The arts and culture sector in NS needs your voice to make sure we are a central part of Nova Scotia's economic recovery.
Cuts proposed in this week’s provincial budget have landed on the shoulders of individual artists and cultural workers, grassroots, non-profit and community-focused organizations.
The cuts disproportionately impact Arts, Culture, & Heritage in Nova Scotia, with devastating impacts on museums, youth-focused arts programming and education, grants for professional artists and groups, and budget cuts to organizations that work to support and engage cultural communities across our province.
On top of operational budget cuts, seventy two (72) Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage grant programs have been fully or partially cut. This totals more than $14 million in reductions. Reducing investment in this sector not only deflates economic growth and sidelines innovation, but also represents a strategic misstep in the overall advancement of our province as a place to call home.
These cuts are the most severe we have seen in decades. In an already under-resourced sector, they are
catastrophic. Our sector has spent decades leveraging modest public investment to deliver outsized social, cultural, and economic returns in communities across Nova Scotia.
We need every voice now before it is too late to reverse the cuts.
Please reach out to your MLA to show them that we can't take any cuts to the arts and culture sector, to the Culture Division or to Arts NS. We are grateful to the Provincial government for making a vital increase to the arts in 2023, and we need to ensure that isn't clawed back now.
We need your voice: the voices of individual artists and arts organizations, members, volunteers, staff, audiences and supporters.