WITH ART: A PROJECT FROM THE WINNIPEG ARTS COUNCIL x MANITOBA WHEELCHAIR SPORTS ASSOCIATION

Artists Sasha Amaya and Thea Pedersen collaborated with Manitoba Wheelchair Sports Association (MWSA) athletes through the Winnipeg Arts Council WITH ART community public art program from 2019-2022. The artists were selected by the MWSA, and the collaboration began through a series of meetings and attending practices, in order for the team and the artists to establish common ground. Subsequently, the artists created and planned a series of workshops and events for the team around art and design.

The collaborators ranged in age, ability, ideology, and interest, and came together as they found parallels between sport and art. Drawing connections between two worlds that are often deemed separate became simple when the common goal of promoting accessibility became the focal point.

In parallel, inspired by the energy and athleticism of the team, Amaya and Pedersen created ALLEZ HOP in 2019, a glow-in-the-dark wheelchair basketball court selected by Nuit Blanche Winnipeg for its Illuminate the Night commission. Click here to read more about ALLEZ HOP.

WORKSHOPS & EVENTS

Throughout the year, the artists hosted three groups of workshops for the team.

ARTIST PROCESSES, PUBLIC ART & REPRESENTATION

In September 2019, in a lead-up to Amaya and Pedersen’s ALLEZ HOP installation for Nuit Blanche, the artists gathered the team for two creative workshops around artistic processes, public art, and representation.

The workshops began with discussing what Nuit Blanche is, understanding the layout of the exhibitions, selecting exhibits we wanted to see, and building awareness of the project. The concept of ALLEZ HOP was then communicated to the younger members of the team, and a plan for how they wanted to appear as team members was created. Together the group made collaborative drawings, in which they were able to imagine how to design and decorate their wheelchairs, and give visual feedback to each other’s drawings in a playful way. Taking or leaving the suggestions, and, in doing so, learning how to sift through feedback in an artistic process, each participant then took on the largely individual process of designing and decorating their own chairs.

As a final component, we discussed documentation, privacy, copyright, and citations. We practiced asking artists for permission to photograph and post their work online, and how to credit artists for their work when posting.

DESIGN PROCESSES & THE WARMING HUTS

In winter 2020, the artists organized a series of workshops around design. The first event was a trip to the screening of 10 x 20 x 20, an annual showcase of design projects in a pecha kulcha format. A two evening workshop was then held with a focus on sharing basic design processes and terms. The famous warming hut design festival on the Assiniboine River was then introduced, and athletes and their families invited to create their own design for a warming hut. The second step was to begin to draw the warming huts in plan and section, to understand basic design drawing terminology, and to understand what makes a design drawing communicable.

A visit to the warming huts was undertaken by the artists, the athletes, and their families at the Forks in February 2020.

CONSIDERING CURATION: VISITING EXHIBITS AND EXPLORING HOW THINGS ARE PUT TOGETHER

In early 2020 we visited the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art. Exploring their exhibits together, we enjoyed the art work while investigating the different ways in which works could be shown and communicated. While both venues were selected for the physical and financial accessibility they provided, our different physicalities, ages, and natural interests also played a role in how we thought about and appreciated the works.

PUBLIC SIGNAGE & INAUGURAL GAME

The capstone project of the collaboration is Let’s Play Wheelchair Basketball, new public signage that shares the rules of Wheelchair Basketball and invites the public to play. It was installed at the Mayfair Recreation Centre's outdoor court in October 2021. Wheelchair basketball is played on the same court as running basketball. People who use a wheelchair every day, and those who use a wheelchair just for the game, are able to play together. To celebrate this inclusive sport, the Manitoba Wheelchair Sport Association (MWSA) community played their first game there Saturday, 16 October 2021.

PUBLICATION OF OUR PROCESS

To conlude our project, in spring 2022 we published a little book documetning the three years of the collaborative process through words, photos, and drawings. Concept, writing, and graphics from the Amaya Pedersen team, with a unique cover illustration from Pedersen. These books are available through the Winnipeg Public Library.