Visiting Artist: Jessica Stockholder

by | Sep 25, 2024 | Art History & Visual Studies, Events, Visual Arts

Our ongoing Visiting Artist series continues with Chicago-based artist & UVic alumna Jessica Stockholder, who will present a free illustrated public talk at 7:30pm Wed, Oct 2, in room A162 of UVic’s Visual Arts building.

Born in Seattle, Jessica Stockholder has exhibited widely in museums and galleries internationally. She graduated from UVic’s Visual Art department (BFA 1982) before receiving her MA from Yale (’85) and is currently chair of the University of Chicago’s Department of Visual Art. Her sprawling constructions have played a crucial role in expanding the dialogue between sculpture and painting.

Stockholder merges seemingly disparate, everyday objects, such as lampposts, car parts, hoses, containers, extension cords, lumber, car parts, carpets and furniture. Drawing attention to these ordinary materials, she engages the sensuality and pleasure evoked by colour and formal order in an effort to call attention to the edges of understanding.

Her use of colour is also pivotal as she orchestrates an intersection of pictorial and physical space as she probes how meaning derives from physicality. Stockholder maps out a constructed world informed by numerous artistic traditions, including abstract expressionism, color field painting, installation art, and minimalism.

 

UVic retires 215+ memorial banners, raises Survivor Flag

by | Sep 25, 2024 | Art History & Visual Studies, Faculty, indigenous, Visual Arts

On May 27, 2021, Canada watched in horror as news spread about the confirmation of more than 215 unmarked graves on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, located on the lands of the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation. This discovery was a painful reminder of the ongoing history of colonial violence inflicted by Canadian educational institutions—institutions that have long been complicit in their harm towards Indigenous peoples.

Closer to home, at UVic, the response across the campus community was an overwhelming: What can we do? How can we support Indigenous students, staff and faculty, as well as Elders, knowledge keepers and others from our community? How do we recognize the children who never came home and the Survivors who continue to be impacted by their past experiences at residential schools?

Very quickly, the campus came together to create an action plan, including lowering the university flags, lighting a Sacred Fire and installing memorial banners on light standards across the UVic campus designed by UVic Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices and Fine Arts professor, Kwakwaka’wakw/Coast Salish artist Hayalthkin’geme, Carey Newman. The artwork, titled “Hearts and Hands”, was a design to honour the children who never returned home from the residential schools.

“Universities aren’t often known for their nimbleness; however, UVic’s response to this discovery was an example of what’s possible when everyone is pulling in the same direction. Frankly, the response was refreshing,” says Newman.

Moving from initial response to committed action

After flying for more than three years, the 215+ banners began showing signs of wear and tear, and it was time to consider replacements or to look for space for a permanent recognition on campus. During the 2023 Orange Shirt Day ceremony, Survivor and Elder Klith-wii-taa, Dr. Barney Williams, gifted President and Vice-Chancellor Kevin Hall with a Survivors’ Flag, which will now have a permanent home outside the Mearns-McPherson Library and adjacent to the area where previous National Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day ceremonies were held.

The flag will permanently honour the strength, courage and perseverance of Survivors who fought with determination to carry on their cultures, traditions and languages and knowledge systems for generations to come. Now, the 215+ banners will come down to make room for the installation of new Indigenous artwork by internationally renowned Lək̓ʷəŋən master carver and artist Dr. Butch Dick.

“The 215+ banners were never intended to be a long-term visual acknowledgement of truth and reconciliation,” says Newman. “They were part of an immediate and collective reaction to a moment in our history. With the raising of the Survivors’ Flag on campus, the work of the banners has concluded, and I like to think that they held space until this more permanent response could be found.”

Read the full UVic News story here

Welcoming Lauren McCall to Music

by | Sep 23, 2024 | Faculty, Research, School of Music

The School of Music is thrilled to welcome Dr. Lauren McCall as assistant research professor in composition and music technology. Dr. McCall will join our school on Jan. 1, 2025.

A composer and music educator from Atlanta, Georgia, McCall received her PhD in Music Technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology and her MFA in Music Composition from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her compositions have been performed around North America and Europe, including her piece for chamber ensemble and mobile phone orchestra, Contour Unveiled, and her composition Rain Musicfor baritone and piano. Along with composing, McCall plays classical music and jazz on woodwind instruments and piano.

With specializations in music and computer science education platforms, extended reality interactive systems for music, as well as graphic and digital music notation, McCall will bring exciting new and creative energy to the School, with the skills to make pedagogical and research contributions across disciplines. “Dr. McCall will enrich our programming with her creative compositional work, her research in virtual and augmented reality, her inclusive approaches to pedagogy, as well as her commitment to making music technology more accessible,” says UVic Music Director Alexis Luko. “Lauren is an exciting addition to our faculty.”

McCall is looking forward to working with students in UVic’s community and fostering new collaborative relationships with colleagues. With her diverse background, she hopes to help “spur on new forms of creativity within each discipline for the students and UVic’s program.” In her practice and teachings of how these different areas connect in interesting ways, McCall strives to “encourage exploration of the research, methods, and interconnectivity between these areas and how we can continue growing in knowledge and creativity with them.”

Current projects include a short opera with collaborator, Catherine Yu. The opera adapts Cate’s play Lizard for a variety of formats, from two vocalists and one pianist to two vocalists and a small chamber ensemble, so that it can be promoted to opera organizations with varying instrumentations.

We look forward to welcoming Dr. McCall in 2025!

Writing Faculty Reading Night returns

by | Sep 19, 2024 | Events, Faculty, Research, Writing

There’s only one chance this year to hear UVic’s top authors reading on the same night: don’t miss the Department of Writing‘s annual Faculty Reading Night, running 7pm Wed Sept 25 in room A102 of UVic’s Turpin building.

 

In addition to the first on-campus appearance by new faculty member Wayde Compton, you can hear the award-winning likes of writers Deborah Campbell, Marita Dachsel, Kevin Kerr, Kathryn Mockler, Sean Holman, David Leach, Lee Henderson and Gregory Scofield as they read new and current work in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, journalism, playwriting and more.

 

Please note: this event will not be recorded, so live is the only way to see it!

Estate gift highlights All-Steinway anniversary

by | Sep 12, 2024 | Award, donor, Graduate, School of Music, Undergraduate

Minsoo Sohn giving a masterclass at the School of Music (Beth Bingham photo)

Fifteen years ago, the School of Music was named Canada’s first All-Steinway School and, while there are now over 200 All-Steinway schools globally, UVic is still the only one in Canada — a significant designation currently being celebrated with both a new $300,000 estate gift and a signature concert series.

“Steinways are recognized worldwide for their excellence and are by far the most preferred concert piano in the world,” says piano professor Arthur Rowe.

But keeping 63 pianos ready for daily student use also requires constant tuning and repairs, which makes the new Martha Cooke Fund so important. Named for the late Public Archives Canada curator, Cooke’s legacy earmarks $200,000 for essential piano maintenance. “These pianos are now 15 years old, so this gift comes to us at a critical time,” says Rowe. “Maintaining our excellent instruments is crucial, so these funds will help ensure the longevity and excellence of our Steinways.”

The Martha Cooke Fund also sets aside a further $100,000 for at least three years of annual concerts and masterclasses with internationally renowned Korean-American pianist Minsoo Sohn, who performed at UVic in both fall 2023 and spring 2024, and offered masterclasses with our students.  

Known for his musical intelligence and masterful virtuosity — qualities that have earned him worldwide acclaim — Sohn’s readings of the works of Rachmaninoff, Bach and Beethoven have placed him among the elite in this repertoire, and the inspired ingenuity of his performances of orchestral repertoire have earned him many accolades.

As the winner of many prestigious competitions and a teacher of renowned pianists himself, Sohn’s concerts and masterclasses demonstrate his own pursuit of musical excellence for the benefit of UVic students. This continues to be an extraordinary partnership that transports audiences to a realm of emotion, virtuosity and musical brilliance.

Minsoo Sohn returns to UVic with a public performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on Oct 7, followed by his latest masterclass on Oct 8.