Feds give $9.5 million to Prairie arts organizations
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This article was published 22/03/2025 (533 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet has about 2.25 million new reasons to dance.
The civic institution is one of eight Manitoba and five Saskatchewan arts organizations getting a share of about $9.58 million in funding through the federal government’s Prairie Performing Arts Initiative, Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid announced in the ballet’s foyer Friday morning.
The RWB’s $2.25-million funding injection — earmarked mainly for renovations of its main floor studio space into a black-box performance theatre and toward community activations and market expansion — was by far the largest doled out, accounting for about 24 per cent of the total.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS
Environment Minister/Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid (left) and longtime Royal Winnipeg Ballet supporter Don Leitch are all smiles at Friday’s funding announcement.
About 68 per cent of the fresh federal funding will go toward Manitoba arts organizations — including the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra ($305,357); Manitoba Theatre for Young People ($508,991); Prairie Theatre Exchange ($600,525); Théâtre Cercle Molière ($650,530); Manitoba Opera ($750,000); Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre ($750,000); and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra ($750,000) — to aid in modernizing technology, expanding audience and achieving long-term economic viability.
The remainder of the funding will go to theatre and symphony organizations one province west. Last week, about $8.3 million was also directed toward Alberta arts groups in a similar injection of non-repayable, long-term funding, Duguid said.
Angela Birdsell, executive director of the WSO, welcomed Friday’s investment, saying it addresses long-standing regional inequities for arts funding that tended to overlook the Prairie provinces.
“There is a competition from the environment, the social dimension — all of the things that governments support, and often the arts are an afterthought,” said Duguid, the federal minister of environment and climate change.
“I think we’ve shown today that it is not an afterthought. It is part of our identity. It is so important to our culture. It’s important for our unity as a city, province and country. It tells our stories. It is us.”
Duguid — flanked by parliamentary colleague Ben Carr (Winnipeg South Centre) — agreed the Prairies historically “were not given their fair share.”
With newly installed Prime Minister Mark Carney expected to dissolve Parliament and call a federal election on Sunday, neither Duguid nor Carr shied away from discussing the impending national decision.
“I’m very much thinking about (my father, the late MP Jim Carr, a classically trained oboist) when we make this announcement at a time when our values, our identity and our institutions are being challenged and threatened, both domestically from political leaders who are more interested in dividing us than uniting us, and from external forces that are looking to disrupt and take over our way of life,” Carr said.
“Investments like this mean more than perhaps they ever have.”
Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor who succeeded Justin Trudeau as both Liberal party leader and prime minister earlier this month, is expected to call an election for April 28.
ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com
Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.
Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.
Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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