CBC: Thriving Steinbach arts community bucks national trend

This article was originally posted on CBC.ca: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/steinbach-manitoba-arts-council-growth-1.7650548

The Steinbach Arts Council has doubled its registrations and donors in two years at a time when other arts organizations have struggled to rebound from the COVID pandemic.

Steinbach is doing new things that other arts councils can learn from, said Lise Ann Johnson, Canadian Council for the Arts director general for arts granting programs.

“They’re checking all of those boxes,” said Johnson.

Those boxes included mergers with other organizations, free programming, offering something for all ages and getting out of their own facilities to other places where people are.

Johnson said some other groups are starting to see a turnaround, but in a poll by the Canadian Council for the Arts, which funds 1,464 art organizations, 91 per cent of the organizations that responded had challenges maintaining their programming impact.

“Primarily attendance and consumption changed profoundly in the pandemic. They were ruptured. People got very used to not going out. They got used to their digital platforms,” she said.

Rebounding from the pandemic is important, as the arts scene plays a large role in the country’s identity, Johnson said.

“I think this moment of cultural sovereignty is a really interesting one in this kind of Trump era. Whether it’s tariffs or whether it’s just rethinking our relationship to our neighbour in the south, I think there’s a real interest in how arts and culture play a really important role in defining who we are as Canadians,” she said.

Top 10% in country

At the annual general meeting of the Steinbach Arts Council in September, it was announced that program spending has passed $1 million in the city of 18,000, about 50 kilometres south of Winnipeg.

A doubling of donations in two years has pushed Steinbach into the top 10 per cent of arts councils in the country for total dollars spent. That’s ahead of large Canadian cities like Mississauga, with a population of 800,000, and London, with a metro area population of 550,000, according to data from the Canada Revenue Agency collected by federally funded arts data collector Mass Culture.

There were more than 2,000 registrations in over 140 programs last season, and the council plans to have even more, with workshops including one for tots as young as one with their parents.

The Steinbach Arts Council used to run most of its programs in its Second Street building, but with the growth, workshops have moved out into places like seniors homes and the Mennonite Heritage Village museum.

The arts council is also putting on four concerts and bringing in a play by the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre this season.

Chris Winkler, Steinbach Arts Council’s member of the year, considers himself an example of how the arts council draws people in.

The mortgage broker became more involved two years ago, and convinced his father, Bob Winkler, and 10-year-old daughter Clara, to join him in last season’s Fiddler on the Roof. It sold out all four planned shows in the 300-seat theatre at Steinbach Regional Secondary School, and an added fifth performance also quickly sold out.

“You connect really, really deeply with these people really fast. You’re all rowing in the same direction… to ultimately give to other people, and I think that’s so special,” Winkler said.

Post-pandemic boom

The arts council also offers free after-school programming taught by artists from the community, offering everything from improv to culinary classes.

Kerean Vogt got to try the fiddle for the first time at one of those programs. He recommends it to everyone.

“You get to just move along the strings and boom, music,” said Kerean. “It’s really fun.”

Fiddle teacher John Taves reached out to the arts council in 2020 to get involved.

He said the free programming, which offers other options like culinary and improv, is essential to give people access to the arts world.

“It’s a really big deal, actually. There’s a lot of costs that come with playing a stringed instrument,” Taves said.

Working together

Steinbach’s success has been helped by a merger with the Southeastern Manitoba Festival, which brought teachers and students under one organization.

Steinbach Arts Council executive director David Klassen said re-engagement with the community that started during the pandemic resulted in what he called a slingshot response.

“So many people wanted some sort of recreation and they sought it out online. We took that as a challenge,” said Klassen, who joined the arts council in 2019.

“We believe in many ways, we’re the heartbeat of the city,” Klassen said at the arts council’s AGM.