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Women's arts center finds new home after fire – Winnipeg Free Press

Posted on by Neons

Shawna Dempsey, co-executive director of Mentoring for Women in the Arts, told her on Main St. It was an eerie déjà vu when I received a text alerting me of fire trucks outside the MAWA studio at 611.

The December fire, which gutted the historic building that housed MAWA, the Edge Gallery and the Urban Art Centre, as well as residential tenants (many of them artists), was not Dempsey's first fire.

He and MAWA co-director Dana Kletke were among the many Winnipeg artists who lost their studios and decades of artwork when their Jarvis Avenue warehouse was completely leveled in 2019.

SUPPLIED Shona Dempsey (left) talks to a contractor at MAWA's new space on Cumberland Ave.

DELIVERED

Shona Dempsey (left) talks with a contractor at MAWA's new space on Cumberland Avenue.

“It doesn't seem likely to happen again,” says Dempsey.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the Main Street fire and no items inside MAWA were damaged.

“Unfortunately, the building has suffered extensive damage, including the electrical system, and it could take up to a year to restore,” Dempsey said.

MAWA, like everyone affected by the fire, was left reeling. Volunteers had to assemble 20 years of work into 15 hours and provide alternative programming space; Aceartink. and Creative Manitoba, both located in the Exchange District, were stepped up to ensure that the MAWA program continued without interruption immediately after the fire.

“But we knew it wasn't going to be sustainable for a year,” says Dempsey.

The good news is that MAWA has since found a new home at C2 Craft Center on Cumberland Avenue.

“And it's great,” Dempsey says. “It's bigger than our space on Main Street, brighter than our space on Main Street. It's going to take some work—we've had to build walls to hang art—but we're excited for the next chapter.”