The Arts Council Wood Buffalo is seeing a big boost of support from the municipality.

Wood Buffalo council approved allocating $651,000 to the organization through the 2020 Municipal Budget.

This is an increase from the $350,000 they received for this year.

Executive Director Liana Wheeldon tells Mix News they’ll be able to get great value from the funds.

“We understand that these are difficult economic times, I fully believe the value that the arts can bring to changing that and to changing people’s outlook, there mental and emotional well-being, and all of those things.”

Around $70,000 of the funds will go directly to upcoming events.

The ACWB is also planning to hire two new full-time employees, one of which will be focused on rural outreach.

“We’ve had the opportunity to get out into the rural a bit and talk to them about what kind of supports they might want or need from an Arts Council and we’ve heard from the community what they would like, so now we would like to support that,” added Wheeldon.

Meanwhile, Wheeldon believes the municipality is stepping up their support of the arts community.

This includes their decision to allocate $16.8 million towards an art gallery at Keyano College.