Skip to content

The Arts Incubator

Winnipeg, Manitoba

cropped-1.jpg
Primary Menu
  • Home
  • About
    • Winnipeg, Manitoba
    • Art Borups Corners
    • Artists, Collaborators And Mentors
    • Hubs
      • Borups Corners
      • Dyment Recreation Hall and Complex
      • Minneapolis, Minnesota
    • Funders and Supporters
      • Canada Council for the Arts
      • Global Dignity Canada
      • Local Services Board of Melgund
      • Manitoba Arts Council
      • Minneapolis College of Art and Design
    • Reports
      • 2023-2024 Report
      • 2021-2022 Report
    • Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Tracker
  • Projects
    • 2025 Climate Entrepreneurship Survey
    • Food Security
      • Towards a Framework for Northern Food Systems Innovation
      • Food Preservation Training and Curriculum Development
      • Relationship Development and Engagement with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and University of Minnesota Duluth
      • Relationship Development and Engagement Activities with the University of the Arctic
      • The Art of Canning and Creative Entrepreneurship
      • Come Eat With Me: Manitoba Cookbook
    • Incubating Artificial Intelligence
      • Artist Bio Builder Writing Tool
      • Art Idea Generator
      • Asteroids
      • Northern AI Tools Get Trashy
      • Participatory Action Research Assistant
      • The Eco-Innovator’s Journey
      • Step Inside Your Content
    • Media Arts and Storytelling
    • Melgund Township Oral History Project
    • Recreation
      • Art Borups Corners
      • Arts and Recreation for an Aging Population
      • Creative Arts for Community Recreation
      • Facilities
        • The Cook Shack
        • Dyment Recreation Hall
        • Melgund Lake Boat Launch
        • Ice Fishing Shack
      • Storytelling
        • Stories & Publishing Skills
        • The Arts Incubator at Barnes and Noble
        • The Arts Incubator Books at Palace Marketplace
        • The Arts Incubator Books on Thalia
      • Youth Engagement
  • Resources
    • Adaptive Phased Management
    • Climate CO-STAR Builder (ECO_STAR)
    • Entrepreneurship Resources
    • Framework for Recreation in Canada
    • Funding Programs and Sources
    • Parks for All
    • The Common Vision
  • News
    • Borups Corners News
    • Creative Entrepreneurship
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Arts & Creative Leadership
    • Food Security and Innovation
    • Melgund Township News
    • Photos and Short Stories
    • Winnipeg
  • Events
    • Canada Day 2025
    • 2025-2026 Melgund Township Music Series
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Clover’s Comfort
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Sustainable Agriculture

Clover’s Comfort

Appreciate the common yet captivating Red Clover, a familiar and vital presence in Ontario's fields.
The Arts Incubator - Winnipeg July 11, 2025
Red Clover: the familiar charm of a summer meadow in Northwestern Ontario. Photo: Jamie Bell

Red Clover: the familiar charm of a summer meadow in Northwestern Ontario. Photo: Jamie Bell

A Carpet of Gentle Blooms

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) is a beloved sight in fields and meadows across Northwestern Ontario. Its familiar round, rosy-pink heads are a simple delight. More than just a pretty face, this unassuming plant is a powerhouse. It enriches the soil with nitrogen and provides crucial forage for livestock and nectar for a myriad of insects, especially bumblebees, essential to Ontario’s ecosystems.

There’s a certain comfort in seeing a patch of Red Clover, bringing to mind lazy summer days and the buzzing hum of a healthy ecosystem. Its common presence is a quiet reassurance of nature’s generous provisions in rural Ontario. This summer, our art programs have been sketching these ubiquitous blooms, learning how to capture their subtle beauty and significance.

Beyond its role in agriculture and its beauty, Red Clover also has a history of human use. The flowers can be steeped to make a mild, pleasant tea, often used in traditional herbal practices. The fresh flowers can also add a touch of color and sweetness to salads, or be incorporated into baked goods. While not a primary food source, it offers subtle culinary possibilities for those who appreciate foraging and incorporating wild edibles into their diet in Ontario. We’ve been using these examples of traditional plant use to inspire storytelling in our summer art programs, imagining the lives of those who once relied on these very plants.

As a nitrogen-fixing plant, Red Clover forms a vital partnership with soil bacteria. It pulls nitrogen from the air and turns it into a form usable by other plants. This natural fertilization makes it an invaluable component of healthy ecosystems and sustainable farming practices throughout Northwestern Ontario. Its sprawling growth habit also helps to suppress weeds and prevent soil erosion, adding to the overall health and stability of the land it inhabits, and providing a beautiful backdrop for our outdoor photography sessions.

About the Author

The Arts Incubator - Winnipeg

The Arts Incubator - Winnipeg

Administrator

The Arts Incubator - Winnipeg is a participatory arts collective and living lab, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. It's a space where innovation and creativity thrive. It's latest iteration was launched in 2021 with funding and support from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse. Today, working with students and faculty from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, we fuse traditional and participatory media arts with artificial intelligence, music, storytelling and community-driven, land-based artist residencies to cultivate new voices and bold ideas. Whether through collaborative projects or immersive experiences, our small but vibrant community supports creators to explore, experiment, and connect. Join us at the intersection of artistry, technology, culture and community—where every moment is a new opportunity to create.

Visit Website View All Posts
Tags: Forest Flowers Manitoba arts Northern Arts Projects Northwestern Ontario Arts SDG 15 Winnipeg Arts

Post navigation

Previous: AI for Community Resilience: Arts and Northern Regions
Next: The Art of Great Conversation

Related News

Proving that art is everywhere: With nothing more than a scanner and a handful of fallen leaves, participants at The Arts Incubator are discovering the accessible, high-impact possibilities of digital collage.
  • Ontario
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Winnipeg

Nature’s Digital Press

Jamie Bell October 1, 2025
4da3225d-77a9-49f1-8cca-218abd06ab95
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Winnipeg

The quiet of fall

Eva Suluk September 30, 2025
national-day-truth-reconciliation
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Winnipeg

Orange Shirt Day

The Arts Incubator - Winnipeg September 30, 2025

Recent Posts

  • Nature’s Digital Press
  • The quiet of fall
  • Orange Shirt Day
  • Cataloguing Workshop
  • Next stop: Apple Pie
Book cover for Where Dignity Grows, a book of stories about kindness and dignity

You may have missed

Proving that art is everywhere: With nothing more than a scanner and a handful of fallen leaves, participants at The Arts Incubator are discovering the accessible, high-impact possibilities of digital collage.
  • Ontario
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Winnipeg

Nature’s Digital Press

Jamie Bell October 1, 2025
4da3225d-77a9-49f1-8cca-218abd06ab95
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Winnipeg

The quiet of fall

Eva Suluk September 30, 2025
national-day-truth-reconciliation
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Winnipeg

Orange Shirt Day

The Arts Incubator - Winnipeg September 30, 2025
publishing-and-isbns
  • Creative Entrepreneurship
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Winnipeg

Cataloguing Workshop

Jamie Bell September 29, 2025

MANITOBA ARTS PROGRAMS

This platform, our Winnipeg, Manitoba hub and programs have been made possible with support from the Manitoba Arts Council Indigenous 360 Program. We gratefully acknowledge their funding and support in making the work we do possible.

Manitoba Arts Council Indigenous 360 Program

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Arts Incubator was seeded and piloted with strategic arts innovation funding from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse. We thank them for their investment, supporting northern arts capacity building and bringing the arts to life.

Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse Logo

NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO ARTS PROGRAMS

This platform, our Northwestern Ontario hub and programs have been made possible with support from the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects Program. We gratefully acknowledge their funding and support in making the work we do possible.

Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects Program
Copyright ©2020-2025 All rights reserved. | MoreNews by AF themes.