Navigate your arts career in an ever-changing world!

The pandemic forced artists to pivot and find new ways of sustaining themselves for the last two and a half years. As we slowly transition into a post-pandemic world, now what? How do we continue to move forward and create in this new world? What knowledge did we gain during this time that we can use to make our artistic future more successful?

Emergence is a day-long conference for artists, focused on business skill-building and adapting artistic practices in this ever-changing world. Learn about business planning, diversifying your income streams, marketing and promotion, engagement and inclusion and the value of digital tools.

Emergence will help you maintain your artistic practice, give you new methods of sustaining yourself financially, gain the tools to promote yourself and inspire new work.

**This is a hybrid event! Tickets are available for in-person and online participation. Please select tickets carefully**

Catered lunch will be provided for in-person participants.

Schedule

10:00am – Welcome/Meet & Greet with RobYn Slade

Grab a coffee and meet and mingle with each other and your host RobYn Slade as we settle in for what is sure to be an inspiring day!

10:30am – Keynote Address: Set your compass, be ready for change – with Cate Friesen

When you meet someone for the first time, the question that’s bound to come up will be “What do you do?” Maybe you are a musician, a clothing designer, a visual artist, a business owner–but what does that actually tell anyone about you and why they should connect with you? Work with you? Buy from you? Even more important, what does that tell you about yourself and what drives you?

The question may be ‘what do you do? but the real answer is in the Why and the How of what you do. When you can explain that – to yourself and to others – you are grounding yourself in what you value, what you are passionate about, what makes you tick. It’s your true north. Cate Friesen brings her passion for story and her gift of engagement to the conference to help you set your own compass to build crucial connections and be ready for change.

11:10am – Business Planning: Do You Need to Backup? (workshop) with Yvette Hawkes

During the pandemic, many individuals started their own businesses from home. Maybe you’ve started selling vintage clothing online, or making earrings and selling them on Instagram. In your excitement to launch, maybe you’ve skipped over a few steps in the business planning process to make your creative venture legit. Let’s backup a little and talk about the start-up steps, checklist style – and see how many things you can cross off!

12:05pm – Income Streams (panel discussion) with Andrina Turenne, James Culleton and Cate Friesen

Due to much of the live performing arts scenes being shut down during the pandemic, many artists have been forced to pivot their practices or change artistic disciplines altogether. How to diversify what you are doing as an artist and still get paid. New jobs have developed, how can you get on the forefront of what’s happening and stay relevant.

12:50pm – Catered Lunch

1:35pm – Inclusion (panel discussion) with Jessie Pruden, Allison Yearwood and Yvette Cenerini

The global pandemic has forced us to take a much-needed break and examine the world we live in and the great discrepancies that exist. How can we bring inclusion into the work we do as artists from the beginning? How can we reach a greater and more diverse audience? How can we make spaces where everyone feels welcome and safe? And how do we advocate for ourselves when we don’t feel welcome or safe in a space?

2:30pm – Giving Your Brand Wings (workshop) with Heidi Hunter

3:25pm – Hybrid Events (panel discussion) with Dean Cooper, John Toews and Kyle Thomas

The pandemic forced us to all become a little too familiar with online video platforms like Zoom. Now that some events are happening in person again how can we keep things accessible for everyone? How can we satisfy the in person and remote? Hybrid events are the way of the future. How can we make a successful hybrid event?

Presenters and Panelists (more to be announced soon!)

Yvette Cenerini (née Lagimodière) is a francophone Métis visual artist from Manitoba who lives and works on Treaty One Territory. Her work in paint and photocollage is characterized by the use of animal-as-subject. It examines the intricacies of relationships and emotions through a simple aesthetic, laden with sarcastic undertones. Cenerini has participated in several group shows in Manitoba, Québec and Ontario. An involved member of the artistic community, she has served on the boards of Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art, Arts AccessAbility Network Manitoba and La Maison des artistes visuels francophones. Having obtained both a BEd (2001) and a BFA (2010), knowledge-sharing through art in the forms of teaching, mentoring, cultural mediation and community engagement is an important facet of her practice.

Dean Cooper has been a media educator and video producer for over 30 years.  He taught media production at RRC Polytech for 25 years, and was instrumental is starting the new Digital Film and Media Production program. An experienced voice-over artist, he also owns his own corporate production company and specializes in training, promotional, and live-stream video productions for his clients.

James Culleton is a Canadian contemporary multi-media artist and designer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He specializes in drawing, sculpture, and furniture design. His work has been exhibited throughout Manitoba, across Canada and into the United States.

As the driving force of The Story Source, Cate Friesen helps you discover and tell your essential stories, the ones that will move your work forward, and inspire others to act with you. She is a story catalyst, facilitator, trainer and keynote presenter who draws on over 30 years of experience as an award-winning CBC producer, singer-songwriter and performer, documentary maker and entrepreneur. Find out more about Cate at https://www.thestorysource.ca/the-story-force

Yvette Hawkes is a Certified Coach Practitioner, Workshop Facilitator and Small Business Consultant based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. From 2002-2014, Yvette co-owned and sold two businesses and was recognized as a Co-Finalist for the 2013 Women’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2016, Yvette started a self-named venture (yvettehawkes.com) which led to facilitating classes and consulting with startups, small businesses and non-profit organizations. Yvette is a proud Citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, a visual artist, a creative writer and an adventurer-in-training.

Manitoba artist Heidi Hunter has worked in the arts for over 40 years. Shifting from a career in theatre, she has spent the past 22 years working out of her Runs with Scissors Studio where she creates art, hosts classes, and produces events on her rural property.  Over the past several years, she has taught marketing to artists across the province through various Creative Manitoba programs.  Most recently, she has focused on online coaching for emerging artists, mentoring young rural artists, and teaching “Writing from the Well” – creative journaling for self-care and resilience.   Limitations of the past few years have inspired her to developing new revenue streams by designing websites and offering specialized branding consulting for artists. Most recently she has co-developed two mobile apps to further enhance a creative customer journey, connecting small businesses to clients.

bead ‘n butter is owned by Jessie Pruden, a queer, colourful Métis woman from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Beading runs in her family and when Jessie picked up the needle and thread for the first time, it felt ĺ́ike home. She is inspired by her family, friends, fashion, nature and the spirit of our Indigenous community. Putting a contemporary spin on beaded jewelry, she mixes bright, in-your-face colour with bold graphic design, creating special statement pieces for any occasion, and any person. Each piece is carefully designed and handmade in her little office by her and her small team of friends and family, overseen by her half-chihuahua, half-pug Bella, using glass Miyuki seed beads, and precious stones.

RobYn Slade (she/her) is a Winnipeg-based actor and improviser, and is a member of the musical improv company Outside Joke. She has appeared onstage with Prairie Theatre Exchange, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Theatre Projects Manitoba, The Keep Theatre, One Trunk Theatre, as well as many improvised theatre festivals across Canada. RobYn hosts the monthly musical theatre curated open mic A Lot of Night Music, presented by the Village Conservatory for Music Theatre, and is tremendously pleased to be hosting Emergence for Creative Manitoba. Upcoming Projects: Outside Joke’s A Christmas Carol: Big Dickens Energy at Prairie Theatre Exchange in December 2022 and YAGA in April 2023 at the Tom Hendry Warehouse Theatre.

John Toews is the Event Coordinator at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg. In that capacity, he has organized, promoted, executed, and hosted hundreds of events each year for over a decade. Starting in the Fall of 2020, the store began to incorporate virtual and hybrid events into their repertoire with all instore events simultaneously broadcast online. In 2015, John received an Honorary Membership award from The League of Canadian Poets. He currently serves as the chair of the Board of Directors of send + receive, an international festival of experimental music and sound art based in Winnipeg on Treaty 1 Territory.

Andrina Turenne is a singer, songwriter, and musician born and raised in St Boniface, Manitoba. Her sound is largely shaped by the rich musical traditions of Winnipeg, where she has been active on the scene since the 90s. She has contributed to over 40 album releases, has performed on stages across five continents, and has been featured on national and international radio and television broadcasts. Formerly of Juno award-winning group Chic Gamine, she now carves her path as a solo artist; creating music for theatre and film, voicing animated characters for television, and developing original material. In early 2022, she undertook a four month creative residency in Louisiana to write new music, as well as to collaborate with local artists she met through her many visits. She will be releasing her first solo album as well as a francophone EP in 2023.

Allison Yearwood is an alumnus of the University of Winnipeg, with a political science and business administration degree, and brings a fresh focus to the business of arts administration. Allison returns to her hometown, Winnipeg, from the Banff Centre, where she was Program Manager at the Indigenous Arts Department. Previously, Allison served as Art and Business Manager at Yamaji Art, an Aboriginal art centre in Australia, and was the General Manager of Collective of Black Artists in Toronto. Allison was the Programming and Events Coordinator at the Northern Life Museum & Cultural Centre in Fort Smith, North West Territories, and was the first non-Indigenous staff member at Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg. Allison advocates for racialized and disenfranchised groups to decolonize institutions of power from the ground up. She is exceptionally skilled on issues of equity and a powerful and transformative voice for anti-racism action. Allison is a proponent of equity justice in media and digital production and has acted as program manager for digital art residencies at Banff Centre. Allison’s institutional critique articulates the creation of safe spaces for underserved communities within the institution. Currently sitting on the boards of aceartinc. and Spiderweb Show.