Across Lands & Waters CERC gathering

The Qiaqsutuq installation will be on view at Across Lands and Waters

Victoria may not immediately come to mind as the obvious location for an international gathering of 60 circumpolar and Pacific artists and curators, but that’s one of the advantages that comes with Dr Heather Igloliorte now calling UVic home.

As the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Decolonial & Transformational Indigenous Art Practices, Igloliorte has held this prestigious eight-year, $8-million position in UVic’s Department of Visual Arts since November 2023 — and, out of 45 current CERC chair holders, remains the only artist/curator in a field dominated by hard sciences.

Running April 29-May 1, Across Lands and Waters will be the first major gathering of Igloliorte’s CERC network of mostly Indigenous artists, scholars, museum/gallery directors, curators, students and community members. Over three days, participants will gather for lively discussions, gallery visits, land-based activities and performances, sharing current research and projects while making plans for future collaborations. They’ll also engage with the public via Igloliorte’s new Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab.

Noting that her attendees are coming from nearly every time zone in the world, Igloliorte feels Across Lands and Waters offers an unprecedented opportunity to connect in-person. Representing a wide variety of nations and cultures — including Inuk, Kanaka ‘Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian), Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw, Sami, Sāmoan/Persian/Cantonese, Sugpiaq, Ts’msyen and Zuni Pueblo — participants will be coming from as far afield as Norway, Greenland, Rankin Inlet, New Mexico and Honolulu.

“Victoria is nestled at the center of both the Pacific and the North, from the west coast of North America on up to Alaska, then across the Arctic and around the circumpolar world, but also over to Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand and Samoa,” says Igloliorte. “I have a large network of colleagues and artists I’ve been working with for a long time — partners who are working and thinking across Indigenous cultures and learning from each other in order to move towards this place of transformation and decolonization.”

While attending, Across Lands and Waters invited guests will engage in Pecha Kucha-style research presentations; an “On The Land” session focusing on the removal of invasive species and replanting of native plants; a site visit to the studio of UVic Impact Chair Carey Newman; a visit to Island Timber salvage operation, which provides timber to Indigenous artists; a tour of new Legacy Gallery exhibit, GEORGE CLUTESI: ašaʔap / ʔaapii / ʕc̓ik  / aaʔaksuqƛ / ʔiimisʔap; plus performances and storytelling by Indigenous artists, with an opening from Chief David Knox at Mungo Martin House.

Public participation

Across Lands and Waters culminates in a free public event on Thursday, May 1, featuring panel sessions from 1-5pm (Phillip T Young Recital Hall, MacLaurin B-Wing) and a reception with art installations and interactive projects from 5-7pm (Visual Arts building). During this time, the public is invited to:

  • engage with Carey Newman’s new Witness Blanket VR project
  • explore Qiaqsutuq, a multimedia sculptural installation which offers an Inuit perspective on climate change, as told Greek Chorus-style from the perspectives of five gigantic Arctic animals or beings
  • watch 3D Sami films via VR headsets
  • participate in a group stop-motion short film project
  • hear panels on “Sovereignty & the Arts”, “Institutional Practices”, “Resistance & Transformation” and “These Lands & Waters” (see UVic Calendar link for details)
  • view the exhibition Continuum, showcasing work by past, present and future Indigenous students from UVic’s Visual Arts program (co-curated by Alexandra Nordstrom and Jasmine Sihra, Concordia University PhD students)
  • enjoy a reception with live music and light refreshments.

Carey Newman’s Witness Blanket VR 

About Heather Igloliorte

Canada’s first Inuk art historian to hold a doctoral degree, Igloliorte has developed a well-deserved reputation as an internationally renowned curator whose work has positioned circumpolar Indigenous arts and knowledge at the centre of global exhibition practices. In addition to her teaching duties, her other current projects include curating Newfoundland’s international Bonavista Biennale (August-Sept) and being on the jury for both the upcoming Salt Spring National Art Prize (Sept-Oct) and Yukon Art Prize (Oct).

As UVic’s only CERC, Igloliorte is focused on advancing reconciliation through the transformative power of art and innovative exhibition practices. “Indigenous people don’t necessarily have access to the same cutting-edge technologies that others do, just like they lack access to museums and galleries in the North,” she says. She is supporting a new generation of students, researchers, educators, curators and artists to drive change through artistic practice.

As such, her Taqsiqtuut Research Creation lab is focused on not only sharing practical digital skills but also the creation of exhibitions, the training and mentoring of students and youth, and the development of new policies and best practices for institutions that engage with Indigenous art and artists.

Heather Igloliorte

New Phoenix season announced

While the 2024/25 academic season is coming to a close, it’s the ideal time to pick up a subscription to the 2025/26 mainstage season at UVic’s Phoenix Theatre. This year, we saw a remarkable season highlighted by productions of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Killing Game and Twelfth Night, plus bonus shows like Eyes of the Beast and im:print 2024 — let’s see what’s coming up next year!

The season kicks off with The Salty Scent of Home (October 9-18). Directed and created by Theatre chair Yasmine Kandil, this powerful and celebratory theatre performance brings to life the stories of six newcomer immigrants and refugees, capturing their journeys as they navigate the challenges and embrace the rewards of immigration and settlement.

Interwoven with these personal stories are poignant and lyrical poems inspired by the migratory patterns of birds — symbolizing freedom, resilience and tenacity. This production is a moving tribute to the strength found in community and the universal desire to find a place to call home.*

Following that is the American classic Our Town (November 6-22). Led by guest director Soheil Parsa, this timeless Pulitzer Prize-winning classic by Thornton Wilder still captures the beauty and fragility of everyday life. Set in the small town of Grover’s Corners, the play follows the lives of its residents — ordinary people experiencing love, loss and the passage of time. Guided by the omniscient Stage Manager, audiences witness the joys and sorrows of the Gibbs and Webb families as they navigate childhood, marriage and mortality.

Despite being first performed in 1938, Our Town remains a poignant, heartwarming and deeply moving exploration of human awareness and the often-overlooked beauty of everyday moments.

 

Spring 2026 sees the staging of Sami Ibrahim’s A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain (February 12-21), directed by MFA candidate Sophia Treanor. In a land where myth and reality intertwine, we follow Elif, a young immigrant whose days are spent shearing sheep—each tuft of wool rising into the sky, forming clouds that bring rain to a distant, wealthy city. But when she becomes a mother, her priorities become clear.

Determined to secure citizenship for her child, she travels to the capital, only to encounter an unforgiving bureaucracy and an immigration system designed to keep her out. A hauntingly beautiful fable of perseverance and sacrifice.

Finally, the season rounds out with Rick Waines’ In My Day * (March 12-21), as directed by former Belfry Theatre artistic director Roy Surette. This  powerful and deeply moving play sheds light on a pivotal chapter in our history: set during the HIV/AIDS crisis, this poignant production celebrates the resilience of diverse communities who came together in extraordinary ways. Through vivid storytelling, richly drawn characters and moments of humour and joy, Victoria-based playwright Rick Waines honours the voices of those who lived, loved and endured during an era marked by loss, fear and stigma.

Actually inspired by a UVic community-based research project, In My Day brings to life the true stories of long-term survivors living with HIV and their caregivers from the first 15 years of the HIV pandemic in British Columbia. Highlighting the experiences of diverse communities — including women, people of colour, Indigenous peoples, trans individuals, and more — it gives voice to those whose perspectives have often been overlooked. “My aim with In My Day was to accurately, without losing meaning, tell the story of the first 15 years of the AIDS pandemic using the testimonies of the participants in a theatrically exciting way,” says Waines.

* The Salty Scent of Home is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded performance, while In My Day is partially supported by SSHRC funding. 

Subscriptions to the 2025-26 Phoenix Theatre season are now on sale for just $51-$68, which lets you choose 3 or 4 plays from our season and save up to 50% off single ticket prices. For more subscription benefits, please see the Phoenix Tickets site

Annual Visual Arts BFA exhibit opens April 11

Once a year — and for one week only — UVic’s entire Visual Arts building gets transformed into Vancouver Island’s largest pop-up gallery of emerging artists! Don’t miss your chance to see If Traces Remain, an exciting exhibit of contemporary art by 35 graduating Bachelor of Fine Arts students: expect an inspiring mix of work ranging from painting, sculpture and photography to digital, installations and more.

Please join us for the opening reception from 7-10pm Friday, April 11, where you can meet the student artists, view their work, chat with faculty members and celebrate the creative accomplishments of this year’s graduating Visual Arts class. The free exhibit then runs 10am-6pm daily to April 20 throughout the Visual Arts building.

We’re also thrilled that UVic’s Alumni Association is hosting a special reception and viewing for the exhibit from 7-9pm Saturday, April 12, which is open to all UVic alumni!

Orion Lectures: Jerry Ropson Artist, Writer, Educator, Community Organizer

The Orion
Lecture Series in Fine Arts

Through the generous support of the Orion Fund in Fine Arts, the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Victoria, is pleased to present:

Jerry Ropson


Artist, Writer, Educator, Community Organizer

7:30 pm Wednesday , March 26
Room A162, UVic’s Visual Arts Building

Free & open to all
Presented by UVic’s Visual Arts Department.
For more information, please email visualarts@uvic.ca

Through the generous support of the Orion Fund in Fine Arts, UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts is pleased to present Jerry Ropson, Visiting Artist. All are welcome to attend this free event.

 

“Preface for a Liturgy (Blood Ledger)”, 2021
Site-specific video installation with hand-sewn textiles, carpenter pencils & brass plumb bobs. Photo by Brian Ricks

ABOUT THE ARTIST

 Jerry Ropson is an artist, writer, educator and community organizer raised in the Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) outport re-settlement of Pollards Point. In acknowledging the settler and indigenous history of his community, he combines images, objects, text and narrative to focus an artistic practice within site-specific installation and performative storytelling. Having exhibited throughout Canada and abroad, he makes class-conscious work often seeking non-traditional sites and outcomes. 

Ropson holds a BFA (2001) from Memorial University: Grenfell Campus, and an MFA (2009) in Studio Arts: Fibres and Material Practices from Concordia University. Ropson was listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2016 and 2018. He has been awarded grants from The Canada Council for the Arts, The New Brunswick Art Board, The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and The Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council. He has participated in artist residencies at The Banff Centre, The Atlantic Centre for the Arts, St. Michael’s Printshop, Fogo Island Arts, NSCAD University, and Union House Arts. Ropson divides his time between rural communities in Ktaqmkuk, and Mi’kma’ki (Sackville, New Brunswick), where he teaches in the Department of Fine Arts at Mount Allison University.

Free and open to the public | Find more at www.events.uvic.ca

For more information on this lecture, please email visualarts@uvic.ca

About the Orion Fund

Established through the generous gift of an anonymous donor, the Orion Fund in Fine Arts is designed to bring distinguished visitors from other parts of Canada—and the world—to the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Fine Arts, and to make their talents and achievements available to faculty, students, staff and the wider Greater Victoria community who might otherwise not be able to experience their work.

The Orion Fund also exists to encourage institutions outside Canada to invite regular faculty members from our Faculty of Fine Arts to be visiting  artists/scholars at their institutions; and to make it possible for Fine Arts faculty members to travel outside Canada to participate in the academic life of foreign institutions and establish connections and relationships with them in order to encourage and foster future exchanges.

Visit our online events calendar at www.events.uvic.ca

Orion Lectures: Michelle Chawla

The Orion
Lecture Series in Fine Arts

Through the generous support of the Orion Fund in Fine Arts, the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Victoria, is pleased to present:

Photo: Christian Lalonde

Michelle Chawla 

Director & CEO, Canada Council for the Arts

A Facilitated Conversation

4:00 pm Thursday, March 13
Philip T Young Recital Hall, MacLaurin B-Wing 
 
Free & open to all

Presented by UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts

For more information, please email fineasst@uvic.ca

Through the generous support of the Orion Fund in Fine Arts, UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts is pleased to present Michelle Chawla, Director and CEO of Canada Council for the Arts. All are welcome to attend this free event.

ABOUT THE TALK

We are excited to present this special facilitated conversation with Michelle Chawla, current Director and CEO of Canada Council for the Arts, hosted by Visual Arts chair Megan Dickie and organized by Dr. Allana Lindgren, Dean of Fine Arts.

As the political landscape continues to fragment, Michelle Chawla feels it’s time to stop talking about an “arts crisis” and tell its impact story instead: $60 billion in GDP contributions, 850,000 cultural jobs nation-wide and an enviable legacy as cultural ambassadors worldwide. Given the current economic and political context, both here at home and south of the border, there’s never been a more important time to highlight the impact and relevance of the diverse and vibrant Canadian arts scene.

While at UVic, Michelle Chawla will also be speaking with local arts leaders, faculty members, university colleagues and attending performances in both Theatre and the School of Music.  

You can watch a recording of the talk here: 

 

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Michelle Chawla has led the Canada Council for the Arts as Director and CEO since June 2023. Under Michelle’s leadership, the organization ensures that almost 90% of its annual government funding goes directly to the arts sector. This includes support to over 3,500 artists and over 1,900 arts organizations in 2,171 communities across the country, whose work strengthens the economy, fosters unity and a sense of belonging, and inspires new perspectives. 

With nearly 30 years in the field of public arts and culture funding, Michelle has extensive leadership expertise in public policy, inter-governmental relations, governance, corporate communications, and major transformation initiatives. Prior to her appointment, she was the Director General of Strategy, Public Affairs and Arts Engagement, responsible for the executive leadership and direction of a wide range of functions, including communications, strategic planning, research, international coordination, and cultural diplomacy. She was also previously Secretary-General for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. 

Michelle is fluently bilingual and comes from a Québécois and Punjabi background. 

She is deeply committed to making sure the arts are a vibrant part of Canadians’ lives in communities big and small, rural and remote, urban and suburban, from coast to coast to coast. 

About the Orion Fund

Established through the generous gift of an anonymous donor, the Orion Fund in Fine Arts is designed to bring distinguished visitors from other parts of Canada—and the world—to the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Fine Arts, and to make their talents and achievements available to faculty, students, staff and the wider Greater Victoria community who might otherwise not be able to experience their work.

The Orion Fund also exists to encourage institutions outside Canada to invite regular faculty members from our Faculty of Fine Arts to be visiting  artists/scholars at their institutions; and to make it possible for Fine Arts faculty members to travel outside Canada to participate in the academic life of foreign institutions and establish connections and relationships with them in order to encourage and foster future exchanges.

Visit our online events calendar at www.events.uvic.ca

2025 Lehan Lecture: d’bi.young anitafrika

When it comes to activism and the arts, it’s hard to think of anyone more suitable than d’bi.young anitafrika. The author of 12 plays, seven albums and four poetry collections, they embody, create and teach decolonial performance praxis on a global scale.

The third presenter in our annual Lehan Family Activism & the Arts Series, d’bi.young anitafrika is a self-described “multi-hyphenic artist” — they are an award-winning poet-playwright-performer, director-dramaturge and activist-scholar. In addition to being a sessional instructor with UVic’s Theatre department, they currently serve as lead faculty for training programs at Soulpepper and Obsidian theatre companies, and at universities globally such as Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance and London South Bank University in the UK. Most recently awarded a $242,500 theatre archives grant, d’bi.young’s groundbreaking PhD research addresses fundamental research gaps in Black womxn’s theatre.

“The central idea in all of that work is, how I can support myself and the people I’m in community with in liberating ourselves?” they explain. “And then the second question is, what is liberation? My work is about creating the container to have that conversation with all practitioners. I’m most interested in creating an environment where we can be in circle with each other, investigating what it means to be liberated, emancipated. What resources and tools do we have available to us, and what do we have to create?”

In their Feb 25 talk, d’bi will connect their performance practice to the Anitafrika Method, exploring how they “decoliberate” — embodying liberation through decolonial action — in personhood, practice and pedagogy through theatre.

“My work is rooted in the African philosophy of Ubuntu,” they explain. “Essentially, Ubuntu means ‘I am, because you are, because we are’ — it’s quite simple and extremely complex at the same time. It points to the connectivity and symbiosis and interdependence of our existence, not only with each other as human beings, but with everything that exists on the planet.”

The Anitafrika Method — a nurturant Black-queer-feminist pedagogy of transformation — offers global arts practitioners an intersectional framework of knowing, doing and being.

Raised in activism

Born and raised in Jamaica by dub poetry pioneer Anita Stewart, d’bi came to Canada at 15 and was ushered into Toronto’s vibrant community of Jamaican Canadian artists / activists / educators / scholars.

“Art, poetry and theater for the liberation of people is a philosophical perspective that was a part of my foundational formative years,” they explain. “When I moved to Canada, I was introduced to communities here that were working on similar ideas, but also working with Indigenous people and disabled communities. Linking this anti-oppressive philosophy together was not difficult.”

But, after enrolling at Soulpepper Theatre Academy, they were disappointed to discover that their training would predominantly be in the tradition of the Western canon. “At the time it one of the top theater academies in the country . . . but teaching us about anybody else was not a priority,” d’bi recalls. “I was really quite surprised and disappointed and actually decided to resign— which, looking back on it now, was some serious radical action!”

Even more radical was their next decision: to start their own theatre school. “I was a talented, intelligent artist interested in learning about art from a global perspective but there was nowhere for me to go, so I decided to establish a training program that would center not only the practitioner but also the idea of world theater. And in doing that, I started working on a training methodology that has now evolved into what I call a ‘critical dub pedagogy’ that I developed throughout the world.”

Watch a video of d’bi’s 2025 performance/talk here:

Developing the Anitafrika Method

They then began moving around the world, teaching residencies with global practitioners in order to develop their own Anitafrika Method — which has now evolved into their soon-to-be complete PhD work and the development of a critical pedagogy that institutions can use to develop a new form of theater training.

“We’re talking about 20 years of work to develop a new system of theater training, and I now run decolonial training programs around the world,” they explain. “Once I finish my PhD, I’ll be establishing Canada’s first Black theater school rooted in critical dub pedagogy, in Toronto. This is where the journey has led me.”

The timing is ideal, as they’re well aware. “What are the chances that I would have started working on something 20-odd years ago — which might have been too soon at the time, but actually needed two decades to grow and develop into this new moment . . . which is exactly the right time!”

Working for change

With their primary mode of work in the performing arts as a playwright, actor, storyteller and poet — the Feb 25 Lehan Lecture will also feature a book launch and signing of their latest collection, dubbin poetry: the collected poems of d’bi.young anitafrika — they see their extension into education as a natural evolution.

“I design curricula looking at how we can develop theater training that speaks to a desire for emancipation and liberation,” they explain. “That is activism, but it’s also a way of existing on the planet: it’s everything that I do and am and create. The label of activism has its own traditions but, from my approach, this way of being, knowing and doing is just living. This is what living is for me: this is what it means to be an alive human being.”

Energy and action

They also feel Victoria, and UVic, is an ideal place to be exploring these issues — if properly engaged.

“Victoria is actually more suited than many other places in the country for this conversation,” they note. “With the surrounding land, mountains and water, Victoria has the energetic support for this. Toronto, for example, is energetically complicated — it’s so commercially focused that, for an artist, it’s really difficult to have the mental space to develop and grow.  A big part of my training is connecting the self with the land . . . there’s room here to have an ecological grounding, to support that conversation about our future in a time of climate change.

“I think artists and practitioners from all over the country and the world would come here, if they were invited,” they conclude. “You can have a conversation here with artists about their role in in systems change, about their relationship to the planet and decolonization. If UVic was interested in being that place, it could be a pretty groundbreaking place that signals to the rest of the nation that we have a model for moving forward, that we have a meeting place to invite folks to come and have these conversations.”

“But the difference between a conversation and actualization is action . . . and in that action alone is this embodiment of Ubuntu: I am, because you are, because we are.”