The City of Lacombe has awarded one local artist with an Arts Endowment Grant. Jodi Manz-Henezi is a local mosaic artist who is looking to take online courses to further her knowledge of the arts and enhance her work through online courses at Mozaicartsonline.com. 

“She's not limited to any style particular style which is pretty cool and she does a lot of custom work. It's basically filling the needs of her customers. One of her courses will be portraiture and stained glass mosaic on stone and then learning about different substrates and tempered glass things like that,” said Maureen Mackenzie, Maureen MacKenzie Executive / Arts & Culture Assistant City of Lacombe. 

Mackenzie noted that Manz-Henezi was the only person who applied for the Arts Endowment Grant this year. 

“Normally, we have quite a few but I suspect it's because people are so tired of working online. They don't want to do it anymore, which is totally understandable,” added MacKenzie. 

However, student art awards will still be juried and are expected to be given out in the coming weeks.  

Mosaic work done by Jodi Manz-Henezi.

Manz-Henezi says her work in the mosaic arts have helped her to cope with the stresses of life and the pandemic. 

“This art has been my therapy, helping me express my creative talents and providing a positive and productive outlet for me to manage my stress, practice self-care and create objects of beauty that I can share.  I hope to make art a part of my retirement plan and continue to do this work for the remainder of my life,” said Manz-Henezi. 

She has received a total of $2,357 and will be taking one course per month so that she can produce art pieces with her new skills. She hopes to share her learning with others as a teacher or mentor in the future. You can check out the work of Jodi Manz-Henezi by clicking here.