FREDERICTON, 19 March, 2025 – On behalf of the membership of ArtsLink NB, we were very pleased to see that the new budget for 2025-26, “Driving Change, Delivering Progress,” increased funding for the arts and culture sector by $2.65 million. This indicates this government’s interest in supporting the arts and culture sector in a meaningful way and begins to address the serious underfunding of arts and culture over the past decade. It will also help us climb up from NB’s ranking of last in per-capita cultural spending among the 10 provinces.
The budget does not outline how this investment will be allocated, but we are hopeful that commitments in the Speech from the Throne recognizing the economic and social impacts of arts and culture and committing to work on the Status of the Artist will be realized.
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