Understanding the role of cultural networks within a creative ecosystem: a Canadian case-study

Despite prevailing theories which presume the importance of networks linking artists and others in their communities, we lack sufficient systematic, artist-centred, primary research for a good understanding of how cultural networks function. To address this lacuna, a project fostered by the three major arts organisations in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan has engaged artists and the public in quantitative and qualitative research to understand their involvement in local and more extended networks. With the first publicly funded agency for arts support in North America, a recently buoyant economy, and a diversifying and increasingly indigenous population, established formal and informal cross-disciplinary networks which created a vibrant cultural ecology in Saskatchewan are in transition. Emerging insights into the current dynamics of these cultural networks and the health of the province’s creative ecosystem demonstrate the importance of such primary research as a foundation for cultural policy making in Canada and elsewhere.