Download the MayWorks 2010 Program

Welcome to MayWorks

Welcome to this year’s MayWorks Festival

MayWorks Festival of Labour and the Arts is a multi-disciplinary festival that focuses on working class themes. It is held in Winnipeg every year throughout the month of May to honour and promote the many positive contributions of unions and working people in general.

Inspired by events surrounding the anniversary of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, MayWorks focuses on the art produced both by artists (with their depiction of the working class life) and by workers with their own interpretation of their lives and struggles.

The role of woman in the landmark social and political struggles of the modern era as well as the daily struggles they wage against unjust conditions has earned a particular place in artistic expression. In honour of this fact the theme of MayWorks 2010 is Bread and Roses.

The slogan Bread and Roses originated in a poem of that name by James Oppenheim that was published in December 1911. The poem celebrates the struggle of women workers and the hope to establish a social order based on the equality of all. One month later the poem became synonymous with the large and bloody strike of women textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. From there the poem has been passed down as one of the key cultural pieces of social protest and the term Bread and Roses has become an expression recognizing the importance of social protest in art.

Thus, it is fitting that this is theme for MayWorks 2010 as we recognize the courage and resolve of women everywhere to change the world.

Whatever your interest, we are sure you will enjoy the 2010 edition of MayWorks.

Glenn Michalchuk, President MayWorks Festival of Labour and the Arts