Fire By Trial

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Fire By Trial is a community-engaged public art project designed to develop a work that offers ongoing utility as well as meaning to Mabelle Avenue residents.

Our goal is to collaborate with three pre-established resident groups to design and build a cooking fire and meeting place in the centre of Mabelle Park that begins a dialogue between the currently unknown history of First Nations activity and presence in what’s now the Mabelle Park and the various culinary cultural practices currently at home there.

 

Gathering together around the fire; cooking, laughing and telling stories; has been a core activity in our neighbourhood for many years. By creating a new cooking fire and meeting place as a public art object, we ensure that this warmth at the heart of our community can continue for many years to come.

The Creative Team

  • Val T. Vint

    is a Metis public artist and engineer from Winnipegosis who’s been collaborating with Mabelle Arts since 2018.

  • Nicolette Felix

    is a Black community-engaged chef and food security activist.

  • Leah Houston

    is a white community artist and the founding artistic director of Mabelle Arts.

  • Janna Levitt

    is a Jewish architect and founding partner of LGA Architectural Partners.

 Participant Collaborators

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The Mabelle Ladies
Cooking Circle

is a group of skilled home cooks working at Mabelle Arts who each bring their culinary cultural traditions from Somalia, Eretria, Bangladesh, Seria and Jordan to Mabelle Arts events. Over the past two years, they’ve been working with food service specialists to learn new skills towards micro-business development. These fine ladies bring a lot to the table (wink) and are therefore paid for their contributions

 
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Mabelle Youth

are a group of youth leaders working at Mabelle Arts and living in the Mabelle neighbourhood. Many of these young people have grown up with Mabelle Arts – some taking part in projects since they were four and five years old.

These young people have countless memories of times spent around the Mabelle campfire telling ghost stories as part of our yearly Ramadan celebrations.