Out of hiding

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/08/2021 (1862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the last 10 years, the Studio Central Urban Arts Centre in downtown Winnipeg offered free programming for adults to explore their inner creativity and learn new skills in a safe, accepting space.

The problem? That space was on the second floor of an apartment block on Kennedy Street, behind a locked door and a buzzer, away from street level and out of sight. If you didn’t know what was up there, you would have never guessed there were people inside dabbling in pointillism, portraiture, and abstract art.

“It was one of those places where if you knew about it, it was this special pocket that you could go to,” said Marissa Hoff, the art program director for Artbeat Studio Inc., the parent non-profit that runs the studio. “But if you didn’t, it just wasn’t accessible.”

Not so anymore. After a decade on Kennedy, the arts centre opened Monday afternoon in its new location — a second-floor storefront in the Portage Place shopping mall, a few steps away from the skywalk to the Canada Life Centre (formerly Bell MTS Place). Along major bus routes, in a building that any downtown denizen can find with ease, the new arts centre is no longer a hidden gem.

“Being in a more central space was very important,” Artbeat executive director Uyen Pham said Monday, a few hours before politicians and program volunteers and participants arrived at the mall for the grand opening.

Accessibility was the biggest impetus for the move, Pham said. As an organization, Artbeat focuses on a reduction in stigma around mental health challenges and poverty, with a community-based, peer-supported framework. Its programming caters to artists whose circumstances — mental health, social connections, income, among others — make it difficult to expand their skills in a safe, supportive environment. The new location, she said, more closely matched those organizational tenets, which were highlighted throughout the pandemic.

“People will be able to find us now,” she said hopefully.

At 1:30 p.m., people found them: several “regulars” from Kennedy Street and alumni of the Artbeat Studio program walked and rolled up in front of the storefront, the former location of the mall’s Bentley luggage shop. Local politicians, including the area’s NDP MLA Uzoma Asagwara, who partnered with the organization for free outdoor programming throughout the pandemic, also stopped by to see the new digs, just down the hall from the Upbeat Artworks Gallery Boutique, another Artbeat enterprise.

Everyone was excited, explained longtime volunteer and participant Yekaterina Kaplun, because the new space’s opening day meant that for the first time since May, programming was set to return to a centralized location, not just online.

“When they say art saves lives, it is not a joke, it’s what it does factually,” she said. “It feels like we might be at a turning point. It felt like things were stopping, a lot of programming was not available. It was very hard mentally. We had projects we did online, and that was very beneficial for many people, but it does feel good to be together.”

“I can’t tell you how much I missed the support,” said Frances Clearwater, a mixed media artist.

Bradley McKay, a jack-of-all-trades artist and, like Clearwater, an Artbeat alumnus, said he was excited to see the new space, where he’ll soon be facilitating and joining in-person workshops and drop-in classes, which begin Tuesday. Pham said programming would continue online as well, but the in-person element is something McKay and others yearned for.

“I live with PTSD and bipolar and anxiety disorder, so I tend to seclude myself,” he said. “Coming here, you’re part of the community, and it’s such a great community.”

And now, more people can find it.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca