- Application Deadline
Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at 4:00pm - September 2022 – August 2023
Call for submissions
Year-Long Mentorship Program, Sept 2022 – Aug 2023
Extended Application Deadline: Wednesday, May 25 by 4pm
For women, trans, non-binary and Two-Spirit woman-identifying visual artists based in or near Winnipeg.
Questions? Watch a recording the 2021 info session https://vimeo.com/540292045, email FMP coordinator Adriana Alarcón or call MAWA at 204-949-9490.
The Foundation Mentorship Program (FMP) is a professional training program designed to help women and non-binary, trans and Two-Spirit woman-identifying people in the visual arts develop skills and define their decision-making philosophies by providing information, resources and support. In this year-long professional training 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. We anticipate that the program will take place in person in keeping with public health rules.
Applicants will be 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, and a free one-year membership to MAWA will be granted to every applicant. If you require accommodations such as ASL for the application process or the program itself, MAWA will endeavour to make them. Please contact Adriana at [email protected].
Successful applicants will be charged $300 for the program. If finances are a barrier, please contact MAWA staff. To apply for the Foundation Mentorship Program, send a single PDF document labelled with your name and FMP (e.g., Sarah Wong FMP) containing:
- a letter outlining why you want to participate in this program and what you hope to achieve through mentorship, including a description of your art practice, and information regarding how we can contact you by phone, email and post
- an artist résumé (maximum 3 pages)
- up to 20 embedded images of your artwork, with an image list or captions 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 2022” in the subject line. (If English is not your first language and you would like to apply verbally, please call the office and we can make accommodations.)
The 2022 -2023 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:
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Barb Hunt is a contemporary textile artist working at the intersection of art and craft. Her practice focuses on the construction of gender, mourning rituals, the devastation of war and the natural environment. Her work has been exhibited internationally and across Canada, most recently in the Biennale internationale du lin in Quebec and the Bonavista Biennale in Newfoundland. She has been awarded Canada Council grants and artist residencies in Canada, Paris and Ireland.
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Jennine Krauchi is a Métis beadwork artist and designer. Her clothing and replica work is in the collections of the Manitoba Museum, Parks Canada, the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and institutions in
Scotland, France and the US. She has spent much of her career sharing traditional practices to foster their survival through contemporary applications. -
Kristin Nelson is a queer artist with a disability born of Northern Irish/Scottish immigrants and Irish settlers, who received a BFA from Emily Carr (2003) and an MFA from Concordia University (2014). Her practice is rooted in object making, using textiles, sound, sculpture and performance. Through a process of examination and re-contextualization, she transforms everyday subjects into larger social concerns. Her work is held in collections including Boralex, BMO, the Province of Manitoba and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
Photo courtesy of Comox Valley Art Gallery
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Leesa Streifler returned to Winnipeg after four decades away doing graduate work in New York and teaching art at the University of Regina. Throughout, she has maintained an active studio practice. She has worked in painting, drawing, public art, installation, text, performance and digital photography. Her thematic concerns, always conveyed through the female body, explore themes such as agency, self-image, relationships, illness, the aging process, the grotesque, marginalization and interspecies communication.
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Yolanda Paulsen is a Mexican contemporary artist who lives
and works alternately in Mexico City and in Winnipeg. She is a
multi-disciplined artist who explores three-dimensional art through sculpture, installation and drawing. The inspiration for her work comes from how all things, animate and inanimate, are interconnected and form a unity. Her work has been exhibited internationally and recently was published in the book OMR: Contemporary Art in
(and out of) Mexico 1983-2015.
