Blog

On a Saturday in early October, I attended the Long Take Collective’s From the Seat of a Canoe. That afternoon I floated along the Seine River with my paddling companions while actors, dancers and tiny art installations passed serenely by. 

A few weeks later, I meet the show’s creator, Leigh Anne Parry, for a quiet drink at The Handsome Daughter. She’s fresh off wrapping yet another interactive performance piece, a blindfolded gourmet dinner with limited seatings. She’s preparing to leave the city for a few months to stay in a cabin with friends on the southern tip of Lake Winnipeg. They’re hauling a load of music equipment up with them. “I’m not a musician, but we’re going to play music together every day. I think it’s good for you,” she tells me in soft, measured tones.

Over the course of our hour together, we chat about living in Winnipeg, interconnections between art and science, and of course, From the Seat of a Canoe.

Back in August, I met with Ryan, one of the founding contributors for the online magazine The Enemy. Their stickers checker the city, plastered on street signs or hanging around the washrooms of your favourite music venue. The Enemy covers music, art and culture in Winnipeg. They tell the stories of outcasted individuals while challenging the inherent privilege implied in access to art and culture. Their piece on sneaking in to Folk Fest was irreverent and thorough.

I pick up Mackenzie Smith in Westgate on Saturday morning. After a quick stop for gas, we head toward the old Pinawa Dam to meet up with From Here & Away founder Joseph Visser and a group of fifty or so photographers. We have every intention of arriving on time.

It’s a sunny afternoon in mid-September and I’m easing out of the crush of Kenaston rush-hour traffic, making my way to FortWhyte for their third annual Harvest Supper. The Harvest Supper is a fundraiser for FortWhyte Farms’ youth program, where high-school-aged youth come out to the farm to learn about food, Manitoba farming, raising animals, and cooking. All of these lessons are rooted in the philosophy of sustainability.

On Friday night, Kenneth Lavallee realized his goal of mounting a star blanket mural in the North End to commemorate Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women. A massive mural now envelopes the surface lot between Red Road Lodge and The Edge Gallery. 

Dear Journal's 2nd edition launch was hosted at The Strong Badger Coffeehouse on Sargent.

Dancers are Camila Schujman, Carol-Ann Bohrn, Jillian Groening, Elise Page, also Krista

It’s Synonym Art Consultation’s third annual Wall-to-Wall festival, and two giant murals are

Images by Michelle Panting, taken with a vintage Canon Sure Shot 35mm on expired film.

It’s Tuesday morning and Sara’s just offered me a coffee in the bright, airy studio she shares