Presented in partnership with Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery

Join us for Season 2 of Urban Art Biz and our third episode, The Circle of Connectedness on Wednesday Nov 30, 2022 from 12pm – 1pm CST 

With our very special guests:

Artist – Jaime Black

Artist – Erica Marie Daniels

Artist – Kristin Snowbird

Host/Moderator – Jessica Dumas

How do artists navigate parenthood and involve their families in their art practice.

When we talk about artists and parenting the word distraction comes up a lot. Productivity requires large helpings of discipline not to mention an ability to concentrate while keeping an eye on the clock, let alone an eye on your kids. Artists often need quiet to concentrate and create that deep focus which opens the zone of inspiration. What happens when we bring our children and families into the mix?

The pandemic’s interruption of virtually all forms of childcare, education, and community made clear that work must be integrated with family life. The studio is now the living room, kitchen table, or at best a study off to the side and chances are your family is within your sight lines. In a way we are coming back to how creativity was always. Not separate, but within the circle of your family and community. Some have called this a circle of connectedness. The circle is a sacred symbol an emblem of wholeness, unity and infinity, it represents the cycles of life and the meaning of the universe.

How do we navigate parenthood and honour the call to create? How do you balance creative time and family time or is there no divide. How do you allow yourself to find your voice when there are voices all around? How does your circle of connectedness and creativity benefit from having your family present. And how does your family benefit being present in your creative process. What accommodations can you ask of a gallery/presenter, what you would like to see offered to promote family unity in the art world, and what are the expectations an artist can hope are provided for families.

Join our guests in conversation as we discover that what you might think of as an obstacle to creativity, will feed your art if you allow it to.

The workshop is offered Free. Please register online by 10:30 am CST Nov 30, 2022, the morning of the event, and a zoom link will be sent to your email address by 11AM !

If you feel that you haven’t received the zoom link, please check your junk mail.

Jaime Black is a multidisciplinary artist of mixed Anishinaabe and Finnish decent. Black’s art practice engages in themes of memory, identity, place and resistance and is grounded in an understanding of the body and the land as sources of cultural and spiritual knowledge. Through her art practice Jaime Black creates space and time to connect with and enter into a relationship with the land in which she works connecting to the stories, knowledge and history the land carries, paying respect and attention to the lessons the land has to teach. Black then weaves these teachings with her own experiences and insights, creating images and impressions from that space of connection. Black centers her creative practice on Indigenous womanhood and the effects of Colonization on Indigenous peoples in North America. Black’s art has brought attention to the continued violence against Indigenous women. Her artwork has been featured in many museums across North America and has received recognition from the Canadian government. Starting in 2010, May 5 was recognized as Red Dress Day in Canada, where citizens are encouraged to hold grieving ceremonies, display red dresses in public spaces, and wear the color red in solidarity with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) movement based on her work The REDress project. www.jaimeblackartist.com

Erica Daniels is Cree/Ojibwe from Peguis First Nation. She is a proud mother, a multi-award winning documentary filmmaker and entrepreneur. Erica established her media company, Kejic Productions, in 2017 and became a full time entrepreneur fulfilling her passion to share the stories of her community. She started her journey through a program called Just TV, a multimedia program for at-risk youth in the inner city of Winnipeg. Through this program, Erica was able to better her life and gain extensive skills in the media industry. Along with her passion for storytelling, is her passion to work with Indigenous youth in her community by reconnecting them to their culture and identity. Erica currently runs a cultural program at the Broadway Neighbourhood Centre and mentors youth in video production. The beauty of her culture continuously inspires her work and motivation of sharing knowledge of her elders for future generations. www.kejicproductions.com

Kristin Snowbird is a filmmaker of Cree/Ojibwe descent. Snowbird’s work can be described as a continuous questioning and understanding of the way in which her tradition as a First Nation woman influences the way she conceptualizes art. With an interest in creating art as a way of understanding the nature of being as a First Nation woman artist. One pivotal aspect of the work she is creating is the traditional labor of beading and how it can be applied to different mediums of art, while researching these approaches though film, photography, and performance. Snowbird uses art as a process of making a difference in the understanding of her culture, with its stories, traditions, and the historical and personal trauma.

Jessica Dumas is a professional speaker, coach and the host of The Confidence and Communication Podcast. She has been recognized for her professional expertise as a recipient of the Manitoba 150 Women Trailblazer Award from the Nellie McClung Foundation for 2021, Ace Burpees Most Fascinating Manitobans for 2019, the 2017 Future Leaders of Manitoba and the CBC’s Top 40 Manitobans under 40 for 2015. She has a 2017 TEDx talk called The Journey to a Woman’s Identity.

Jessica’s volunteer contributions have gained her wide respect across Manitoba and Canada. She has served as Chairperson for both the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce and continues to sit on numerous committees and boards at the executive level. She is a powerful role model and advocate for women’s empowerment, leading others to overcome challenges by developing personal strengths, vision and self-confidence. You can connect with Jessica directly on instagram @jessicadumas.ca

Urban Art Biz is a a series of online workshops focusing on the business side of art from an Indigenous perspective. Our goal is to provide insight into the professional world and work of Indigenous artists and Indigenous galleries.