About
The Métis Artrepreneur Program is a 12-week virtual program that helps Métis artists build an arts-based business grounded in Métis core values. Participants develop the skills and confidence to establish their business, market and sell their work, and strengthen their voice as Métis artists.
Who It Is For
Métis artists living in British Columbia, including visual and fine artists, illustrators, graphic designers, bead workers, textile artists, sculptors, artists who use the body as a canvas, costume and make-up designers, and artists working in traditional or contemporary Métis and personal regalia.
What Participants Learn
- Mindset and healthy working relationships.
- Creative process, planning, earning projections and business goals.
- Promotion, audience-building, marketing, online presence and website development.
- Portfolio development.
- Pricing, cash flow and record-keeping.
- Grant applications, exhibiting work, time management and maintaining an arts-based business.
Format, Duration and Location
- Twelve virtual classes over 12 weeks, delivered through Zoom.
- Participants should expect approximately three to five hours of homework each week in addition to class time.
Eligibility
Spaces are limited. Selection is based on eligibility and the application rather than first-come, first-served order.
- Applicants must complete a STEPS application and receive approval.
- Applicants must be Métis artists living in British Columbia and commit to all 12 virtual classes.
- Applicants should have foundational visual arts skills, an ability and desire to have an online presence, and basic computer skills.
Availability and Schedule
The most recent cohort has ended. No future intake has been announced.
The 2026 program was instructed by professional Métis artist, Kim Gullion Stewart, with guest Métis Elders, artists, and Indigenous knowledge carriers.
Kim Stewart writes that cultural history is part of everything she does. Born in Athabasca, Alberta, she is the fifth generation of her father’s family to live there. Her father Ken Gullion’s Métis heritage connects her to the Métis Homeland of Red River through the Brabant and Brazeau family names, and to Métis and Cree communities in Alberta through the Nipissing family name.
Her great-grandmother Margaretta Brazeau and great-grandfather Franklin Gullion received “Halfbreed land scrip,” which was issued to Métis people in Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s in an attempt to extinguish their land rights.
Her father’s settler ancestry reaches to Scotland through the Gullion family and Poland through the Yaromy family. Her mother Loretta Gullion comes from the Berezan and Kozniuk settler families from Ukraine, who brought cultural practices expressed through seasonal food, celebration, and decorated art forms.
Cost and Available Funding
The following workshop materials will be provided to participants:
- Notebook, pencils, pencil sharpener, erasers, and pens.
- Fine-tip permanent marker, wooden ruler, crafting scissors, and glue stick.
- Fabric pencil case, sketchbook, parchment tracing-paper pad, and coloured pencils.
- Smudge bundle and student workbook.