Your cart is empty

Foundation Mentorship Program 2021/2022

2021 / 2022 Foundation Mentorship Program Mentors. Eleanor Bond, Sarah Fuller, Rhayne Vermette, Val Vint, Blair Fornwald

  • Application Deadline
    Friday, May 14, 2021 at 12:00pm
  • September 2021 – August 2022

Call for submissions

Year-Long Mentorship Program, Sept 2021 – Aug 2022
Deadline extended: Friday, May 14, 2021 at noon
For all women and non-binary visual artists based in or within traveling distance of Winnipeg.

In the event that social distancing continues into the fall, MAWA will adjust the program to ensure participants' health and safety is maintained.

Questions? Follow the link to watch a video of the info session we held on April 21 https://vimeo.com/540292045, email FMP coordinator Adriana Alarcón or call MAWA at 204-949-9490.

The Foundation Mentorship Program (FMP) is designed to help women and non-binary people in the visual arts develop skills and define their decision-making philosophies by providing information, resources and support. In this year-long program, established artists (mentors) meet individually with their mentees for 4 hours per month to share their experience, expertise and advice. The entire FMP group meets for 3 hours each month for critiques, discussion, gallery visits and other activities.

Applicants are selected based on the quality and potential of the artwork submitted, the emerging artist’s willingness to dedicate time to the program, and the mentor’s ability to work with the emerging artist through a shared medium or conceptual interest. Mentors choose their mentees. If you have applied before and were unsuccessful, consider revisiting your application and the quality of your images and applying again. Note that demand for this program far outstrips available spaces. Sometimes the mentors agree that an artist’s work is excellent, but they do not feel that they have the specific skills or experience to help. Another year, another mentor might select you.

Potential mentees of all adult ages and backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Students are not eligible. There is no fee to apply. Successful applicants will be charged $300 for the program. If finances are a barrier, please speak with MAWA staff. Note that a free one-year membership to MAWA will be granted to every applicant.

Mentees accepted into the program are expected to:

  • Commit to 4 hours per month of activities and meetings with your mentor (one-on-one consultations, studio visits, going to exhitibitons or lectures, discussion of reading, and / or other activities determined with mentor)
  • Set individual goals and make work plan for the year
  • Write 2 reports (interim and final) about your experience with the program
  • Engage in honest discussion with mentor or program coordinator about any problems that might arise in the mentor/mentee relationship
  • Devote time and energy to your goals for the year
  • Attend monthly 3 hour group meetings with all the mentors and mentees

To apply for the Foundation Mentorship Program:

To apply for the Foundation Mentorship Program send a single PDF document labelled with your name and FMP (i.e., Sarah Wong FMP) containing:

  • 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 (if English is not your first language and you would like to apply verbally, please call the office and we can make accommodations)
  • an artist résumé (maximum 3 pages)
  • up to 20 embedded images of your artwork, with an image list or captions below giving the title of the work, medium, date completed and dimensions; or links to up to 3 minutes of video

Email your application to [email protected] and put “FMP 2021” in the subject line.

The 2021 -2022 Mentors

MAWA mentors are respected artists and curators. They are connected to the art world. They are willing to share information and skills. 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 is best known for her large-scale painted images of urban and architectonic space, a practice based on mappings of collective social experience. Mountain of Shame, her 2010 exhibition at PlugIn ICA, imaged subjectivity in painted and sculpted forms. She continues to research the affective potential of objects and geomorphic forms. Bond has participated in national and international biennials, group and solo exhibitions since 1990. From 2002-2018, Bond was Associate Professor in Studio Arts, Concordia University.

  • Blair Fornwald is a queer white settler and an interdisciplinary artist and curator originally from Treaty 4 Territory/Saskatchewan who holds degrees from the University of Regina (BFA 2002) and Western University (MFA 2007). Fornwald is Director/Curator of the School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba and has held curatorial positions at the Dunlop Art Gallery and RPL Film Theatre. Her practices are united by a collaborative impulse and interests in performativity, vulnerability and humour. Fornwald has presented work across Canada, the US and Germany. Blair Fornwald’s mentorship of two emerging artists will be in honour of long-serving MAWA mentor Sigrid Dahle (1955-2020).

    Photo by Zoë Schneider.

  • Sarah Fuller works in photography, video and installation. Habitats, refuge and alternate interpretations of landscape are central themes. Fuller has been an artist in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Italy. Recent exhibitions include Terra Incogknita at Platform in Winnipeg and Refugio at the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery. Fuller’s work is in public and private collections including those of the Canada Council for the Arts Art Bank, the Walter Phillips Gallery and Global Affairs Canada.

  • Rhayne Vermette was born in Notre Dame de Lourdes, MB. While studying architecture at U of M, she fell into the practices of image-making and storytelling. Vermette is primarily self-taught, and her films are opulent collages of fiction, animation, documentary, re-enactments and divine interruption. Her work has screened internationally at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Images, Jihlava International Film Festival and Melbourne International Animation Festival, and were the subject of a retrospective at TIFF in 2019. Vermette is currently finishing her first narrative feature, Ste. Anne.

  • Val Vint says, “Born in Winnipegosis, Manitoba, I spent the most meaningful part of my childhood in the bush chasing foxes and pelicans with my Grandfather, a conservation officer. My cultural heritage makes me feel that I have a licence to investigate all forms of art. The Métis were fiercely independent by nature; they did everything for themselves, developing a self-sufficient and highly versatile culture. My work is varied because of that spirit, and it would be impossible to contain it within one medium. My life’s work over the last 40 years has focused on a combination of engineering, art, cultural expression, community programming and a personal art practice.”