Winnipeg Arts Incubator Program
The Latest News
Where Trains Rumble, Walls Talk
March 20, 2025
It’s easy to miss if you’re just driving by, but under the railway bridge near Higgins and Main, the walls are alive.
Winnipeg Arts Incubator Program
Located in the heart of Winnipeg, our Arts Incubator collective is a small, but dynamic hub for collaboration, innovation, and growth. Established in 2021 with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse and with projects supported by the Manitoba Arts Council, our incubator fosters the intersection of digital arts and artificial intelligence, groundbreaking community-based participatory research, and mentorship for creative leadership skills.
As a central gateway and gathering point for our growing Community of Practice and Care, we empower artists, researchers and cultural connectors to push boundaries, connect with community, and spark lasting change. Join us in shaping the future of arts and culture—one innovative project at a time. The hub has grown to collaborate with other arts programs and community-driven projects across Manitoba, and regions across the circumpolar world.
The Latest Winnipeg Arts Incubator Stories
Pine Resin: Nature’s Timeless Gift for Art, Craft, and Healing
Pine resin has been used for centuries, from ancient art techniques to traditional medicine. For those looking to harvest it, late winter and early spring are ideal—the changing temperatures help the sap flow more freely.
Art Borups Corners March 15, 2025
Music as Untamed Energy: Soundtracking Your Deterritorialization
Music isn’t just a background to our art – it’s a force. It’s a primal energy that can shake things up, break down walls, and propel us into new creative territories. It’s the perfect soundtrack to our own deterritorialization.
Jamie Bell March 6, 2025
Winter Workshops & Outdoor Visions: Learning to Build Our Own Easels
Learn how our arts mentorship program is building DIY easels from local materials for upcoming outdoor art exhibitions. We’re embracing sustainability and self-sufficiency, turning fallen branches into functional art displays.
Tony Eetak March 6, 2025
Designing a Hub for Participatory Arts
In 2022 our program hosted artists and educators from across Manitoba and around the world gathered at the University of Winnipeg and Qaumajuq to explore arts-based and participatory methodologies to establish a hub for collaboration with support from members of the UNESCO Chair for Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education.
Research and Reconciliation
We’re incredibly proud to be featured as a chapter in Research and Reconciliation: Unsettling Ways of Knowing Through Indigenous Relationships, a groundbreaking collection that redefines the role of research in reconciliation efforts. Edited by Shawn Wilson, Andrea V. Breen, and Lindsay DuPré, this book emphasizes decolonizing methodologies, relationship-building, and honoring Indigenous perspectives.
It’s a powerful exploration of how research can move beyond traditional frameworks to foster genuine understanding and reciprocity. Being part of such an inspiring and transformative work is an honor, and we’re thrilled to contribute to the dialogue on Indigenous knowledge and reconciliation.
SOME OF our favourite moments
I Shall Not Be Moved
Enjoy a photo slideshow of scenes from Manitoba, Nunavut and Ontario with this rendition of “I Shall Not Be Moved” by musicians Tony and Paul Eetak.
This September, artists, lawyers, educators and people from all walks of life gathered at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to experience the Right to Be Known in a special participatory arts project led by the University of Manitoba.
Visualizing Climate Change for Impact
In March 2023, Our People Our Climate held a special workshop and delivered an expanded program based on the original 2020-2021 pilot with support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). We were so happy to experience this program again!
The Ripple Effect with Global Dignity Canada
In this short video by Tony Eetak, experience some of the special guest speakers, artists and creators who have made time for our programs and activities with support from Global Dignity Canada.
Sometimes it's just for Fun
We work with small and large organizations, art and community centres across Manitoba and the world. But sometimes it’s just about spending time in Central Park jamming on a pawn shop guitar with a broken string.
Our People Our Climate: Manitoba
In 2022-2023, and with support from the Manitoba Arts Council youth artists learned about modern and traditional approaches to storytelling, photography and the arts to express perspectives on climate change.
What We've Learned So Far
With support from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse and the ArcticNet Network Centre of Excellence Inclusion in Northern Research project, we explored storytelling and what it means to be included in participatory arts and community-based research.
Inclusion in Northern Research: The Space Between Things
This year our Winnipeg team was thrilled to be part of a special international dialogue on storytelling, arts, research and resilience with Dr. Andrea Breen from the University of Guelph and Dr. Shawn Wilson from Opaskwayak Cree Nation alongside the Inclusion in Northern Research program.
Our programming would not have been made possible with funding and support from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse and the Manitoba Arts Council. We thank them for their generous support of our activities.
OUR PROGRAMS HAVE BEEN SUPPORTED BY
