Space to Create.

Place to Belong.

Overview

The Edmonton Cultural Infrastructure Plan (ECIP) is Edmonton’s first comprehensive, community-driven plan to guide the development, use, and integration of cultural infrastructure over the next decade (2026–2036). It establishes a shared vision, principles, and phased priorities to ensure arts, culture, and heritage spaces are accessible, sustainable, and embedded across the city.

The plan was developed through extensive engagement with artists, organizations, communities, and civic partners, grounded in the lived realities of how space is accessed and used. A clear message emerging from engagement—“access is key”—has shaped a plan focused on distributed, flexible, and community-responsive space solutions across all areas of Edmonton.

By Arts Habitat Edmonton with the Connections & Exchanges Partners

[2026-2036]

Time to ReIMAGINE

Rapid population growth and expansion into new neighbourhoods are increasing demand for accessible, local cultural spaces, while urban sprawl and uneven distribution of amenities leave many communities underserved.

At the same time, rising costs and economic challenges for artists and arts organizations are making stable, affordable space harder to secure. This is compounded by a shortage of appropriate community and mid-sized cultural spaces, alongside underutilized public, institutional, and commercial infrastructure that could be better activated. Together, these factors create both an urgent need and a significant opportunity to rethink how cultural space is planned, accessed, and sustained across the city.

“The Edmonton Cultural Infrastructure Plan is about mobilization—unlocking the energy, ideas, and leadership that already exist across Edmonton’s communities. The plan will transform arts and heritage by providing key support systems to cultivate meaningful spaces and resources for Edmontonians to participate in culture.”

Outcomes to Ensure

Arts, culture, and heritage are embedded into the daily lives of all Edmontonians.

The Cultural Independence of Indigenous artists, communities, and Peoples is honoured and supported through both integrated and culturally specific spaces.

Edmonton has a flourishing ecosystem of cultural infrastructure that meets the arts, culture, and heritage needs of Edmontonians.

Decisions around the spaces, places, resources, and systems supports to meet arts, culture, and heritage needs are made holistically and strategically, and are integrated with existing initiatives and processes.

FAQ

Who is the Edmonton Cultural Infrastructure Plan (ECIP) for?

The Edmonton Cultural Infrastructure Plan (ECIP) is a catalyst for Edmontonians to engage in meaningful cultural experiences, and provides our City’s leaders and its Arts and Heritage Partners with the tools to continue to support and develop an Edmonton that is flourishing with arts and heritage.

Why do we need the Edmonton Cultural Infrastructure Plan (ECIP)?

In 2018, Arts Habitat Edmonton and the Connections & Exchanges partners (the Edmonton Arts Council and the Edmonton Heritage Council), were tasked to develop the City of Edmonton’s first Cultural Infrastructure Plan as an action from Connections & Exchanges: A 10-Year Plan to Transform Arts and Heritage in Edmonton.

Edmonton’s Cultural Infrastructure Plan (ECIP) provides a framework and a plan for maintaining, developing, nurturing, and investing in cultural infrastructure for all Edmontonians, “that respects and preserves the things we value today while also creating a city to attract and inspire its next million residents.”

(City of Edmonton, Edmonton City Plan, 2020: 6)

What is a Cultural Infrastructure Plan?

Connections & Exchanges defined a Cultural Infrastructure Plan as “a planning, support, and decision framework for arts and heritage spaces, that considers community need, the pace of development, displacement and population growth.”

(City of Edmonton and Edmonton Arts Council, Connections and Exchanges: Alive With Arts and Heritage, 2018: 18)

What is Cultural Infrastructure?

As described in Connections & Exchanges, the term “cultural infrastructure” includes the buildings, structures, and places where culture is:

Consumed: Places where culture is experienced, participated in, showcased, exhibited, or sold;

Produced: Places of creative production, where creative work is made, usually by artists, performers, makers, manufacturers, or digital processes.

(Greater London Authority, Cultural Infrastructure Plan: A Call to Action, 2019 :16)

Have a Question?

Send us an email at info@artshabitat.com