Annual Reading Night Returns
Hear new work by some of Canada's top writers at the annual Writing Faculty Reading Night! Back for the first time since pre-pandemic days, this event features acclaimed Department of Writing professors Shane Book, Mo Bradley, Danielle Geller, Lee Henderson, Kevin...
Celebratory theatre: telling tales
This is a story of stories. And like all classic tales, each has an inciting incident followed by a turning point at which the hero steps onto a new path. They sidle or charge or struggle forward to a point from which there’s no turning back—they're committed to the...
Come to our pizza welcome party!
If you’re a Fine Arts student in Art History & Visual Studies, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing or our School of Music, then you’re invited to our annual Welcome (Back) Pizza Party! Join us from 4-6pm Thursday, Sept 14, in the Fine Arts courtyard. Enjoy free pizza,...
Phoenix subscribers play a vital role as patrons & donors
Student Ximena Garduño Rodríguez in 2023’s Phoenix production of Mojada (photo: Megan Farrell)As anyone who has ever been to the Phoenix Theatre well knows, our students learn by doing. They’re involved in every aspect of our productions—from running the box office...
Have you signed up for the Sept 5 New Student Orientation?
Wondering what it’s going to be like to be a UVic Fine Arts student? Get a snapshot of your upcoming year while meeting other students at our annual New Student Orientation event! RSVP now for this free session & get a jump on the semester! Date: Tuesday, Sept...
Awi’nakola as a way of being
Paul Walde, Rande Cook & Kelly Richardson on stage at the Rifflandia Festival in Sept ’22It would be difficult to imagine two more different audiences than those at Montreal’s COP 15 UN Biodiversity Conference and Victoria’s Rifflandia Music Festival, but both...
Legacy gifts transform student experiences
Performance infrastructure may not be top of mind when it comes to supporting the student experience, but it’s always a primary concern in the Faculty of Fine Arts. Such is the case with the School of Music’s Phillip T. Young Recital Hall: named for the former...
Staging an immigrant experience
2022 was a busy year for playwright Thembelihle Moyo, who came to Fine Arts from Zimbabwe as a Visiting Artist in 2021 and currently splits her time between our faculty and UVic’s Equity & Human Rights office. In addition to being named playwright-in-residence...
Join us for New Student Orientation on Sept 5
Wondering what it’s going to be like to be a UVic Fine Arts student? Get a snapshot of your upcoming year while meeting other students at our annual New Student Orientation event! RSVP now for this free session & get a jump on the semester! Date: Tuesday, Sept...
Saying farewell to the Lafayette String Quartet
When violinists Ann Elliott-Goldschmid and Sharon Stanis, violist Joanna Hood and cellist Pamela Highbaugh Aloni made the decision to pursue a career as a professional string quartet in 1986, they had no idea where their collective journey as the newly formed...
Harald Krebs & A Place of Infinite Possibility
It was a very different world when Harald Krebs stepped in front of his first School of Music class as an assistant professor in 1986: CDs were cutting-edge technology, email was still unheard of, and zooming simply meant going faster. Fast-forward 37 years and Krebs...
Diamond in the rough
As anyone who has suffered the slings and arrows of a theatrical life knows, working on stage can be a risky business. But Theatre grad Emily Bailey (née Lindstrom, BFA ’19) has taken her production-management experience in a new direction by putting herself into...
Alumni lead 23/34 Phoenix season
It’s an all-alumni season coming up at Phoenix Theatre this year, with three alumni directors returning to lead the mainstage productions! First up is Oscar Wilde’s comic masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, running November 9-25. Although it debuted in 1895,...
QFW performances & new LSQ video
Over 20 brilliant young musicians from across the world will descend on our beautiful campus for the return of Quartet Fest West chamber music festival and concert series. Running from June 26 to July 8, students will undertake two weeks of intensive chamber music...
Climate Disaster Project a finalist in global journalism awards
CDP founder Sean Holman with student Sandra Ibrahim (UVic Photo Services) We're thrilled that the Climate Disaster Project (CDP) has been announced as a finalist in the global Covering Climate Now 2023 Journalism Awards, which honour the best coverage of the climate...
Witness Blanket seeks “soundtrack of resilience”
Carey Newman demonstrating his VR Witness Blanket project (photo: Ella Matte/Saanich News)Already widely acclaimed for his powerful art installation the Witness Blanket, Kwakwaka’wakw and Coast Salish multi-disciplinary artist and Fine Arts professor Carey Newman is...
High-achieving twins both earn the Victoria Medal for their love of writing
Rachel (left) and Sarah LachmansignhWhen it comes to the academic arts experience, it’s easy for undergraduates to lose track of their initial passion as they get caught up in the drive for grades and goals. Yet despite Rachel and Sarah Lachmansingh’s many laudable...
Zainub Verjee awarded Honorary Doctorate
The Faculty of Fine Arts is thrilled to announce that Zainub Verjee will be awarded the Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA) at the 2023 Fine Arts convocation ceremony. You can watch Zainub Verjee’s address to graduating Fine Arts students as part of the UVic...
Climate Disaster Project inspires students to help build community of survivors
A Climate Disaster Project participant visits Lytton BC after the town was devastated by wildfires in 2021 Fires rage, storms blow, floodwaters surge, temperatures climb: as headlines about the latest environmental catastrophes appear with alarming regularity, it’s...
Exploring the science & mystery of a whale fall
Whales may be the largest animals on earth, but what happens after they die still remains something of a mystery: even the name given to their deaths — “whale fall” — evokes a sense of the unknowable. But the latest Fine Arts graduate student to be named...
Sound Genres explore sound as foundational practice
Paul Walde's Glacial The School of Music will be exploring sound as a foundational practice with Sound Genres, a special multimedia symposium running May 26-28 and funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. More than just an academic...
Summer Arts Series showcases arts technology
Looking to expand your artistic repertoire with new skills and practices? Fine Arts is once again partnering with UVic’s Division of Continuing Studies and Alumni Relations for our second annual Summer Arts Series. This year’s series, running in July 2023, will focus...
Call for submissions: 3rd annual Student Impact Awards!
Are you a current or graduating Fine Arts student who’s been involved with some community-engaged creative activity in Greater Victoria between January 1/22 & May 31/23? If so, you could qualify for $1,000 via our annual Community Impact Award! The Fine Arts...
Annual BFA exhibition sees students developing their professional practice
While April sees most of campus focusing on final exams, graduating visual arts students are getting in one final taste of professional practice as they organize, curate, install and promote the annual BFA exhibit. Titled Don’t Need to Know to Feel It, this year’s...
Visual Arts professor’s work in new Metallica video
Kelly Richardson's original pieces and how they appear in the Metallica videoWhat happens when “suitably apocalyptic” art by an internationally acclaimed, environmentally focused digital artist appears in the official video for the new Metallica album title track, “72...
Christopher Butterfield marks retirement with new album
Forget the gold watch: noted composer and longtime School of Music professor Christopher Butterfield is marking his UVic retirement with the March 31 release of his latest album, Souvenir. Performed by longtime musical collaborators Aventa Ensemble, the 70-minute...
Four Fine Arts recipients in Distinguished Alumni Awards
The annual Distinguished Alumni Awards celebrate the remarkable achievements of UVic graduates in three different categories: the Presidents' Alumni Awards, the Emerging Alumni Awards and the Indigenous Community Alumni Awards. This year, Fine Arts has four recipients...
Creating a Certain Kind of Space: Charles Campbell
When the Faculty of Fine Arts announced the creation of a new annual donor-funded lecture series focused on activism and the arts, the selection committee were faced with an onerous task: who to select as the first guest? While a number of options were presented, the...
Guest artist Hawksley Workman talks songwriting and the music industry
Singer-songwriters and musicians hoping to break into the industry won’t want to miss two unique events with acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter, Hawksley Workman. Set to visit the University of Victoria on March 15-16, these events will highlight Hawksley’s eclectic...
Symposium explores Gendered Threads of Globalization
Who makes our clothing? How has the shift from artisanal production to “fast fashion” over the last 150 years devalued women’s textile labor in Asia? How are heritage textile/garment traditions across Asia being preserved and revived by laborers and the organizations...
Timeless classic Medea gets a timely update with Mojada
"[Judy] Caranto is marvellous ... ably capturing [a] mix of drama & humour with authenticity & charisma"—Times Colonist (photo: Megan Farrell)While the Phoenix Theatre’s season opener Spring Awakening had its origins in a play which debuted in 1906, their...
Audain Professor Lindsay Delaronde continues her learning journey
Audain Professor Lindsay Delaronde (photo: Tori Jones)An early morning walk through the visual arts department usually sees a mix of students, faculty and staff arriving with coffee in hand: something not typically seen is an informal smudging ceremony outside the...