Panel Descriptions and Presenters Information for Programme
Date/Time
Panel Title
Description
7:30
pm
Friday,
May 22
Changing
Tracks: The
Impact of
Community
Arts in
Winnipeg
Let’s challenge people to see
Winnipeg as a proud,
inclusive city of visionaries,
who consider diversity to be
one of our greatest
strengths! Hear how four
established Winnipeg
community arts
organizations are leading the
transformation of our city by
challenging stereotypes,
breaking down barriers and
empowering everyone from
individuals to whole
neighbourhoods.
Presenter
Name & Role
Rosanna
Deerchild
Moderator
Bio
Winnipeg personality, Rosanna
Deerchild is Cree, her family is
from the O-Pipon-Na-Piwan Cree
Nation at South Indian Lake,
Manitoba. She is a writer and
broadcaster who lives and works
in her found home of North End Canada.
Her debut poetry collection, this
is a small northern town (2008 J.
Gordon Shillingford), is about
growing up in that racially divided
place. It won the 2009 Aqua
Books Lansdowne Prize for
Poetry/prix Lansdowne de
poésie. Rosanna is a co-founder
and member of the Indigenous
Writers Collective of Manitoba.
Photo
Rosanna Deerchild
Hear how Urban Indigenous
Theatre Company
encourages people to let go
of the past and re-dream the
future in collaborative and
healing environments. Learn
how Artbeat Studio
facilitates mental, spiritual
and economic health in a
recovery oriented, peer
directed environment. Find
out how Graffiti Art
Programming empowers
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youth, using art as a tool for
community, social, economic
and individual growth.
Discover why Art City
believes that people can
survive almost anything if
given the opportunity to
think creatively.
What core beliefs and
approaches do they have in
common? Through powerful
stories they will demonstrate
that the practice of
community-engaged arts is
an effective way of
addressing today’s issues
and shaping a great future
for Winnipeg.
Are you on board? Is it time
to change tracks?
Stephen
Wilson
Panelist,
Executive
Director,
Graffiti Art
Programming
Stephen Wilson is currently the
co-founder and Executive
Director of Graffiti Art
Programming. Wilson graduated
from the University of Manitoba
in 1986, with a Bachelor of Arts
and a Criminology Major. In 1988,
Wilson took a job with the
Correctional Service of Canada
(CSC) and worked as a prison
guard for 9 years. His time with
the CSC provided many key
insights which served as a
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foundation for his later work as a
front line community activist.
Established in 1998, Graffiti Art
Programming is a community
youth arts centre, located in
Winnipeg’s historic Point Douglas
Neighbourhood, that uses Urban
Art as a tool for community
development, social change and
the individual growth of its
participants. Over the past 16
years the agency has grown and
evolved so that it now works with
and supports all different types of
artistic pursuits and young artists.
Free after-school art classes
attract more than 2,400 children
and youth each year. Schools
from across the Province
regularly tour of the gallery's
Urban Art exhibition space
attracting over 4,000 students
and teachers each year. The
Gallery's exhibits also attract
10,000 additional visitors from
outside of the school system each
year.
Volunteer service and interests
includes:
-The Chair of the Board for ‘Step
to Step Living’, a community
based not for profit day program
for adults with intellectual
disabilities
-Fundraiser for the Cerebral Palsy
Association
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Josh Ruth
Panelist,
Managing
Director, Art
City
Eddie Ayoub,
Panelist
Artistic
Director, Art
City
-Associate Board Member of the
‘Michaelle Jean Foundation’, a
national association supporting
Youth Empowerment through the
Arts
-Board Member of the ‘Arts
Network for Children and Youth’,
a national agency supporting
Children, Youth and the Arts,
originator of ‘National Youth Arts
Week’
As an “Art Enabler”, Managing
Director Josh Ruth considers it his
job to help artists in any way that
he can through his work at Art
City, serving on boards and juries
for local arts organizations, and
by helping artists develop
themselves professionally.
Born in the United States, Ruth
has resided in Winnipeg since
2001 and has been involved with
Art City for 13 years. With a
background in music, theatre,
visual art, and writing, Josh is
currently working independently
on stories for radio. From a
profound belief in the power that
art has to transform people and
communities, Ruth is dedicated
to the infiltration of art into every
imaginable facet of society.
Referred to as the “Conscience of
Art City” by founder Wanda
Koop, Artistic Director Eddie
Ayoub has been involved with Art
Josh Ruth
Eddie Ayoub (with Wanda Koop, founder
of Art City)
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Nigel Bart
Artbeat Studio
City for 12 years.
Drawing on the consciousness of
Winnipeg and our larger world,
Eddie Ayoub generates ideas for
community art programming that
are fun, challenging, and socially
relevant to participants, and
rewarding to facilitate for staff
and volunteers.
Keeping Wanda's vision in mind
at all times, Ayoub is best known
for taking an unrealistic approach
to Art City programming and
events, and for providing young
participant's thoughts and ideas
with the opportunity to achieve
physical reality.
Nigel Bart, BFA, is the Founder
and Studio Facilitator of Artbeat
Studio Inc. Music and art play an
essential role in his life and are a
great resource in his recovery
from Schizophrenia. Recognizing
a strong connection between his
own mental health and creativity
Nigel sought ways to support
other artists in similar
circumstance. Artbeat Studio Inc.
opened in 2005 with guidance of
his family, a committed board of
directors, and supportive
funders. Nigel has produced an
award winning anti-stigma video
“Inside Out”, exhibited paintings
at the National Art Gallery of
Ottawa, and remains a dedicated
advocate for equitable
opportunity and acceptance of
Nigel Bart
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Columpa Bobb
Saturday,
May 23
10am noon
Journey of
Discovery:
Sharing
Community
Engaged
Practices and
Projects
across
Canada
Be inspired by four of
Canada’s most highly
respected community arts
practitioners! They will share
examples drawing from a
wide variety of experiences
across cultures,
communities, artistic
disciplines, and the country.
Gain insight into your own
community arts practice and
you’ll be sure to walk away
Ruth Howard,
Moderator
persons with mental illness He is
the recipient of several awards
including an Honorary Artist
award from the Manitoba
Foundation of the Arts and The
Flag of Hope Award from the
Schizophrenia Society of Canada.
Columpa C. Bobb is the Founding
Artistic Director of the Urban
Indigenous Theatre Company,
Winnipeg’s only Theatre
Company (and school since 2002)
run for and by Indigenous people.
She is a 26 year veteran of the
stage and has been nominated
and won awards as an actress
and writer such as the Jessie
Richardson Theatre and Dora
Mavor Moore award. Columpa is
also a five-time nominee of the
Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making a
Mark award and nominee of a
Returning the Gifts awards for
contribution to North American
Native Writing.
Columpa Bobb
Ruth Howard is the founding
Artistic Director of Jumblies
Theatre where she has been one
of the pioneers of the community
play in Canada, creating projects
that combine visual imagery,
performance, music, movement,
oral history and community arts
practice. Ruth has also created
the Jumblies studio: a training
and mentorship strand of her
company running community arts
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with new tools in your kit
and a fresh perspective!
Savannah
Walling,
Panelist
Cathy
Stubington,
Panelist
Eliza
Knockwood,
Panelist
workshops across Canada and
employing dozens of interns in
Toronto, providing an unrivalled
environment for training in
community based arts.
A Downtown Eastside resident,
Savannah Walling is Co-founder/
Artistic Director of Vancouver
Moving Theatre (with whom she
has toured four continents and
created over fifty productions)
and Associate Artistic Director of
the Downtown Eastside Heart of
the City Festival. A theatre artist,
writer, and performer trained in
dance, mime and music,
Savannah is a first generation
immigrant to Canada. She
collaborates with artists of many
genres, traditions and cultures to
create original repertoire.
Cathy Stubington is a community
based artist and puppet maker,
who lives on an organic vegetable
farm in Secwepemc traditional
territory in the interior of BC. As
Artistic Director of Runaway
Moon Theatre, she initiates large
scale theatrical performances
exploring the water, land,
farming, and birds in the area
where she lives. Cathy began
creating puppet theatre with
Picardi Marionette Theatre in
Montreal.
Eliza StarChild Knockwood is a
Mi’kmaq woman from Abegweit
First Nation with a vital, creative,
Ruth Howard
Savannah Walling
Cathy Stubington
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and powerful voice. Eliza is an
active member of the Prince
Edward Island Aboriginal
Women’s Association and is
former Vice President of the
Island Media Arts Cooperative.
Known for her producing and
filming on personal and collective
healing, not only for First Nations
people, but all people.
Eliza Knockwood
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