by Sara Arenson
If you’re an artist living in rural Manitoba, AANM may be coming to your community soon!
This August through October, AANM will be conducting a rural outreach project, visiting 8 to 10 communities in person.
“This is something we’ve wanted to do forever,” says Jenel Shaw, Executive Director of AANM. “We’ve really focused a lot in Winnipeg and supporting Winnipeg artists who are Deaf and disabled. And while we do work with rural artists kind of occasionally, they don’t really find us as much as the Winnipeg artists, right? Because this is where we’re located. So the idea is that if we did some outreach where we went into their communities, this would be a great way to kind of introduce ourselves.”
In a collaborative process, AANM will learn about rural communities’ disability demographics and needs, conduct accessibility audits of their arts spaces, provide anti-ableism workshops, and meet with individual artists. All of these services will be free thanks to Canada Council for the Arts funding.
By knowing who’s in the community, AANM can tailor the 2-hour anti-ableism workshop to specific demographics, i.e. Deaf artists, those with intellectual disabilities or seniors. The accessibility audits will provide the community with tips on how to improve the accessibility of their physical show spaces. And “if they don’t have a physical space, we’re also happy to evaluate people’s newsletters, communications, websites, kind of, you know, anything that they use to reach out to the community,” says Jenel.
AANM has worked with rural organizations before, mainly in Pinawa, where the Pinawa Art Gallery recently (Spring 2026) held an exhibition called In the Mind’s Eye, which featured art exploring the relationship between creativity and mental wellness. Jenel was at the opening reception, sat on the panel, and conducted an anti-ableism workshop.
Working with rural organizations showed AANM that these groups need more resources. “They have a very limited budget, very limited funding that they can apply for. So it was really important for us to make sure that all of these services we’re giving them are 100% free,” says Jenel.
Jenel and AANM hope that this project will lead to an ongoing relationship. They hope to leave arts centers better equipped to deal with access issues, to attract new AANM members whom they can assist, and to leave an impression that access is important.
“We don’t want this just to be like a one and done. We’re hoping that this will be like an ongoing conversation, and, you know, perhaps if they’re going to put on, say, an event next year, you know, maybe they’ll reach out to us and say, hey, we’re looking to put on this event, can you help us with the access, right?”
AANM is now reaching out to rural organizations including arts councils, arts groups, and art galleries, and is looking to visit at least one or two places up north, including a reserve, with the help of Urban Shaman.
If you know of any rural arts organizations that might be interested in this project, please e-mail Jenel Shaw at info@aanm.ca.
Also, be sure to check out AANM’s most recent group exhibition, our members show in August 2026! More information is in this newsletter.