Uplifting Indigenous voices on Giving Tuesday

by | Dec 1, 2025 | Alumni, Award, donor, indigenous, Writing

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 Faculty of Fine Arts is raising funds to honour and celebrate Indigenous voices through the sxʷiʔe ̕m “To Tell A Story” Indigenous Writers & Storytellers Series.

About the series

Created by acclaimed Métis poet and Department of Writing professor Gregory Scofield in 2023, this annual series is an inspiring way of uplifting Indigenous literary achievements and engaging with our local community of writers and readers. To date, the sxʷiʔe ̕m series has featured a mix of Writing alumni (Syilx Okanagan multidisciplinary author Jeannette Armstrong, award-winning WSÁNEC poet Philip Kevin Paul) and guests (Icelandic/Red River Métis poet Jónína Kirton and Cree author Joseph Kakwinokansum).

“My goal is to honour the nations on whose territory we live, and to celebrate and honour the writers and storytellers in our communities,” says Scofield.

Join us in uplifting Indigenous voices with this important series on Giving Tuesday!

UVic actually has 25 causes to choose from, ranging from the food bank to experiential learning and emergency bursaries — but know that whichever fund you choose to support will have a lasting impact on campus and beyond. Every single dollar counts!

Two students win 2025’s Community Impact Awards

by | Nov 26, 2025 | Alumni, Award, donor, School of Music, Theatre, Undergraduate

Sophie Hillstrom (left) with Dean Allana Lindgren and Sage Easton-Levy

Congratulations 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 Sage Easton-Levy — each of whom receives $1,000 for their work with local community organizations.

Each was chosen from a field of applicants and selected by a juried committee based on their nomination packages. The awards were presented live as part of the annual Greater Victoria Regional Arts Awards gala on November 26. “The recipients of these awards are definitely talents to watch,” says Fine Arts Dean Allana Lindgren. “Over the past five years, it’s been exciting for us to see previous winners further their creative achievements locally, with some continuing their artistic development as graduate students farther afield.”

“Winning one of the Student Impact Awards is a great honor,” says Sophie. “I always enjoyed being an active member of the arts community in Victoria and never expected to be recognized for it . . . I’m incredibly grateful to all who have contributed and made it possible for me to win this award. It is truly incredible.”

“I’m incredibly appreciative and excited by this opportunity,” Sage says. “This award is not only financially helpful as a student but speaks to the recognition that art and theatre are important and beneficial to communities as a whole.”

Alumni winners at the 2025 GVRAAs included Kathleen Greenfield and Ingrid Hansen for their work with SNAFU Dance Theatre, and Tiffany Tjosvold for her work with Embrace Arts. 

Essential additions to the community

A second-year theatre student at UVic with the goal of obtaining her MFA, Sage Easton-Levy earned her prize for her work as director of the Sooke Youth Theatre Company — specifically for their 2024 production of Disney’s Newsies Jr., but her involvement with the company goes back to 2019. As artistic director, choreographer and costume designer — or often all three — Sage has been described as both “the backbone and the fire” behind 13 different productions.

As board member Melanie Nelson points out I the nomination package, “Sage’s impact has been nothing short of extraordinary. Since joining the company, her growth as a director has been evident in the increasing quality of our productions — not only to myself as both a board member and a parent of a participating child, but also to the wider audience and our cast members themselves. Sage has a rare ability to identify and showcase each child’s unique strengths. Her productions shine not only because of her talent but also because she fosters an environment where young performers can thrive and feel valued. It is truly special to witness Sage’s work.”

Music’s Sophie Hillstrom is recognized not only for her work as the Student Director with the Early Music Society of the Islands during their recent 40th anniversary season but also for her enthusiastic “I can do anything I put my mind to” attitude. As EMSI’s Student Director, Sophie participated in board meetings, volunteered at concerts, drove performers to hotels, connected with audiences and donors, helped plan media engagement strategies, and organized outreach to other UVic students and professors.

As Society president Joanne Whitehead notes, “Sophie has demonstrated a keen interest in engaging her fellow students — and the community at large — in the wonderful sounds of early music. As an active participant in all aspects of the Society’s workings, Sophie is developing a strong sense of the importance of the social context required to support a thriving arts scene, alongside her growth as a performer of baroque music. I am confident that she will become a strong positive contributor not just to the early music world, but also to the broader music and arts ecosystem.”

About Sage Easton-Levy

Sage is a second-year theatre student at UVic with the goal of obtaining her MFA in directing. She recently moved to Victoria from Sooke, which she’s called home for over 10 years. Sage has been a director and choreographer for the Sooke Youth Theatre Company since 2018, enabling her to follow her passion of working with children in performance.

In addition to her work with SYTC, Sage also volunteers with the Sooke Harbour Players as secretary of the board, as well having recently directed her first adult-cast show, Frankenstein, with the group; she was also recently onstage for the second time with VOS at the McPherson Playhouse in their production of Legally Blonde.

Sage is profoundly grateful to be honoured for her staged production of Newsies with this award and the ability to encourage and uplift youth performers and curate a positive experience showcasing theatre in her town.

“Connecting and networking in the greater arts community is so important,” she says. “There are plenty of opportunities off-campus and, in a city like Victoria, there is a lot of crossover in these fields. I’ve made some wonderful friendships and memories being involved in many groups by performing, volunteering and reaching out.”

Immediate future plans for her include directing and choreographing SYTC’s production of Grease: School Edition in January 2026, before mounting Singin’ in the Rain in June. “I would also love to get back onstage, as I am equally enthusiastic about acting,” she says. “I’m very excited for the prospects ahead!”

About Sophie Hillstrom

Before moving to Victoria to attend UVic, Sophie grew up in nearby Seattle and graduated in June 2025 with a Bachelor of Music in Musical Arts. Currently, she is continuing her involvement in the Victoria music community, teaching, performing and volunteering. She continues to serve on the board for the Early Music Society of the Islands, ushering at concerts, sharing her wisdom, putting up posters and doing anything she can to help cultivate a community of early music lovers in Greater Victoria.

“As a student, it’s quite easy to get swept up in everything happening on campus and forget there is a world outside of UVic that is also interesting, informative and fun,” says Sophie. “But one of the greatest benefits for students being involved in an off-campus community is simply getting to interact with a wider net of people — especially for a niche interest like early music . . . I’ve been meeting hundreds of people who all have unique perspectives and a love of early music, which is incredibly special.”

Future plans include continuing to serve on the board of EMSI and teaching strings with Harmony Project Sooke. She also teaches private students, and is freelancing as a performing violist. “I intend on continuing my education in either a performance certificate program or a Master’s of Music in Viola Performance,” she says. “All I really hope for my future is that it is full of inspiration, love, and my ‘I can do anything I put my mind to’ attitude!”

About the awards

Fine Arts has been the city’s artistic incubator for well over 50 years, helping to produce creative and scholarly talents across the cultural spectrum. Our campus community continues to contribute to the arts locally, nationally and internationally — with many of our students, alumni and teaching faculty now working in forms and mediums undreamt of when we were established in 1969. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, our Community Impact Awards put the spotlight on current students who are reaching beyond their full-time studies.

Since 2021, we’ve awarded over $15,000 to 13 students from across Fine Arts for projects ranging from murals, theatre productions, music performances, art shows, curatorial projects and more, all within the regional boundaries of Greater Victoria (Sidney to Sooke).

As the name implies, the Community Impact Awards highlight the efforts of undergraduate Fine Arts students who have demonstrated an outstanding effort by engaging with Victoria’s wider creative community over and above their course work.

Read about our previous winners here: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021.

Nominations for next year’s Community Impact Awards will be live in early 2026. Stay tuned to the Fine Arts Instagram account for the announcement.

Visual Arts MFA student earns Audain Award

by | Oct 6, 2025 | Award, donor, Graduate, Visual Arts

Edith Skeard (centre) receiving the Audain Award

Congratulations 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 $100,000 Audain Prize (this year awarded to BC-based Dane-Zaa sculptor Brian Jungen), the Audain Travel Awards were established in 2019 to carve new pathways for student artists by supporting access to career-enriching international art experiences.

Skeard will use the award to travel to a month-long Sound Lab residency in Struer/Copenhagen for an exploration of sound art within a sculptural context.

“I feel very grateful to receive this award and very privileged to represent UVic at the Audain Prize,” says Skeard. “Denmark has a really vibrant experimental sound-art culture, and this residency is a way to deepen my practice within both sound and sculpture, and to pull my practice into an international space.”

Visual Arts chair Megan Dickie says, “Skeard produces multi-component installations with visual elements, sculpture, light and sound. They seek to create immersive environments that offer the viewer opportunities for transcendent experiences. In this work, the environment around us is transformed in ways that remind us that our own interpretations and experiences are like shadows of the real world.”

Skeard with Megan Dickie (left) 

Edie Skeard is a multimedia artist, woodwind player, and composer working primarily within sound art and sculpture. Their work focuses on building installation spaces through the intersection of light, sound, people, duration and tactility.

They are interested in collecting and collaging field recordings and improvisational sound, how sound and light creates/erases spatial boundaries, contemporary sculpture, tenderly noticing their environment, future archives, dreams, and the weaving together of different sensory mediums. They engage playfully with materials to understand the relationships between sound and objects and their ontological implications.

Skeard is our seventh Visual Arts MFA student to receive an Audain Travel Award, and our ongoing partnership with the Audain Foundation also includes the rotating Audain Professorship in Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest and our own contemporary Audain Gallery (established 2010).

Don’t miss Edith Skeard’s October 6-10 solo exhibit in the Visual Arts building’s Audain Gallery, with a public reception running 6-8pm Thursday, October 9. 

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Southam Lecturer explores journalism in polarized times

by | Oct 1, 2025 | donor, Events, Writing

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 and symptom. Journalists are being similarly sorted into opposing camps, reporting starkly different stories to divided audiences even as the industry shrinks.

As this year’s Harvey Stevenson Southam Lecturer, award-winning political journalist Stephen Maher will examine the role reporters play in an increasingly fractured society, arguing that in order to keep faith with a shrinking audience, mainstream journalists need to question their own biases.

All are welcome to hear his free public talk, Journalism in Polarized Times, running from 7-8:30pm Wednesday, October 8 in room A104 of UVic’s Bob Wright Building.

Rise of the algorithm

As Stephen Maher explains, one of the main shifts that has led to the dramatic decline of the mainstream media is the rise of algorithmic social media.

“Before Facebook, everyone consumed their news from outlets with a shared sense of news values. Since the rise of the social platforms, the old outlets lost their monopolistic role as clearing houses for advertising,” he explains. “The platforms took the revenue but don’t fulfill a journalistic function. In order to maximize user attention, the platforms prioritize emotional content —  particularly anger.”

Read more of Maher’s insights on current journalism in this October 6 interview in The Tyee, written by Writing professor Deborah Campbell.  

Maher well knows of which he speaks: he’s been writing about Canadian politics since 1989 for the likes of the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Maclean’s, Walrus, Time and the Chronicle Herald, Postmedia News, Times of London and others. He has often set the agenda on Parliament Hill, covering political corruption, electoral wrongdoing, misinformation and human rights abuses.

But putting emotion ahead of facts has led to an increase in what sociologists call “affective polarization,” says Maher, where people have become more intensely identified with their partisan community . . . and hostile to other communities.

Misinformation & regionalism

Add to this both the pandemic, when misinformation became more widespread, and a sense of regionalism — especially a rural-urban divide — and you’ve got the groundwork for what he describes as “a powerful emotional reaction to what many people see as an assault on traditional values.”

While this has created a ground-up phenomenon not being led by political parties, Maher says it’s clear that vote-seeking politicians are taking advantage of this shift in the opinion environment, making Canadian politics more ideological and less traditionally oriented. Apply that to the media landscape, and Maher feels news outlets are now able to tailor their content to narrower communities, helping to intensify this divisive process — think Fox News or True North News — so that Canadians increasingly find themselves in “information silos”.

But, he warns, “we should note that journalists, like other Canadians, undergo this same processes as non-journalists.”

The annual Harvey Stevenson Southam Lectureship — named after UVic alumnus Harvey Southam — is made possible by a gift from one of the country’s leading publishing families. 

Inaugural JRSP residency showcases new sculptural work

by | Sep 24, 2025 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, donor, Visual Arts

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. The inaugural recipient of this new creative collaboration, Humston is just completing her six-week residency at the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park on Hornby Island.

“It’s always hard to imagine what may come from working in a new place,” says Humston, who has held a number of international residencies. “As an artist, the JRSP presents a surprise physicality to me — even though my resulting work may not be large, I feel like it has taken a lot of energy and space to produce, which reflects on the expansive nature of the park itself.”

Selected in May 2025 from a field on nearly 60 international artists to be the first UVic/JRSP Artist-Scholar, Humston has spent her time at the sculpture park developing new work combining themes involving music, synesthesia and humanity’s entanglement with the natural world. The resulting exhibit will open with an artist talk starting at 4 p.m. Thursday, October 9, in room 103 of the Fine Arts Building, followed by a 5 p.m. exhibit opening in UVic’s A. Wilfrid Johns Gallery (MacLaurin Building A-wing). The exhibit will run daily through October 14, with Humston also engaging with Fine Arts classes.

Humston has been working with tangible aspects of Hornby Island’s natural environment as a sculptural medium, as well as more traditional tools like graphite and pigments, while also recording ambient sounds integrating Rubinoff’s monumental steel sculptures found across the [note size] site.

“Walking the fields and forested areas, drawing and photographing his sculptures, working in Jeffrey’s barn studio and reading his texts have all been deeply inspiring,” she says.

JRSP curator Karun Koernig notes that, “Humston’s work quietly co-mingles the natural and human worlds. Particularly compelling for us was her ambition to integrate a soundscape into her residency, resonating deeply with Rubinoff’s profound connection to music.”

Previous residency work by Siobhan Humston 

In addition to creating new work, Humston says highlights of her residency have included learning about Rubinoff’s creative life and spending an extended time at the park itself. “The combination of being on the land at this time of year, listening to the ravens conversing, seeing these massive, beautiful sculptures at different times of day in changing weather . . . it’s all been so exciting and nourishing.”

Humston’s art has been exhibited in over 70 solo and group exhibitions in commercial, artist-run and public galleries, and is held in private and corporate collections in England, Europe, Australia and North America. She has a studio on the shores of Lake Huron in Ontario.

New competition prize for music students

by | Aug 19, 2025 | Alumni, Award, donor, School of Music

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 113 years and that lifelong love of music has now become the foundation for the School of Music’s new $40,000 Eleanor Gray Memorial Piano & Voice Duo Competition Prize — an addition to the overall $2 million bequest, created by donor Douglas Gray (LLB) to honour his mother. 

Eleanor Gray was a talented pianist, singer and Royal (then Toronto) Conservatory of Music alumna who ensured that all five of her children were also part of the RCM piano program. A lifelong singer and pianist, Eleanor remarkably sang in a choir and played piano for church services up to the age of 100, stopping only before her passing at 101. 

Beginning in the 2025/26 academic year and running through 2028, the Eleanor Gray Prize will be earmarked for School of Music students who take part in an annual art song competition for piano and voice, with cash prizes awarded for the duo winners in both first ($1,500 each) and second place ($1,000 each).

A portion of this bequest will also go towards the existing donor-funded Collaborative Piano Endowment, which ensures that our 63 Steinway pianos remain concert-ready — a huge benefit to our status as the only All-Steinway School in Canada, thanks to the efforts of critically acclaimed pianist and professor Arthur Rowe. “Maintaining our excellent instruments is crucial, so these funds will help ensure the longevity and excellence of our Steinways,” says Rowe.

Marion Newman leads a voice recital (photo: Beth Bingham)

A piano and voice competition prize is ideal for our School of Music, given the enviable reputation of our Voice program — anchored by the likes of tenor Benjamin Butterfield, soprano Anne Grimm, mezzo-soprano Marion Newman and acclaimed vocal coach Kinza Tyrrell, plus an ever-increasing number of alumni stars like Isaiah Bell, Josh Lovell and Newman herself.   

Had Eleanor Gray been a student a century later, her infectious enthusiasm, intellect and energy would have made her an ideal student at our School of Music. Given her deep appreciation for piano and voice duets, as well as her encouraging attitude and natural caring and warmth for others, we’re sure Eleanor would appreciate this new competition prize. 

A longtime resident of Victoria who truly loved life and lived it to the fullest, Eleanor was always young at heart and was full of joy. She now rests in Ross Bay Cemetery, ensuring her spirit remains close to the city she so loved.