Strengthening rural cultural life through partnership, evidence, and community leadership.
Across Canada, rural communities and cultural organizations often lack the tools to tell their story, measure their impact, or make the case for support — even though their activities are central to community wellbeing and identity.
Rural communities are vital to Canada’s cultural landscape. In fact, 34 percent of the country’s cultural organizations operate in rural contexts. Yet there are no consistent, community-informed tools designed specifically to understand, assess, and strengthen cultural vitality in these places.
The Rural Cultural Vitality Framework builds on international research and development led by the Centre for Cultural Value, including the UK Cultural Vitality Framework, and adapts it for rural Canadian realities.
Why It Matters
Rural communities contribute significantly to Canada’s cultural identity, yet lack consistent, community-informed tools to measure cultural vitality. Without reliable data, cultural development, funding advocacy, and policy alignment remain fragmented. Here are three important reasons why strong rural cultural data matters:
Community-centered evidence supports local leadership in planning, programming, and cultural innovation grounded in lived realities and local priorities.
Reliable cultural data empowers advocacy, strengthens funding proposals, and informs public policy tailored to rural community strengths and needs.
Our Approach
While strong cultural data exists across Canada, it is often structured around sector siloes (arts, community culture, heritage). In rural contexts, these disciplines overlap organically — with cultural spaces functioning as community hubs and activities blending across forms. A rural vitality framework must reflect this integrated, relational nature of cultural life rather than discipline-based categories.
The Rural Cultural Vitality Framework therefore moves beyond discipline-specific metrics and instead reflects the integrated, relational nature of cultural life in rural Canada.
Phase I focuses on collaborative adaptation of the UK model as a conceptual framework for Canada, working alongside national and regional cultural partners, rural communities, and Indigenous knowledge systems. This will form the foundation for a single proof-of-concept pilot in Phase II, followed by broader national field testing in Phase III and a structured cohort process to support refinement and adoption across Canada in Phase IV.
Our Methodology
The Canadian Rural Cultural Vitality Framework builds on the Centre for Cultural Value Cultural Vitality Framework, which identifies nine key areas of community cultural measurement. These indicators provide a strong starting point for developing a Canadian framework that reflects community priorities, Indigenous ways of knowing, and best practices in cultural measurement and data sovereignty.
Originally developed and tested in the UK, the model will be adapted and refined to reflect rural Canadian realities with rural communities, cultural practitioners, and Indigenous knowledge holders engaged as equal partners in shaping a framework that works for Canada.
The extent to which residents take part in cultural, recreational, and sporting activities.
The availability, accessibility, and inclusivity of spaces for culture, sport, and creative expression.
Representation and participation of diverse communities, including Indigenous peoples and equity-deserving groups.
Contributions of cultural and creative industries, including small businesses, galleries and local enterprises.
The role of culture in fostering belonging, volunteerism and civic pride.
The extent to which local policy and funding support cultural development and sustainability.
How cultural participation contributes to individual and community wellbeing.
The recognition, preservation and celebration of community history, traditions and place-based identity.
How cultural activity supports creativity, adaptability and resilience for the future.
The Rural Cultural Vitality Framework is being developed through collaboration with communities and partners across Canada. We are currently building relationships for Phase I adaptation and future pilot implementation.
For Rural Communities
Are you interested in participating in a future proof-of-concept pilot or contributing to the development of the framework?
We are seeking rural communities and cultural leaders who want to help shape a measurement model grounded in lived rural realities, community priorities, and Indigenous knowledge systems by participating as a pilot community.
For Funders and National Partners
The Rural Cultural Vitality Framework represents a national opportunity to strengthen evidence-based cultural planning in rural Canada.
We are currently engaging funding partners, research collaborators, and national and regional organizations interested in advancing rural cultural vitality, data innovation, and community-led evaluation.
Our Research and Delivery Partners
The Rural Cultural Vitality Framework is being developed in collaboration with research and cultural economics partners supporting methodology, adaptation, and national implementation planning.
