Provencher Member of Parliament Ted Falk was in Steinbach Tuesday to announce $24,000 in funding for the Steinbach Arts Council (SAC).

Falk says the money, spread evenly over two years will be used for their Concert Show Series. The funding is provided through the Canada Arts Presentation Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

"We're very excited," says Chief Creative Officer Cindi Rempel Patrick. "We bring in professional artists throughout the year and the funding will go directly to help pay for the costs of bringing these artists in."

Rempel Patrick says these are national artists that come from all over Canada. She notes there are significant costs involved and funding like this enables SAC to bring these artists to Steinbach. Rempel Patrick says they offer eleven different concert events each year and this number would be reduced significantly were it not for funding announcements such as this one. One such show will happen Wednesday night when pianist Roy Tan and violinist Rosemary Siemens will take to the stage at Grace Mennonite Church.

"Our government believes very strongly that a healthy and vibrant arts community is good for community," notes Falk. "It's good for the life of the community, it's good for the economics of the community and it just makes living in a community much more pleasant for people, they don't have to go to large urban centres to get top quality performances."

Rempel Patrick says Steinbach is starting to become known for its arts and culture. She says research shows Steinbach has a very high number of working artists per capita. Also, the Steinbach Arts Centre is the third largest in Canada and the largest in Manitoba that offers all the different disciplines.