This program offers youth aged 16-19 the opportunity to participate in an introductory group mentorship program run by partnering industry organizations in a choice of three different arts disciplines. Each program is FREE to accepted youth and offers 8 introductory group sessions from March – May.
Opening Doors for Creative Careers
Mentorship with Room to Explore
All Group Mentorship Programs include working with a lead mentor and guest mentors who are professionals in an arts career, collaborating with other youth participants, and working on a project for a final wrap-up presentation. They aim to expose younger individuals to what a career in the arts looks like, and to inspire creative career possibilities. All programs are free of charge and bus tickets and snacks will be provided at each session to any participants who may need them.
Program disciplines are subject to change year to year.
Creative Manitoba pledges to make its best efforts to prioritize opportunities for people with diverse backgrounds or from equity-seeking communities, with the goal of 50% of programs holding space for participants who identify as IBPoC or from equity-seeking groups.
Requirements & Application Info
Mentee Age
16 – 19
Location
Winnipeg residents only
2026 Disciplines
Writing, Visual Arts, Theatre
Program Dates
March through May 2026
See specific programs for individual start and finish dates.
Necessary Forms to Fill Out
GROUP MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
2026 Group Mentorship Programs
Program Dates
Wednesdays, March 11 through May 13
(no session during spring break)
Times
5:30 – 7:45 pm
Program Leaders
Carrie Hatland
Location
Millennium Library – Mona Gray Room
Final class – Carol Shields Auditorium
In Partnership With
Influential Author Series: A Taste of Genre and Form
This is a group mentorship program for youth, age 16-19, where young writers will connect with award-winning Manitoban authors, consider career possibilities and different writing forms/genres, and generate their own writing material.
Please join lead facilitator Carrie Hatland, a facilitator through Prairie Fire Press, and a roster of award-winning authors to explore different genres and form, such as historical fiction, speculative fiction, short stories, and personal journalism.
In addition, we will celebrate how a life of writing adds to the world in positive ways. Our guest mentors are all active in their communities and fill leadership roles. It is not only the writing that is important, but the writer and the possibilities to make the world a better place. We want to inspire you to impact the world around you through your writing! THE WORLD NEEDS YOUR VOICE!
Our guest mentors include Rowan McCandless, Donna Besel, Zilla Jones, Jen Robinson and Matthew Joudrey. All of these writers have won awards for their writing and utilize their literary skills in their careers in profound ways. They are committed to supporting you in your literary and career path journey.
Open to both beginner and experienced writers.
Program Dates
Thursdays, March 19 through May 21
(no session during spring break)
Times
6 – 8:30 pm
Program Leaders
James Culleton
Location
Forum Arts Centre – 120 Eugenie Street
In Partnership With
Create & Elevate: Make and Explore Visual Art
This Group Mentorship program at Forum Art Centre will connect young artists and budding art professionals with James Culleton, a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and musician. Culleton, along with a selection of professional guest artists from Winnipeg’s dynamic visual arts scene, will guide participants through various visual art mediums, while sharing crucial and original insights on building a creative life and making a creative living.
With this guidance (and hands-on exercises in drawing, painting, sculpture, and design), participants will learn to activate their personal creative practice: Discovering the benefits of daily art making and developing tools for sustaining an art practice.
As a final project, the group will create an art exhibition to showcase their work, focusing on how to collaborate with a large group of artists and stakeholders. Forum Art Centre will be a classroom, art
studio, and gallery for this illuminating and active journey.
Program Dates
Wednesdays, March 4 through April 29
(no session during spring break)
Times
6 – 9:00 pm
Program Leaders
Rae Swan
Location
MTYP – 2 Forks Market Rd
In Partnership With
Curtain Call: Backstage Production in Musical Theatre
How does a designer make decisions when designing a show? How can things be practical and magical at the same time, while following the director’s vision? How do all the designers, the creative team and the production team collaborate? What are the many careers available “backstage”?
Come learn the ins and outs of what it takes to design and build a mainstage production! In this program you’ll work with the professional MTYP production and design team of the Musical Theatre Company show, and get hands-on experience building props, painting sets, working with technicians, costume process and design, and more!
Mentees will be welcomed in the musical’s technical rehearsal, observing the designers and stage manager in action in the theatre. They will be invited to the opening night of the show, and a final
wrap-up class, where they’ll invite family and friends to showcase the pieces they had a hand in creating.
GROUP MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
Ready to Take the Plunge?
How to Apply
- Read through the program details above and pick the program you are interested in.
- Download the required nominator form and have it completed by a teacher or unrelated adult who is familiar with your work.
- Download the required permission/consent form and have it completed by yourself (if you are over 18) or your parent or guardian (if you are under 18).
- Some programs give you the option to share sample materials that you will need to collect and save to attach or provide links for as well. You will see these questions in the application.
- Click APPLY NOW, read through the questions, fill in all answers and attach all required forms.
- If your application is successfully submitted, you will be brought to a confirmation page. If you hit submit and this does not happen, scroll up and check for any error highlights to fix and resubmit.
Tips for Applying
- Copy and paste your answers into a Word doc in case you need to re-submit or want to edit ahead of time
- Be sure to include your name on all attachments, for example “YourName-GroupMentorship2024”
- You will have the option to save & send yourself an incomplete application to continue at a later time
- Make sure all attachments are in PDF unless otherwise specified
- If you have questions at any point during the application process, do not hesitate to contact the Mentorship Program Manager mentor@creativemanitoba.ca.
Previous Group Mentorship Programs
Filmmaking with your Smartphone
Winnipeg Film Group’s Filmmaking with your Smartphone was a program created to inspire and activate young aspiring artists, creative-types and storytellers. This program provided guidance and valuable information from an array of working professionals in Manitoba’s film community. Each week the students met on Zoom with lead mentor Ben Williams and other professional guest mentors involved in different aspect of the filmmaking process. The topics ranged from independent filmmaking to how to get into Manitoba’s film industry, creating, producing and distributing a film, and various aesthetic and technical skills. They conducted an independent study lab where each filmmaker made their own movie on their smartphone and screened their film at the final presentation share night. Providing a place for young people to network, create new work and develop a pathway to a new career in film.
Theatre Creation Lab
In One Trunk Theatre’s Creation Lab participants learned how to create theatre from scratch! Facilitated by Gwendolyn Collins and Tanner Manson, with special guest mentors, this was a crash course in theatre creation where participants learned how to collectively create their own original theatrical work. These sessions were held in person. They were introduced to different aspects of theatre that go into the final products you see on stage from lighting, set and costume design to stage managing, production managing, and much more. One Trunk brought in theatre professionals in each of these theatrical disciplines. Highlights of this course included getting tours of most of the major theatres here in Winnipeg and talking to industry professionals from an array of different disciplines in theatre. One of the biggest highlights was seeing how excited and empowered the youth were creating their own original theatre content. Giving them the tools and exercises to do it, the final product was a true collaboration between all of the participants. Due to the pandemic, we were not able to have a live audience at the final presentation share night, so they filmed the final project, that the participants were then able to share with friends, family and their schools.
Intro to the Music Biz
Manitoba Music’s Intro to the Music Biz group mentorship program focused on the ins and the outs of the music industry, how to get started as a musician building your career, what it takes to put on big musical events, and how to build a marketing plan. This program had four speakers join to expand on these topics and share their own experiences. In addition to the Intro to the Music Biz sessions, participants were placed into small focus groups (based off of their experience and interests in music) with mentors in a specialized area of the music industry. These groups were focused on song writing, music engineering and production. The participants worked on original songs throughout their time together in the program and showcased them at the final presentation share night.
The Art of Games
New Media Manitoba’s The Art of Games program had students go through the process of creating 3D environment props for games using a program called Blender – a free to use open source 3D program which has been used on some of your favourite videos games and animated films. Participants were introduce to the interface and core modelling concepts of Blender 2.9x and created models of their own. Each class was held virtually on Discord and focused on a different aspect of this powerful program and moved step by step through the process. Local figures Tamara Abas, Rebecca Harrison, and Albertine Watson all agreed to join the Discord server for the class and give a 30-45 minute presentation to the students. These presentations were followed by a question-and-answer period where students asked these industry professionals about their career paths and also received feedback on their work. By the end of the course, everyone had at least one model to present in the final class. Many of the students exhibited college-level skills in their modeling and a greater understanding of 3D modeling as a whole.