Lack of funding for public art in Winnipeg budget a 'mystery,' says Art Council

The Winnipeg Arts Council said the City of Winnipeg’s new budget may mean the end of the public art program.

According to the council, the line in the capital budget for public art, which provides funds for large installations, has been reduced to zero.

Instead, $500,000 has been allocated to major downtown art institutions. Carol Phillips, executive director of the Winnipeg Arts Council, said this is a “bit of a mystery.”

“At least the majors, as we understand, have not asked the city about that, nor contacted them about capital needs,” she said in an interview on Monday.

Now, the council is looking for answers from the city, and plans to respond through the budget process.

“We’re at the point of trying to understand what this all means and have contacted the city to ask for that background information because lots of people are contacting us,” Phillips said.

Phillips acknowledged that the city is facing financial issues, but said that the funding that is allocated to the arts is less than 0.5 per cent of the city’s total budget.

“It’s a small amount, relatively speaking,” she said. “What it means to others, is it means shrinkage, because there are recovery needs after COVID. The arts are still trying to pull things back together, still trying to get the audience back in the seats and into the galleries.”

In a statement, the City of Winnipeg said it does not have capital spending for standalone public art projects in the proposed budget. However, it added that the city reserves a portion of major capital project budgets to fund public art related to the project.