Call for Applications: Plug In ICA Winter Institute 2026

Image courtesy of the artist

Call for Applications: Winter Institute 2026
Too Two Spirited for You – Unsettling Two Spirited/Indigiqueer art in Canada

Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg
Application Deadline: January 10, 2026
Program Dates: February 9 – 20, 2026

Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art is excited to announce this open call for our 2026 Winter Institute, Too Two Spirited for You – Unsettling Two Spirited/Indigiqueer art in Canada. This session will be led by Adrian Stimson.

The Winter Institute is a free, international artist research program for professional artists and cultural workers in all disciplines and media. Each iteration of the Winter Institute invites participants to expand upon their own interests and projects and includes opportunities to work in a collaborative peer-to-peer environment through group activities, guest lectures, and workshops.

In Winnipeg in 1990, Elder Myra Laramee proposed the term Two-Spirit at the Third Annual Intertribal Native American/First Nations Gay and Lesbian Conference. Its purpose was to unify, giving a pan-Indigenous word to reclaim spiritual, gender, and sexual identities suppressed by colonization. Embodying both masculine and feminine spirits, it comes from the Anishinaabemowin niizh manidoowag, meaning “two spirits,” representing a unique blend of male and female energies revered in many Indigenous cultures for wisdom and healing. Further, coined by TJ Cuthand and popularized by Joshua Whitehead, Indigiqueer is a modern term for Indigenous people who are also LGBTQ+, created to offer an inclusive identity for those who may not identify as Two-Spirit but still connect with both their Indigenous heritage and queer identities, blending cultural pride with queer resilience, and acknowledging the diverse ways Indigenous LGBTQ+ people exist beyond traditional frameworks.

The 2026 Winter Institute will consist of a gathering of TS/IQ artists to explore the past, present and future of TS/IQ art in Canada. Through individual artistic practice and together as a group we will deploy artistic and critical discourse to focus and map Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer resilience past, present and future with individual or group works addressing power, representation, sexuality, language, body, tradition, memory, colonial narratives and knowledge-sharing.

Participants can expect an open-minded space where ideas, conversation and developing art works are explored critically. Our hope is to create a safe space for exploring and sharing, removing the pressure to produce a final product, allowing for focused contemplation and research within an empathic yet holistic space that can translate to artistic endeavors and understandings for all of society.

The 2026 Winter Institute will run from February 9 – 20, 2026.

Application Deadline: January 10, 2026

Apply Now!

Faculty

Adrian Stimson is a member of the Siksika Nation. He holds a BFA from the Alberta University for the Arts and a MFA from the University of Saskatchewan. Stimson is an interdisciplinary artist exhibiting nationally, internationally with several Public Art Projects. Among many awards, he has received the Governor General Award for Visual and Media Arts in 2018. Stimson is the current Chair of the Board of Governors, Alberta University of the Arts.

Acknowledgements

We are on Treaty 1 Territory. Plug In ICA is located on the territories of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the National homeland of the Red River Métis. Our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.

The 2026 Winter Institute is made possible through a generous contribution from Heritage Canada’s Canada Arts Training Fund.

Plug In ICA extends our heartfelt gratitude to our generous donors, valued members, and dedicated volunteers. We acknowledge the sustaining support of our Director’s Circle. You all make a difference.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council, the Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council. We could not operate without their continued financial investment and lobbying efforts.

Plug In ICA relies on community support to remain free and accessible to all, and enable us to continue to present excellent programs. Please consider becoming a member of Plug In ICA and a donor at plugin.org/support or by contacting Gilles Hébert, Interim Executive Director at executivedirector@plugin.org.

For more information, please contact info@plugin.org or call 1.204.942.1043.

Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art
460 Portage Avenue, Unit 1
Winnipeg, MB R3C 0E8
plugin.org

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Accessibility: Plug In ICA is fully accessible. For more information, contact info@plugin.org.