Winnipeg art program gains national recognition

WINNIPEG – It started as a dream that seemed impossible 30 years ago, to become a professional artist.

Sarah Crawley made that vision a reality thanks to a unique art mentorship program in Winnipeg.

“It can be kind of frightening to walk into a gallery that you’ve never been in before,” Crawley said.

She started working with a senior artist in 1989 who showed her how to make an impact in the industry.

“You might go to openings or things like that with your mentor and your mentor introduces you around to people,” Crawley said. “You start to feel like hey, these are all normal people too.”

Crawley’s photography has since been featured all over the world. She is one of more than 250 Manitobans working as artists after learning from Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art.

Now, Crawley is helping other emerging artists in the city, like Jaime Black.

The two artists spent a year working together with Crawley passing on what she once learned.

“Practical things like how to apply for grants… where the art opening is happening,” Black said. “It’s very important for me to learn because otherwise my artwork would be under my bed or something not actually out in the world.”

Crawley and Black will feature their work side by side in a Winnipeg coffee shop this fall.

And other Canadian provinces are modelling art programs after this one to expand their creative communities.

“Saskatchewan has a mentorship program based on MAWA…. Le Beau, Visual Arts Ontario and the Arts Council of Nova Scotia,” Shawna Dempsey from MAWA said.

The goal is inspire more people to pursue their passions and earn money while doing it.

“Just getting to see what that means, what does an artist studio mean, what does an artist do in their studio, how you take something that you enjoy doing and make it into a career,” Crawley said.