Mentors on the Fly
MAWA has a roster of artists who are available on an hourly basis to help you with grant aps, critical feedback, or advice on a project. Rates are $30/hour and $50/two hours. If you need some short-term mentoring, contact the mentor of your choice directly and let the mentoring begin!
Bev Pike’s practice encompasses painting, artist-books, feminist satire and video. Her large-scale paintings have shown across Canada and are in numerous private and public collections. Her artist books are in many international collections. Pike has written hundreds of funding and exhibition submissions for individuals, programs and organizations in Canada. She offers strategic advice on compiling a dossier, writing and editing of artist statements/proposals, artist talk advice, and experience in art scene ethics and activist politics. She can also provide studio visits and aesthetic critique. Pike is a trained archivist and is willing to share advice on information management practices, as well as her historical/archival knowledge. Contact by phone at 284-0616.
Leah Decter is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, video and performance, as well as socially engaged practices. She has mentored in MAWA’s Foundation Mentorship Program and is currently supervising at the graduate level for Transart Institute. In addition to exhibiting her work internationally, Leah has significant experience engaging with a range of communities in a variety of settings, and managing complex projects with extensive budgets. She can provide feedback to artists at any level on artwork, exhibition development and grant/proposal/statement writing and can advise artists or community organizations on development/assessment of community/socially engaged projects. ldecter@mts.net.
Reva Stone works with emerging technologies to create computer-assisted installations. She has mentored through MAWA and has vast experience applying for exhibitions and managing an art career. 
She can provide feedback on work in progress, pose pertinent questions and suggest directions to consider. She can be contacted at revastone@shaw.ca.
Kari Hasselriis has been teaching grammar and writing since 1997. As a mentor, she can help with any aspect of the writing process. Her goal is to help the mentee become a stronger, more confident writer. Questions about anything – planning, sentence structure, grammar in general – can be answered with as little or as much detail as the mentee wants. She is also available to edit and copyedit completed documents. Contact by email at khasselriis@hotmail.com.
Amy Fung is an art critic and curator based in Western Canada. She is available for consultations regarding how to write artist statements and proposals, and for studio visits/critiques. Fung is the author of Prairieartsters.com and her critical writing appears regularly in print and online at Akimbo, Canadian Art, Galleries West and more. You may contact her at amyfung@fastmail.fm.
Jazz de Montigny coordinated the Manitoba Aboriginal Artists for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and is a founding member of Manitoba Aboriginal Arts Council Inc. She has worked as a mentor for various MAWA programs and as Outreach Consultant for Video Pool’s Aboriginal Video Scholarship Program, assisting in the successful completion of a summer intensive video training project with northern video artists. For a number of years she worked as a project consultant for the Manitoba Arts Council, developing new grants within the Aboriginal Arts Program. She has delivered grants writing workshops to many Aboriginal artists in their community band halls, nursing stations, schools, homes and hotels. Her own art practice currently includes masks, narrative sculptures in metal and ceramic and paintings. She has also created Aboriginal clothing and ceremonial items in traditional materials, and danced on the national Pow-Wow trail. She can be called upon for professional advice of all kinds. she can be reached at jazz7@mts.net or 786-1038.
If you are an experienced mentor who is interested in being included in this list, please email Shawna at dempsey_millan@mawa.ca for details. A limited number of Mentors on The Fly will be selected, and will be rotated every two years.