UVic’s fourth annual 5 Days of Action runs November 15 to 19, and Fine Arts is a big part of it this year.
“We all know that small actions can collectively have big impacts,” says UVic President Kevin Hall. “I hope we will each make time to participate in the events this week, committing together to building a strong, sustainable and inclusive community.”
With a common goal of building connections, gaining knowledge and developing tools to help shape positive change in the world—locally and globally—the intention of 5 Days of Action is to create 365 days of commitment by the university community towards ending discrimination, harassment and sexualized violence on campus.
Prepare to engage
5 Days of Action offers a week of workshops and events, plus daily “calls to action” to listen, reflect, create dialogue, engage in social change and show solidarity throughout the year.
Fine Arts is hosting or involved with eight different events among the 20+ workshops you can register for this week, featuring a mix of faculty, staff and students.
Visual Arts
The Killjoys art show (9am-4pm Nov 15-19 in the Visual Arts building’s Audian Gallery) – The Killjoys is organized by the Visual Arts facility and production manager, Hollis Roberts. Explore how art can use various mediums to confront forms of systemic violence and oppression.
Say it like it is: Poster making workshop (10am-noon Fri, Nov 19) – Join Visual Arts professor Megan Dickie and facility and production manager Hollis Roberts for this hands-on, text-based poster making workshop inspired by artists who use text for political activism, subversion of advertising and clever word-play: participants will learn silkscreen printing and monoprinting techniques to create posters with their own unique messages.
The Killjoys
School of Music
Amplifying voices: Integrating underrepresented identities into music (12-1:20pm Tues, Nov 16) – This in-person & livestreamed presentation by the Music Student Association focuses on highlighting marginalized voices and bringing awareness to EDI-related challenges that musicians and musical institutions are facing. This student recital will feature underrepresented identities in music, as well as a panel of guests discussing the issue of programming diverse music in curriculum and concert halls.
Music we love: Appreciating a wider spectrum of flute repertoire (12:30-1:30pm Wed, Nov 17) – School of Music flute students from the studio of Suzanne Snizek highlight the music of composers underrepresented in the classical music milieu. Hear works by diverse musical voices including Chinese, Malaysian, Japanese, Korean, Venezuelan, Jewish and other composers, performed by graduate and undergraduate students.
Every timbre and tone: Honouring diversity through song (12-12:50pm Thurs, Nov 18) – Join School of Music faculty duo Sharon and Harald Krebs as they perform two songs by Florence Price—the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra.
Then, pianist Bruce Vogt accompanies soprano Anne Grimm in the performance of songs by Poldowski, a pseudonym of marginalized Belgian-born British composer and pianist Régine Wieniawski. Finally, singer-songwriter Colleen Eccleston will close the concert with a set of original music including a healing song composed especially for this event.
Suzanne Snizek
Fine Arts
Embedding Anti-Racism into Classroom, Courses and Curricula (Harnessing Anti-Racism Initiative Grant) (1-2pm Mon, Nov 15) – This workshop features Associate Dean Eva Baboula as the facilitator highlighting innovative ways UVic faculty and administrators are reworking instruction and administration processes to embed anti-racism, decolonization and other social justice principles.
Related activity
As part of our regular faculty programming, we also have three related events happening this week that dovetail nicely with the 5 Days of Action.
Theatre
Catch a free staged reading of Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story (8pm Saturday, Nov 20) featuring recent Writing MFA alum and Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Kim Senklip Harvey directing this reading of her play Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story. Part of Theatre’s Staging Equality series, Kamloopa explores the fearless love and passion of two Indigenous women reconnecting with their homelands, ancestors, and stories. Find out more here.
Writing
Noted author, journalist Andrew Nikiforuk is offering the 2021 Southam Lecture with our Writing department (2-3:30pm Wed, Nov 17) on “Energy Dead-Ends: Green Lies, Climate Change and Chaotic Transitions”. Nikiforuk has written about the use—and abuse—of natural resources and wild landscapes in Canada for more than 30 years. Register here for either the live or livestreamed events.
Visual Arts
This week’s visiting artist features Hazel Meyer (7:30pm Wed, Nov 17), an artist who works with installation, performance, and text to investigate the relationships between sexuality, feminism, and material culture. Her work recovers the queer aesthetics, politics, and bodies often effaced within histories of infrastructure, athletics, and illness. Find out more here.
Kim Senklip Harvey
Global Days
This week, UVic is also hosting a globally-focused week of events for Global Days, aimed at celebrating the diversity, values, pursuits and successes of UVic and our broader communities under the theme of “UN Sustainable Development Goals: Global Citizens working together towards shared visions of a better tomorrow”.
This week will feature film screenings, presentations, info sessions and interactive workshops—including a chocolate tasting and presentation about ethical chocolate from the African continent. Click here for more information or to register.
“When participating in these many exciting events over the coming week, I encourage you to reflect on the lands on which UVic stands,” says President Hall.