Distinguished Alumni Awards: Tania Willard

by | Mar 31, 2025 | Alumni, Award, donor, Graduate, indigenous, News, Visual Arts

We congratulate 2025 Presidents’ Alumni Award recipient Tania Willard, a mixed Secwépemc and settler artist whose research intersects with land-based art practices. A graduate of the Department of Visual Arts (BFA, 1998), the work of Kamloops-born Willard activates connection to land, culture and family, centring art as an Indigenous resurgent act, though collaborative projects such as BUSH Gallery and support of language revitalization in Secwépemc communities. 

“I learned a lot about myself in [UVic’s] art program,” she says. “Four years is enough time to decide whether you are dedicated to art or you aren’t. I made it through that program, and knew it was still something I was passionate about. I also knew I wanted it to serve not only art for art’s sake but to widen it out to think about social engagement, think about activism, think about community—and that was through my Indigenous heritage as a Secwépemc person. In those days, there was a lot of activity on campus in music and art, in activism and in Indigenous rights, and I found my voice through those spaces.”

Currently based on the Neskonlith Indian Reserve, Willard’s artistic and curatorial work includes Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2012-2014) and Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe (ongoing). Her work is included in the collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Forge Project NY, Kamloops Art Gallery, Belkin gallery and the Anchorage Museum, among others.

Her suggestion for current students and emerging artists? “Seek out Indigenous professors and students to support you,” she says. “I took Christine Welsh’s class—she was a Métis professor in Women’s Studies—and that was the first time in my life I had had an Indigenous teacher and that was a significant moment for me. And now it’s not as uncommon to have that experience. We have Indigenous faculty, I am Indigenous faculty, but at the time in my high school, my career and everything, I had never had that opportunity and that was important. I would encourage all students to seek out belonging and community and connection.”

An acclaimed career

In 2016, Willard received the Hnatyshyn Foundation’s Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art. In 2020, the Shadbolt Foundation awarded her their VIVA Award for outstanding achievement and commitment in her art practice, and in 2022 she was named a Forge Project Fellow for her land-based, community-engaged artistic practice. In 2023 BUSH Gallery was named as a Future Studies recipient from Ruth Foundation for the Arts. Willard is a 2024 fellow with the Doris and Jack Shadbolt fellowship at Simon Fraser University. She is also an assistant professor in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan in syilx territories. 

“Art can reach people in a way that’s different—it speaks a language that tries to connect with us in our hearts,” she says. “That’s been important for me. I don’t think it’s the only effective means. I think it can work alongside many other methods and practices, but for me it’s been the way that I can commit to because it nourishes, it communicates and it’s relational and it can deal with difficult subjects… [Art] helps me vision different outcomes. It’s a universal problem-solving technique. People use it in the sciences, in the humanities. We need that creativity no matter who we are to help us solve problems and nourish ourselves and grow.”

Speed round!

What I’d do with an extra hour of free time: 

“I would continue to work on basketry, which is also something I do that is relaxing and balances everything out.”

One food I can’t resist: 

“Smoked salmon.”

My go-to karaoke song: 

“I don’t do karaoke very often. However, I recently did karaoke for my friend Peter Morin’s art project, Love Songs to End Colonization. And I did a version of the Violent Femmes’ ‘Blister in the Sun.’ In the past I’ve also done the Clash’s ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’.”

My secret talent: 

“I won some dance contests when I was much younger.”

Skill I wish I possessed: 

“I wish I could do more construction, build more things… like lovely library-style bookshelves.”

Something great I’ve read recently: 

Let’s Become Fungal!: Mycelium Teachings and the Arts: Based on Conversations with Indigenous Wisdom Keepers, Artists, Curators, Feminists and Mycologists.

One cool thing about where I live: 

“I live on reserve, and I live near the forest edge. I love how the forest takes care of everything. Life, death, food, ecology. I have great respect and continue to learn every day of my life from how the forest takes care of things in a way that contrasts the ways we have to have systems for food, for garbage, for waste, and we build up these separate systems to take care of all that. But the forest innately does that.”

Read more about UVic’s 2025 Alumni Awards here

New Indigenous student listserv

by | Mar 18, 2025 | Art History & Visual Studies, Faculty, indigenous, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing

Xʷkʷənəŋistəl | W̱ ȻENEṈISTEL | Helping to move each other forward
—UVic’s Indigenous Plan 

Are you an Indigenous student in any of our Fine Arts units (Art History & Visual Studies, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts or Writing)? If so, you may like to sign up for our new Indigenous Student listserv.

The list is run by Fine Arts Indigenous Resurgence Coordinator Karla Point — whose traditional Nuu chah nulth name is Hii nulth tsa kaa — and will provide you with information about student support, networking, events, workshops and other opportunities of specific interest to Indigenous Fine Arts students.

Over the past few years, Karla has run a series of workshops ranging from land acknowledgements and knowledge sharing to more hands-on things like traditional drum-making and cedar-bark weaving, and we also often share news from our colleagues on campus and in the community.

Karla Point

The new Indigenous Student listserv is Karla’s latest way of keeping us all connected! Please consider signing up here.

UVic is committed to offering a range of academic programs enriched by opportunities to engage with diverse forms of knowledge and to take learning and teaching beyond the classroom. In addition to integrating Indigenous ways of knowing and being, languages and teachings, we prioritize accessible programming that responds to community interests and needs. Read more in UVic’s Indigenous Plan.

Indigenous research and community springs from arts lab

by | Feb 27, 2025 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, climate, Faculty, Graduate, indigenous, News, Research, Visual Arts

From left: Heather Igloliorte with Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab staff Chris Mockford & Natalie Rollins

There’s a new Indigenous arts research space at the University of Victoria (UVic) that is looking up—way up—to the arts of the circumpolar region, as well as all along the Pacific shoreline and from Alaska to New Zealand, with Victoria at the center of it all.

The Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab is the latest project by Heather Igloliorte, UVic’s inaugural Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices, based in the Faculty of Fine Arts. Igloliorte’s prestigious eight-year, $8-million position is advancing reconciliation through the transformative power of art and innovative exhibition practices, and is supporting a new generation of students, researchers, educators, curators and artists to drive change through artistic practice.

“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,” says Igloliorte.

The development of digital and media-arts skills is one main area that will help remove these barriers by putting innovative tools—like augmented and extended reality—into the hands of students and artists alike. “They can experiment and see if they’re interested in bringing their current practices into a media art space … The potential is there for people to grow in exciting new directions.”

As such, the Taqsiqtuut Research Creation lab is addressing the key pillars of Igloliorte’s CERC: not only these 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.

See the lineup & RSVP for the Feb 28 launch event here, including a 1pm welcome and panel discussion, a 3pm film screening and the 5-7pm installation walk-through and demonstration.

Listen to this interview with Heather Igloliorte on CBC Radio’s All Points West on February 27.

The “qiaqsutuq” installation on view at the opening of the Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab,
curated by Heather Igloliorte, Alysa Procida & Carla Taunton

Designing new collaborations

Open to students and Indigenous members of the artistic community, as well as visiting artists and artistic residencies (plus other community members by invitation), the Taqsiqtuut lab is named after the Inuktitut word for patterns and designs, which suits Igloliorte’s intention of providing a training and mentorship space at the intersection of both customary and digital practices.

“In the past, I’ve worked with artists who’ve learned how to take their beadwork practice and turn it into stop-motion animation, for example, or to take their work on the land and then translate that into a VR or an augmented reality film or project,” explains Igloliorte. “But it can also go the other way: we work with artists with a lot of training in digital or media practices who are now thinking about translating their work into a land-based practice, or an intangible heritage project.”

Currently run by a diverse mix of five (including faculty and staff, plus post-doctorate, graduate and undergraduate students), the lab is in the process of building up a technological library of project-based digital tools.

“We’ll keep building as we go,” says Igloliorte. “For a stop-motion project, we’ll invest in stop-motion technology, and when we work with seamstresses on an Indigenous customary clothing pattern-making workshop, then we’ll purchase a pattern-imaging device. “We also have a high-end video and media arts editing suite and a digital media arts technician who’s here to help students and community members realize their own far-ranging projects.”

Carey Newman demonstrates his Witness Blanket VR project to a visitor
during the launch of the Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab on Feb 28 

Championing research creation

Officially opened on Feb. 28 with an afternoon of panel discussions, art installations, project demonstrations and a film screening, the lab showcased dynamic emerging digital media projects. The Witness Blanket VR by UVic’s Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices and Visual Arts professor Carey Newman—which transitions a Winnipeg-based, reconciliation-focused sculptural installation into a virtual reality program accessible by anyone with a virtual reality rig—was also featured.

The Taqsiqtuut lab launch will also mark the conclusion of one of Igloliorte’s research projects centering on promoting and protecting Indigenous arts, culminating in a panel discussion with a local focus on the appreciation and appropriation of Northwest coast arts.

Previously a Tier 1 University Research Chair at Concordia University, where she co-led the Indigenous Futures Research Centre in the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology, Igloliorte is now excited to be creating an Indigenous research-creation lab here at UVic.

“This space is unique in many ways because of the areas we’re approaching with the CERC and the work that we’re doing,” she explains. “I’ve seen a lot of amazing arts-based technological labs, and I’m excited to partner with other institutions.”

One of these partnership projects is 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. It was produced with the Centre for Inter-media Arts and Decolonial Expression at Halifax’s NSCAD University—which is co-led by Leah Decter and Tahltan artist Peter Morin (who collaborated on UVic’s Big Button Blanket project back in 2014)—and which will engage another of her CERC partners, Western University’s Center for Sustainable Curating.

Igloliorte feels UVic—and Victoria specifically—is an ideal location for the Taqsiqtuut lab.

“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,” she says. “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.”

Curating the future

In addition to maintaining her international partnerships and establishing the Taqsiqtuut lab, Igloliorte also carries a teaching load with the Visual Arts department and supports various community projects, such as jurying the Salt Spring National Art Prize and the Yukon Art Prize, and curating Newfoundland’s international Bonavista Biennale—all of which is part of her robust CERC position.

She will also host a UVic conference in May 2025 for all the stakeholders who contributed to her CERC application. “It will be a big international gathering of Indigenous scholars and museum directors, plus curators, artists and community members,” she says. “We’re coming together to make plans for publications, exhibitions, mentorships, public engagements and policy documents.”

Heather Igloliorte’s multifaceted and interdisciplinary work aligns with UVic’s commitment to ʔetal nəwəl | ÁTOL,NEUEL, as well as commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals focused on quality education, decent work, economic growth, reduced inequalities and peace and justice.

The “qiaqsutuq” installation was created by Jamesie Fournier (Nunavummiut/Yellowknife), Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich (Koyukon Denaa & Inupiaq/Anchorage), Colo Lyne (Kalaaleq Greenlandic/Denmark), Malayah Maloney (Nunavummiut/Vancouver) and Taqralk Partridge (Nunavummiut/Ottawa), and curated by Heather Igloliorte (Nunatsiavummiut/Victoria), Alysa Procida (Settler/Toronto) & Carla Taunton (Settler/Halifax)

Fine Arts engages with Governor General

by | Feb 14, 2025 | Alumni, Events, Faculty, Graduate, indigenous, Visual Arts

From left: UVic President Kevin Hall, Her Excellency Mary Simon,
His Excellency Whit Fraser; Ry Moran, Andrea Walsh, Carey Newman; Kylie Fineday

Her Excellency The Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, shared opening remarks last week at an emotional University of Victoria event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Calls to Action. Simon touched on her personal experience at the TRC when she shared stories about her childhood and education in Nunavik, and the children in her community who were sent to residential schools.

Simon remarked that “when the TRC report was released 10 years ago, most Canadians learned about what happened for the first time.  And I remember people being horrified, saying ‘I did not know.’ Years later, the findings of unmarked graves of children at former residential school sites moved people even more.”

Under the stalwart leadership of the late former Senator Murray Sinclair, along with the dedicated and often difficult work of the TRC Commissioners, Survivors, and many others, the TRC has left an immeasurable impact on Canadian society.

Today, the TRC continues to play a pivotal role in the daily lives of Canadians, shaping the path towards collective understanding of truth, reconciliation and the change called for within Canadian society.

In a recent letter, Simon, who is also a UVic Honorary LLD, tells Canadians that she is “encouraged to see Survivors, Elders and so many people supporting each other as we work to recognize Canada’s true, national history.”

The Right Honourable Mary Simon

Associate University Librarian – Reconciliation Ry Moran moderated a panel discussion featuring UVic faculty members Carey Newman (Fine Arts Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices), Andrea Walsh, (Social Sciences’ Smyth Chair in Arts & Engagement) and John Borrows (Law) to remind, encourage and inspire Canadians to think about actions past, present and future.

Simon impressed upon the audience the breadth of innovative work that UVic has done to respond to the 94 Calls to Action— some of them activated in the UVic Indigenous Plan—and spoke about the university’s hub for knowledge with its Indigenous resurgence and language revitalization program, the world’s first JD/JID law degree, the soon-to-be opened National Centre for Indigenous Laws (NCIL) at the Faculty of Law, the recent installation of the Survivors’ Flag, Orange Shirt Day, and decolonizing efforts on campus.

Sharing truth through visual testimonies

During the panel discussion, Walsh, visual anthropologist and honorary witness to the TRC (as well as a UVic Visual Arts alumna), spoke about the role that repatriating art from residential schools plays in the journey to reconciliation. Through her work with Survivors of the Alberni Residential School she has repatriated personal childhood paintings that once belonged to them.

When Walsh reflects on these significant moments, she sees through the lens of the Survivors what these pieces of paper mean to them—not just as sacred treasures, but as physical connections between generations. “This is the only thing I have as a nine-year-old,” said one Survivor.

For Walsh the artwork is a catalyst for starting difficult family conversations, contributing to governance, and for storytelling. Her hope for the future is that these fragile works of art will guide difficult conversations and action.

From left: Walsh, Newman, Borrows

The Witness Blanket and the power of community engagement

Multi-disciplinary artist and Department of Visual Arts professor Newman discussed the way that art can participate in truth, the formation of it, and the holding onto it in the process of reconciliation. His view of truth is seen on three levels: a personal one—how it reaches individuals; on a communal level—how it can bring people together, and on a structural level—for how it can impact and affect bigger things in subtle ways.

Watching people interact with his large-scale art installation the Witness Blanket, Newman noticed certain objects resonate when viewing the blanket – where an individual object will connect a person to a memory of their own life and experience.  “Once we make a personal connection to something, it becomes important,” explains Newman. “And once it becomes important, then we are willing maybe to participate, to be uncomfortable, to roll up our sleeves, and do some of the work that needs to be done.”

As the concept for Newman’s project started to come to fruition, he found more people contributing to its creation, slowly building trust and developing ideas. “Throughout that process, I was changing my relationship with my material,” says Newman. “Once I started getting contributions from people—and I knew that they were mementos, that they had memories attached to them— it elevated my responsibility to them.”

Newman’s Witness Blanket at its permanent home in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights

A new chapter begins

Towards the end of her remarks, Simon provided an overview of the work that has been done in advancing the calls to action. She reflected on the many “firsts “that are happening in this country sparked by an awakening due to the TRC—witnessing the historic apology by the Pope in Canada; meeting with Canada’s Indigenous leaders and King Charles before his coronation to renew relationships with the Crown; the creation of the First Nations University of Canada in Saskatchewan, and the first Inuit University grounded in Inuit culture and language to be opened in a few years time.

Looking back on the last 10 years, Moran believes that our collective response should be clear in looking ahead, and that we need to maintain hope, belief, and conviction that respectful relationships and human rights will endure any obstacles and roadblocks placed in the way.

“Perhaps more than anything, the opportunity at hand is to remember the long and difficult struggle that it took to even make those 94 Calls to Action possible in the first place,” says Moran. “Generations fought, resisted, and struggled to create the opportunity for that Commission to even occur in the first place.  This is not something we should take for granted, nor is it something that should be trivialized.”

“Ajuinata, never give up,” Simon implored the audience, using an Inuktitut word, reminding all in attendance that people need to engage students and youth in current discussions as they will be the stewards to carry reconciliation into the future.

Following the formal panel presentation, Simon then participated in a reconciliation discussion circle with current students, including Visual Arts MFA student Kylie Fineday (seen at the top) and AHVS MA student Chris Mockford. 

Watch the full panel discussion here:

Chris Mockford

—Story by Lisa Abrams (Library) with photos by Greg Miller (UVic Photo Services)

Top 10 Fine Arts stories of 2024

by | Jan 3, 2025 | Alumni, Art History & Visual Studies, Award, climate, donor, indigenous, Orion Series in Fine Arts, School of Music, Theatre, Undergraduate, Visual Arts, Writing

There’s no better time than the start of a new year for a moment of reflection on the previous year’s accomplishments. With that in mind, we’re happy to present the Fine Arts Top 10 of 2024: an inspiring series of story highlights about our students, faculty and alumni!   

Attendance at Fine Arts events cracks 20,000

It was a banner year for public participation in the Faculty of Fine Arts, with more than 20,000 people attending over 300 scheduled events. Thanks to our wide variety of cultural and scholarly offerings — including concerts, plays, recitals, exhibits, readings, poster fairs, film screenings, visiting artist talks and other special events — Fine Arts remains UVic’s largest and most consistent academic unit for public engagement.

Fine Arts is also an essential and vital cultural partner on campus and in the community, with a direct and lasting impact on the region’s quality of life. Victoria’s arts and culture sector employs over 10,000 people across the CRD and generates about $800 million GDP activity annually (2021 CRD study) — a core part of the $1.8 billion in added income UVic contributes to Greater Victoria.

The annual Visual Arts BFA show attracted over 1,000 people

A busy year for the Climate Disaster Project 

It was an incredible year for the Climate Disaster Project (CDP). Based out of our Writing department and led by Sean Holman, the Wayne Crookes Professor of Environmental and Climate Journalism, the CDP not only mounted September’s world premiere of Eyes of the Beast:Climate Disaster Survivor Stories — the first full-length documentary theatre production based upon on-the-ground climate disaster reporting — but also collaborated with UK media outlet The Guardian in November to publish a series of COP29. And in April, the CDP was named the winner of a Special Recognition Citation for exceptional journalism that doesn’t fit traditional categories at the National Newspaper Awards — Canada’s top journalism awards — and was also nominated for awards with the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Canadian Journalism Foundation. The CDP also started a new partnership with Brazil’s newspaper and presented a two-day workshop as part of the Legacy Gallery’s summer exhibit, Fire Season, on top of its regular work collecting and sharing climate-survivor testimonies by students and instructors in 13 post-secondary institutions worldwide.  

“We are entering a new era of disaster, where our seasons will become increasingly defined by the traumatic events they bring, and we need to learn how journalism can help us survive those traumas together,” says Holman, who founded the CDP in 2021. “We are so honoured the National Newspaper Awards have recognized our efforts to empower disaster-affected communities inside and outside Canada.” 

Holman at the NNAs

Student Community Impact Awards tops $13,000

The annual Fine Arts Student Community Impact Awards recognize individual achievements or outstanding efforts made by full-time Fine Arts undergraduate students beyond their traditional studies — and 2024 saw us surpass $13,000 presented to 11 students since 2021. These juried, donor-funded awards were once again presented at the Greater Victoria Regional Arts Awards in November.

This year’s recipients included Rebecca Fux (Visual Arts), Thomas Moore (Theatre) and Claire Jorgensen (Visual Arts), each of whom receives $1,000 for their individual projects. Rebecca received the award for her work mounting two exhibits of new paintings at separate local artist-run centres during her final year of studies: You Can Cry In Front of Me at Xchanges Gallery, addressing aspects of grieving and healing for young women after sexual assault, and The Weather Inside at the Fifty-Fifty Arts Collective. Thomas was recognized for his work directing and producing three shows with Timetheft Theatre Society — Of Theseus at the Victoria One Act Play Festival, the independently produced Horse Girl, and Carpet at the 2023 Fringe Festival — all of which provided opportunities for young queer and neurodivergent artists. And Claire received her award for winning a competitive commission to create a new large-scale mural embodying themes of diversity, community and wellness for UVic’s Island Medical Program — titled “A Dream of Vitality” — which she then painted live over the course of a month in the lobby of the Medical Sciences building. 

Jorgensen working on her mural

Kathryn Mockler wins Victoria Book Prize

Ww were thrilled in October when Writing professor Kathryn Mockler was named the winner of the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for her new story collection Anecdote. Originally announced as a finalist alongside recently retired Writing professor Tim Lilburn (Numinous Seditions: Interiority and Climate Change) plus Writing alumni Ali Blythe (Stedfast) and Arleen Paré (Absence of Wings), as well as local poet Shō Yamagushiku (Shima), the prize came the same month as she was revealed to be one of three jurors for the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry.

In her acceptance speech, Mockler noted that she was “humbled to be in the company of these finalists and their beautiful books” and then went on to donate the $5,000 prize to three local charities. “No matter how solitary the act of writing can feel, a writer is always addressing a collective, shared world — describing, analyzing, critiquing, redefining and expanding it,” she noted in her acceptance speech. “Writers cannot ignore the world that shapes their words nor the world that receives them.” 

Carey Newman named Royal Society Fellow

In September, artist and scholar Hayalthkin’geme Carey Newman was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. UVic’s Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices and a professor with both our departments of Visual Arts and Art History & Visual Studies, Newman has a regional, national and international impact by combining art and Kwakwaka’wakw knowledges to address Indigenous and environmental injustice. His projects — like The Witness Blanket and Seedling — transform conversations around reconciliation and decolonization across social, institutional and political paradigms, driving innovation and collaboration that challenge status quo approaches to research in the arts, climate, leadership, transsystemic law, collections management, conservation, technology and more. 

“Transformative change involves reaching hearts and minds. So, when I make artwork about specific issues, rather than telling people what to think or how to feel, I want them to engage with it on their own terms and take ownership of their thoughts and realizations,” explains Newman. “When something becomes personal it becomes important, and once it is important we are more willing to change our ways. Art has this power.”

So many guests! 

We had an incredible lineup of over guest artists this year who took time to share their knowledge and experience with our students and the community through masterclasses and public talks. Our popular Orion Series welcomed award-winning filmmaker Atom Egoyan, Grammy-winning soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Bertrand Chamayou, authors Carleigh Baker and Zehra Naqvi, artist Crystal Mowry, scholar Anna Dymond, art historian Alice Ming Wai Jim, screenwriter Michael MacLennan, theatre artists Randi Edmundson and Shizuka Kai, documentarian Ali Kazimi plus musicians Sandeep Bhagwati, Jude Brereton, Corey Hamm, Faustino Diaz, Jonathon Adams, Chloe Kim and Tom Foster. 

Our busy Visiting Artist series welcomed the likes of Jessica Stockholder, Kemi Craig, Justin Seiji Waddell, Debra Yepa-Pappan, Gootlh Ts’milix Mike Dangeli & Sm Łoodm Nüüs Mique’l Dangeli, Sonja Ahlers, Wayne Baerwaldt, Skawennati, Tina Rivers Ryan, Robert Burke and Julia Eden Hardenberg. Acclaimed author John Vaillant was our 2024 Southam Lecturer in Writing, while Gord Hill was this year’s Lehan Lecturer in Arts & Activism, and Joseph Kakwinokansum and Jónína Kirton were the guests for 2024’s sxʷiʔe ̕m “To Tell A Story” Indigenous Writers & Storytellers Series.

Various other guests included renowned pianist Minsoo Sohn (courtesy of the Martha Cooke Fund) while the Belfry Series saw Christine Quintana and Tobin Stokes speak to Theatre students.  

Award-winning filmmaker Atom Egoyan

This year’s Indigenous Writers series

Honorary Doctorates

Fine Arts was thrilled to see two Honorary Doctorates presented at UVic’s Fall Convocation ceremonies in November: En’owkin Centre co-founder Jeannette Armstrong (above left) was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) while Puente Theatre founder Lina de Guevara received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA). As an influential advocate for Indigenous peoples’ rights, Armstrong has been a force of change and wide-scale community impact through her artistic, research and educational vision; as a writer, director, educator and actor, de Guevara has left an enduring legacy on our national theatre landscape through her active support of immigrant and refugee communities.

Armstrong (left) & de Guevara 

New faculty members

Even in times of fiscal restraint, it’s important to keep our faculty cutting-edge, so we were excited to welcome a new group of professors this year. Critically acclaimed Canadian opera singer, national CBC Radio Saturday Afternoon at the Opera host and School of Music Distinguished Alumni Award recipient Marion Newman returned to campus this year as an assistant professor in Music; Vancouver author and poet Wayde Compton joined the Writing department as an associate professor; Ts’msyen Nation dancer, choreographer, Sm’algya̱x language learner/teacher and curator Sm Łoodm ‘Nüüsm Mique’l Dangeli is now an assistant professor of Indigenous Arts with our Department of Art History & Visual Studies; and assistant research professor in composition and music technology Lauren McCall is our newest hire, starting in January 2025 at our School of Music.  

Marion Newman

Alumni achievements

Back in March, UVic announced the recipients of the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards and Fine Arts was once again proud to see three of our outstanding graduates included among the 18 recipients being recognized across the three categories: Presidents’ Alumni Award recipient Carrie Tennant (Music), Emerging Alumni Award recipient Dennis Gupa (Theatre) and Indigenous Community Alumni Award recipient Ivy Martin (AHVS/CRM). “This diverse group of graduates contribute their skills, passions and leadership to many different fields, including the arts, education, law, science, engineering and business,” says UVic President Kevin Hall. “Advocacy, community building and climate action are common threads woven through their work. In that sense, they shine a light on the values and priorities that define and unite us at UVic.” Read about their individual accomplishments on the alumni awards webpage. 

In other outstanding alumni news, viral internet comedy sensation Laura Ramoso (Theatre) mounted a global tour which included appearances at LA’s Netflix is a Joke festival, an appearance on CBC Radio’s Q and a sold-out performance at Victoria’s 1,400-seat Royal Theatre; 2024 graduate Sie Douglas-Fish (Visual Arts) made news by getting hired straight out of the program by Montreal-based Acrylic Robotics and saw their art featured on CBC TV’s national Dragon’s Den show; actor and playwright Medina Hahn (Theatre) filmed a movie version and recorded an interactive audio book of her Governor General’s Award shortlisted play Inheritance: A Pick-the-Path Experience; poet Cara-Lyn Morgan (Writing) published her latest collection Building a Nest from the Bones of My People, which explores her Indigenous (Métis) and immigrant (Trinidadian) roots; and CBC “30 Under 30” award-winning violinist Chloe Kim (School of Music) returned to campus as an Orion Lecturer.     

Martin (left), Tennant & Gupa

Fantastic philanthropy

We’ve saved the best news for last: despite being hit with the same budget cuts that have impacted UVic as a whole, we are thrilled to announced that we have raised over $4.8 million for the Faculty of Fine Arts this year—exceeding our 24/25 academic goal by nearly $1 million  . . . and with three months left in the fiscal year! Congratulations go out to hard-working Fine Arts Development Officer Samantha Krzywonos for her dedication and passion in working with our donors to ensure that our students have the best possible experience during their studies here.

The arts have always been and continue to be intimately linked to philanthropy—think of folks like Peggy Guggenheim, Alice Massey or Gertrude Vanderbilt—so it’s no exaggeration to say that we couldn’t do this without our generous donors. Whether it’s individual donations that fund projects like the Bruce More Chamber Singers Legacy Fund, the Student Community Impact Awards or the sxʷiʔe ̕m “To Tell A Story” Indigenous Writers & Storytellers Series, family memorials that create opportunities like the Lehan Family Activism & the Arts Lecture Series, or estate gifts that create exciting inititatives like the Martha Cooke Fund, our donors are an integral part of the Fine Arts  experience.

Finally, we would be remiss to not acknowledge the more generous philanthropic donations that have led to named professorships like the Jeffrey Rubinoff Nexus for Art as a Source of Knowledge fund, the Wayne Crookes Professorship in Environmental and Climate Journalism, the Audain Professorship in Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest, the Harvey Stevenson Southam Lecture Fund in Journalism & Non-Fiction and the Williams Legacy Chair in Modern & Contemporary Arts of the Pacific Northwest. These foundational gifts create positions for key faculty members to share their specific knowledge and experience with our students, the community and the world.

Thank you all!

Fine Arts development officer Samantha Krzywonos

Double Your Fine Arts Gift on Giving Tuesday

by | Dec 3, 2024 | Alumni, Award, donor, indigenous, Writing

December 3 is Giving Tuesday, a day when the entire UVic community will unite around a common cause — supporting the students and programs that make this university the very special place it is.

This year, UVic’s 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 — and we have a special opportunity to double your gift, as the first $5,000 donated before midnight tomorrow (Tuesday, Dec 3) will be MATCHED dollar-for-dollar by one of our generous donors.

Will you make a Giving Tuesday donation to the Indigenous Writers & Storytellers Series?

YES! I’LL MAKE 2X THE IMPACT

The inaugural sxʷiʔe ̕m event at UVic’s First Peoples House in 2023

Inspiring & uplifting

Created by acclaimed Métis poet and Department of Writing professor Gregory Scofield, this annual series is an inspiring way of uplifting Indigenous literary achievements and engaging with our local community of writers and readers. “My goal is to honour the nations on whose territory we live, and to celebrate and honour the writers and storytellers in our communities,” he says.

Launched in 2023, the inaugural sxʷiʔe ̕m series featured two acclaimed UVic Writing alumni: Syilx Okanagan multidisciplinary author Jeannette Armstrong and award-winning WSÁNEC poet Philip Kevin Paul. This year we presented Icelandic/Red River Métis poet Jónína Kirton and Cree author Joseph Kakwinokansum.

Joseph Kakwinokansum (left) & Jónína Kirton in conversation with Gregory Scofield in 2024

An exciting time

There are so many important stories to be shared by Indigenous artists, through mediums of literature, film, music, dance and oral storytelling. Your donation on Dec 3 — which, again, will be doubled — will connect Fine Arts students and local community members with Indigenous perspectives, knowledge, creativity and history. Giving Tuesday is an inspiring day when millions of people unite around good causes: it’s hard to think of a better cause than uplifting the voices of Indigenous artists.

“It’s a very exciting time for Indigenous writers and storytellers,” says Professor Scofield. “As more Canadians become aware of truth and reconciliation, more people are reading works by Indigenous writers and gaining knowledge of our history.”

Twice the impact

Will you see the impact of your gift doubled by making a Giving Tuesday donation to the sxʷiʔe ̕m “To Tell A Story” series before midnight (Tuesday, Dec 3)?

YES! I’LL MAKE 2X THE IMPACT

Together, we can continue to honour and celebrate Indigenous voices through the important work of this ongoing series.

Sales were brisk at the book table at the 2024 sxʷiʔe ̕m event