Externally funded research (select)

by | Aug 12, 2024 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, Faculty, Graduate, indigenous, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing

Heather Igloliorte (centre) speaking as part of the Distinguished Women Scholars event at Legacy Gallery’s 2024 exhibit, Latent (Beth Bingham photo)

Each year, Fine Arts faculty members receive external funding for their ongoing creative and scholarly projects. This is a current selection of grants awarded to faculty in 2023/24 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council and others.

 

  • Cedric Bomford (Visual Arts) received support from Canada Council’s Arts Abroad program.
  • Taylor Brook (Music/PEA) received funding from Harvard’s FROMM Foundation to support new work for piano and electronics. 
  • Ajtony Csaba (Music) received two Canada Council grants, a BC Arts Council grant (for the SALT New Music Festival) and funding from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. 
  • Sean Holman (Writing) received a SSHRC Connection grant for the fall 2024 Climate Disaster Project verbatim theatre project, Eyes of the Beast.
  • Heather Igloliorte (Visual Arts) received SSHRC support as the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonization & Transformational Artistic Practice.
  • Sasha Kovacs (Theatre) received a SSHRC Partnership Grant as co-director of Gatherings: Archival & Oral Histories of Performance, with Dean Allana Lindgren as co-investigator.
  • Mark Leiren-Young (Writing) received a BC Arts Council Creative Writing grant. 
  • Kathryn Mockler (Writing) received a BC Arts Council Creative Writing grant. 
  • Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta (Theatre) received a SSHRC Insight grant to support the five-year project Staging Our Voices: Strengthening Indigenous languages through theatre.
  • Suzanne Snizek (Music) received a SSHRC Partnership Grant for her work supporting Visual Storytelling & Graphic Art in Genocide & Human Rights Education.
  • Jennifer Stillwell (Visual Arts) received a UVic Research/Creative Project Grant and a SSHRC Explore Grant.
  • Anthony Tan (Music) received a UVic Research/Creative Project Grant and a SSHRC Explore Grant.
  • Paul Walde (Visual Arts) received support from the Canada Council’s Arts Abroad program. 

“This funding is an absolute lifesaver“

by | Aug 6, 2024 | Award, donor, Theatre, Undergraduate

100 Years of Broadway (Jaeden Walton photo)

Carson Schmidt

Road vs Wade (Megan Farrell photo)

While Theatre student Carson Schmidt never knew the late Fine Arts donor Jack Henshaw, his success as an undergraduate is exactly what Jack had in mind with his JTS Scholarship, which annually funds three Fine Arts areas.  

Created through a bequest in his will, the JTS Scholarship provides financial assistance for students — like Schmidt — who are determined to succeed in the arts. Faced with a number of post-secondary choices, the Calgary-raised Schmidt chose UVic’s Theatre department based not only on its reputation but also on recommendations from colleagues and friends. “UVic was compared to the prestigious National Theatre School . . . after hearing first-hand accounts, I was sold,” he says.

Once enrolled, Schmidt excelled in his studies, working towards a planned future as a lighting designer: it’s actually his work with the Phoenix Theatre’s mainstage production 100 Years of Broadway that’s seen on the cover of the 23/24 Fine Arts Annual Review. In addition to his course work, this year Schmidt also led the long-running Student Alternative Theatre Company (SATCo), which offers students the opportunity to create their own productions . . . many of which help launch future careers through the likes of the Fringe Festival or the local SKAMpede festival.  

Another remarkable opportunity for Schmidt was attending the 2023 Prague Quadrennial; thanks again to donor funding, students were able to submit their own scenographic proposal and attend PQ in person. “This was genuinely a life-changing project to work on, as we got the opportunity to travel to Prague for the exhibition and workshops,” he says. 

Schmidt is already building his future by working as a technician for the Belfry Theatre and a number of Vancouver Island festivals and events. But even as he looks ahead, he is appreciative of the support he has received. 

“Going to school on the Island is a once-in-a-lifetime experience I’ll cherish forever,” he concludes. “The honour of receiving such an award as this will not be forgotten. During tough economic times especially, this funding is an absolute lifesaver for myself and other students.”

Students & seniors work towards wellness

by | Aug 3, 2024 | Research, Theatre, Undergraduate

Over the past several decades, Applied Theatre artists have been developing activities that help communities access joy and connection with others. This spring, a group of third-year Applied Theatre students learned how to facilitate interactive, creative workshops with Victoria seniors at the James Bay New Horizons Activity Centre. 

Working under the guidance of Theatre professor Yasmine Kandil, students explored how creative functions can make a difference in the lives of the elderly or their caregivers. Through a series of short workshops, seniors were able to reflect on their backgrounds, celebrate their identities and find community through active creativity; these workshops then culminated in a pair of student performances, each featuring a topic of importance to the seniors with whom they had worked.

Student Lauren Fisher facilitated a workshop surrounding “teenagehood” in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. “We wanted to compare the parallels of teenagers then versus teenagers now,” she explains. “We asked the seniors to remember how they felt when they were younger, and what adversities or external factors may have been in play — like economic hardships or family pressures. For those who were teens in the ’50s, there were things like the aftermath of WWII, the Cold War and clearly defined gender roles.”

One of the creative projects was to ask the seniors to draw a place where they felt safe as teens — their bedroom, say, or backyard. Another project involved the seniors offering advice to Fisher while she role-played a 2024 teenager. 

“What was most valuable for me was having such open dialogue between such different generations,” says Fisher, who has no living grandparents. “I think a lot of seniors feel like they’re so separate from people today, so this was like involving them in a conversation with modern society. It was very cool because we got to learn from them while they learned from us. It was all very beneficial!”

Student award honours northern roots

by | Aug 1, 2024 | Alumni, Award, donor, indigenous, Writing

Sarah de Leeuw

Writing with a sense of place is a core teaching in our Department of Writing: our connection with the land can not only inspire us but also be a source of creativity in our life and works. The connection between health and the arts is also essential, either as part of a holistic sense of wellness or as a way of helping us emotionally navigate difficult times. 

Celebrated alumna Dr. Sarah de Leeuw clearly had all that in mind when she created the Skeena Award in Creative Writing, which specifically supports Indigenous or women undergraduate students who have either grown up or spent the majority of their lives in rural and northern communities in BC (or Canada), and have a focus on poetry or creative nonfiction.

Now a professor with UNBC’s Northern Medical Program and UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, as well as a Canada Research Chair in Humanities and Health Inequities, Sarah de Leeuw created the Skeena Award in honour of her parents — both UVic alumni themselves — who raised her in northern BC near the Skeena River. A member of the Royal Society of Canada and the director of UNBC’s Health Arts Research Centre, de Leeuw teaches in the areas of anti-colonialism and health humanities. She is also an award-
winning writer, having won a BC & Yukon Book Prize for her poetry, the CBC Literary Award for her creative nonfiction (twice), and a Western Magazine Gold Award for her essay about murdered and missing Indigenous women in northern BC. 

Given all that, it’s hard to image anyone more suitable for the Skeena Award than current recipient Jaime Rogers — a mature Indigenous woman who, after many years working, came to UVic to pursue poetry and creative writing. “To study art has long been an aspiration of mine — though one that seemed out of reach, having grown up in a small, northern community with limited access,” says Rogers. “To pursue the arts at UVic was a brave choice, made easier by this generosity.” 

It’s connections like these that continue to inspire our donors, and help create a community of support for our students.