Annual Visual Arts BFA exhibit opens April 11

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

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

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

Distinguished Alumni Awards: Tania Willard

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

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

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

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

An acclaimed career

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

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

Speed round!

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

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

One food I can’t resist: 

“Smoked salmon.”

My go-to karaoke song: 

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

My secret talent: 

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

Skill I wish I possessed: 

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

Something great I’ve read recently: 

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

One cool thing about where I live: 

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

Read more about UVic’s 2025 Alumni Awards here

Submission call for $1K Student Impact Awards!

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

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

Distinguished Alumni Award: Crystal Clark

Indigenous Community Alumni Award recipient Crystal Clark is a Cree/Dene and Métis mother, an artist and an Indigenous education specialist who has worked within First Nations and public schools. She holds a Master of Educational Technology, Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Fine Arts, New Media Diploma and a Native Creative Writing and Visual Arts Diploma. Her teaching experience includes working with the Tsimshian Nation in Lax Kw’alaams, BC, O’Chiese First Nation and Sunchild First Nation, AB. 

“I had a unique experience with the University of Victoria back in the 1990s,” she recalls of her time in the Department of Visual Arts, where she received her BFA in 2002. “UVic has a relationship with Penticton First Nations’ En’owkin Centre, founded by [Fine Arts alumna] Jeannette Armstrong… It allowed me a creative way to enter the field of post-secondary, but in a kind way for an Indigenous person to connect with other Indigenous scholars and artists… Fine Arts became a tool to express who I am and how I was feeling in relation to my identity as an Indigenous person trying to navigate society.”

Along with teaching, Clark has gained experience as a vice principal and First Nations Student Success Program coordinator as well as an Indigenous Education Consultant with the Alberta Teachers Association, College of Alberta School Superintendents, Canada Sports Hall of Fame: Indigenous Sports Heroes, National Film Board of Canada and Pearson Education. 

She has received a Prime Minister’s Teaching Achievement Award, Esquao Award for Education Service with the Institute for Advancement of Aboriginal Women and is a two-time Peace Hills Trust Art Award Recipient. Her public has been displayed in downtown Vancouver, Red Deer, Edmonton and Calgary. Her most recent work can be seen at Red Deer Polytechnic’s Indigenous Student Centre.

A bigger world

Born in Treaty 8 Territory in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Clark is currently living in Treaty 6 Territory in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. 

“It was particularly challenging, the high schools that I went to, moving a lot and not feeling a sense of belonging as an Indigenous person, also going through a lot of family trauma,” she recalls of her early years. “I learned that post-secondary education in a university setting, if designed to nurture and celebrate Indigeneity, was meant for me. I felt like I belonged and was able to connect with Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples from across Canada and around the world. I felt a sense of belonging. It was an opening to a bigger world that’s out there and that I could make my way in. I felt comfortable.”

One thing that’s helped her over the year’s is what she describes as having a “smudge mindset.” “That’s a term I made up . . . it’s like smudging with sage or sweet grass and what I’m thinking and feeling when I smudge. I can’t always take smudge into every situation I’m in to help me in ways like calming down or being grounded, but I can think those thoughts, like ‘Please help me be patient and kind in this situation, help me see the world in a good way and with kindness and walk in a good way.’ We live in a reactionary society these days, and sometimes it’s important to remind myself to not always jump the gun and to have that sense of patience and gratitude.”

What I’ve learned with age

“Aging has taught me not worrying and not to be as anxious as much about the little things. So, stopping being so hard and critical of myself, and not always worrying about what other people might think. As one of my cousins says comparison can be the killer of joy. I have come to know that I’m valued and needed, and as an Indigenous person that I do belong.”

With aging, however, also comes perspective. “We’re all lifelong learners,” she says. “School can be a beautiful place to expand our minds, practice and learn, but after that it’s the work that you get into where you really start to put what you’ve learned into practice. And that’s where I think you grow the most is learning that you don’t stop learning once you graduate. That’s just the beginning.” 

All my relations

“When I went to En’owkin, the satellite of the UVic campus, I learned a concept from my Anishinaabe friend and poet Vera Wabegijig called ‘all my relations,’ which I’ve always carried with me. In Cree, the concept is called Wahkohtowin. Rather than saying goodbye, you can say ‘all my relations.’ It’s essentially saying that everybody in this world, we’re all connected to each other… not only to each other as humans, but we’re related to the land, the natural world, the sun, the moon, the stars, the water, the air, the trees, the animals and plants. We all need each other to exist. It’s not so much advice, but more of a worldview that’s helped me maintain good relationships with people and the land that I’ve encountered and work with, and in my everyday life to know that we need to all love and respect each other.”

 

Speed round!

Something that brings me joy:

“Nature. I love being out on the land. And art.” 

If I had an extra hour of free time: 

“I always need time to do more art. I think most artists would say that.”

A concert I attended recently:

“The Looney Tunes Symphony in Edmonton.”

 Secret talent: 

“Aging gracefully. Some call it great genes, others call it a mystery—I just call it my secret superpower!”

 One skill I wish I possessed: 

“Being part of a community with so many great examples of living with the land has shown me the beauty of self-sufficiency—something I wish had been part of my upbringing. There’s something deeply fulfilling about knowing how to grow your own food, raise animals, identify indigenous plants and medicines and sustain your way of life. I often find myself longing for that connection, not just to the land but also to my roots—especially the ability to speak one of my Indigenous languages.”

 My go-to karaoke song: 

“Proud Mary” by Tina Turner. I would bring the house down with that song.”

 Read more about UVic’s 2025 Alumni Awards here

 

New Indigenous student listserv

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.