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- « P a n N3176I O arts alive ON T H E N O R T H SHORE Crystal Mutter Get going. Get real. Get hooked. Arts are more alive on the North Shore than ever before, and a new branding initiative unveiled last fall is bringing members of the North Shore arts community under one umbrella. This project is a product of N o r t h Vancouver's Cultural Plan, which suggested that local arts events could be marketed more efficiently if arts groups pooled their resources. With this in mind, the Coordinated Cultural Marketing Team comprised of members from various arts organizations" was formed and after two years of hard work the team is ready to launch a logo, name, and positioning line for the initiative. The team broke the arts down into nine categories: visual arts, dance, music, theatre, heritage, public art, media, literary arts, and festivals. Each art category will be displayed as street banners across the city and district. A total of 63 will be adorning the N o r t h Shore come May. Each with its own colour will boast the catchy new Alive on the North Shore. Hooked." The back of the website which went live in and definition, the banners name and tag line: "Arts Get Going. Get Real. Get banners will sport the new February: www.arts-alive.ca. Also in the works as part of the branding initiative is a transit campaign that will run on nine different buses for six months and will host the new name and tag line. Linda Feil, Executive Director of the N o r t h Vancouver Community Arts Council, said a branding initiative on such a grand scale has never before been attempted for North Shore arts. "The dream is when people come to the Lower Mainland they go to the North Shore for the arts," Feil says. She said another intention of the branding initiative is a to reach out to residents of the North Shore to look to home first to support their local arts. "We want to inform the community that this community is extremely rich already. You don't have to cross the bridge. Get off the couch and get out." she says. With the purpose of reaching out to smaller arts groups, that may have little or no advertising budget, the website will act as an advertising tool for groups to post their information and cultural events. A l l community artists and art agencies arc united to upload their event information directly onto the site which is hosted by the municipal Arts ( oni mission of North Vancouver. A l l postings are free of cost. Marketing tool kits will soon be distributed to invite more members of the cultural community to also come under the umbrella. The kits will include the new logo, name, and positioning-line, and the smaller agencies, or members, will be invited to include the new logo, name and tag line onto their own event posters. Workshops will be held to help with this part of the initiative. Newspaper advertising and posters will also be included in the branding initiative. The branding initiative which started in 2004 will hopefully be completed by 2007. (^Coordinated M a r k e t i n g Team includes: Arts & Culture Commission of North Vancouver, Centennial Theatre, Capilano College Performing Arts Centre, N V Community Arts C o u n c i l , N V Museum & Archives Presentation House Theatre, Presentation House Gallery). www.arts-alive.ca May I June 21