Enterprising Women Making Art

About Us

ATIRA Women's Resource Society is a community-based organization that operates programs for women and their children affected by violence and/or abuse.

Enterprising Women Making Art (EWMA) is a program of Atira. The program encourages women to sell their art and handmade products as an act of personal, community and economic empowerment.

Blending art, community and social entrepreneurship, EWMA works with emerging women artists and artisans in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to participate in a democratic and equitable social enterprise that coordinates the pooling of resources to produce and market women's visual art and handmade products.

EWMA participants wish to work towards a self sustainable vision of glamour, that redefines current trends from blind consumerism to self sufficiency. EWMA glamour is individually driven. Sew your own clothes, grow your own food, exercise your own way, sing your own song, tell your own story, and share it all with your neighbors.

EWMA's Goals

Improve socio-economic conditions; promote recognition of the strengths and capacities of the DTES low-income community; increase individual self-sufficiency; create sustainable income opportunities for marginalized women; empower the artisans; promote local production and help to create a fair connection between producer and consumer.

What Atira Means

Atira is a Plains' First Nations deity and was held in deep veneration as "Mother Earth" and "Universal Mother." It was she who had brought forth life and it was into her body that all life would return at the end of its appointed time. Her symbol was the ear of corn, to represent the idea that, as the kernel is planted in Mother Earth (Atira) and she brings forth the ear of corn, so the child is begotten and born of woman.

"This program is not only an income supplement to women, but also creates a community environment; I found at EWMA an unconditional kindness from people that weren't necessarily my family. Art is not only a skill, it is also a therapy..." Teresa McMahon

"Atira's program is a much needed initiative in our community there is a wealth of untapped talent and knowledge that finds an expression at EWMA. I am 63 and have been, literally, looking for a space like this for many years" says a program participant

" This program helps me by bringing out creative ideas that I never knew I had. I want this program to continue so other women can be productive instead of destructive to their lives" Carol Cardinal

More information about Atira's programs, check out www.atira.bc.ca

Website Design by Leah Vlemmiks