Council for the Rural Municipality of Hanover will be contemplating a funding increase to Steinbach Arts Council (SAC). Executive Director David Klassen met with Council last week as part of a delegation. He updated councillors on the success and growth of the organization but did not make an official funding request. That, he said, would be coming later through a formal letter. Klassen told Council that while nearly 70 per cent of their participants are from Steinbach, approximately 25 per cent are from the RM of Hanover. And, he says community partnerships are at the heart of what they do. "Steinbach Arts Council is proud to be recognized as one of the largest rural arts organizations of its kind in Canada, and the RM of Hanover has a significant part in that," Klassen told Council. "Our hope, is that together with all of you, we can restore our partnership and continue to offer our programs to Hanover residents the way we always have." According to Hanover Reeve Jim Funk, the municipality provided a grant last year of about $2,500 to SAC. He notes that is down from the approximate $5,000 grant that was provided back in 2022. Though he did not make an official ask, Klassen says he would love to at least see funding restored to the level it was before. "We would love to re-establish that amount at minimum, perhaps consider some inflation within that," he adds. By comparison, Klassen says the funding that comes from the City of Steinbach includes their building. "So, all of our costs, lease-wise, rent-wise and some maintenance, are covered by the City of Steinbach," he explains. "And then there's approximately a $40,000 operating budget that comes along on top of that." Klassen says they are witnessing an explosion in the number of users and programs offered. He notes SAC has run out of space in its building and is currently looking at satellite locations. "We just need space," he says. "We are open to exploring other communities, sharing their recreational centres to find space to run programs. A few miles drive isn't insurmountable." Klassen told Hanover Council that they would absolutely be interested in potentially using some of Hanover's facilities for their programming. Meanwhile, Funk says Hanover has always contributed to the arts. He suggests that Council is open to working with SAC but will make a decision after seeing some of the numbers in the formal request letter. Funk says he was surprised to learn that one-quarter of all users at SAC reside in the RM of Hanover.