Region Category: All of Manitoba

Shawna Forester Smith is a chronically ill and disabled Ojibwe artist and writer living in a chronic care unit at Deer Lodge Centre in Winnipeg.

Creative Manitoba’s Artist Spotlight is happy to feature singer/songwriter and past GerryFest mentee, Shay Wolf. GerryFest is an annual arts festival at The St Norbert Arts Centre, honouring Gerry Atwell’s memory and contributions to the artistic community. GerryFest hosts the SNAC Rise Up Mentorship Program for emerging artists.

Ashley Bieniarz, Kwiat is an avant-pop Metis and Polish artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has been playing piano since she was three years old but didn’t start performing original music until 2015 while she was completing my bachelor of music at the University of Manitoba in the Desautels Faculty of Music.

Tyson Caron is a proud dad, husband, son, friend, a local Winnipeg filmmaker, and coffee drinker. He’s a person who puts relationships first. As a writer, director, producer of both documentary and fiction films, relationships are at the heart of his art form.

Mentorship pair Kevela Jag & Annie Bergen are taking part in our 2022/2023 Rural Mentorship Program, in the discipline of visual art, learning mosaic!

Suzie Martin has been the Artistic Director of Theatre Projects Manitoba since April 1, 2022. She is a Director and sometimes Dramaturg, who is admittedly obsessed with the mechanics of storytelling.

Mentorship pair Ken Campbell and Silas Presley took part in our 2021/2022 Rural Mentorship Program. Their mentorship was in the discipline of music.

Sophia Charuk is both a vendor and Project Manager for the Uptown Emporium a non-profit sub-organization of the Flin Flon Arts Council. The UE is a physical storefront, an e-commerce site, and a shipping warehouse for crafters and artisans to market their products, based in Flin Flon, Manitoba.

Metis artist JD Hawk always knew that art would be a part of his life. As a kid, he hoped and dreamt he would ‘make it’ like his Uncle, the lauded Armand J. Paquette whose portraits of western Canadian life and Winnipeg’s North End have earned him a loyal following amongst collectors. Without the proper guidance or support at home, JD kept his work to himself as a fun hobby. It wasn’t until his late 20’s when JD’s art life began to change.

Mentorship team Danita Stallard, Scarlett Gunn and Lacey Svaren took part in our 2021/2022 Rural Mentorship Program.