Submission call for $1K Student Impact Awards!

by | Mar 25, 2025 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, donor, School of Music, Theatre, Undergraduate, Visual Arts, Writing

Are you a current or graduating Fine Arts student who’s been involved with some community-engaged creative activity between January 1 2024 & May 31 2025? If so, you could qualify for $1,000 via our annual juried, donor-funded Community Impact Awards. 

Since 2021, we’ve awarded over $13,000 to 11 students from across Fine Arts for projects ranging from murals, theatre productions, music performances, art shows, curatorial projects & more. Your activity may include (but isn’t limited to) any exhibit, performance, workshop, publication, curatorial, educational, digital, production and/or administrative role within the regional boundaries of Greater Victoria (Sidney to Sooke).

These awards are looking to highlight the efforts of undergraduate Fine Arts students who have demonstrated an outstanding effort in a community-engaged creative activity in Greater Victoria that went over and above their academic studies.

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

The fine print

A complete submission package — including the submission form and all supporting materials — must be received by 5pm Friday, May 30, 2025.

This award is open to any current or graduating undergraduate student enrolled in Art History & Visual Studies, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing or the School of Music. Typically, three students receive awards each year and you must be a Fine Arts major to win: double-majors (ie: Humanities and Fine Arts) will only qualify if they choose Fine Arts as their graduating faculty.

The actual awards will be presented in fall 2025 as part of the annual Greater Victoria Regional Arts Awards, and recipients will be expected to attend. You will receive a physical award with your name on it as well as the funds, which are distributed by UVic’s Student Awards and Financial Aid office.

Helpful tips

To apply for this juried award, you’ll need the following:

  1. A description of the community-engaged creative activity (500 words max), including a title page with your contact information
  2. A letter from an individual or organization explaining how you were involved in this activity (300 words max)
  3. Two letters of endorsement for the project, from different people than #2 (two pages max, written by people unrelated to you)
  4. Your resume, CV or portfolio, noting relevant experience.

When it comes to your supporting material, consider these points:

  • What was the actual impact of your project? How many people did you reach? What kind of feedback did you receive, even anecdotally?
  • What are the benefits of engaging with the community through your arts practice?
  • How did your studies prepare you to engage in this kind of community project?
  • How will this award financially assist you?

What kind of work doesn’t qualify for this award?

  • Any project for which you received a grade as part of your coursework
  • Any student job that doesn’t have a creative element tied to a specific project
  • Anything that falls out of the required date range (2023 or earlier, or later in 2025)
  • Any project outside of Greater Victoria.

Frequently asked questions:

  • What qualifies as “community-engaged creative activity”?
    We’re looking for projects that engage the greater community in some aspect: past winners have been involved with painting murals, local theatre festivals, running sound for an orchestral series, performing live at pop-up installations, leading children’s arts camps, creating and distributing a ’zine, doing volunteer work for an arts group, mentoring with a children’s choir, running a gallery, and applying for and then mounting exhibitions of their own art. If it’s creative, isn’t for a grade and involves people, then it counts.

     

  • I mounted a self-created art project that had limited duration and no official support. Would this qualify?
    It would qualify as long as you have sufficient documentation, can articulate the project’s impact and can find support letters for it.
  • What’s the difference between the support letters?
    One letter speaks to how you were directly involved in the project (ideally written by a supervisor, funder or community partner) while the other two letters speak to the project’s overall impact (could be written by a participant, audience member or other attendee).
     
  • Can it be an on-campus project or does it have to have happened off-campus?
    On-campus projects do qualify, as long as they are not directly related to a course or self-directed study.
     
  • I’m graduating in June: can I still qualify for this award?
    As long as your project fits into the required date range, you qualify.

  • Would a project for a non-Fine Arts course qualify?
    No, this would still be considered course-related work.

  • I applied before but didn’t win. Can I apply again?
    Yes, as long as your project fits the qualifying date range.
     
  • I won this award before: can I apply again?
    No, you can only win this award once.

  • Does a project involving a larger event or organization count?
    Yes: many of our students work or volunteer for the Fringe Festival, SKAMpede, Art Gallery Paint-In, Symphony Splash, JazzFest or Rifflandia, for example. But keep in mind we are looking for students who have made an “outstanding effort”, not simply finding a summer job in the arts.

Questions? Contact fineartsawards@uvic.ca 

Three REACH Award winners in Fine Arts

by | Mar 24, 2025 | Award, Faculty, School of Music, Visual Arts, Writing

Congratulations go out to three Fine Arts professors who have been named recipients of UVic’s annual REACH Awards, which recognize outstanding achievement by teachers and researchers who are leading the way in dynamic learning and making a vital impact on campus, in the classroom and beyond.

Excellence in Creativity & Artistic Expression Award

This award recognizes a significant project or body of work that furthers knowledge and awareness through creative or artistic expression. Nominations are encouraged from the creative, visual and performing arts, scholarship on the arts, and research on all aspects of arts and culture.

Department of Visual Arts professor Kelly Richardson creates video installations of rich and complex landscapes that have been manipulated using CGI, animation and sound. Taking cues from 19th-century paintings, 20th-century cinema, and 21st-century planetary research, Kelly crafts artwork that offers imaginative glimpses of the future that prompt careful consideration of the present. She is a core member of the Awi’nakola Foundation—an Indigenous-led, cross-cultural group of knowledge keepers, scientists and artists working together to find effective responses to the climate crisis and educate others through the process. Kelly’s most recent work was featured in Metallica’s 72 Seasons music video.

Harry Hickman Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching & Educational Leadership

This award bears the name of a distinguished scholar, teacher and principal of Victoria College. He was acting president of UVic and head of the Modern Languages and French departments. This award recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and educational leadership.

For two decades, Department of Writing professor David Leach has been a pedagogical innovator, inside and outside the classroom. He has integrated emerging forms of interactive digital media (from iClickers to virtual reality) with student-driven interdisciplinary projects and community-engaged partnerships, publications and productions. As an academic leader, he has shared his knowledge and experience with colleagues in committees at every level of the university and through scholarship and hands-on demonstrations in workshops, lectures, podcasts, papers and public events to celebrate the power and potential of student-centered, project-based forms of collaborative discovery and interactive learning.

Provost’s Advocacy & Activism Awards

The Provost’s Advocacy and Activism Awards in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion recognize the achievements of individuals or groups in the university community (current students, faculty, staff and alumni) who demonstrate dedication to the advancement of social equity through advocacy and/or activism. These awards also celebrate individuals or groups who go beyond the expectations of one’s job, position or responsibility to advance the rights of others.

Associate Professor Kirk McNally’s work within the School of Music embodies the spirit of diversity, equity and inclusion. His efforts to host a diverse range of musicians has fostered a vibrant learning environment for aspiring sound engineers and producers. Kirk has also collaborated with Carey Newman, the Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices, on the public art installation Earth Drums, and the Virtual Reality Witness Blanket project. In 2021, Kirk hosted a four-day hybrid workshop which engaged in critical dialogue about representation within the field of music production. These engagements are a snapshot of the unique activism that Kirk brings to his field and his classroom.

Congratulations to all! Read more about the REACH 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.

Orion Lectures: Michelle Chawla

by | Feb 24, 2025 | Art History & Visual Studies, Events, Graduate, Orion Series in Fine Arts, Research, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, 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:

Photo: Christian Lalonde

Michelle Chawla 

Director & CEO, Canada Council for the Arts

A Facilitated Conversation

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

Presented by UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts

For more information, please email fineasst@uvic.ca

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

ABOUT THE TALK

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

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

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

You can watch a recording of the talk here: 

 

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

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

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

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

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

About the Orion Fund

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

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

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

Music professor has world premiere at Invictus Games

by | Feb 10, 2025 | Faculty, Research, School of Music

When over 550 wounded warriors walk and wheel into the closing ceremonies of Vancouver’s Invictus Games, they’ll be entering to the celebratory sounds of a triumphant new fanfare, specially composed for the event by UVic School of Music professor Steven Capaldo. His “Invictus Fanfare” will be performed live at the Rogers Arena on Sunday, February 16, by frequent UVic Music collaborators, the Royal Navy’s Naden Band of Maritime Forces Pacific.

An international multi-sport event first held in 2014 for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women (both serving and veterans), The Invictus Games were co-founded by Prince Harry, who will be in attendance.

With Invictus participants coming from 25 different countries, Capaldo is the ideal composer for this piece: a new Canadian who received his citizenship in 2023, he served in the Australian military and has composed “celebration music” for national events before.

“The producers loved the fact that this piece was new, fresh and Canadian,” he says. “It doesn’t sound like a staid, old 1800s fanfare: it has a modern feel and a modern flare.”

Media interest

Listen to Steven Capaldo talk about his “Invictus Fanfare” in this interview with CBC Radio’s On The Island from February 11. He also appeared in this CHEK News story, and has forthcoming interviews with the Times Colonist newspaper and CBC Radio’s North By Northwest show. 

A respectful celebration

Set to a tempo suitable for wheelchairs and assisted walking, Capaldo was surprised at how quickly he was able to compose the three-minute fanfare.

“I thought about my own experiences in the military, the philosophy of the Games and how it should be a celebration but also respectful of the athletes’ particular journeys,” he says. “I also knew it needed a moment of introspection to acknowledge their sacrifice: the reason they’re at these games is because they’ve had an injury through war, through their service. I wanted to pay respect to that.”

A specialist in conducting, composing and arranging for wind ensembles, Capaldo regularly leads the UVic Wind Symphony; his own compositions have been performed by groups in Australia, Canada, Japan and the USA.

Capaldo says his fanfare was an instant hit when presented to organizers and is now in consideration as the official theme for future Invictus Games processionals. And given Rogers Arena’s 20,000-seat capacity plus the worldwide television broadcast of the closing ceremonies — which also features performances by the Barenaked Ladies, rapper Jelly Roll and blues duo The War & Treaty — this will definitely be the largest audience for any of his pieces.

Capaldo and the UVic Wind Symphony will also perform with the Naden Band on April 4, 2025, at UVic’s Farquhar Auditorium.

Sounds for Soldiers: Emily Armour’s Music for Veterans Project connects young musicians with military vets

by | Jan 15, 2025 | Alumni, Award, Graduate, School of Music, Undergraduate

Music alum Emily Armour with Pipe Major Roger McGuire of the Canadian Scottish Regiment
(Princess Mary’s) at 2024’s 80th anniversary of D-Day event at Victoria’s Bay Street Armoury 

When it comes to honouring veterans, many people wear a poppy on November 11 and then literally call it a day. Emily Armour created the Music for Veterans Project as a cross-generational way to honour soldiers year-round. Armour’s program involves sharing profiles of a member of the Canadian military with a young musician. The youth then creates an original musical composition to honour that person.

“It’s wonderful that we all unite and honour veterans in November, but it’s important to have other moments throughout the year to make them feel special as well,” Armour says.

Now in its fourth year, the Music for Veterans Project (MVP) provides meaningful connections between Armour’s students and Canadian veterans. Over 100 pieces have been written by students ranging in age from 18 to just five years old. These works honour both deceased and living veterans, including those who still are on active duty or have served as reservists.

“What makes this project unique is that every piece is inspired by and dedicated to an individual person,” she says.

Honouring the past

The program started as a Remembrance Day event but has since grown in scope. “There are a lot of activities out there for youth around Remembrance Day, but there isn’t always an opportunity to do something focused on an individual,” says Armour. “Like many of us, some of my students may have had relatives who served, but do they know a veteran who’s alive? Have they ever spoken to one? Have they ever heard a veteran talk about anything — even just about themselves? Through this project, the students are suddenly realizing just how different veterans are.”

Armour is a professional piano teacher who received both her Bachelor’s (2012) and Master’s (2017) from UVic’s School of Music, where she primarily studied with famed professor Bruce Vogt. Her family’s strong ties to the Canadian Armed Forces inspired the project.

“Not only was my husband in the military, but my grandmother served overseas during World War II: she was a physiotherapist in England and Germany between 1944 and 1945. I’ve seen how important and valuable it is for veterans and people in the Canadian Forces to have these moments of acknowledgment and positive recognition— but it’s just so amazing when it’s coming from youth.”

Composing from memory

Averaging between one and four minutes in length, each simple but evocative composition is inspired by an information package compiled by Armour. Veterans are chosen through a mix of word-of-mouth and organizational outreach. The creative lens is strictly focused on the soldier as a person: no additional historical information is added to the profile the student receives.

“There’s a lot of love, thought and care that goes into the process,” she says. “It’s emotional for everybody, because it’s so personal: even the titles of some compositions are drawn right from the material. It’s a very personal acknowledgment, as opposed to giving a drawing of a poppy to a veteran . . . which may be fantastic, but it lacks the personal acknowledgment music has.”

The compositions are always instrumentals with the idea of allowing the listener to conjure their own thoughts and feelings from the piece. She feels the greatest value is not actually the music itself: it’s why the music is written.

“As artists, it’s always kind of about us—what can this do for me and my career and my voice—but this is decidedly not about them; it’s for the person who gave their life in France during WWII, or whenever. It taps into something deeper because they’re doing it for somebody else.”

Emily Armour presents Commanding Officer Lt Col Slade Lerch with one of two plaques crafted on oak by a local veteran to commemorate the eight-piece collection created for the anniversary of D-Day

Memory beyond life

The age range of the veterans honoured reflects Canada’s involvement with international conflicts, from World War I to today’s peacekeepers. The program has honoured two living centenarians and a 35-year-old Afghanistan veteran—with a century’s worth of soldiers in-between.

Armour says it’s been a positive experience for her students. They receive a certificate signed by the veteran or partner organization and often get to professionally record the music. The veterans receive a copy of the music.

Many pieces are quietly reflective, with titles like “Beyond the Fray”, “Remembering a Hero” or “The Sacrifice for Freedom” (all of which can be heard at musicforveteransproject.com, many paired with a photo of the veteran). But Armour highlights one light-hearted piece called “Ballad for Seanmhair” (Gaelic for “grandmother”), which was composed for the 2024 80th anniversary of D-Day.

“The title seems very strange for a commemorative piece about a soldier, but his next-of-kin was his grandmother: that was the person who would have been informed of his death. I was so proud of my student for thinking about the impact of their service. It shows how this project can help heal and unite people from such different worlds, both historically and emotionally.”

Looking to the future, Armour has now established MVP as a federal not-for-profit and is opening participation to other piano teachers; they’ve also started working on projects that are both larger and more national in scope.

“Last year we did an event at the Royal Oak Burial Park in Saanich: it was our first public event and we had a ceremony at the war graves plot featuring a procession with Vice Regal Piper Ken Wilson, a group of active Air Force members and WWII pilot George Brewster as a guest speaker,” she recalls. “My students announced the names of the veterans and the title of their pieces; then, as we played professional recordings of the music, they lay the sheet music on the graves.”

Armour and four of her students were also thrilled to attend a 2023 event at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, where audience included Indigenous elders, ambassadors and other dignitaries. “That was a life-altering experience,” she says about watching her student play pieces honouring three Indigenous veterans, as well as former Senator Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire.“

Music students Kai, Keira, Luke, Maya, Théo & teacher Emily Armour with
former Chief of the Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre during a trip to Ottawa 2023

Growing commemoration

Currently, the Music for Veterans Project is involved in two new efforts: the Honouring Garden, created in collaboration with Nova Scotia’s Veteran Farm Project Society to commemorate women veterans, and Oaks of Remembrance, a unique living memorial marking the 110th anniversary of World War I’s Battle of Kitcheners’ Wood.

Part digital and part environmental, Oaks of Remembrance will see new Garry oak trees planted at Saanich’s Royal Oak Burial Park, where current trees will also be designated as memorials for individual veterans; the public will then be able to go online to hear the musical compositions and learn about both the veteran and the student.

“Oaks of Remembrance will commemorate members of the Canadian Scottish Regiment, Vancouver Island’s only infantry unit, who wear an oak leaf battle honour on their uniform representing this 1915 battle in Belgium — they’re one of the few units in the whole Commonwealth who actually wear a battle honour on their uniform,” Armour explains. “And since Royal Oak Burial Park already has a connection with the Commonwealth War Grave Commission, it’s going to be a beautiful fusion of nature and music that will stand forever as a fully embodied remembrance.”

The sound of history

 When asked if she has a favourite moment over the last four years, Armour hesitates. “I don’t know if there could be just one, there have been so many: seeing tears in the eyes of a veteran as they listen to the music, talking to a family member about somebody who recently passed away . . . it all reminds me of how important this project is.”

As a veteran told Armour after hearing the piece composed for him, “You and your students have no idea how much this piece of music means to me, and I will use this gift to get me through some of the tougher days ahead.”