Mentoring Artists for Women's Art

Mentoring Artists for Women's Art (MAWA) is a feminist visual arts education center. Created in 1983, this non-profit organization encourages and supports the intellectual and creative development of women in the visual arts by providing an ongoing forum for education and critical dialogue.

Monthly MAWA programming includes lectures, artist talks, skills based workshops, professional practices workshops, critical reading groups, studio visits, an artist-mothers group, screenings and field trips. Visiting artists and curators have included Lucy Lippard (Albuquerque, New Mexico), Deborah Kelly (Sydney, Australia), Sara Riel (Reykjavik, Iceland), Rosalie Favell (Ottawa), Allyson Mitchell (Toronto), Yolanda Paulsen (Mexico City) and Huma Mulji (Lahore, Pakistan). MAWA provides a platform for critical writing as well, by commissioning text that appears in their newsletter and on their website.

Although MAWA's mentorship programs are for women-identifying artists, recognizing historical and present-day inequalities, the majority of their programs are open to people of all genders, and are offered at low or no cost. MAWA has over 300 paid members, of whom approximately 80% reside in Winnipeg. An additional 10% are located throughout Manitoba and an additional 10% throughout the rest of Canada. Well over 350 volunteers contribute to MAWA each year.

MAWA was founded by Diane Whitehouse, Sheila Butler and others, to redress gender in the visual arts by giving opportunities to women. Created as a committee of Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in 1983 and renamed Manitoba Artists for Women’s Art after branching off in 1984, a "new organization committed to the support, encouragement and exposure of women artists. The objectives of the organization are to encourage greater communication among women artists in the community and to create a new forum for the exchange of ideas and expression of concerns.”

MAWA works to sustain art in the community through mentorship programs. Senior artists share their experience and expertise with developing artists in a peer-support learning environment that empowers women to build their practices. Through mentorship, MAWA has created a vibrant, skilled community, serving women artists in all phases of their careers.

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