Generous donations have saved a youth arts program in Winnipeg.

Art City launched a fundraising campaign after a funding delay forced it to cancel some of its programming.

The goal was to raise $50,000 and in just two weeks it surpassed its goal.

"It all happened so fast. The response from the community was swift and decisive, and along with hundreds of donations that we received we also got an outpouring of support through comments and people sharing our fundraising efforts, and a number of artists who sold their own work and did their own sort of fundraising on our behalf, and local businesses," says managing director Josh Ruth.

Ruth says when the funding trouble started they made an effort to cut costs but were forced to shut down outreach programming at five sites. He says those programs are all up and running again as of October 28th.

"It's really important to us to be able to offer consistent programming because the kids that come to our programs already have a lot of instability in their lives, and so Art City, we like to be one thing that they can count on," says Ruth.

Ruth says the work they do is very intrinsicly rewarding and fulfulling, but sometimes one wonders if the greater community knows or cares about it. "For us, that's no longer a question," he says.

Since the funding Art City was missing was delayed, not canceled, this funding acts as a cushion for the organization. Ruth says they actually got 50 per cent of their delayed funding already, after media reports drew attention to their situation.

There's still fundraising being done on Art City's behalf, but Ruth says at last count they'd raised $83,000.