What Showing Up Looks Like

Inside the Mann Art Gallery’s 50th Winter Festival

Op-ed written by Em Ironstar | February 9, 2026

I drove up to Prince Albert on February 6, 2026, to attend the Mann Art Gallery’s 50th annual Winter Festival Show and Sale. I’d been invited a few weeks earlier by Jesse Campbell, the gallery’s Interim Artistic Director, and I was glad for the reason to make the trip north.

I came to Prince Albert grateful for the opportunity to be present in a community where policy, lived experience, and artistic practice are already in active conversation. The weekend offered a clear, tangible example of what arts ecosystems look like when people show up for one another.

A Gallery That Belongs to Its Community

Visitors gathered inside the Mann Art Gallery during the Winter Festival Show and Sale, with artworks filling the walls.

Opening night at the Mann Art Gallery – Winter Festival Show and Sale

The Mann Art Gallery’s Winter Festival Show and Sale is a member-based exhibition. Any gallery member can submit work, and each year a guest curator is invited to shape the exhibition and participate in the award presentations. This year marked the show’s 50th anniversary, and that longevity was felt immediately.

This year’s guest curator was Jason Baerg, an Indigenous curator, educator, and visual artist, and a registered member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. Jason is originally from the Prince Albert area and is now based in Toronto, where he works as a visual artist and educator. He holds a BFA from Concordia University and an MFA from Rutgers University, and has taught at institutions including Rutgers University and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.

Jason also brings deep curatorial experience, including developing and implementing the national Métis arts program for the Vancouver Olympics. He founded the Métis Artist Collective and has served in volunteer leadership roles with organizations such as the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective and the National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition. That grounding in both community development and critical practice was evident throughout the exhibition.

The show itself was curated in a short window of time, yet it felt thoughtful, cohesive, and expansive. The works on view spanned materials, generations, and approaches, but remained grounded in place, memory, and responsibility to community.

21 awards were presented as part of the exhibition, each supported by local businesses, arts councils, and community partners. That level of sponsorship doesn’t happen by accident. It reflects long-standing relationships and a shared understanding that artists are essential to the life of the city.

Attendance on opening night was strong, as one would hope for a 50th anniversary. The gallery was full of artists, families, supporters, and community members, moving through the space together.

Civic Presence and Cultural Care

Three people, Em Ironstar, Jesse Campbell and Darcy Warrington, smiling for a photo inside the Mann Art Gallery, with artworks visible behind them.

Em Ironstar, Jesse Campbell, and Darcy Warrington inside the gallery.

One of the most encouraging parts of the weekend was seeing municipal leadership engaged in a meaningful way. Prince Albert Mayor Bill Powalinsky was in attendance and presented one of the awards. He also showed up at the curatorial talk on Saturday morning.

In conversations with artists and community members over the weekend, it became clear that this support is consistent. Seeing a mayor show up, stay, and speak with artists sends an important message about the value of cultural spaces at the municipal level. It signals that art is understood as part of the city’s civic fabric, not an add-on.

I also briefly met MLA Kevin Kasun and introduced myself. While our conversation was short, he recognized my name, likely from the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance’s letter-writing campaign in support of increased SK Arts funding last summer. Even brief moments like that are reminders that sustained advocacy has reach.

On Saturday morning, MLA Darcy Warrington attended Jason’s curatorial walk-through. This was one of his final commitments as Shadow Minister for Parks, Culture, and Sport before moving portfolios. The fact that he made the trip to Prince Albert for the talk and the exhibition felt worth naming. Presence matters.

The Gift of Critique

Saturday’s curatorial talk was one of the most meaningful parts of the weekend for me. Artists whose work was included in the exhibition were invited to attend, hear feedback, and engage in open conversation about the work.

It had been a long time since I’d been in a gallery space where that kind of thoughtful, observational critique was happening out loud. Jason spoke with generosity and clarity, drawing connections between works while remaining attentive to each artist’s intent and context. The educator in him was evident, and the conversation felt both accessible and rigorous.

At one point, Jason shared something he often tells his students: one of the gifts of art is that we get to know each other. Our paths intersect in unexpected ways. Over the course of the weekend, it felt undeniably true. We get to know each other by sharing space, by looking closely, and by listening.

Work That Stayed With Me

Several pieces in the exhibition stayed with me long after I left the gallery.

A pair of small handmade moccasins by Marcy Friesen constructed from orange tarps with fur trim and beadwork details. Text embroidered on the moccasins reads “Is this the best we can do?” and “Is this affordable housing?”, referencing housing precarity and care through traditional form.

Marcy Friesen,”Is this the best we can do?” (2025), multimedia, Green Soup Emporium

One standout was a pair of handmade moccasins by Marcy Friesen, constructed from tarps rather than leather. The multimedia work, titled Is this the best we can do? (2025), included embroidery that read, “Is this affordable housing?” Using a familiar form, the piece held together care, survival, and systemic critique without overstating its case. The work received the Green Soup Emporium Award.

Brody Burns’ large-scale painting Tipi Teachings occupied most of an entire wall. The perspective draws the viewer upward, looking through the top of a tipi. The work balanced abstraction with cultural grounding, and its scale demanded time and attention. The piece received the Second Place Prize, sponsored by the Prince Albert Council for the Arts.

Another work that stayed with me was Pazhvāk by Soheila Fallah, a papier-mâché installation consisting of two suspended, dome-like forms. The title, which translates from Persian as “echo,” explores memory, displacement, and the emotional traces that places leave behind.

Slightly lifted above the floor, the forms hover in a liminal state, neither fully grounded nor entirely detached. Inside each dome, subtle soundscapes play: ambient recordings from Iran layered with Fallah’s voice reading Persian poetry. The piece invites viewers to come close, to listen carefully, and to move slowly. In doing so, it creates an intimate encounter with the fragility of home and the way lived spaces continue to resonate long after we’ve left them.

Two suspended, dome-shaped papier-mâché sculptures by Soheila Fallah hang slightly above the gallery floor. The pale, textured forms hover in the space, inviting close listening as they emit subtle soundscapes and spoken Persian poetry.

Soheila Fallah, *Pazhvāk* (2025), papier-mâché installation, First Place / Best in Show

Pazhvāk received First Place and Best in Show, and its quiet power felt well matched to that recognition.

I was also drawn to a painting by Janaya McCallum, titled Yootin. The acrylic on board work (24 x 48 inches, framed) depicts a woman wearing a floral kookum scarf and received the Hue Art Supply Award for excellence in the use of colour. The work had a quiet confidence and presence, the kind of piece that continues to speak after you’ve stepped away.

Another standout was Forgotten Memories 2 by Kylee Ealey, a sculptural work created from photographic negatives and slides, bound together with thread and conduit. The materials were sourced from the Prince Albert Historical Museum and consist of images that could not be accessioned due to a lack of identifying information.

Suspended and woven into a delicate, architectural form, the piece transforms fragments of overlooked history into something tender and attentive. Seen up close, individual images flicker in and out of legibility, asking viewers to slow down and consider what is preserved, what is lost, and what remains unresolved in institutional memory. The work held a quiet emotional weight, offering care to materials that might otherwise have been forgotten.

A framed acrylic painting on board by Janaya McCallum depicting a woman wearing a floral kookum scarf, set against a layered landscape backgroun

Janaya McCallum, Yootin (2025), acrylic on board, Hue Art Supply Award

Behind the Celebration

Alongside the celebration, it’s important to acknowledge the realities facing the Mann Art Gallery. Like many arts organizations across Saskatchewan, the gallery has recently had to reduce its public hours due to funding constraints. Staffing remains largely part-time, and leadership roles have been held in interim capacities longer than anyone would choose. And yet, despite these pressures, the Mann Art Gallery continues to offer programming that is thoughtful, inclusive, and deeply rooted in place.

These challenges are not a failure of vision or community engagement. They are the result of chronic underinvestment in cultural infrastructure. The work continues because people care, not because the system is adequately resourced. This is not a sustainable path forward for the Mann or for Saskatchewan arts organizations more broadly. Artists, arts workers, organizations, and the public should not bear the cost of chronic, systemic underfunding through fewer jobs, reduced working hours, and limited access to the arts.

Being Reached

One of the most meaningful moments for me personally was meeting George Glenn, a visual artist and long-time volunteer and board member of the Mann Art Gallery. When I arrived Friday night, Jesse mentioned that someone wanted to meet me.

George shared how much the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance’s advocacy work, particularly our letters to the editor published in Saskatchewan weekly newspapers like the Prince Albert Daily Herald, had meant to him. Hearing that our work is reaching artists in communities I don’t often get to visit is something I never take lightly. Advocacy can feel abstract. Moments like that make it tangible again.

Looking Ahead

Kylee Ealey, *Forgotten Memories 2* (2025), negatives, slides, thread and conduit

I had the chance to connect with Jason Baerg during a break, and we’re planning an upcoming Arts Everywhere podcast conversation. Jason is also a part of a group exhibition at the Art Gallery of Regina in Fall 2026, so we are looking forward to connecting again for that.

The weekend also offered a glimpse of how these relationships continue to ripple outward. Brody Burns, whose work Tipi Teachings featured prominently in the exhibition, will be part of a forthcoming group exhibition titled YOU SEE ME – KIWAPAMIN, opening in April at Wanuskewin Heritage Park in the Greg Yuel Gallery.

The exhibition will run from April to June 2026 and features artists Audie Murray, Brodie Burns, David Garneau, Melanie Monique Rose, Torrie Ironstar, and Wally Dion.

I left Prince Albert feeling grateful. Grateful to the artists who shared their work, to the gallery staff and volunteers, who made the weekend possible, and to everyone who showed up.

The Mann Art Gallery’s Winter Festival Show and Sale doesn’t just happen. It exists because people believe that art matters enough to keep gathering around it, year after year.

And it reminded me, once again, why we do this work.

Inside the Mann Art Gallery’s 50th Winter Festival

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