Steinbach Arts Council to celebrate the past, looks to future at gala

Steinbach Arts Council’s fundraising gala this year will celebrate 45 years of the art institution’s commitment to promoting the arts in the Southeast.

“It is so exciting for us to be able to celebrate that sort of longevity in our community,” said executive director Daivd Klassen. “However, when we think about the history, we really are thinking about the future at the same time. We want to make sure that we do this for another 45, 50, or 55 years.

“This isn’t the only reason for the celebration, it really is about the future of the kids and the community, and the growth that we’re experiencing, and we just want to get together to celebrate that.”

During the evening, students and artists will be featured and celebrated. Klassen said there will be a past, present, and future feel to the evening’s program. The evening’s goal is to celebrate the arts but also to close a gap in funding that might be there at the end of the fiscal year. SAC reinvests all the money it fundraises back into programming, artists, sponsors, and local businesses.

“This year we have a higher sponsorship than we had in the past, which shows us that the community really believes in what it is that we’re doing and wants to support (us). It allows us to make our efforts go a lot further…,” said Klassen.

“Our main focus is to make sure that we can sustain the continued growth of our programming for all ages, but especially for those kids who really thrive in our centre with our instructors and in our programming.”

Klassen estimates 1,700 people will register at SAC this year.

Coming back to the gala this year is the live auction. There will be two artworks painted on site by artists Colleen Watchorn and Dawn Schmidt. The popular dinner auction will also take place for eight people to have dinner served to them in the Hall Gallery at SAC and the auctioning off of a house concert.

“These are all very popular and they sort of give a nice variety of experiences which we held over from our auction that we started during the pandemic,” said Klassen.

Also being sold at the gala is a custom piece of jewelry designed by GNM Fine Jewelers. Live music will be provided by Amber Epp.

The gala will take place at Bentwood Hall just east of Steinbach on May 2. Tickets are $150 per person or $1,200 for a table of eight. The reception starts at 6 p.m. To buy tickets, call Sydney Rempel at 204-346-1077.