The cultural industries include film, television, music recording, publishing and multimedia.  Heritage resources include oral traditions, cultural landscapes, archeological sites, structures, artifacts and associated records.

Municipality of Chatham-Kent - Culture, Economy, Community: A Cultural Plan for Chatham-Kent

‘Culture’ is a notoriously difficult concept to define. In the widest sense, culture is understood as the unique ways of life that characterizes a community or social group. It is comprised of all elements – both tangible and intangible – that combine to define the unique identity of a community. While this broad understanding of culture is important, the focus of the Cultural Plan is on a specific set of cultural resources which we define to include:
 
• Public (cultural) facilities
• Not-for-profit cultural organizations
• Creative or cultural businesses and enterprises 
• Human or cultural heritage
• Natural heritage
• Festivals and events

City of North Bay - Municipal Arts, Culture and Heritage Policy

Arts: The term "Arts" refers to both visual and performing artistic experiences including dance, theatre, literature, music, folk art, creative and material art.  Artistic activities from the multi-cultural community are included in this term.

Culture: The term "Culture" is an inclusive term incorporating both arts and heritage.  It reflects the "sense" or "image" of the community with respect to its identity in relation to artistic and heritage-based opportunities.  It does not mean "multi-cultural".
 
Heritage: The term "Heritage" refers to history, architecture, archaeology, natural heredity, archive and man-made material such as artifacts.

City of Sault-Ste-Marie - Cultural Policy

The dictionary defines `culture' as:
 
"The quality in a person or society that arises from interest in arts, letters, scholarly pursuits, etc...a particular form or stage of civilization..."
 
For purposes of this document, it seems prudent to expand the definition of "arts, letters" and "scholarly pursuits" into more general terms as:

• the improvement or refinement of the mind, emotions and interests, manners and tastes and
• the description of  creative activity which provides aesthetic enjoyment to the various senses.
 
Performing Arts - Theatre, dance, opera, music, puppetry.
 
Visual Arts - Painting, sculpture, printmaking, pottery, fibre and fabric art,
woodworking as examples. Includes both Fine Arts and Crafts.
 
Literary Arts - Prose, poetry, storytelling.
 
Heritage Arts - Immovable heritage, movable heritage, intangible heritage and heritage conservation, identification, protection and interpretation. Heritage resources include immovable heritage - buildings, cultural heritage landscapes, natural heritage, archaeological and traditional use sites, intangible heritage - expressions of culture of the community (custom, dance, music song, story, etc.), movable property - personal property (art, artifacts, documents, natural objects and specimens).
 
Media Arts -  Photography, film, video, print, audio and/or graphics.

City of Orillia - Culture, Community, Economy

Culture – in the broadest sense, culture is ‘the unique ways of life that characterize a community or social group.  It includes not only the arts and letters, but also modes of life, fundamental human rights, value systems, traditions and beliefs" (UNESCO 1982). While this definition forms the broadest context for the Orillia Cultural Plan, the substance of the Plan focuses on the more pragmatic notion of cultural resources (see below).
 
Cultural Resources - cultural planning embraces a broad understanding of local cultural resources, one that encompasses but is not limited to traditional arts, heritage, libraries and cultural industries. Other elements that contribute to defining local identity, sense of place and quality of life are also included.  For example:
 
• Public facilities (museums, libraries, theatres, community centres, and fairgrounds),
• Heritage or cultural businesses,
• Fixed or immoveable heritage (buildings, cultural landscapes),
• Moveable heritage (collections),
• Heritage or cultural organizations,
• Festivals and events, and,
• Tourism agencies and related businesses (e.g., restaurants/cafes)
 
Cultural or Creative Industries – economic activity involved in the creation, production and distribution of cultural content. Cultural industries generally include: printing and publishing, sound recording, film and video, multimedia, crafts and design. The term ‘cultural industries’ is being replaced by "creative industries or enterprises" in many countries.

Creative industries are those activities which originate in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have the potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.  In the United Kingdom they are defined to include:

• Advertising
• Architecture
• Arts and antiques
• Crafts, design
• Designer fashion
• Film
• Interactive leisure software
• Music
• Performing arts
• Publishing
• Software
• Television and radio
• Interactive leisure software
• Music
• Performing arts

City of London - The Creative City Task Force Report

Creative Industries

Those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.  This includes advertising, architecture, the art and antiques market, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, interactive leisure software, music, the performing arts, publishing, software and computer games, television and radio.

Cultural Heritage

Monuments: architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science.

Groups of buildings: groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science.

Sites: works of man or the combined works of nature and man, and areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological point of view. - UNESCO definition

Culture

•    All the knowledge and values shared by a society.
•    The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.
•    These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population.
•    These patterns, traits, and products considered with respect to a particular category, such as a field, subject, or mode of expression.
•    The predominating attitudes and behavior that characterize the functioning of a group or organization.
•    Intellectual and artistic activity and the works produced by it.
•    Development of the intellect through training or education.
•    Enlightenment resulting from such training or education.
•    A high degree of taste and refinement formed by aesthetic and intellectual training.
•    Special training and development.

City of Red Deer - Red Deer Community Culture Master Plan

The definition of culture is not all-inclusive, but as it pertains to the Community Culture Master Plan is stated as follows:
 
“Culture includes visual arts, performing and literary arts, as well as heritage, including explorations of our history as a community or as individuals. It relates to the interaction of society with the arts in formal and informal settings.”

City of Brantford - Municipal Cultural Plan

“Culture” is a broad term encompassing all types of human activity; a Municipal Cultural Plan must be more specific.  For the purposes of this document, the term culture will be used as an umbrella term that includes the arts, cultural industries, and heritage.  The arts include music, theatre, dance, visual art, media arts, literary arts and galleries.  Cultural industries include film, television, music recording, publishing and multimedia.  Heritage includes oral traditions, archaeological sites, archival materials, artifacts and associated records, and museums.

Town of Ajax - An Integrated Community Arts and Cultural Plan for the Town of Ajax

For the purposes of this plan, the term “culture” will mean, but is not limited to, the arts, cultural industries, museums, architecture, natural and heritage resources.  The arts include music, theatre, dance, visual arts and literature.  The cultural industries include film, television, music recording, publishing and multimedia.  Heritage resources include oral traditions, cultural and natural landscapes, archaeological sites, structures, artifacts and associated archival records.