Sound Genres explore sound as foundational practice

by | May 19, 2023 | Alumni, Events, Faculty, indigenous, Research, School of Music

Paul Walde’s Glacial 

The School of Music will be exploring sound as a foundational practice with Sound Genres, a special multimedia symposium running May 26-28 and funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

More than just an academic symposium, however, the event —which is free and open to the public — will also feature an opening sound installation by Visual Arts professor Paul Walde on Friday night, a public performance featuring nine musicians on Saturday night, and a special commissioned Sound Walk on Sunday afternoon featuring artist-in-residence Tiess McKenzie and Kristy Farkas, the School of Music’s concert manager.

“If you go to a music department at a university, most often it’s classical music,” says organizer and Music professor Anthony Tan in this interview with the Nexus newspaper. “You have to know musical notation, you’re often playing orchestral instruments, and so what we’re looking at is how this study of sound from these perspectives can actually inform how we teach music in university, and how we can become more inclusive about these practices as well.”

Expect discussions to focus on the complicated relationship between “sound” and “music” on the one hand, and the tension between increasing globalized sound genres and the culturally-specific meanings felt by listeners and practitioners on the other.

“I think a lot of people have very diverse definitions of what music is,” says Tan. “If you listen to the sounds of the environment, it’s also music in a way, and our conference is about questioning that notion about what is music versus what is sound.”

About the symposium

Conceived and organized by Tan and fellow Music professor Joe Salem plus Postdoctoral Fellow Taylor Brook and PhD candidate Sean Kiley, Sounds Genres will explore electronically mediated sound and music genres in both academic settings (sound art, soundscape, electroacoustic etc.) and popular contexts (EDM, ambient, techno etc.).

Artists, musicologists, anthropologists, and other participants from across Canada will convene to share their artistic and scholarly work with a focus on how these diverse sound genres intersect and how they may be critically engaged to revise curriculums in higher education both inside and outside of music departments.

Special guests

All of the events at Sound Genres stress social connections between real people, but as artists, scholars, and practitioners, we also embrace the irony that some of our most intimate, personal, and physiological experiences are those mediated by creative artistic practices. For this reason, the symposium also includes sound installations, a sound walk, an evening practicum performance, a curated, ears-on library exhibit, and practical demonstrations of sonic applications in the classroom — all of which you can read more about here.

Friday night’s Sound Installation and reception in the Visual Arts building will feature work by Paul Walde (Glacial), Jan Swinburne (Internet Songlines), Michael Trommer (Ancient Thoughts & Electric Buildings) and Annie Dunning (House on Fire).

Saturday’s “Sound as Witness, Sound as Truth” session will feature UVic Associate Librarian Ry Moranexploring the long histories of Indigenous music as a source of resistance, resurgence and political power, alongside a live performance and dialogue with Nehithaw (Cree)-Dené and Michif (Métis) storyteller Zoey Roy.

Saturday evening’s concert will feature the likes of Hildegard Westerkamp, Rachel Iwaasa, Matthew Haussman, Sean Kiley, Zosha Di Castri, Jane Chan, Paula Matthusen, Terri Hron and Tina Pearson.

Sunday’s keynote will feature University of Toronto speaker Eliot Britton on “Supporting Creative Hybrids: Bridging Diverse Practices Through Music Technology”.

Throughout the Symposium, you’ll also be able to enjoy the “Musical Mutant Machines” on display in the School of Music, which were created by Monkey C Interactive’s David Parfit and Department of Writing MFA alum Scott Amos.

The final event will be the commissioned Sound Walk featuring Tiess McKenzie’s participatory multimediaexperience across the UVic campus, followed by Kristy Farkas’ live performance of selections from her work “Songs For Tree”, which takes you outside in nearby Finnerty Gardens.

Please bring your own mobile devices and (wired) headphones to experience this element of the piece.

Find full details and speaker biographies here. 

Four Fine Arts recipients in Distinguished Alumni Awards

by | Mar 23, 2023 | Alumni, Award, indigenous, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts

The annual Distinguished Alumni Awards celebrate the remarkable achievements of UVic graduates in three different categories: the Presidents’ Alumni Awards, the Emerging Alumni Awards and the Indigenous Community Alumni Awards. This year, Fine Arts has four recipients honoured in two of those categories.

Presidents’ Alumni Award: Maureen Gruben

Tuktoyaktuk-born and -based Presidents’ Alumni Award recipient Maureen Gruben (Visual Arts BFA, 2012) is an Inuvialuk artist who’s passionate about bringing awareness to the Arctic environment through her art. A mature student and mother when she came to UVic, her works incorporate an array of materials from polar bear fur, beluga intestines and seal skin to vinyl, Styrofoam, bubble wrap and metallic tape, linking daily life in the western Arctic and global environmental concerns. Gruben’s art has been exhibited across North America and Europe, and in 2021 she was long-listed for the Sobey Award, considered Canada’s most prestigious art award for emerging artists.

When asked how her experiences at UVic contributed to her success, Gruben says “UVic was where I was really introduced to contemporary art and performance art. That introduction alone opened up so many ideas, doors, new ways of thinking and understanding that was not so traditional. It made me work outside a lot in the environment and not so much in the gallery space. It was really huge for me.”

And what’s her advice to a younger person who is possibly uncertain about their future?

“They just need to get out there and try and explore and find out what their passions are because most people don’t know early in life,” she says. “You have to go and try a few different things before you figure out what you like.”

Read more about Maureen Gruben, including the differences between living in Tuktoyaktuk and Victoria

Emerging Alumni Award: Taiwo Afolabi

Taiwo Afolabi (Applied Theatre D Phil, 2020) has dedicated his life to using theatre as a tool for social change. A prolific scholar and an applied theatre practitioner, the Nigerian-born Afolabi researches, teaches and creates participatory theatre as a means of community engagement to explore themes of education, migration, displacement, climate change, inclusion and diversity.

After graduating from UVic, Afolabi began his tenure-track position at the University of Regina’s Theatre Department where he is an assistant professor; he currently holds the Canada Research Chair in Socially Engaged Theatre, and is the founder and director of the Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre (C-SET).

His research interests lie in the areas of applied theatre and policing, social justice, decolonization, art leadership and management, migration and the ethics of conducting arts-based research. Taiwo is a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and the founding artistic director of Theatre Emissary International. His academic studies combined with lived experience of issues of race, equity and inclusion have made him a much sought-after speaker, writer, teacher and faculty member.

While his professional accomplishments are many, he’s most proud of the connections he’s be able to make, the relationships he’s built and the opportunities to engage with people. “Whether it’s in devising a play in the community, writing a paper or doing a workshop, it’s ultimately about the people I’ve been able to touch and who have touched my own life,” he says.

Read more about Taiwo Afolabi, including his favourite memory of being a UVic student

Emerging Alumni Award: Sarah Jim

Sarah Jim (Visual Arts BFA, 2019) is a visual artist of mixed ancestry from the small village of Tseycum in W̱SÁNEĆ. She works in the field of environmental restoration. Her creations reflect and advocate for the beautiful territory that the W̱SÁNEĆ have stewarded since time immemorial. Her art has been displayed across southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands and garnered numerous awards.

A common thread throughout Jim’s work—which includes a territorial acknowledgement plaque for a public library, T-shirt designs, street banners, multiple murals around the territory and native plant signs at the Horticulture Center of the Pacific and UVic’s community garden—is her desire to use art to create awareness and celebrate the historic and ongoing relationship between the W̱SÁNEĆ people and the land, sea and sky.

She says she’s most proud of merging the field of environmental restoration with her artistic practice. “At the very end of my UVic time, I started working in the field of environmental restoration and falling in love with the native plants, foods and medicines we have here and Indigenous ways of being,” she explains. “In my very last painting course, I made this piece that was all native plants with Coast Salish elements, and I was really happy with it, and my teacher said that it was the best thing I made all year and I should have been doing this the whole time. That was a really big turning point for me and my career.”

Her advice to younger people uncertain about their futures? “Just take a chance, because you never know where you’re going to end up. That’s essentially what I did. I started doing markets. I had the audacity to try to sell my things, and a lot of my friends and family supported me. And then even strangers were supporting me, too. Put yourself out there and don’t be too shy because people are going to judge you no matter what, so you might as well just do it.”

Read more about Sarah Jim, including the best advice she was ever given

photo: Simon Pauly

Emerging Alumni Award: Josh Lovell

Barely in his 30s, Victora-born Josh Lovell (Performance BMus, 2015) is already a major player in the international classical music scene. Described by the Guardian as “a handsome-sounding tenor with a warm, liquid voice and easy high notes,” he studied at UVic’s School of Music from 2010 to 2014 before attending the University of Michigan on a full scholarship to complete his Masters of Voice Performance.

The winner of numerous awards, Lovell is currently an ensemble member of the renowned Vienna State Opera house Wiener Staatsoper. He has performed all over Europe at prestigious venues such as Teatro alla Scala Milan, the Glyndebourne Festival (UK), Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Bolshoi Theatre, helping raise the profile of Canada on the international stage. He also maintains an important connection to his home, returning to perform with the Vancouver Symphony, Pacific Opera and the Victoria Symphony, where he continues to inspire future generations of performers.

He felt his time at UVic “rounded me as an individual: it wasn’t completely focused on my studies. There was time to make connections with colleagues and friends, and attend the many events that were going on around the campus. UVic really felt like a community while I studied there. Even though I grew up in Victoria, UVic felt like a different city, another country. It was a zone all unto itself where I felt welcome to take part in all that was offered and challenged to learn all that I could.”

But he hesitates to name any one achievement of which he is particularly proud. “As your experience builds with every single performance, so develops your voice and artistry. Because of this, there is no single defining moment of arrival; there is no exact moment of ‘making it.’ All you can hope for is that you develop well enough to be noticed by the most famous companies in order to be hired by them.”

But Lovell does consider himself “very fortunate” to have been able to perform at a very high level since finishing his education. “This entire journey goes back to UVic,” he says. “None of this would have been possible without my teacher, Benjamin Butterfield.”

Read more about Josh Lovell, including the skills he feels are essential to his career

Nominate a remarkable grad!

The UVic Distinguished Alumni Awards celebrate the remarkable achievements of UVic graduates. Nominations for the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards are open now through Oct. 13, 2023. You can nominate an outstanding alum here.

Explore all 16 of UVic’s 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients.

Audain Professor Lindsay Delaronde continues her learning journey

by | Feb 27, 2023 | Alumni, Faculty, Graduate, indigenous, Theatre, Visual Arts

Audain Professor Lindsay Delaronde (photo: Tori Jones)

An early morning walk through the visual arts department usually sees a mix of students, faculty and staff arriving with coffee in hand: something not typically seen is an informal smudging ceremony outside the front door. But that’s just one of the ways Lindsday Katsitsakatste Delaronde is looking to make a difference as the latest Audain Professor in Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest.

“I’ve never abandoned who I am as a Mohawk person,” says Delaronde. “I really try to work under the value systems of my own knowledge. This position is a marker of the hard work I’ve been doing for the past 20 years: it grounds my artistic practice in relationship to my scholarship in one central place and has a creative grounding that really aligns with who I am.”

It also clearly aligns with the mandate of Vancouver’s Audain Foundation, who originally established the position in 2010 with a $2-million gift from philanthropist and UVic alumnus Michael Audain. Yet in February 2023, they further committed $160,000 in new funding to the professorship—including a three-year, $60,000 project specifically designed to support the Audain Professor’s efforts around outreach, community engagement and related research activities. They additionally fund the annual $7,500 Audain Travel Award for visual arts students, presented to graduate student Kosar Movahedi in fall 2022.

Staying authentic

A Kanienke’haka woman born and raised on the Kahnawake reservation outside of Montreal, Delaronde is no stranger to transforming public spaces: as the City of Victoria’s inaugural Indigenous Artist in Residence (2017-19), her collaborative land-based/site-specific performance art dramatically engaged viewers from the lawn of the BC Legislature to almost every cultural institution in the city.

Yet despite having multiple degrees—including two from UVic (MFA in Visual Arts, MA in Indigenous Communities Counselling Psychology)—and years of professional practice, Delaronde has never lost sight of her own learning journey: in addition to her current three-year term as Audain Professor, she is also pursuing a PhD in applied theatre practice with the Department of Theatre. This, she feels, gives her unique insight into the educational process.

“I love teaching and learning, both inside and outside the classroom,” she says. “I’m just trying to stay authentic to who I am as a person, as an artist, and bring that into the institution. But I can also look back and see the ways I struggled as an Indigenous student, regardless of which department. There’s a lot of folding of time and history that really helps me navigate this position.”

Broadening the scope

Over the past decade, the Audain Professorship has been held by such distinguished practicing artists as Governor General’s Award-winner Rebecca Belmore, Witness Blanket creator Carey Newman, the internationally acclaimed Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas plus the likes of Rande Cook, Nicholas Galanin and Jackson 2Bears.

“These are all foundational artists within the Canadian landscape of Indigenous contemporary art,” she says. “Each has a big history to draw on in terms of tools and techniques and facilitation, and each brings something of themselves into the space. That’s what’s beautiful about the position: it doesn’t have a narrow scope . . . the Audain Professorship creates a platform for Indigenous artists to be themselves within our institution.”

Yet Delaronde’s personal and professional experiences have also fuelled a desire for change which parallels similar societal demands.

“Making change on an institutional level is always a top-down approach, but my philosophy is around grassroots mobilization of new ideas that really surface from the community—and, in this case, my students are the community,” she explains.

“We’re working with a generation of students who are more aware than we were 15 or 20 years ago. They’re looking for anti-oppressive and anti-racist models, an increased sensitivity around cultural appropriation and a safe atmosphere of inclusivity and diversity that retains and encourages the rigour of learning how to talk about culture in good, productive, generative ways. Sometimes we forget we all come from different cultural lenses, and I’d like to see that grow in the department.”

Delaronde supported by dancers during ACHoRd, one of her Indigenous Artist in Residence projects (Photo: Peruzzo)

Being the change

Delaronde’s long connection with UVic also makes her unique in Audain history. “The University of Victoria has been essential not just in my educational journey but also as a place of deep reflection in my purpose,” she says. “I’ve never stopped caring about people and trying to make positive changes in our communities.”

From First Peoples House to Indigenous Studies and the Indigenous Governance program, she’s seen a lot of positive change since she first came to campus 15 years ago . . . yet feels now is not the time to slow down. “It’s important to value and acknowledge the good work that has happened at the institution, but there’s more work to do and there’s no stopping it now.”

Indeed, it’s hard not to see Delaronde herself as being emblematic of the very changes she’s witnessed.

“We need to see ourselves in leadership roles and I need to be there for my students and work with others towards institutional change,” she concludes. “Sometimes I feel like I just have to survive the institution daily, but at the same time I have such a passion and love for the arts. My practice has changed a lot and my teaching continues to reveal itself in terms of who I am today. It’s all very exciting and very fresh!”

UVic contributes talent, technical & creative power to Victoria’s burgeoning film industry

by | Feb 9, 2023 | Alumni, Graduate, indigenous, Theatre, Writing

Director & Dept of Writing professor Maureen Bradley (right) on the set of her locally lensed feature film,  Two 4 One 

Connect to any streaming service and it’s not hard to find UVic alumni on screen, thanks to busy actors like Erin Karpluk (The L Word), Peter Outerbridge (Orphan Black) and Emily Piggford (Umbrella Academy). Less obvious is the behind-the-scenes talent, like visual-effects artist Michelle Lo (Black Panther) and production coordinator Amanda Verhagen (Jurassic World: Dominion).

Yet while Vancouver’s Hollywood North casts a mighty shadow over Vancouver Island, alumni filmmakers continue to contribute technical and creative power to Victoria’s steady and growing TV and film industry.

Writing the life of an independent director

In many ways, award-winning director Connor Gaston (MFA ’14) is typical of the quiet talent UVic produces. After directing a string of short films, his 2015 debut feature—The Devout—premiered at Korea’s Busan International Film Festival. It then earned him the BC Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival before it went on to receive Best Picture and six other honours at BC’s own Leo Awards. Gaston, who is also a graduate of Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre, is currently working on his second feature film.

“Getting your first feature made is never easy—but it’s really difficult to make your second,” he admits. “Your first film really has to blow people out of the water to activate the next round of funding, which is usually a big step up, budget-wise.” By way of comparison, The Devout came in at $150,000, while his in-progress feature, Baby Tooth, is budgeted at $1.7 million: still a bargain compared to typical Hollywood productions.

“Even at $1.7 million, it’s almost like having no money again—all your budget goes to paying people very little for what they’re actually doing… and then all your money is gone,” he says. “But most people work on independent films because they want to be there—to learn, to help—so some money for them is better than no money at all.”

While BC’s film and digital-media industry generates $3.2 billion and 71,000 jobs annually, the vast majority of that work remains in Vancouver. The Island received roughly $55 million in direct spending of that amount and about 800 jobs in 2021, with 40 different productions shot across the region.

But a typical day in Gaston’s life mainly involves a lot of writing, not bean counting. “Working on the screenplay, writing grants… it’s very much a slog,” he says. Gaston keeps his cinematic chops in shape with short films—2022 saw him direct both Year of the Tortoise and The Cameraman Chapter II (a sequel to his 2016 short The Cameraman, inspired by the book of the same name by his novelist father, Bill Gaston). But unlike some directors, he doesn’t work on other peoples’ films. “I’m actually quite useless,” he laughs. “I wish I could do something more practical.”

While it’s a medium he clearly loves, Gaston acknowledges being a filmmaker comes with serious challenges. 

“Directing is so strange. If you’re a painter, you can paint every day, but with directing you need money to even practise your art. Writing helps, but you can only envision your screenplay so much.” 

Connor Gaston

Snapshot of a working filmmaker

As a self-described “working filmmaker,” Chen Wang, BFA ’18, is on the move. After a “quick” visit home to China in February 2020 turned into a two-year, COVID-restricted stay, Wang is happy to be back on campus to both complete his MFA in screenwriting and continue his work as cinematographer on the interdisciplinary research documentary Four Stories About Food Sovereignty. The project started in 2018 and includes UVic professors Elizabeth Vibert (History), Maureen Bradley (Writing), Matthew Murphy (Business), Astrid Pérez Piñán (Public Administration) and a team of international partners.

It was specifically thanks to his involvement with Four Stories that he was finally able to leave China in 2022 to film the latest installment, “Aisha’s Story”, in Jordan. “Aisha is a Palestinian woman who lives in the Baqa’a refugee camp,” Wang explains, “and she’s trying to keep her Palestinian culture alive through food: growing, cooking and passing that knowledge along to the next generations.”

Wang also shot the short film about UVic’s Voices In Motion intergenerational choir for adults with memory loss—one of the many pre-pandemic projects that kept him hopping on campus and in the community. As an undergrad, he founded the UVic Film Club, joined the CineVic Society of Independent Filmmakers, started his own commercial production company and created over 20 commercials with CHEK TV’s production team, as well as crewing on both professional and independent-film productions. “Before COVID, I was quite busy: features, shorts, documentaries, music videos… generally, I do camera, cinematography, director of photography, sometimes directing,” he says.

Guochen Wang

In addition to completing his MFA, Wang is also keen to finish the international Four Stories, which has shot in Sooke, Jordan and South Africa, with only Colombia remaining. “We’ve captured such an amazing story, I now want to complete it,” he says. “Not only is it the project that got me back to Canada, but I was so fascinated by what I saw in Jordan: I want people to see this film.”

Despite the proximity of Vancouver’s studios, Wang likes the idea of staying in Victoria. “I could shoot in other cities, but I like it here,” he says. “I like the environment, and there are so many talented people who work very hard.”  

Wang also shot the short film about UVic’s Voices In Motion intergenerational choir for adults with memory loss—one of the many pre-pandemic projects that kept him hopping on campus and in the community. As an undergrad, he founded the UVic Film Club, joined the CineVic Society of Independent Filmmakers, started his own commercial production company and created over 20 commercials with CHEK TV’s production team, as well as crewing on both professional and independent-film productions. “Before COVID, I was quite busy: features, shorts, documentaries, music videos… generally, I do camera, cinematography, director of photography, sometimes directing,” he says.

Mentoring future filmmakers

If you want to get a feel for the homegrown film scene, look no further than the CineVic Society of Independent Filmmakers. Founded in 1991, the artist-run society provides affordable professional-grade equipment, facilities, training and screening opportunities to local filmmakers and media artists; previous members—like South Island Film Commissioner Kathleen Gilbert and longtime Victoria Film Festival director Kathy Kay—make a clear case for CineVic’s importance as a local training ground.

Current executive director David Geiss (MFA ’13) has spent the past six years furthering the cinematic ambitions of CineVic’s 125 members. “I realized it was actually more satisfying to help other people with their work than spend an inordinate amount of time and money to make my own short films, which then may—or may not—be screened at a film festival,” he says, with a chuckle.

Geiss is no stranger to the indie film world: his films and documentaries have been broadcast nationally and seen worldwide, he’s taught screenwriting and served as programmer for the likes of the Short Circuit Pacific Rim Film Festival, National Student Film Festival and Queer City Cinema Film Festival, among others. But it’s only by running CineVic that his past experiences and skills have really been spliced together.

“In many ways, it feels like this was the job I was born to do,” he admits. “I realized I actually like the support work—the planning, the advising—more than making short films. I no longer wake up at three in the morning with ‘Eureka!’ ideas… As an arts administrator, I now just get a good night’s sleep.”

Geiss says CineVic has a diverse membership from students to hobbyists, and from people looking to break into the film industry to those already working—like local photographer and director Arnold Lim, whose award-winning 2020 feature film debut All-In Madonna was penned by screenwriter and UVic alumna Susie Winters, BFA ’16.

David Geiss (Victoria News photo)

Teaching film production on campus

Daniel Hogg, BFA ’04, is another local filmmaker who focuses on both teaching and creating. Currently completing his screenwriting MFA at UVic, he has twice been part of Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch program and his credits as producer include the award-winning feature film Two 4 One (the world’s first transgender romantic-comedy, directed by writing professor Maureen Bradley) and both the animated feature Esluna: The Crown of Babylon and the original nine-episode animated web series Esluna: The First Monolith. He was also executive producer on Connor Gaston’s The Devout.

Hogg is an experienced cinematographer and screenwriter as well as producer and has been teaching the Writing department’s film-production classes for years. The class is modelled on a professional film set, and students take on all the individual roles in a production—from director, producer, camera operator to editor, sound work and even catering.

“It’s not a production program per se, it’s a screenwriting program—it’s just supposed to give them a taste of the industry,” Hogg says. “Certainly, we’ve had students move into film and TV where they work as production managers, assistant directors or screenwriters.” (All-In Madonna’s Susie Winters is a good example of students making this leap.)

Hogg is excited for the future of Victoria’s burgeoning film industry.

“It’s growing and will continue to grow, but a lot of the community aren’t necessarily connected and integrated: not everyone knows everybody else,” he says. “A lot of people are doing things independently while others are connected through organizations like CineVic. But either way, we’re living in a time where people are actively trying to find ways to tell their stories.”

Putting Indigenous stories on screen

After spending 30 years producing and directing hundreds of live plays, UVic grad Leslie Bland, MFA ’99, started his own film company—Less Bland Productions—in 2011. “I felt like I was hitting the ceiling of what could be accomplished with live theatre, but film and television offer a bigger, broader canvas,” says the producer of popular documentaries like Gone South: How Canada Invented Hollywood and the all-female comedy series She Kills Me. “There’s a complexity in working with film that I really enjoy.”

Sporting a solid track record of film-fest screenings and experience with broadcasters CBC, Discovery Networks, Super Channel, Knowledge Network and Télé Quebec, Bland has partnered with fellow producer Harold Joe, a member of the Cowichan Tribes, in a joint venture, Orca Cove Media, which focuses exclusively on celebrating First Nations storytelling.

From left: Harold Joe, Leslie Bland, Graham Greene

So far, the producing pair have had hits with hot docs like Dust n’ Bones (examining the preservation and rededication of First Nations remains and artifacts) and Tzouhalem, a cinematic investigation into the story of legendary Cowichan Chief Tzouhalem. “Orca Cove’s mandate is to allow Indigenous creators to tell the stories they want to tell,” says Bland. “A lot of the stories are hyper-local, but they also have broader appeal and a point of authenticity.”

That broad appeal can either come through subject matter—their current documentary, A Cedar Is Life, explores the cedar tree’s pivotal role in the cultural life of coastal First Nations from Alaska to California—or narrative approach. The team has completed filming The Great Salish Heist (starring Dances with Wolves’ Graham Greene and Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer), set to be the world’s first comedic Indigenous heist film; also in development is Pow Wow Summer, a coming-of-age romance set on the Canadian pow-wow circuit.

Talent on the rise

With alumni talent both on- and off-screen, and the next generation of young filmmakers being mentored to tell their own stories, the future looks bright for Victoria’s film scene. As plans for production facilities continue to evolve with hoped-for studios in both Saanich and Langford, director Connor Gaston’s optimism is reflective of the local industry as a whole.

“In film, there are so many things that need to go right and so many elements you need to put it all together, but I still have fun doing it,” he reflects. “Being on set is still my favourite thing. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

One to watch: Letay Williams 

New grad Letay Williams (MFA ’ 22) is a screenwriter who is intentional about creating stories that resonate with a global audience but are also infused with the diverse, vibrant culture of her Jamaican heritage. In 2021, her project Traytown won the Audience Choice Award at the Creators of Colour “Big Pitch at TIFF” competition, and she was one of only eight writers chosen to participate in the 2022 Toronto-based BIPOC TV & Film Episodic Writers’ Lab.

In May 2022, she produced a live public reading of her as-yet-unproduced MFA script, Inheritance, a feature-length film set in both Jamaica and Canada. Described as a “heartwarming, LGBT/family drama,” the script was read by a cast of local and out-of-town talent (Kelowna, Toronto) who said they’ve “never read a story like this” and that it’s “the movie intersectional communities are longing to see on screen.”

This story originally ran in the fall 2022 issue of UVic’s Torch alumni magazine

 

Letay Williams

Orion Series presents Josh Tengan

by | Jan 30, 2023 | Events, indigenous, Orion Series in Fine Arts, Research, Visual Arts

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:

Josh Tengan

Visiting curator 

7:30pm (PST) Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Room A162, Visual Arts building + streaming online

Free & open to the public

Click here for the Zoom session 

 

Presented by UVic’s Department of Visual Arts  & Open Space Gallery

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

Josh Tengan is a Honolulu-based contemporary art curator. He was the assistant curator of the second Honolulu Biennial 2019, To Make Wrong / Right / Now.

Join us for this free talk at 7:30pm Wed Jan 11 in the Visual Arts building room A162. You can also watch the talk live via Zoom.

About Josh Tengan

Josh Tengan is a curator and cultural producer from Pauoa, Kona, O’ahu, Hawai’i. He is a generational islander of Kānaka ‘Ōiwi, Ryu-kyuan, and Madeiran descent. His curatorial practice centers on art of Hawai’i
and Moananuiākea. Tengan currently serves as associate director for both Hawai’i Contemporary, the non-profit arts organization that presents the Hawai’i Triennial, as well as Pu’uhonua Society, one of Hawai’i’s oldest arts organizations.

Wayfinders, the ones we breathe with | January to October 2023

Throughout 2023, Open Space will present a series of exhibitions, residencies and events under the title Wayfinders, the ones we breathe with. Breathing together across the shared ocean in cultural, environmental and molecular exchange. Through the work of artists from coastal neighbours and nations across the Pacific Ocean, Wayfinders recalls ancient way finding practices utilizing the stars, wind, water and land markers to find paths across the sea and into the intertwined histories, practices, migrations and contemporary lives of adjacent homelands.

To begin the series, we are excited to welcome Honolulu-based curator Josh Tengan in residence at Open Space from January 26 to February 4, 2023. Josh will connect with folks involved in Tide Lines: Coastal Resistance of the 60s and 70s and the Indigenous Emerging Artist Program

Image to the right: Ihumātao, Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. A growing occupation by Māori, especially the iwi of Māngere, and their allies to protect and conserve the whenua from a high‐cost housing development planned by Fletcher Building.

 

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.

Free and open to the public  |  Seating is limited (500 Zoom connections) |  Visit our online events calendar at www.events.uvic.ca

The freelance life of Jenessa Joy Klukas

by | Jan 9, 2023 | Alumni, indigenous, Undergraduate, Writing

Given the 24-hour global news cycle, we’re living in a time of rapid media consumption, but freelance writer Jenessa Joy Klukas is finding success by keeping her focus tight and building relationships one story at a time.

A recent Department of Writing graduate, Klukas, BFA ’21, finished the final year of her degree by interning at independent media outlet The Tyee as part of the Indigenous Reporters Program with Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), followed by a short posting at the equally independent IndigiNews as an education and child-welfare reporter.

Now freelancing for a variety of outlets—including expanding her work with The Tyee and IndigiNews, but also publishing with the likes of the Watershed Sentinel—Klukas has had no trouble keeping busy. “It’s been very steady since I graduated last year, but I’m enjoying the freedom that comes with freelancing: it allows me to take on stories I’m really passionate about,” she says.

Developing a beat

Of Xaxli’p and Métis descent, Klukas grew up on the land of the Haisla Nation in Kitimat before moving to Victoria and transferring from nearby Camosun College into UVic’s Writing department, where she focused on creative nonfiction. She’s managed to develop her own beat by focusing on stories about child welfare, education and Indigenous issues, and has also maintained ties with JHR through their Indigenous Media Collaborative.

“Because of these connections, stories are finding me a lot faster than I was anticipating—specifically in terms of Indigenous stories,” she says. “I find I get a lot of outreach on those.” Case in point? Her recent Watershed Sentinel story about Tea Creek Farm—an Indigenous-led, culturally-safe, land-based Indigenous food sovereignty and trades-training initiative located near Gitwangak in Gitxsan Territory (near Hazelton). The group reached out to her for coverage.

“Agriculture isn’t something I’ve really written about before, but because it was specifically Indigenous agriculture in a specific location—northern BC, near where I grew up—they felt I was the right person to contact,” she explains.

 

Another similar story focused on cultivating kelp resurgence in W̱SÁNEĆ waters via a partnership between the SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout) First Nation and the Cascadia Seaweed commercial farm. And Klukas is currently researching a story about how asthma is affected by climate change, specifically looking at the impact of wildfires. “With our changing climate, we’re seeing a real uptake in wildfires and it’s having a significant impact on people’s health,” she notes. “I’ll be taking a deeper look at how ceremonial burning can have a positive effect on wildfires.”

Klukas is grateful for the support of JHR’s Indigenous Media Collaborative to develop stories like these. “It’s a funded initiative that allows journalists to take the time to invest in stories,” she says. IMC’s reporters are focused on solutions-based journalism and can pitch any media outlet as they develop their concepts into whatever shape best suits the story, be that a one-shot, longform or a series. “Since it’s funded, they help guide you through the process of getting your stories out into the world.”

Stories that matter

Given the societal changes that coincided with her degree studies—including reconciliation, COVID, the rise of recent social-justice movements and the continuing climate crisis—Klukas feels the time is right for her to tell stories that matter.

“I came into journalism at a good time to have my voice heard. In Canada, we’re at a point in history where people are more accepting about creating space for Indigenous voices—which, in the past, didn’t happen very often.”

—UVic writing grad and journalist Jenessa Joy Klukas

Klukas pauses and offers a wry laugh. “Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone is always receptive to it.”

This deepening of voices is indicative of a cultural shift that she’s proud to be part of. “I would have really valued seeing Indigenous voices in journalism when I was a teenager—that representation would have meant a lot to me—so I’m totally willing and available to write stories on Indigenous matters,” she says. “It’s incredibly valuable to have Indigenous voices in the media space, not only for the average person to hear but also for Indigenous youth.”

But Klukas does admit that there’s a fine line between representation and tokenism in mainstream media. “Indigenous people shouldn’t be delegated to write only Indigenous stories if it’s part of a beat they’re not wanting to take on. As with any journalist, I always consider if this is the right story for me—I mean, I’m happy to cover Indigenous stories, but it’s important to have boundaries.”

Boundaries are especially important for her when writing about sensitive issues, like Indigenous child welfare. “It’s a passionate topic for me, so I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing about it—but it can be difficult to not feel overwhelmed,” she says. “There’s a heaviness that comes with it that can be emotionally draining. But that’s one of my favourite things about freelancing, spacing those stories out with a variety of topics: it helps me take care of my mental health.”

Another way Klukas keeps herself in balance is by having at least one creative project on the go, whether that’s “dabbling” in fiction via short stories or screenplays. “It’s important to have something for myself, just to keep flexing my creative muscles.”

While she’s still relatively new to the world of freelancing, Klukas feels she’s found her niche. “It takes a lot of initiative to be a freelancer, and it’s a constant process of learning something every day. That’s something the Writing program taught me: it’s important to pitch everywhere, send those emails in and just follow up. It can be scary—some days I feel very confident, while other days I have total impostor syndrome—but that’s very normal… writing is a very secluded endeavour, so it’s easy to fall into the ‘why am I doing this?’ mindset.”

Klukas finds success by giving her attention to one story at a time.

“I’m very proud of the work I do, and I’m really happy with the trajectory my career is taking, but I try to keep the focus on each story,” she says. “In journalism, sometimes you write for quota, sometimes you write for money… there are always going to be pieces you’ll like more than others, but I feel most successful when there’s a story I’m really proud of: building relationships is one of my favourite parts of journalism.”

This story originally appeared in the fall 2022 issue of UVic’s Torch alumni magazine