T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss speaks at Activism & the Arts lecture series
Save the date for our annual donor-funded Lehan Family Activism & the Arts Lecture Series: this year, we present ethnobotanist, artist and community-based educator T’uy’t’tanat- Cease Wyss speaking on the topic of “Diaspora of Ancient Technologies and the Future...
Black History Month in Fine Arts
From left: Shane Book, Junie Desil, Wayde ComptonFebruary is Black History Month. It provides an important opportunity to explore and celebrate the historical and current contributions of Black people in Canada. At UVic, we recognize the many achievements of Black...
Mixing myth & reality on the Phoenix stage
One mother’s determination. One child’s future. One extraordinary world. What can you expect from a mythic tale where sheep’s wool becomes rain clouds? Though it may sound whimsical, A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain is a bold and haunting fable that confronts the...
Small data Gen-AI workshop
Training the Muse: A workshop on small data Gen-AI for artistic practices Generative AI tools have become increasingly visible in artistic practice, however, most artists encounter AI through large-scale corporate platforms trained on massive, opaque datasets. These...
Join us for student wellness day Feb 9
Feeling stressed or overwhelmed? Need a break between classes? Don't miss Fine Arts Student Wellness Day, running 8:30am-4:30pm Mon, Feb 9. Everything's free! Activities and events will be happening around the Fine Arts complex, so drop in for whatever best works for...
Sounding Grounds festival debuts
Sounding Grounds is a gathering of new music, experimental sound and interdisciplinary art. Running Jan 30-Feb 1 at UVic's School of Music, this multi-day festival is a meeting place for UVic’s most adventurous creators. Featuring student and faculty composers,...
Upcoming Indigenous events & workshops
Fine Arts Indigenous Resurgence Coordinator Karla Point has been busy organizing her latest series of workshops, lunchtime talks and special guest visits for the Winter semester. Here's what's coming up, but more will be added as details get solidified. Fine Arts...
A Bridge Between Two Worlds: Kirk McNally’s new ADCARA role
While new hires are a regular part of faculty life, it’s rare that we see the creation of entirely new administrative roles. One of the Faculty highlights of 2025 was the inauguration of two brand-new Associate Dean positions: Associate Dean Indigenous, held by...
Music professor’s climate commission explores the Northwest Passage
Sought for five centuries by European explorers as a sea route to China, the Northwest Passage was finally achieved by Roland Amundsen in 1906 and represented both a triumph of navigation and a shrinking of the globe. Today's situation is more ominous, with melting...
Paul Walde exhibit focuses on weather & water
Opening on January 15 at downtown’s Legacy Gallery is Paul Walde: Weather Conditions, a double exhibit of site-specific video installations by Visual Arts professor Paul Walde, curated by the Art History & Visual Studies department’s Williams Legacy Chair,...
2025: Year in Review
It’s hard to believe 2025 is already over: some years crawl like watching paint dry on a canvas, while others speed by at the rate of a can’t-put-it-down bestseller. Given that the 2000s will likely come to be known as the century when attention spans reduced faster...
Artist-researcher Joel Ong imagines creative approaches to the environment
By its very definition, ArtScience is an inherently collaborative field. Integrating arts practices with scientific knowledge requires a fusing of the subjective with the objective, the emotional with the analytical, creating an exploratory community founded in...
Uplifting Indigenous voices on Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is coming up fast on December 2! We encourage you to join UVic's campus community and grads from around the world by pitching in to support student success, health, well-being and the programs that help make UVic the special place it is. This year, the...
Two students win 2025’s Community Impact Awards
Sophie Hillstrom (left) with Dean Allana Lindgren and Sage Easton-LevyCongratulations go out to the recipients of our fifth annual Faculty of Fine Arts Student Community Impact Awards: just-graduated School of Music student Sophie Hillstrom and current Theatre student...
Writing students engage with COP30 climate summit
The COP30 UN Climate Change Conference may be convening in Brazil this month but that doesn’t stop our students from getting involved. A series of climate survivor testimonials taken by Department of Writing students Ashley Ciambrelli, Raamin Hamid and Fernanda...
Robert Amos receives Honorary DFA
An artist, art historian, author and arts writer, Robert Amos has dedicated most of the past four decades to documenting — both journalistically and visually — Victoria’s visual arts scene, whether with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Times Colonist newspaper...
Writing professor wins Bill Good Award
Congratulations go out to UVic Writing professor Sean Holman on winning the Bill Good Award at the 2025 Webster Awards on Nov 3! The Bill Good Award is presented to a BC individual or organization that makes a significant contribution to journalism in the province, or...
Call for grad student proposals: 2026 ONC ArtScience Fellowship Program
UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) are now calling for graduate student applications for the paid 2026 ONC ArtScience Fellowship program. The application period closes on December 23, 2025. The ArtScience Fellowship strengthens connections...
Music welcomes new professor Sarah Belle Reid
UVic's School of Music is delighted to welcome Dr. Sarah Belle Reid as an assistant professor in technology starting January 2026. A performer-composer and pioneering artist in the field of electronic and electroacoustic music, Reid will bring her expertise in...
Meet Music’s 2025 Concerto Competition student winners
This year’s UVic Concerto Competition celebrates exceptional musicians whose talents span genres, generations, and geographies. The competition finals were held in April 2025 and we can’t wait to hear them perform their winning concertos with the UVic Symphony...
UVic double alumna Lyana Patrick practices the art of health in all she does
Writer-director Lyana Patrick. All images courtesy the National Film Board of Canada, Lantern Films & Experimental Forest FilmsThese days, UVic double alumna Lyana Patrick is a picture of success in multiple arenas. She’s a lauded professor at Simon Fraser...
Danielle Geller named Associate Dean Indigenous for Fine Arts
Danielle Geller in 2025 (photo: David Murphy)Representation matters when it comes to enacting meaningful long-term change in both UVic’s teaching and administration arenas, which is why the Faculty of Fine Arts is particularly excited to announce the appointment of...
Deb Miller Landau makes a name with her crime story
Every journalist is always on the lookout for their next great story. For Vancouver-born Deb Miller Landau, a magazine article on a cold case in the American South became the assignment of a lifetime, leading Landau to write an entire book on the explosive,...
Visual Arts MFA student earns Audain Award
Edith Skeard (centre) receiving the Audain AwardCongratulations go out to Visual Arts MFA candidate Edith Skeard on being named one of five BC graduate students to receive a $7,500 Travel Award from the Audain Foundation on Sept 26. As a complement to the prestigious...
Southam Lecturer explores journalism in polarized times
At a time when unity in the face of American threats is crucial, Canadians are increasingly divided. While Americans may be on the brink of civil war, Canadians are sorting ourselves into mutually hostile camps. The fragmentation of our media ecosystem is both cause...
Inaugural JRSP residency showcases new sculptural work
A sculptural installation by Canadian artist Siobhan Humston will be on view exclusively at UVic from October 9-14, showcasing the results of a new artist-scholar residency created in association with the Jeffrey Rubinoff Foundation and UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts....
2025 ONC ArtScience Fellow debuts exhibit
When Parvin Hasani applied for the 2025 ArtScience Fellowship with Ocean Networks Canada — the sixth Fine Arts graduate student to hold this position — she proposed exploring the extreme ecosystems of deep-sea hydrothermal vents via her sculptural practice. Now, after...
New competition prize for music students
Let’s say it’s 1912 and you’re a young, musically inclined girl who enjoys whistling . . . but your father says it isn’t “ladylike“ to whistle: what do you do? If you’re Eleanor Gray, you embrace the song in your heart and pursue singing lessons instead. Fast-forward...
historicizing the present through art
When Sm Łoodm ‘Nüüsm (Mique’l Dangeli) was hired in 2024 as a professor of Indigenous Arts in our Art History & Visual Studies department, the Ts’msyen scholar knew it would be a good fit. “I liked the fact that it isn’t just about art history here, it’s also...
Celebratory theatre empowers acceptance
Theatre students Simran Kang (left), Isabella Derilo & Alynne Sinnema in the 2024 production of Salty Scent of Home (Photo: Dean Kalyan)It can be hard for people who never experienced immigration to understand the challenges faced by immigrants and refugees, but...
New play by Writing student explores trans joy & resilience
It's always exciting to see student work spring off the campus and into the community. Local playwright and fresh Writing alum Jasper Mallette — who just graduated in June 2025 — is now debuting Expiry Date, a brand new piece of transgender theatre, which runs at...
One-day art action supports Indigenous sovereignty
First it was taking an orchestra onto the surface of a glacier, then it was putting a glittering digital projection into the background of a Metallica video. Now, two University of Victoria art professors are using their unique creative talents to join over 100 people...