Expression of Interest:
“It’s familiar!” Manitoba Craft Council Fall 2025 Group Exhibition
For craftspeople, craft-based artists, and makers
Deadline: March 13th, 2025 at 11:59 pm
Apply here
Purpose of the call
We’re on the lookout for skilled craftspeople, artists, and makers to be part of our forthcoming Manitoba Craft Council Fall 2025 group exhibition. Artists from an under-represented background, specifically immigrants, asylum seekers, newcomers, and other similar backgrounds with an emerging to mid-level proficiency in a craft or a craft-related art practice, we want to hear from you.
Manitoba Craft Council aims at providing a platform of exposure for a group of crafts people, artists, and makers through a process of Participatory Curation led by curator Alireza Bayat.
This project is made possible by funding from the Winnipeg Foundation.
Terms & Conditions
- The exhibition is open to those 18 years of age or older who are residing in Manitoba.
- Artists must come from an under-represented background, specifically immigrants, asylum seekers, newcomers and other similar backgrounds.
- An emerging or mid-career artist is defined as someone who has been practicing their craft for approximately 3-15 years, has made a serious commitment to their art, and publicly shown or sold their work, or other equivalent professional experience. Artists who have had a solo exhibition of their work (CARFAC fees paid) or more than 2 group exhibitions (CARFAC artist fees paid), would fall outside of our definition of emerging/mid-career and would not be eligible for this specific opportunity.
- Participating craft-based artists and craftspeople must have demonstrated skill and proficiency in their craft. Examples of craft-based media include: ceramics, fibre, metal, paper, stone, glass, and wood. Please reach out to us in advance of the deadline if you’re unsure about if your work qualifies as craft at [email protected]
- Entries must be submitted via Google Forms
- If your application is selected based on your expression of interest, you will be invited to have a conversation/interview with the curator and MCC staff. Final selections will be made following those conversations and all applicants will be notified of the results.
- Application assistance is available. Please contact us by March 3, 2025 if you would like help preparing your submission at [email protected]. If applying via Google Forms is a barrier, please feel free to reach out via the provided email address.
How to apply?
Please send us the following items via the Google Form found here
- A short description of your background and your practice. This should contain information about your training and education as well as inspirations, mentors, and research interests that affect your practice. (300-450 words max)
- 3-5 images of your craft work.
Project Summary
There are three parts to this project that selected participants will be involved in:
- Participatory Curation process in advance of exhibition
- Group Exhibition
- Community Project
Participatory Curation
What is Participatory Curation? Curator Alireza Bayat and selected artists will engage in a collaborative, reflexive 4-6 month process that makes curation more inclusive and culturally democratic. Through the participatory dynamics of this exhibition, artists and the curator will aim to share curatorial authority and creation experience, and re-negotiate existing power relations in the field of visual arts. Applicants are expected to be interested in learning more about and participating in this unique process of curation/creation. Activities may include: gatherings and discussions, group brain-storming, prototyping, studio visits, and collective community sessions.
Exhibition
Selected craft artists will be part of a group exhibition at the C2 Centre for Craft in September and October 2025. The exhibition will include:
- CARFAC artist fees paid to participating artists
- A custom-designed catalogue and poster
- Staff support for the preparation and creation of the exhibition and installation of works
- Opening reception community event
- Associated programming with artists and the curator during Manitoba Culture Days, free of charge for the community
Community Project
Each participating artist will be given a small budget to support a community project related to craft. The project will be designed and delivered by participating artists to meet the needs of their community. In consultation with the curator, craft artists can use this opportunity to organize or facilitate community-related activities and events such as, but not limited to, the examples below:
- Creating a community exhibition
- Creating a sale opportunity for community members making craft
- Teaching a traditional craft to children at an after-school program
- Having a casual monthly making session with community members to meet and contribute to relationship building through craft
- Forming an artist/craftsperson collective
- Community co-creation sessions and workshops
Key Dates:
March 13, 2025: Submission Deadline
March 18, 2025: Notification of initial results from submission
March 20, 2025: Conversational interviews with shortlisted artists
March 27, 2025: Final notification of artists selected
April – June 2025: Group sessions and creation
July 2025: Catalogue information deadline for artists (images of works, artist bios)
August 2025: Co-design of exhibition with artists
September 2-4/5: Installation of show
September 5th: Opening Reception
About our Curator Alireza Bayat:
Alireza Bayat is a freelance curator, writer, and cultural worker based in Winnipeg, Canada. He holds an M.A. in Curatorial Practices from the University of Winnipeg where he currently teaches courses on global and non-Western art histories. He also holds a Master’s degree in Art Studies from Azad University, Tehran, where he explored notions of gender and sexuality in 19th-century Iranian written and visual texts.
Bayat has curated solo and group exhibitions in Iran, Norway, the U.S., and Canada. His research and curatorial practice engage with participatory and intersectional curating, conjunctural analysis, socio-political activism, and the study of power dynamics in visual culture.
About Manitoba Craft Council:
The Manitoba Craft Council is for people who love contemporary craft: professional artists and artisans, collectors and connoisseurs, DIYers and armchair enthusiasts. It’s for people who value the originality and quality of the handmade, who find meaning in making. It’s for the dreamers and schemers who seek to reinterpret the material and cultural traditions of the past through a contemporary lens. It’s for people who have to forge, carve, weave, fold, sculpt, and knit. And for their friends and supporters. It’s for you. See, smell, touch, explore the myriad expressions of contemporary craft in Manitoba, and be part of a community that is shaped, motivated, and defined by its love of craft.
Eligibility Statement:
Please tell us in a few sentences how you relate to the eligibility criteria of this application: Artists from an under-represented background, specifically immigrants, asylum seekers, newcomers, and other similar backgrounds
Questions? Please contact Katrina at [email protected] or call 1 (204) 615.3951 in advance of the deadline.
