Art to art talk

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/09/2025 (254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nobody told Madison Beale how to find a career in art, so the 25-year-old is figuring it out herself, one podcast episode at a time.

Beale didn’t exactly hate her job in the tech industry, but she didn’t feel as passionately about selling specialized IT services as she did about contemporary Canadian art, the legacy of female dealers and the cat she named after pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Rossetti.

Just before moving to Winnipeg in 2020, the erstwhile student at the U.K.’s Exeter University determined it was worth investing more time and energy into a career in the art world.

“I decided that I just didn’t want to spend another day not being close to art,” says Beale, an art history student at the University of Manitoba who describes herself as a ballsy go-getter. “I wanted to try to make it work, so I gave myself a year, and then really quickly after I made that decision, the ball just really got rolling.”

Without prior experience, but with plenty of enthusiasm, Beale reached out to Mayberry Fine Art, which hired her as a sales associate.

During her time working with the Exchange District dealer, Beale launched her own podcast, the Artalogue, an interview program that’s thus far welcomed a startling variety of arts industry professionals. Past seasons have featured tattoo artist Paul Booth, dancer-choreographer Cameron Fraser-Monroe and American Psycho screenwriter Guinevere Turner, as well as local artists such Laura Lewis, Bev Pike, Shawna Dempsey, Judah Iyunade and Casey Koyczan.

Beale’s focus as a podcaster isn’t only speaking to those who produce art, but to entertain her curiosities about all of the adjacent careers the industry comprises, including historians, academics, gallerists, legal experts, journalists and curators.

“What led me to starting the podcast was that I realized I was being privy to these conversations not just about not just the art market, but about careers in art, how artists make a living and how people can form their own career paths in art, how different that can be. The goal has always been the same: to share conversations and insights from people working in the industry with the hope that people listening can get some value out of it,” says Beale.

For Beale, an emerging critic who wanted to be a museum curator during her high school years, the podcast has served as a crash course in artistic practices, cultural futures and the realistic costs of creative labour.

Artalogue’s ideal listener is somewhat similar to the show’s host.

“I think it’s anyone at any point who’s looking to make a change, deciding what to do (in the arts industry). I’m hoping to basically imbue them with the confidence that they can make their way, and hopefully they learn a little bit too,” she says.

In her most recent episode, Beale has a conversation with a guest better known for his work on the blue line than for his own line — former Winnipeg Jets defenceman Jacob Trouba.

After his trade to the New York Rangers in 2019, Beale discovers, Trouba connected with a friend who had his own studio space where the American star began to explore his own artistic practice and influential artists, including Yves Klein and Willem de Kooning.

“Within his approach, Trouba stewards an intimate relationship between his body and the canvas,” says Beale in her introduction. “The artist dresses in his traditional gear as he strikes into the canvas, resulting in a frenzy of energetic marks that speak to the combative nature of the beloved game.”

Recently recognized as a runner-up for C Magazine’s New Critics Award, Beale doesn’t have any more NHLers slated for the current season, but does have interviews planned with arts journalist Elisa Corollo, London-based AI artist Jake Elwes and Jean-François Bélisle, the director of the National Gallery of Canada.

More information can be found at artaloguepod.com or on social media @artaloguepod.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca