Arts council welcomes new funding

By Lethbridge Herald on July 25, 2025.

Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald

The announcement of a boost in provincial funding for the arts is being met with optimism by the executive director of the city’s allied Arts Council.

“It’s great to hear that this government is championing the arts and increasing their commitment,” said Steven Foord. “Lots of good things to hear from what’s been said so far,”

The Alberta government on Thursday announce $4.5 million in increased funding for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

That amount brings total arts funding to $36.1 million with the government’s multi-year commitment to the AFA growing that funding to  more than $43 million annually by 2027-28.

The announcement was made by Tanya Fir, Minister of Arts, Culture and  Status of Women and Cynthia Moor, chair of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary.

The AFA has already invested $19.1 million in grant funding providing hundreds of arts organizations and individual artists, said Fir.

By the end of the government’s three-year commitment, AFA funding will reach its highest level in Alberta’s history, said Fir, noting the visual, applied and live performance arts industries have an economic benefit to the province by contributing annually more than $1.3 billion in GDP (2023 figures) and employ more than 18,000 Albertans.

Foord said he’s glad to see the government giving recognition to the impact the arts have on the economy “which you don’t always hear and I don’t think the arts always gets credit for.”

He added that the Allied Arts Council accesses AFA grant funding for the gallery at Casa and in general when the province talks about increased funding “it goes beyond that operational funding but the access for more grants local artists which we have a ton of.

“If there’s more grants and more grant dollars to go around, naturally that does flow into Lethbridge. Provincially we have a good reputation already, i think it’s growing and getting better” so more grant  availability is great news for Lethbridge, said Foord.

“There’s a ton of different spinoffs that will come out of this extra  commitment,” he added.