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

Jeannette Armstrong and Lina de Guevara awarded Honorary Doctorates

by | Nov 10, 2024 | Alumni, Award, indigenous, News, Theatre, Writing

The Faculty of Fine Arts is thrilled to announce that Jeannette Armstrong will be awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) and Lina de Guevara will be awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA) at the Fall 2024 Fine Arts convocation ceremony.

You can watch as part of the UVic convocation livestream starting at 10am Tuesday, Nov 12 (Armstrong) and 2:30pm Wednesday, Nov 13 (de Guevara). 

Armstrong

About Jeanette Armstrong 

Jeannette Armstrong is an associate professor in Indigenous Studies and the coordinator of Interior Salishan Studies Centre at UBC Okanagan. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Born on the Penticton Indian Reserve in the Okanagan, Armstrong is a multi-faceted writer, visual artist, researcher, educator, leader and activist.

She received a Diploma in Fine Arts from Okanagan College, then earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria in 1978. In 2009, she received her doctorate in Indigenous Environmental Ethics from the University of Greifswald in Germany.

Armstrong is one of the founders of the En’owkin Centre (originally named the Okanagan Indian Curriculum Project) to provide students with strong cultural and academic foundations for success. The Centre includes Theytus Publications, the first Indigenous-owned publishing house in Canada.

The En’owkin International School of Writing, founded by Armstrong in a partnership with UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts, has served Indigenous artists and writers for over 40 years. Armstrong was a co-founder of En’owkin’s Certificate in Aboriginal Language Revitalization which operates in partnership with UVic’s Department of Linguistics serving Indigenous communities throughout Canada.

As an influential advocate for Indigenous peoples’ rights, Armstrong has been a force of change and widescale community impact through her artistic, research and educational vision.

de Guevara

About Lina de Guevara 

Lina de Guevara’s career as a director, writer, actor, and teacher has left an indelible impact on Canada’s theatre community. As the founder and former artistic director of Puente Theatre, she dedicated 25 years to sharing the stories of immigrant and refugee communities.

Having fled a military coup in her native country of Chile before settling in Victoria in 1976, de Guevara drew upon her own lived experiences to produce dozens of critically acclaimed plays and collaborations that have toured nationally and internationally.

Visionary productions such as I Wasn’t Born Here, Crossing Borders and Familya shed light on issues such as discrimination, social justice, and employment barriers. By exploring these themes, de Guevara’s work has both entertained and educated audiences for decades.

Trained at the Instituto del Teatro (University of Chile), she has used her skills to teach, mentor, and create space for emerging Indigenous artists and artists of colour across Vancouver Island. As a workshop facilitator at the University of Victoria and instructor at institutions like Royal Roads University, Camosun College, and the Canadian College of Performing Arts, de Guevara has left an enduring legacy on the national theatre landscape through her active support of the next generation of artists.

Indigenous Writers & Storyteller Series

by | Oct 25, 2024 | Events, Faculty, indigenous, Writing

When this year’s installment of the sxʷiʔe ̕m “To Tell A Story” Indigenous Writers & Storytellers Series returns to UVic on November 1, it will be the latest gift to the community by the Department of Writing and professor Gregory Scofield.

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

Scofield is following up last year’s successful event by presenting two acclaimed Indigenous authors this year: Icelandic/Red River Métis poet Jónína Kirton and Cree author Joseph Kakwinokansum. 

“It has been and continues to be a very exciting time for Indigenous writers and storytellers,” he says. “There are so many important stories to be shared, told and celebrated across Turtle Island through the mediums of literature, film, music, dance and oral storytelling . . . . As more Canadians become aware of truth and reconciliation, more people are reading works by Indigenous writers and gaining knowledge of our history.”

Scofield

About Jónína Kirton

Jónína Kirkton was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba: Treaty 1 territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, Dene peoples and the homeland of the Métis. She graduated from the SFU Writer’s Studio in 2007 and since that time has published three books with Talonbooks. She was 61 when she received the 2016 Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award for an Emerging Artist in the Literary Arts category, the same year her first collection — page as bone, ink as blood — was released.

Her second collection of poetry, An Honest Woman, was a finalist in the 2018 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Her third book, Standing in a River of Time, was released in 2022. It merges poetry and lyrical memoir to take us on a journey exposing the intergenerational effects of colonization on her Métis family. She currently lives in New Westminster BC, the unceded territory of many Coast Salish Nations. Although she acknowledges and is thankful for the teachings offered through academic institutions, she leans heavily into what some term ‘other ways of knowing.’ Her writing is often a weaving of body and land as she firmly believes until we care for women’s bodies we will not care for the earth.

About Joseph Kakwinokansum

Joseph Kakwinokansum is a writer, creator, and storyteller. A member of the James Smith Cree Nation, he grew up in the Peace Region of northern BC and is a graduate of Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio and Writer’s Studio Graduate Workshop.

He was selected by Darrel J. McLeod as one of the Writers Trust of Canada’s Rising Stars of 2022. His short story “Ray Says” was a finalist for CBC’s Nonfiction Prize in 2020 and his manuscript Woodland Creetures was awarded the 2014 Canada Council for the Arts Creation Grant for Aboriginal Peoples, Writers, and Storytellers.

His debut novel, My Indian Summer (loosely based on his own childhood) was winner of the 2023-2024 First Nations Communities READ Award and shortlisted for the 2023 ReLit Award for fiction. His work has been published in the Humber Literary Journal and the anthologies Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing, Emerge: The Writer’s Studio and Better Next Year: An Anthology of Christmas Epiphanies.

Kakwinokansum was also selected as the 2024 Storyteller in Residence for Vancouver Public Library.

The free event  sxʷiʔe ̕m “To Tell A Story” Indigenous Writers & Storytellers Series, starts at 7pm Friday, November 1, in UVic’s First Peoples House. Books will be available for purchase & signing

Orion Series presents Virtuosic Technologies

by | Oct 15, 2024 | Alumni, Events, indigenous, Orion Series in Fine Arts, School of Music

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:

 

 

 

 

“Virtuosic Technologies:

Indigenous and European

musical storytelling in the

17th century”

 

Featuring
Jonathon Adams, baritone
Chloe Kim, violin
Tom Foster, harpsichord/organ

 

7–9pm Monday, October 21 

Free & open to all

Presented by UVic’s School of Music 

For more information on this lecture please email: arthistory@uvic.ca

About the event 

 

Part conversation, part listening circle and open rehearsal, this session will approach works from this virtuosic European oeuvre, sharing specific technical challenges, comparing resources, and revealing moments of personal joy. They will also share early recordings of florid Cree singing, and examples of other highly ornamented traditional storytelling mediums, illuminating similarities between Indigenous modes of storytelling and the “geistliches Konzert” form.

As an ensemble, they consider the following questions: What technologies do we rely on to learn and share stories of deep spiritual resonance in a good way? What curatorial accountability do we accept when programming ancient European repertoires today, on stolen land? As we share these 350 year old sonic gems of world-bending grief, world-making ecstasy, world-affirming faith with you, can we do so in a musically curious and generative way? Inviting any voice, any body, any way of knowing into the circle?

About the artists

 

Jonathon Adams is a Cree-Métis two-spirit baritone from amiskwaciwâskahikan  (Edmonton, AB). They have appeared as a soloist under Masaaki Suzuki, Philippe Herreweghe, Laurence Equilbey, and Alexander Weimann, among others, with the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, the Washington Bach Consort, Tafelmusik, Ricercar Consort, B’Rock, Vox Luminis, the Netherlands Bach Society, and il Gardellino. In 2021 they were named the first artist-in-residence at Early Music Vancouver. They have lectured and led workshops at the Universities of Toronto, Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta (Augustana), Bard College, Festival Montréal Baroque, and the Juilliard School. Jonathon was featured in Against the Grain Theatre’s 2020 film MESSIAH/COMPLEX, in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s MEA CULPA with Ballet Vlaanderen, and on Jessica McMann’s most recent album ‘Prairie Dusk’. They attended the Victoria Conservatory of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, studying with Nancy Argenta, Emma Kirkby and Rosemary Joshua.

Praised as a “rising superstar” (The Georgia Straight) who performs with “passion and intensity to electrifying effect” (The Vancouver Sun), CBC’s 30 under 30 violinist Chloe Kim (UVic BMus ’18) has performed internationally with leading ensembles such as Voices of Music, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and The English Concert. Chloe has shared the stage with celebrated figures including Rachel Podger, Masaaki Suzuki, and Pablo Heras-Casado. She is the recipient of several awards, most recently including the 2021 American Bach Society Grant, 2020/21 Mercury-Juilliard Fellowship, as well as nominations for Canada’s prestigious Sylva Gelber Award and the 2024 WMCT Career Development Award. Chloe has served on the panel for the BC Arts Council and is also a Fellow of The English Concert in America, elected in 2021. Collaborations with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants have brought her to concert venues across France. In the summer of 2019, Chloe performed across Scandinavia with Yale’s Schola Cantorum and served as concertmaster of Juilliard415 for multiple productions of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in London’s Holland Park and the Opéra Royal de Versailles. Chloe is indebted to her dear friends and mentors Elizabeth Blumenstock, Jeanne Lamon, Christina Mahler, and Heilwig von Königslöw.

Praised for his “dazzling virtuosity” (The Spectator), Tom Foster has a busy career as a continuo player on organ and harpsichord and as a harpsichord soloist. Respected for his sensitive and inventive continuo playing, Tom is the principal keyboard player of the English Concert and is a regular guest with The Academy of Ancient Music, Arcangelo, The Dunedin Consort, Early Opera Company, The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Scottish Ensemble and The Sixteen. These collaborations have taken him to concert halls throughout Europe, the United States, Australia, Russia and South Korea. He has performed concertos at the Edinburgh International Festival and made his US solo-debut at Carnegie Hall in 2020. Tom began his musical education as a choirboy at Manchester Cathedral, then as a pianist and harpsichordist at Chetham’s School of Music. He holds a first-class degree in Music (BA) from St. Catherine’s College, Oxford and gained a Distinction in Performance (MA) from the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Trevor Pinnock.

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 Series presents Carleigh Baker

by | Oct 7, 2024 | Alumni, Events, indigenous, Orion Series in Fine Arts, Theatre, Writing

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:

Carleigh Baker 

Writer

“Writing Fiction in our Complicated Contemporary World”

2:30-3:50pm, Monday, October 21
Room A240 UVic’s HSD Building 

 Free & open to all

Presented by UVic’s Department of Writing

For more information on this lecture please email: writing@uvic.ca

About Carleigh Baker 

Carleigh Baker is a Métis-Cree/Icelandic writer and UVic Fine Arts alumna who lives on the unceded territories of the peoples. Her debut story collection, Bad Endings, won the City of Vancouver Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Award, the Indigenous Voices Awards and the Bill Duthie Booksellers Choice Award at the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. Her short stories and essays have been translated into several languages and anthologized in Canada, the United States and Europe.

Baker’s new story collection, Last Woman, was released this year by McClelland & Stewart. Floods and wildfires, toxic culture, billionaires in outer space, or a purse-related disaster while on mushrooms—in today’s hellscape world, there’s no shortage of things to worry about—and Last Woman wants you to know that you’re not alone. Her novel-in-progress, Platformer, is about chosen family, storytelling and honeybees.

As a teacher and researcher, she is particularly interested in how contemporary fiction can be used to address the climate crisis.

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