
Law Students from the Faculty of Law’ s Manitoba Legal Clinic for the Arts connect with imagiNorthern Community Champions.
Amplifying the North’s Creative Voices
Creating a Culture of Support and Collaboration
According to a recent article by Hill Strategies made possible with the support of the Manitoba Arts Council, based on 2021 census data, there are 5,200 professional artists in Manitoba. A full article on Manitoba artists and cultural workers in Manitoba is available here. This means one in every 140 workers in the province is an artist. Manitoba is also home to the highest proportion of Indigenous artists in Canada. Women make up the majority of artists. Two-thirds of artists are self-employed. The median income for artists is 43% lower than that of other workers in the province.
Despite this, Manitoba’s arts sector remains vibrant, with strong representation in Northern Manitoba. It is also known that the Arts throughout the province have the power to bring people together.
On December 5, 2024, law students from the Faculty of Law ’s Manitoba Legal Clinic for the Arts connected with leaders of the creative sector in Northern Manitoba through the imagiNorthern network. This network aims to strengthen support for artists and arts organizations in Northern Manitoba.
imagiNorthern is a voice for Manitoba’s northern arts community
imagiNorthern is an initiative of the Flin Flon Arts Council and a collaborative network that represents Northern Manitoba’s arts community, connecting Community Champions from Churchill, Flin Flon, Lac Brochet, Leaf Rapids, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, The Pas, Thompson, and Snow Lake in Northern Manitoba, and is growing.
The network is a partnership between Flin Flon Arts Council, Thompson Mall of the Arts, Churchill Creative Collective, The Pas, along with a network of Community Champions from across the North, that are collaborating to bring Northern Manitoba to the world. Driven by the northern energy and resilience, and supported by Creative Manitoba, Manitoba Arts Network and the Canadian Council for the Arts, the shared goal of the imagiNorthern network is to build a thriving, inclusive arts and cultural sector that contributes to a diversified Northern economy.
imagiNorthern is the connection point between Southern Manitoba, Canada, and the World, with the North’s rich tapestry of cultures, languages, and artistic and creative expressions.
imagiNorthern aims to support the development, prosperity and well-being of artists and their communities by fostering collaboration, facilitating community-building, and improving access to resources and education.
Overcoming distance and challenges using technology
One of the key ways imagiNorthern has connected artists across vast distances is through technology.
Crystal Kolt, O.M. [BMus/1984] of Flin Flon, project manager of the imagiNorthern network, facilitated a Zoom call, between law students from the Manitoba Legal Clinic for the Arts and Community Champions from the network.
The purpose of the meeting was to explore how law students and the Clinic can further support artists and arts organizations in the North.
During the meeting, Lisa Haydey (3L) [MPT/2020] and Kassandra Taverner (3L) [BSc/2020] shared information about the Clinic’s services, which offers free legal support to artists and arts organizations, particularly in areas intellectual property such as copyright, contracts, and other matters.
The meeting confirmed and highlighted also a very strong alignment exists between the Manitoba Legal Clinic for the Arts and imagiNorthern, in their shared goals of supporting artists and the creative sector, in the North, and strengthening a diversified Northern economy.
As the season of collaboration continues, the Clinic looks forward to further opportunities to partner with imagiNorthern and other organizations to support artists, especially those in Northern Manitoba, in the New Year and years ahead.