Foundation Mentorship Program

2012/13 Foundation Mentorship Program group, September 2012

Call for Submissions
Year-long Mentorship Program, Sept. 2013-Sept. 2014

Application deadline: Friday, April 26, 2013, at 4 pm

The Foundation Mentorship Program is a year-long program in which senior artists share their experience with developing artists. It is designed to help women in the visual arts develop skills and define their decision-making philosophies, and to provide access to the information, resources and support they need to realize their goals. In addition to a one-on-one relationship with a mentor, the program provides a peer group for the mentees through group meetings.

This program has been MAWA’s core activity since 1985. It is offered each year because it is so effective in helping participants in their journey towards being professional artists. Many women who have gone through the program describe it as having been “pivotal” and “transformative”.

Mentors meet individually with their mentees for 4 hours per month, and the entire group meets for 3 hours monthly for critiques, discussion, gallery visits and other activities.

Applicants are selected based on the quality and potential of the work submitted, the emerging artist’s willingness to dedicate time to the program, and the mentor’s ability to work with the emerging artist because of mutuality of practice or conceptual framework. Potential mentees of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Successful applicants will be charged a $300 fee for the program. There is no fee to apply, although you must be a MAWA member. Students are not eligible.  One bursary of $250 is available to a successful applicant (by application) to help offset the cost of registration.

If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Wood, Program and Administrative Coordinator, at 949-9490 or .

The 2013/2014 Mentors

MAWA mentors are connected to the larger art world locally, nationally and internationally. They have achieved a high level of respect for their artistic production locally, nationally and internationally. They are capable. They want to share information and skills. They have experience with sharing their knowledge. They communicate effectively. They are committed to building community. We are pleased to announce that the following artists will each select two mentees to work with in the upcoming year.

 Eleanor Bond

Eleanor Bond is known for her large-format paintings of urban and post-industrial sites that reference local and speculative architecture. For the past decade, the research and interpretation of particular cities (Rotterdam, Salzburg, Vancouver, Hamilton) has been central to her practice. More recently, her works have queried the history of painting. Bond has exhibited internationally since 1987. Major showings have been held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sao Paulo, Witte de With in Rotterdam, the Clocktower in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal. Bond has been teaching at Concordia University since 2002.

Eleanor Bond in her studio. Photo by Daniel Ellingson. Detail, click to enlarge.

 Ewa Tarsia

 Ewa Tarsia studied fine art in Poland, and advertising art and computer graphics in Winnipeg. She works in diverse media including painting, installations, tapestry, landscape design and drawing, but is best known internationally as a printmaker. Tarsia uses her love of the techniques and processes involved in printmaking to share her interactions with the ever-changing environment with her audiences. As an environmentalist, she sees the irony of using plastic and paper to create images that celebrate the beauty of the natural world. In addition to various group and solo exhibitions in Canada, Tarsia’s work has been exhibited in international print biennials in Spain, France, Poland, Austria, United States, England, Germany and Korea. In 2007 she was inducted into the Royal Academy of Arts.

Ewa Tarsia, From tiny bacteria to complex relations…, polymer media on canvas, 45cm x 25cm, 2011. Photo by Takashi Iwasaki

Rebecca Belmore

Rebecca Belmore is an internationally recognized artist originally from Upsala, Ontario. Since 1987, her multi-disciplinary work has addressed history, place and identity through the media of sculpture, installation, video and performance. Belmore was exhibited at the 2005 Venice Biennale as Canada’s official representative. Her work has appeared in other solo shows including Rising to the Occasion, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC (2008) and March 5, 1819, The Rooms, St. John’s NFLD (2008). Group exhibitions include: Oh, Canada, MASS Moca, North Adams MA (2012); NeoHoodoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith, The Menil Collection, Houston TX (2008); Global Feminisms, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn NY (2007); and Land, Spirit, Power, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa ON (1992).

Rebecca Belmore, Eagle Drum, video installation (rear-screened, looped video projection, found object), 2012. Photo by Henri Robideau. Detail, click to enlarge.

Joanne Bristol

Joanne Bristol trained as an artist and has an MFA from NSCAD (Halifax). She has presented installations, performances, text-based works and electronic media works both in Canada and internationally for the past fifteen years. Her work also includes curating and art writing as artistic practices. For the past decade, she has taught intermedia, sculpture and performance at universities and art colleges in western Canada. Her work investigates relationships between nature and culture, and between the body and language. She is completing a PhD at UCL (London, UK), using performance and writing to understand interspecies spatial relationships in urban contexts.

Joanne Bristol, the daily real, performance, 2007-present. Detail, click to enlarge.

 A fifth mentor, Kristin Nelson, may be added in partnership with Arts and Disability Network Manitoba (funding dependent). Stay tuned for details!

 To apply for the Foundation Mentorship Program:

Please email, mail or drop off:

-       a letter outlining why you want to participate in this program and what you hope to achieve through mentorship (make sure the letter also includes information regarding how we can contact you by phone, email and post); please also describe your artistic practice

-       an artist resumé (maximum 3 pages)

-       up to 20 jpg images of your artwork or up to 10 minutes of video

-       an image list that includes the titles of the work, the media, date completed and dimensions

Please format your on-line application so that the text documents are in one pdf, doc or docx file. Please send or drop off your images as jpgs, un-embedded, no larger than 72 dpi at 1024 x 768 pixels. Please number images to correspond with your image list, beginning with 01, 02, 03, etc. Either provide web links to on-line videos or mail or drop off a playable DVD. If you are not already a member, please also submit a MAWA membership form and payment. MAWA membership costs $15 for underwaged persons and $30 for others. Applications are due at MAWA by Friday, April 26 at 4 pm. Email applications to programs@mawa.ca and put “FMP” in the subject heading.

Remember, the number of applicants far exceeds available spaces for each program. Selection of mentees is based on several factors including compatibility with the mentors (a shared choice of media, set of artistic concerns or content) and the mentor’s sense of whether they can be helpful to you at this point in your process. If you are not successful, please consider applying again. And in the meantime, check out other programs and opportunities at MAWA.

Foundation Mentorship Program 2012 – 2013

MAWA is pleased to welcome the participants in the upcoming year’s Foundation Mentorship Program. Megan Krause and Gerry Oliver will be mentored by Aganetha Dyck, Amanda Damsma and Janessa Brunet will be mentored by Suzie Smith, Natasha Peterson and Sarah Hodges-Kolisnyk will be mentored by Lisa Stinner, and Elise Dawson and Sasha Amaya will be mentored by Val Klassen.

The 2012/2013 Mentors

MAWA mentors are connected to the larger art world, locally, nationally and internationally. They have achieved a high level of respect for their artistic production, locally, nationally and internationally. They are capable. They want to share information and skills. They have experience with sharing their knowledge. They communicate effectively. They are committed to building community. We are pleased to announce that the following artists will each select two mentees to work with in the upcoming year.

Aganetha Dyck

Aganetha Dyck is interested in environmental issues, specifically as it pertains to the power of the small, and inter-species communication. Her research questions the ramifications all living beings would experience should honeybees disappear from earth. Aganetha works in sculpture, drawing and mixed media.  Her work is exhibited and collected internationally. She is the recipient of The Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction and a Canadian Governor Generals Award for Visual and Media Arts.

Aganetha Dyck, CHESS, 2009, click to view full image

Suzie Smith

Suzie Smith is an interdisciplinary artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University in 2004 and a Master of Fine Arts from The Glasgow School of Art in 2011. She uses a variety of different media to make art that looks at issues surrounding transformation, craft, and value.  She is currently working towards a solo exhibition at aceartinc. in 2013. www.suzie-smith.com

Suzie Smith, Folded Hands, folded digital prints, 2010, click to view full image

Lisa Stinner

Since graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a MFA in Photography, Lisa Stinner has shown her photographic work in numerous exhibitions, locally, nationally and internationally. In her work, Stinner searches for photographic contradictions found within the built environment. Her work has been featured in art publications such as Border Crossings magazine and published in juried collections such as Carte Blanche and Flash Forward. Stinner teaches at the University of Manitoba.www.lisastinnerkun.com

Lisa Stinner, Winnipeg (scaffolding), 34X50″, digital ink jet, 2011, click to view full image

Val Klassen

Known mainly for her video art, Val Klassen has also experimented with performance, audio, photography, and digital print making. Reflecting her interests in environmental activism and spirituality, her work is by turns sensitive, elegant, subversive, funny, and meditative. Using subtle manipulation of time and space, she invites viewers to see the familiar from a new perspective. Her work has been exhibited across Canada, and in the U.S., U.K., France and Australia.

Val Klassen, Cyclist, digital ink jet, 2010, click to view full image

Foundation Mentorship Program
New sessions begin each September

Selected applicants will be charged $300 for the program
Artists identifying as women are welcome to apply 

The Foundation Mentorship Program is a yearlong program in which senior artists share their experience and expertise with developing artists in a peer-support learning environment.  It is designed to help women in the visual arts develop skills and define their decision-making philosophies, and to provide access to the information, resources and support they need to realize their goals and build their practices.

The program emphasizes:

• One-to-one discussion and critique of the Mentees’ work
• Technical advice provided by the Mentor either one-on-one, or through group sessions organized with other Mentors or artists in the community
• Guidance in developing effective work habits in the studio
• Professional advice and skills sharing regarding the practical concerns of being an artist or curator
• Facilitation of communication between Mentees and the community at large, i.e. other artists, curators, gallery administrators, et al