Discipline Category: Beading

Nov 19

The Winnipeg Folk Fest Hand-Made Village

The Winnipeg Folk Fest will take place July 9th – 12th, 2026 in Birds Hill Provincial Park. We are thrilled to feature artisans from across Canada who create their own work in our Hand-Made Village! […]

Claire Johnston

Claire Johnston is a Red River Métis and settler visual artist based in Winnipeg/Treaty 1 Territory. As a Two-Spirit Piitoshi-iteeyihtam (one who thinks differently), Claire engages in creating slow meticulous floral beadwork that responds relationally to the past and present.

Claire is an artist and team member with the Re*Storying Autism project (Queen's University), which works to combat Western, colonial, capitalist, and biomedical understandings of Autism through Autistic storytelling and narratives that affirm difference as desirable and needed.

As part of Canada’s official entry to the 2025 Venice Biennale, Claire was selected as a fellow to engage in research on Venetian seed beads and their connection to Métis beadworkers past and present. Their artwork has been acquired by permanent collections at the University of Manitoba (2024) and has exhibited at Urban Shaman (Winnipeg 25’), Rosemary Gallery (Winnipeg 24’), Tangled Arts (Toronto 22’, 24’), Festival du Voyageur (Winnipeg 24’), Venice Biennale of Architecture (Venice 23’) and The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art (Vancouver 22’).

Claire is a Sundancer, a step-parent, an auntie, and an MMF citizen with membership with the Two-Spirit Michif Local.

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Jul 30

Melanie Gamache

Melanie Gamache is a francophone Métis beadwork artisan. She grew up in a close-knit French family having dinners every Sunday at her Mémere and Pépere’s house, helping in the garden, checking on the cattle during calving season, and learning about the family morals of humility, respect, fairness, community, cooperation, honesty, truth, and responsibility.