AuthentiCity is a community resource and hub for sharing knowledge, experience, and emerging ideas about Cultural Planning and Heritage.
It is curated by Dr. Gregory (Greg) Baeker. Greg has worked in the cultural sector in Canada and internationally for close to 50 years.
He has worked for UNESCO and the Council of Europe, has published extensively, and is read in 43 countries. After working in the sector for 15 years, he completed at PhD in urban planning focused on integrating culture into municipal planning systems and social and economic strategies.
AuthentiCity was founded on the belief that one of the most pressing needs in the world today is connecting knowledge across generations. We need to connect the best ideas from the past with leading thinking today to shape decision-making today and tomorrow.
This involves developing communities of practice that support us working together. All of us are stronger if we learn from each other, rather than working in competition.
In this spirit, please engage with the site to ask questions, have discussions in our comment sections, and connect through the Ask Greg a Question feature.
Our Values
Culture – Not “Arts and Culture”
It is said that culture emerges from a conversation between memory (heritage and prior knowledge) and creativity (arts and innovation); to say the 'arts and culture' is like saying 'baseball and sport'; it mistakes the part with the whole, disregards heritage, and profoundly diminishes culture.
City-based Solutions
There is no sustainable cultural sector that depend on senior levels of government and their funding councils. Culture must be embedded in how we think about cities and city-building, but we must move past advocacy to proven tools and methods.
Diversity and Representation Matter
In Canada and all Western democracies racial diversity - especially Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities – are not represented in cultural and media sectors undermining the case for public sector funding.
