EMBER with Matt Jenkins of Cloverdale Forge
• – • The Forks Market, 2nd Floor
part of a series on Ember (em·ber) | Ember
About the speaker
JOIN US on April 24th at 8am for a creative exploration of our global theme of EMBER with Matt Jenkins of Cloverdale Forge.
TALK: "Tending the Embers: Keeping the Flames of Creativity Fueled."
Our tech-driven world often celebrates the spark, but rarely do we talk about what keeps creativity burning over time.
At CreativeMornings Winnipeg this April, we welcome Matt Jenkins of Cloverdale Forge—a modern blacksmith whose work is rooted in patience, precision, and the daily practice of tending the fire.
Through fire, steel, and story, Matt will explore what it means to stay with an idea after the initial excitement fades, when all that remains is the ember. He’ll reflect on the discipline and resilience behind steady, intentional creativity.
After all, it’s not the spark that sustains the flame—it’s the focus.
MEET OUR SPEAKER
Matt Jenkins grew up in a household that made it by hand. His path into blacksmithing began through his father and took hold during a summer job at the blacksmith shop at Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site. More than 30 years later, he is an internationally recognized artist blacksmith known for highly crafted work, thoughtful design, and a deep commitment to the traditions of the forge. In 2016, he challenged himself to design and forge a different hook every day for a full leap year, a project that later became his 2024 book HOOKED: A Blacksmith’s Study of Function Through Form. Today, Matt creates custom ironwork just north of Winnipeg while teaching and demonstrating across North America.
Local partners
RRC Polytech is Manitoba’s largest institute of applied learning and research, with more than 150 full- and part-time degree, diploma and certificate options. Through hands-on and online learning opportunities and state-of-the-art instruction, we prepare our students to become leaders in their fields — while also ensuring they can meet changing industry demands, and contribute to the province’s economic growth.
Established in 1989, the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone is the voice of the downtown business community. The organization markets and promotes downtown as a great place to shop, play, work, and live, while advocating for continued downtown revitalization and enhanced services for its members. It hosts events throughout the year and offers numerous programs and services focused on improving downtown cleanliness, safety, transportation, and parking.
Johnston Group provides employee benefit solutions to companies from one employee to 10,000 or more. We’re a platinum member of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, having held the Best Managed distinction every year since 2001. We call Winnipeg home and we believe strongly in giving back by contributing to our local health, arts, sports, and other community organizations. Over 30,000 Canadian businesses trust us with their employee benefit needs.
North Forge is an award winning not-for-profit startup incubator, accelerator, and state-of-the-art fabrication lab that fuels Manitoba’s innovative science-based, technology-enabled, and advanced manufacturing startups from ideation to funding by offering unparalleled experiences and resources to help startups grow.
The Forks, located at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, has been a meeting place for over 6,000 years. Indigenous peoples traded at The Forks, followed by European fur traders, Scottish settlers, railway pioneers and tens of thousands of immigrants.
New Media Manitoba (NMM) is the non-profit sector council and industry association that represents Manitoba’s Interactive Digital Media (IDM) industry.
Creative Manitoba strengthens, represents and connects Manitoba’s arts and creative industries. We unite and engage employers, workers, educators, professional associations and government in a strategic alliance, enabling the arts and cultural sector to thrive.
Gabrielle Touchette is a photographer in Winnipeg specializing in portrait and commercial photography. She started her business in 2008 after obtaining a diploma from PrairieView School of Photography (now Willis College). After graduating, Gabrielle taught in their diploma program before shifting gears in 2010 to run her business full time. Today, Gabrielle continues to be passionate about meeting new people and sharing their stories through her favourite art form: photography.
How does Linda Drosdowech coaching work? Great question! When we work together we:
Find out what feels delicious and delightful to you right now and in the future
Figure out what habits, thoughts, and actions you want to change
Decide your focus, and get to work finding new solutions
Break down goals into bite-size tasks
Deal with rejections, boundaries, frustrations, and everything human about loveable, gorgeous you.
Create healthy ways to process the feelings you’re avoiding. Yes, sometimes there are tears.
Celebrate your wins & have so much fun & laughs
Build powerful forward momentum that comes from you getting comfortable with discomfort
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At Vincent Design, we don’t just create—we connect. Every brand has a story, and we make sure yours is seen, heard, and felt. As a full-service marketing, design, and web development agency, we handle everything from branding to strategy to execution, ensuring an engaging and seamless presence for your brand. From strategy to execution, we build brands that make an impact.
We empower people and organizations to solve complex challenges and create positive change through strategic practices, design, marketing, technology and innovation.
At Plain:Language, we help get your marketing campaigns in front of your target audience in the most effective way possible. No bells, no whistles (unless we need bells and whistles), just plain digital and traditional media.
Our world is shaping and shifting at an unprecedented pace, presenting new challenges and new opportunities, daily. Communities, individuals, institutions and ideas are intertwined and influenced by change like never before. Achieving results in such a complex environment demands human intervention with an experienced and thoughtful strategy.
ChangeMakers was created for this complexity – to help navigate change.
We are a team of over 400 seasoned, passionate experts of various disciplines working as one team in offices throughout Canada and in the US. Our decades of experience in reputation, social impact and marketing have equipped us with a deep comprehension of diverse audiences, enabling us to craft solutions that address multiple needs simultaneously. This allows us to have multiple perspectives on the challenges and opportunities presented by our clients and partners.
We at Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company are committed to local, organic and made from scratch. Tall Grass believes that good food is made when we work with our Mother the Earth in a spirit of gratitude and with loving responsiveness to her needs and ours. Together with the Earth, those who grow, mill, and bake; those who press, preserve and can; those who slice, sauté and cook; those who sell and buy – each person offers a unique gift to the creation of the Tall Grass products. Our bakeries and kitchen are the meeting places where good, whole food is born and begins to sing its own song. We support organic agriculture. This is agriculture practiced without the use of artificial fertilizers or pesticides. In so doing, we demonstrate our desire to take responsibility for the gifts of the Earth.
As a coworking space, we help people grow ideas through community, collaboration, and collective wisdom. At Launch, we deliver a predicable, flexible, safe, clean, friendly, and fun place for people to focus on their work, meet with colleagues, and host important educational, training and networking events. This is why we’re Winnipeg’s highest reviewed coworking space.
We believe in the transformative power of play.
At Pop CoLab, we exist to reignite curiosity, connection, and creativity. We believe play isn’t a distraction from productivity, it’s the key to it. When teams play, they build trust, spark innovation, and rediscover joy.
We design meaningful, interactive experiences that spark connection, through play-based activities and creative workshops, both in-person and online.
Additional details
Join us at 8am on Friday, April 24th at the Forks for our monthly event. April invites us to explore the global CreativeMornings theme of EMBER with modern blacksmith artist, Matt Jenkins of Cloverdale Forge.
Bring your reusable coffee mug and join us for coffee, community and creative inspiration!
** What to expect at a CM Winnipeg event (besides inspiration and fun)**
8:00am Arrival and check in – grab a coffee, a breakfast treat and make a new friend (or just smile at someone while making a cool nametag)
8:25am Refill coffee and settle in for a great event!
8:30am Welcome to CreativeMornings and listen to our featured local performer
8:45am Community creative engagement activity – introvert approved (and introvert friendly!)
9:00am Intro of Headliner (speaker)
9:30am Wrap up and exchange contact info with your new friend!
We aim to have the event wrapped up by no later than 9:45am.
Location
Hosted at
The Forks Market, 2nd Floor
1 Forks Market Rd, Winnipeg, MB R3C 4L9, Canada
Winnipeg, MB Canada R3C 4L9
When
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