Crossing Communties Art Project

Crossing Communities engages marginalized women and youth who are imprisioned or at risk of imprisonment in social, economic and cultural development, through the arts.

The Crossing Communities Art Project is dedicated to art productions that increase the capacity of women and youth to express themselves through the arts. Crossing Communities is a community-site art project that provides art mentorship to criminalized women and youth through studios and workshops, with the goal of employing visual expression to reduce self-harm, heal from trauma and reduce violence. Crossing Communities stages art exhibits, performances and public forums with women and youth in prison and those at risk of imprisonment with the intent to increase public awareness of the social risks that contribute to the criminalization of women and youth and to facilitate community dialogues.

The Crossing Communities Art Project participants are typically low income, low education, have histories of childhood abuse and self-harm, many are Aboriginal, they are high need low risk, many have been imprisoned. Crossing Communities studio participants are typically from the inner-city area of Winnipeg and in 2007 we will extend our art projects to work with participants in non-urban environments, including the Island Lake Community in northern Manitoba.

Crossing Communities video/forums materials are used to train service providers in government departments in several provinces such as the Child Protection Branch of Manitoba Family Services and Housing, Healthy Populations - Manitoba Healthy Living, Victims Services, Manitoba Justice, Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth. Our partner non-profit organizations use our videos and forums to increase community awareness of their clients. University professors and students use our projects in their curriculums and research.

Crossing Communities has evolved since 1996, beginning with the Portage Art Project a weekly art studio project in the Portage Correctional Centre from 1996-1999. In 2000, Crossing Communities opened its first city-based studio to the clients of the Elizabeth Fry Society, the justice advocate for criminalized women and girls. Crossing Communities currently meets with approximately 60-80 participating women and youth per month and has developed partnerships with many organizations that work with women and youth who self-harm including:

    The Native Women’s Transition Centre a residential centre for women leaving histories of violence
     The Manitoba Youth Centre, The Four Arrows Regional Health Authority, Dreamcatchers a peer mentorship program for women in the sex trade,
    Sage House a drop in centre for women and girls in the sex trade,
    Transitional and Educational Resources for Youth a training program for women and girls in the sex trade, Ndinawe a resource centre for Aboriginal youth

Crossing Communities produces art exhibits and public forums, locally, nationally and internationally to increase awareness of self-harm (alcohol and illicit drug use, high risk sexual behaviour, and other self-injurious behaviours such as slashing), seek innovative solutions to reduce self-harm, to reduce the number of women and youth in prison.

Crossing Communities is recognized for its contribution through awards such as National Crime Prevention Strategy Safer Communities Award in 2005, and our Artistic Director’s current nomination for the national Kaiser Award for Excellence In Aboriginal Programming.

Crossing Communities Art Project, formerly the Portage Art Project has been active as an organization since 1996. The Crossing Communities Art Project Inc. was established as a business in 2002. The Crossing Communities Art Project received Charitable Status in 2003.