This thread demonstrates WARM’s strong belief in the ability of mentoring to expand the careers and practices of emerging women artists. The organization set a precedent for meaningful mentoring relationships not only in their community, but in those beyond. Artists Phyllis Wiener, Monica Rudquist and Elizabeth Cleary exemplify the style of mentoring developed in WARM’s mentor program, one that offered personal and professional support. Perhaps more importantly, this style of mentoring focused on shared trust, and the willingness by both the mentor and the protégé to let their relationship change the trajectory of their work. 

The mentor program has been an important part of WARM since 1982. The brainchild of Judith Roode, the Rent-a-Mentor Program (as it was known then) was created to answer Roode’s “compelling question [at the time]: Why are there no mentors for women artists in the art community?” WARM’s program has had more than 600 women artists over thirty-six years.

Phyllis Wiener was among the earliest mentors of the program. Wiener studied at the University of Minnesota in the 1950s with renowned artist and teacher Cameron Booth, and she was a close friend to Katherine Nash, the namesake of the University of Minnesota gallery. In addition, Wiener studied art at the Instituto Allende in Mexico. In her long career, she exhibited widely and her work is included in many museum, corporate and private collections locally and nationally. Wiener was a member of WARM’s gallery from 1982 to 1989. In addition to her work as a mentor, she was also a regular editor and contributor to the WARM Journal.

Monica Rudquist attended Macalester College and Cranbrook Art Academy. When Rudquist joined WARM, Phyllis Wiener became her mentor. In 1991, Rudquist also became a mentor in the program. She is a founding member of Northern Clay Center and is currently a member of Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists. Monica’s work has been exhibited widely over the past 25 years in solo and group exhibitions, and her functional and installation-based ceramics can be found in numerous private and corporate collections.

Rudquist explained the importance of WARM’s mentor program: “I became a member of WARM in 1987 after finishing graduate school at Cranbrook Art Academy. I found the women at WARM a welcome group who helped foster my emergence as an artist. Being a member of WARM gave me access to exhibitions, resources and mentors, all which helped me to establish myself as an artist. I learned a great deal about the nuts and bolts about being an artist from my association with WARM. Currently I try to bring that sense of community and purpose that I found at WARM to the classes that I teach at St. Catherine University.”

Elizabeth Cleary worked closely with Rudquist over her four years at St. Catherine University. This mentoring relationship was an important support in Cleary's development as an artist and activist. According to her website, during her time at the University Cleary “helped develop the St. Kate’s Empty Bowls Project, a service-based art program that benefits a local non-profit [organization] committed to providing meals for chronically ill patients. Social justice and art activism have played a significant role in Cleary’s clay practice. In 2015, she worked with victims of sexual assault and domestic violence to develop a social practice exhibition titled Tea & Talk. In April 2017, she present[ed] the final chapter of her senior honors capstone project at St. Catherine University and at the National Council on Undergraduate Research in Memphis, TN. Her project [culminated] in a public outdoor memorial for women who have lost their lives due to domestic violence.”