(photo Minister Jennifer Howard & Roewan Crowe)
WINNIPEG, MB – The Government of Manitoba celebrates Women in the Arts: Artists Working for Social Change as part of Women’s History Month and have honoured Dr. Roewan Crowe, co-director of the Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies at The University of Winnipeg and associate professor in the University’s Women’s and Gender Studies program at a lunch at the Legislature earlier today.
“The University of Winnipeg is proud of the work Roewan does on and off campus and it’s great that the Government of Manitoba is recognizing her work,” said UWinnipeg President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Lloyd Axworthy. “Her activism and commitment in engaging the community through art improves lives and creates better communities.”
Art Improves Lives
Manitoba women have a long history of achievements and contributions to the arts. Manitoba’s female artists have challenged many of society’s deepest assumptions through their artistic vision, creation, and expression. Their work has sparked new ideas, catalyzed critical thinking, elicited new actions, and inspired individuals to strive for and maintain social change in their communities.
Manitoba is home to a vibrant community of acclaimed and emerging female artists, as well as mentors, guides, leaders, and teachers who encourage and nurture young artists in the community.
About Roewan Crowe
Roewan Crowe is a feminist activist, writer and artist who is passionate about creating community and initiating projects that engage others in community cultural life. Exploring the multi-layered relationships among words, images and experiences of trauma is a common theme in Crowes’ work. A talented writer that uses academic prose and writes in styles to suit her inter-media projects she identifies as a queer artist who enters into fatal wounded landscapes to explore the possibilities that open up when artists walk through the shadows of the world.
Roewan is actively involved in the arts community. She has worked closely with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA), collaborating on projects like 2008’s Art Building Community project and participating in the group’s Artist Lecture series. Roewan has been an invaluable mentor to the FemRev Collective. Founded in Winnipeg in 2009, this group works to better women’s lives and improve society through local actions, marches and education campaigns -from a feminist perspective.
Roewan is also a novelist, having recently completed her book Quivering Landscape. She’s currently at work on an arts-based research project called Feminist Imagination As a Space of Resistance: Artistic Practices Contesting Violence. The project explores the different ways art can create space for forbidden narratives.
