Dear Friend,

Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design is facing a significant challenge and we need your help. The new provincial budget included cuts to arts and culture funding that directly impact organizations like ours. As a result, the Centre has lost $46,000 in core operational funding from the Province of Nova Scotia. Operational funding is what keeps our doors open, our studios running, and our programs accessible to the community.

For more than 50 years, the Centre has been a place where creativity, culture, and community come together. Located in downtown Sydney, we showcase the work of over 120 local artisans in our Gallery Shop and provide exhibitions, workshops, and educational programming that serve thousands of people each year across Unama’ki Cape Breton.

This funding cut will have real impacts on the programs and services we are able to offer. Without replacing this support, the Centre will be forced to make difficult reductions, including:

- Reduced hours in our Gallery Shop, which means fewer opportunities for the public to discover and purchase locally made craft

- Fewer courses and workshops for community members who want to learn new creative skills

- Reduced youth programming, limiting opportunities for young people to explore creativity and hands-on learning

- Reduced Indigenous programming, which plays an important role in celebrating and sharing Mi’kmaw culture and craft traditions

Rather than scaling back our impact, we are turning to the community that believes in the importance of arts and culture. We are launching The 460 Club.

Our goal is simple:460 supporters × $100 each = $46,000

By joining the 460 Club, you will help us close this funding gap and ensure that the Centre can continue to offer creative programming, support local artists and makers, and provide cultural experiences that enrich our community.

A gift of $100 may seem small, but together, 460 people can make an extraordinary difference.

Arts and culture are not a luxury – they are part of what makes Unama’ki Cape Breton a vibrant place to live, visit, and call home. The Centre plays an important role in preserving craft traditions, supporting local makers, and creating opportunities for people of all ages to connect through creativity.

Will you join the 460 Club?

You can also donate in-person at the Centre or by mail. All donors will receive a tax receipt.

If you are able to give more than $100, your additional support will help us build resilience for the future.

Thank you for believing in the power of creativity and for helping keep the arts alive in Unama’ki Cape Breton.

With gratitude,

Lori Burke, Executive Director, Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design

Registered Charity Number: 10688180RR0001

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Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design is located in Unama’ki, the land of fog, the unceded and traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq. At the Centre we strive to honour and uphold the Treaties of Peace and Friendship made with the Mi’kmaq by celebrating the ongoing tradition of beautiful and creative craftsmanship of the First Peoples of this land and working together towards a path of reconciliation.

As a for impact charitable organization, Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design (the Centre), has been serving the needs of the Unama’ki-Cape Breton craft sector for 54 years. The Centre’s mandate is to promote, develop and support excellence in craft and design, both professional and recreational, through education and training. The Centre’s role as an integral and leading force within the craft sector on Unama’ki - Cape Breton Island is essentially educational, promotional and developmental.

Programs offered at the Centre serve a broad range of craftspeople from the beginner and recreational to the emerging professional and the highly accomplished who derive their livelihood from the sale of their product.

As part of its role in the development of the craft and design industry on the Island, the Centre coordinates professional development and business training programs for the craft professional to assist in the enhancement of existing businesses and in the development of new market and export opportunities.