Crafting is Good!

Our own Claudine Gervais popped in to C2 Centre for Craft for an afternoon of creativity.

I’m looking at family photos and figuring out the best way to rip them into shreds.

I’m at the C2 Centre for Craft in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. It’s Saturday afternoon, and I’m seated next to Sarah Sense, an artist whose work has been exhibited internationally. The California-raised Sense is jetlagged from her travel from her home in Bristol, England the night before. She’s drinking coffee and telling the half-dozen women gathered around the workshop tables about how she came to use Chitimacha tribe basket-weaving patterns in her work.

Craft is so good for us. There’s a sense of accomplishment in making something with your own hands. It’s good for mental health, self-care and gives people a voice to express themselves.

Tammy Sutherland, Director of the Manitoba Arts Council

Under her instruction, we’re using our images and ephemera to weave our own story.

Sense’s current exhibit, Cowgirls and Indians, layers her family photographs, Hollywood posters, wild west show imagery and her Choctaw grandmother’s memoirs. The exhibit continues at Urban Shaman, an Aboriginal artist-run centre at 290 McDermot Ave. until March 16. 

I discovered Sense’s work and the CrafteED workshop on Facebook. Intrigued, it only took a click or two to register for the opportunity to learn at her side. This seamless process is just one example of the results of years of work and coordination between the Manitoba Craft Council and the Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library.

The C2 Centre for Craft opened in October 2017 after the two organizations came together to search for a space that would be a fit for both. Promoting and advocating for fine craft and its makers is at the core of what they do, said Tammy Sutherland, director of the Manitoba Craft Council.

“We want to be on the cutting edge of what’s happening in craft,” she said, adding that they define craft based on materials used, including textiles, ceramic, metals, wood, glass and paper. The CraftED workshops are an integral part of the centre, home to an exhibition gallery, shop, library, museum collection.

“Craft is so good for us,” said Sutherland. “There’s a sense of accomplishment in making something with your own hands. It’s good for mental health, self-care and gives people a voice to express themselves.”

Upcoming CraftED workshops include beaded moccasin-making, paper marbling and purse-making. And, in a departure from tradition, a digital 3D printing workshop is on the calendar for June.

As participant numbers are limited and spaces sell out quickly, follow the events on the Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library and Manitoba Craft Council Facebook pages, keep a close eye on the C2 Centre for Craft website and sign up for the Craft Blast e-news.