On Wednesday, the Winnipeg Arts Council faced misunderstanding and criticism from city councilors.
The situation happened after WAC found out about $500K funding cut. Starting from 2004, the organization received money in an annual allocation for their art programs. However, this year it sees a big funding cut.
Winnipeg Arts Council shared the information online and after that the city councilors received a lot of complaints. On Wednesday morning, the mayor of Winnipeg expressed his opinion on the situation. He said that WAC misinformed city residents about a 100% reduction in funding. Bowman urged to correct the information.
WAC's executive director, Carol Phillips, apologized for the words in the letter. However, he said that it is true that there is no money for the council in the budget. Phillips added that public art is very important for the city and now the organization is concerned because it does not know where to find necessary amount of money.
Phillips is worried that such public programs as bus and walking tours can disappear due to lack of money.
Coun. Sherri Rollins explained that the decision to cut funding was made as the city has already made a lot of significant investment in the arts. Moreover, Winnipeg Arts Council has access to additional investments not from the city.
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