Brining community together with a united voice: Cultural advocacy makes a difference
As the collective voice for local arts organizations, arts workers and artists, the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance (SAA) continues to play a key role in advancing cultural advocacy in the province.
The SAA is one of SaskCulture’s Communities of Interest partners, organizations that don’t just represent specific groups, but also bring valuable insight and expertise from across Saskatchewan’s cultural landscape to help guide SaskCulture’s work. Over the past year, the organization has helped build momentum around important sector issues while contributing to several advocacy successes.
Em Ironstar, executive director, SAA, says advocacy is important because cultural workers need to lead the conversation about the impact their work has on communities and the sector.
“There are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings around arts funding, cultural funding, and our sector in general. That’s why we need to change the narrative,” Ironstar says.
This year, that work proved even more important. At the municipal, provincial and federal levels, proposed threats to arts funding created concerns across the cultural sector and sparked collective action. In response, the SAA spent much of the year mobilizing support through advocacy efforts, including letter-writing campaigns in Saskatoon and Regina that helped prevent proposed municipal funding cuts. It also brought the sector to the forefront in publications across Saskatchewan by holding a press conference to “get arts and culture out in the media in a positive light,” leading up to the provincial budget. The SAA took this opportunity to share its new Perspectives on SK Arts and Culture report, which shows “strong public support for the arts and culture in our province and also strong support for public funding and public investment.” On budget day 2026, SK Arts saw sustained funding for the year.
Finally, the SAA was also part of a big win for arts funding nationwide. As a member of the Canadian Arts Coalition advocacy group, the SAA helped organize a national letter-writing campaign to advocate in support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which was facing a 15% reduction. This resulted in over 10,000 people from across the country writing over 50,000 letters. Not only was the Canada Council not subjected to departmental cuts, but it also saw a $6 million increase in investment.
"I was excited to see this advocacy in motion at a national level, seeing that many people across the country engaged in saying ‘this is important to us, and this is something that we need,’"- Em Ironstar
Throughout it all, the biggest takeaway for Ironstar was the community’s collective strength.
“The SAA led the charge for the mobilizing and collective voice for arts and culture,” Ironstar says. “It was heartening that we saw a mobilization of arts and culture leaders and organizations.”
As Ironstar says, “Advocacy is a long game.” In the coming year, she says the SAA will build on this momentum by connecting with more organizations to support their relationship-building with government and media. As well, it will continue to advocate for adequate funding for SK Arts, to move from flat funding to increased support. To prepare for this, the SAA is working on an updated report on the economic impact of arts organizations funded by SK Arts.
“We are economic drivers at a provincial level and nationally. We know that the arts and culture make our lives, our cities and our province a better place, and that we generate a strong economic return,” Ironstar says. “We all have to raise our flag and talk about it in this way