A group of heritage advocates in Fredericton are looking to make sure cultural funding is not on the chopping block in next week’s New Brunswick budget.

They have reason to worry too: the province is facing a $1.3-billion deficit and neighbouring Nova Scotia — which delivered its budget last month — slashed cultural grants to arts and museums by tens of millions of dollars.

“We are the knowledge keepers of the history of this province, and we need the support,” said Melynda Jarratt, president of Maison Doucet Hennessy House.

Premier Susan Holt has promised “difficult decisions” in her government’s budget coming down on Tuesday.

And the worry isn’t just about possible cuts. In Nova Scotia, Premier Tim Houston and his government closed down 12 museums entirely as a cost-cutting measure.

“We’re always concerned. We’re funded but not funded enough and so any cuts, whether it’s $1,000 or $2,000 to one of our heritage sites, has a profound impact,” said Janet Clouston, vice-president of the Association of Heritage New Brunswick.

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.

The anger towards grant cuts in Nova Scotia has led to several protests in front of the Nova Scotia legislature, drawing hundreds of people to downtown Halifax.

Julie Whitenect, executive director of ArtsLink NB, says he’s hoping Holt and her government see what’s happening in Nova Scotia, and the value and passion people have for the arts throughout the Maritimes.

“Do we want people to come here and stay here and live here and build their lives if there isn’t any vibrancy or activity taking place?” Whitenect said. “Then what is it that is going to bring them here?”

She says New Brunswick already has the lowest arts funding per capita in the country.

And she’s hoping to see, instead of cuts, a $6-million funding increase in Tuesday’s budget.

For Claire Godin, director of the Founding Cultures Museum, any cut to heritage funding in New Brunswick would have a widespread impact.

“Heritage is a big part of tourism, and tourism is a very active sector of New Brunswick’s economy,” Godin said. “The concern is much larger than just financial, as well, it’s all the jobs associated to it. What do we do with our stories, with our heritage, with our artifacts?”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

With the 2026 Met Gala just two months away, it’s time to start imagining what the A-list crowd might wear to the annual ball.

Today, Vogue gave fans a clue, announcing the dress code: “Fashion is Art.”

The exhibition theme, “Costume Art,” was revealed in December and will be an examination of “the centrality of the dressed body,” further expanding on how the human form and the art of fashion have informed and influenced one another over generations.

The intention of a dress code is to give more context and elicit a wide range of interpretations of said theme.

Vogue explains, “the dress code encourages attendees to consider the many ways that designers use the body as their blank canvas.”

This might just be the most open-ended and abstract dress code yet, with curator Andrew Bolton saying vaguely, “What connects every curatorial department and what connects every single gallery in the museum is fashion, or the dressed body.”

With an instruction as ambiguous as this one, fashion worshipers are surely in for a treat when it comes to red carpet viewing.

This year will mark Beyoncé’s return to the event after a decade-long absence, acting as one of three co-chairs of the gala along with Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams.

Anna Wintour, though no longer the editor-in-chief of American Vogue, will also be a co-chair of the event as she has been for decades.

Along with benefit host committee co-chairs Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz, the host committee itself will also include the likes of Teyana Taylor, Sabrina Carpenter, Misty Copeland, Lena Dunham and 20 more.

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos will also serve as honorary chairs as they are the lead sponsors of the event.

The open-ended nature of both the exhibit’s theme as well as the overall dress code is due, in part, to the brand-new Condé M. Nast Galleries, which will open for the first time with the Costume Institute exhibit on the first Monday in May.

The exhibit will be made up of nearly 400 objects, including sculptures and paintings, placed around the newly opened gallery.

The Met Gala will take place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4.