My name is Colin Wiginton and I work as the Director, Arts & Culture Services for the City of Kingston.  I've been with the City since 2009 and one of my first tasks was to develop the Kingston Culture Plan—a first for the City of Kingston.  Since that time, I've had the chance to work with people across the community who like me share a passion for making sure Kingston's cultural life is vibrant, enjoyable and accessible.

Kingston hasn't always been home but it's certainly where my passions first emerged.  Like many people, my family moved to Kingston when my father took a job at Queen's University.  That was in 1973 when Kingston celebrated its Tercentenary.  Kingston then hosted the sailing competitions as part of the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, which was a proud moment and inspired all kinds of cultural activities.

As a young person, I felt inspired to get involved in the cultural life of the city and those early experiences set me on a path that included lots of different creative pursuits and I eventually went to Queen's University to study art, art history and drama.  During those years I also worked in the Grand Theatre box office and volunteered as a tour guide at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre before moving on to Toronto to pursue a graduate degree in Museum Studies.

For many years I worked in public galleries in and around Ontario and, with every job, it was always important to me to find ways to help people connect with art and history in different and interesting ways.  That's something I now get to do every day in my role as cultural director with the City of Kingston and it excites me to be able to use this blog to share stories to help show some of the ways in which people are working to foster creativity, to learn, to share and to continue to feel proud about Kingston and all the things it has to offer that makes it so unique.