Research funding focuses on Indigenous artistic responses to plastic pollution

by | May 15, 2026 | Award, climate, Faculty, indigenous, Visual Arts

While there is a growing awareness of the global impact of plastic pollution, the most ubiquitous visuals we have of the harms of litter and microplastics alike may be of tropical sea turtles, polluted beaches, and damaged coral reefs. Few consider the critical impact it has on Northern regions, where microplastics contaminate oceans and sea ice, the landscape, and even the food chain, posing a threat to community health and biodiversity.

Now, $475,000 in new funding from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) offers Department of Visual Arts professor Heather Igloliorte the opportunity to create a series of new art-science collaborations while also increasing national awareness around the issue of plastic pollution in rural, remote, Subarctic and Arctic regions.

Titled “As It Melts: Northern Indigenous Artistic Perspectives on Plastics Pollution”, this two-year project will be led by Igloliorte — who is also UVic’s Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial & Transformational Indigenous Art Practices — and Kirsty Robertson (Western University’s Canada Research Chair in Museums, Art & Sustainability) in partnership with the Inuit Art Foundation.

Announced on May 11, As It Melts will bring together a diverse group — including Indigenous artists, Indigenous and settler scientists, plastics and arts-based researchers, students, museum professionals, community members, Elders and knowledge keepers — to address the presence of plastic pollution in and around Indigenous communities, through the lens of contemporary art research-creation.

For this ambitious project, Indigenous artists will work with and learn from plastics pollution researchers and scientific labs across Canada, participate in knowledge exchange workshops, and ultimately create major research-based artworks, that will culminate in a nationally significant public exhibition and symposium aligning with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“This project is truly a testament to the strength of our collaboration, and the significance and urgency of the work before us,” says Igloliorte. “By harnessing the power of art to investigate plastics pollution — while also informing communities and the broader public of its harms — As It Melts will help people imagine cleaner, safer and more sustainable futures for our lands and waters.”

Fine Arts also recently announced $250,000 in funding from SSHRC’s New Frontiers in Research Fund and the Tri-Agency Institutional Programs Secretariat (TIPS) for Visual Arts professor Carey Newman’s two-year project focused on “Robotic Carving to Augment and Preserve Intergenerational Kwakwaka’wakw Knowledge Transfer.” Both these projects engage innovative new creative technologies to address concerns around the environment and the ongoing climate crisis while also forefronting Indigenous knowledge and practices.

Heather Igloliorte (photo: Julie Grenier)

“These grants successes by Carey and Heather highlight the remarkable trajectory that Fine Arts is on,” says Kirk McNally, Associate Dean Creative Activity, Research & Administration for UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts. “They build on our reputation for excellence in creative activity and research that explores the potential of creative technologies, and our deep engagement with the environment and the climate crisis. They also highlight UVic’s commitment to Indigenous-led scholarship and creating an environment where Indigenous ways of knowing and being can thrive.”

By engaging with community-monitoring of plastics pollution and on-the-land research in Northern, remote and rural Indigenous communities, As It Melts intends to dramatically shift both awareness of and response to the impacts of plastic pollution on wildlife, the environment, and humans in Canada. This project will effectively respond to Phase 2 of the Canada-Wide Action Plan on Zero Plastic Waste, while also establishing decolonial methods for further research.

As It Melts will be guided by an advisory committee made up of Indigenous community leaders and arts professionals. It will also be supported by innovative partnerships with organizations and labs across the country — including UVic’s Taqsiqtuut Indigenous Research-Creation Lab and Western University’s Centre for Sustainable Curating — in parallel to Indigenous knowledge and artistic and cultural approaches, linked with lived and embodied experience of the impacts of plastic pollution.

Research funding focuses on developing innovative Indigenous robotic technologies

by | May 13, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, climate, Faculty, indigenous, Visual Arts

Carey Newman working on his Totem 2.0 system developed with Camosun Innovates  (photo: Camosun College)

Department of Visual Arts professor Carey Newman was announced on May 13 as the recipient of new funding from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to develop a new robotic carving system to better preserve traditional Indigenous carving techniques. By exploring the interconnection between Indigenous knowledge, technology and art, this innovative technology will ethically embed robotics into education and creative practice while offering new ways to access, interpret, preserve and teach traditional knowledge.

Newman, also UVic’s inaugural Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices, will be receiving $250,000 over two years from SSHRC’s New Frontiers in Research Fund and the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat (TIPS) for his project “Robotic Carving to Augment and Preserve Intergenerational Kwakwaka’wakw Knowledge Transfer.”

Carving is core to Pacific Northwest Indigenous Peoples’ social, legal, and cultural orders.  From the ornamental to the utilitarian, miniscule to monumental, carvings — be they drums, masks and rattles or canoes, poles and structural support for big houses — integrate into every aspect of life.

Now, this interdisciplinary project will see Newman join with UVic researchers from Mechanical Engineering & Computer Science (including professor Keivan Ahmadi) with off-campus partners including Camosun College’s Camosun Innovates and the Royal BC Museum to design and build an adaptive robotic system which will operate in collaboration with a master carver to augment and preserve the intergenerational knowledge transfer of carving practices in Northwest Coast Indigenous art.

“Traditionally, carving is passed down through close, hands-on mentorship, often within families or communities, but current efforts face increasing disruption due to climate change, cultural shifts, land/language loss, legacies of colonialism and urbanization,” says Newman. “This project offers new ways to enhance generational continuity and help young people engage and learn using novel digital collaboration technologies designed to protect and strengthen carving knowledge.”

The final version of the pole Carey Newman is carving above, now placed outside Pacific Opera Victoria’s Baumann Centre in Victoria  

Rather than automate artistic methods, Newman’s project will instead complement a carver’s tools by communicating culturally rooted practices over time. This work will provide a careful, respectful approach that upholds the integrity and sovereignty of Indigenous knowledge systems while utilizing advanced computational models and processes. Creating a robotic carving system will allow new technologies to promote, respect and strengthen cultural resilience, as well as explore the reciprocal benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration in areas like robotic surgery and advanced manufacturing.

 “This award is especially meaningful for us to celebrate as it marks Fine Arts’ first successful NFRF and charts an exciting new path for collaboration and partnership across campus, and in our community,” says Kirk McNally, the Associate Dean Creative Activity, Research & Administration for Fine Arts.

The impact of this project is enhanced by alignment with Newman’s other federally funded cultural, environmental and political art project, The Seedling, which involves planting a Western Red Cedar then designing a digital 3D totem which will be carved in 600 years when the tree is mature. The Seedlingrethinks colonial concepts of economy, law and politics, while radically expanding planning and decision-making timescales.

Newman’s robotic system will be capable of real-time adaptation to carving variables like unpredictable cedar microstructures while combining experiential knowledge and technical innovation. Integrating deeply embodied, culturally grounded artistic knowledge with emerging robotic technologies involves high risks (both technical and conceptual) but offers high rewards (including generational knowledge transfer and commercial application and development).

Visual Art MFAs exhibit featured at downtown gallery

by | Apr 20, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, Events, Faculty, Graduate, indigenous, Visual Arts

Art by Visual Arts MFA Moozhan Ahmadzadegan at the Hourglass (photo: Shay Ball)

Back in February, we announced that Visual Arts is now a partner with the new Hourglass studio developed by Vancouver Island Visual Arts Society, who also run downtown’s ambitious 80-artist Rockslide Studio & Gallery.

Now, we’re hosting an exclusive exhibition of work by 11 current and graduating Visual Arts MFA students at the Hourglass. The MFA exhibit Passage will run April 18  through May 16 and features diverse work across multiple mediums including sound, painting, sculpture, installation and fibre.

Created with support from the City of Victoria’s Storefront Activation Program, Hourglass is an 8,500-square-foot space housed in the former Volvo dealership at Yates and Cook. Repurposed to house 18 art studios plus exhibition space, Visual Arts professors Heather Igloliorte and Joel Ong, plus three graduate students, now have dedicated studios in the Hourglass.

“Having studio and presentation space at the Hourglass studios gives us a place to create and a place to connect,” says Visual Arts chair Megan Dickie. “We’re excited to build stronger ties with the Victoria arts community and to see MFA students working alongside our new faculty.”

Just as directors need a stage and scientists need a lab, professional artists need a dedicated studio to support their work. “Access to studio space is essential to a successful artistic practice, whether you’re an established artist-researcher or an emerging one,” says Dickie. “That’s true for new faculty members like Heather and Joel, and it’s just as true for our MFA cohort.”

Like so many arts spaces in Victoria — including the bustling Rockslide itself — the Hourglass location is destined to be short-lived, as the property is slated for redevelopment into a 21-storey mixed-use tower over the next few years. But until then, it will serve as the city’s latest innovative arts space.

Work by Kylie Fineday on view in Passage  (photo: Shay Ball)

Naming A Crisis uses art to address overdose deaths

by | Apr 14, 2026 | Alumni, Events, Faculty, Graduate, health, Visual Arts

Organizers Stephanie Harrington (left) & Amanda Farrell-Low in front of Laura Dutton’s installation

Tuesday April 14 marked 10 years since BC declared the overdose crisis a public health emergency, and more than 18,000 people have died from toxic drugs: a decade on, nearly five people a day are dying. While that scale of loss is hard to comprehend, the new multimedia arts installation Naming A Crisis has been created to show the magnitude of this crisis . . . one name at a time.
Conceived of by Writing MFA alum Stephanie Harrington, Visual Arts instructor and alumna Laura Dutton and Amanda Farrell-Low (communications officer for UVic’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research), Naming A Crisis honours lives lost to toxic drugs. “We wanted to honour these individuals but also convey the scale of loss at the same time, because it’s astronomical,” Farrell-Low said in this Victoria News article.
Presented by the Victoria Arts Council and running through April 26 on the lower floor of downtown’s Bay Centre, one of the most powerful visual highlights of Naming A Crisis is Dutton’s three-channel audio/video installation, which features the names and photos of people lost to drug-related harms — including family members for both Harrington and Farrell-Low. There will also be a series of community events throughout the exhibit, including art, photography, spoken word, participatory works, speaking events, workshops and more.
 
“I want people to walk away with a better understanding of the toll of this crisis and the human cost of it,” Harrington told Victoria News. “I want them to understand that there’s a lot of people doing work to change what’s happening and that there are solutions out there. There just isn’t the political will or courage to implement those solutions.”
 
You can also hear Stephanie and Amanda speak on CBC Radio’s On The Island.
 
See the full events list here.

Annual BFA exhibit showcases student success

by | Apr 13, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, Events, Faculty, indigenous, Visual Arts

While the spring semester is ending, graduating art students are busy transforming the Visual Arts building into a gallery for their annual BFA exhibition, this year called Say When — a title chosen by the BFA class themselves.

Sarah Massey, a student on the exhibit’s communications committee, perfectly describes the show: “Say When. We offer you this invitation to experience our exhibition with us — at your own capacity. Art making is a way of claiming time and space in a world that wants to steal both. It’s complexity when we’re being sold simplicity. It’s collaboration when everything around us is designed to isolate. Come in. Stay as long as you want. Decide what it means. Say when.”

Say When opens with a gala reception from 7 – 10pm Thursday, April 16, then the Visual Arts building will be open between 10am-6pm daily through April 24. (If something catches your eye, take a closer look: many art pieces will be available for purchase and taken home once the exhibition closes.) See exhibition details here.

33 unique talents

Liya Tensae, one of the graduating students and chair of communications for the exhibit, emphasizes the range of talented students. “There’s a little bit of everything in this show,” she says about the numerous art styles and mediums used, including — but not limited to — painting, sculpture, installations and digital media, but all contemporary works.

Amelia Beauregard is one of the class’s media artists who turns videos into installation pieces. “She is really phenomenal with video,” Tensae says. “She’ll be using one of the rooms for a fully immersive video, sculptural and sound installation.” Other artists, Tensae explains, have created dual channel or single channel installations, using screens or projections.

The exhibition is also a class — formally titled Art 401: BFA Exhibition & Professional Practices — has a handful of conceptual artists, and among them is Ash Wilson, who works with installations that focus on landscapes. But her focus is not on a pictorial sense, it’s on a more personal level where she explores how we interact with the land—specifically, how we may perceive or disturb a landscape. “All those really cool aspects,” Tensae explains, “there’s a lot of research that goes into her work, and then it’s presented in these installations.”

Another conceptual artist is Marissa Parsons, who is particularly interesting due to her dual program in visual arts and computer science. Parsons combines these programs in her pieces, using math and formulas to make her art. Tensae describes a piece Parsons made where she uses pins and string to create a spider by layering the string: “she made that not just from imagery, but she plotted all the data points, then made it into a physical sculpture.: Using math is essential to Parson’s work, so she works hard to bring the science forward in her artistic practice.

An extra-large show

Beauregard, Wilson, and Parson are only three of the incredible 33 artists who make up this show. “Everyone brings their own unique perspectives, work, hands, soul, body, and mind into everything!” Tensae says. “An interesting thing about a show this large is . . . the way that we all come together. That we’re able to use this entire fabulous building to make a cohesive show.”

With this large, unique group, the 2026 class is hoping to use more of the Visual Arts building than previous classes. Usually, the BFA show uses the first floor of the building, taking up every wall, room, empty space, nook and cranny to fill it with art, but this year, they’re hoping to take advantage of the upstairs space. Tensae explains that the curatorial team has been working hard to ensure that every artist and art piece will stand out and be highlighted on its own.

Having a huge class can seem intimidating, with so much art in a limited space, but Tensae finds it opens possibilities, rather than closing them. “There’s so many more voices, so many more visions, and there’s many more artworks to pull together,” she says. “Another benefit of a big show is more perspectives. When we have more ideas in the room, there’s just a lot more to work from,” she explains.

Liya Tensae being interviewed by CHEK TV

A show for both the artsty and the non-artsy

After a long year of working endless hours in the art studio, the BFA graduating class is thrilled to put on a fabulous show that is worth checking out. “If you consider yourself an art person, if you don’t consider yourself an art person, I think there’ll be something here for you,” says Tensae. “And I think you’ll have a great time nonetheless.”

We were fortunate to have local CHEK TV come do a two-hour sneak-peak live broadcast of the exhibit, which you can watch here — just choose either the 5 or 6pm news broadcast and then scroll through to see five students talking about their work.
 
We’re also excited to be working with UVic’s Alumni Relations to host a special alumni-only reception from 7-9pm Friday, April 17 — for which you can still register here. It’s free to attend and you even get free parking if you register in advance. Please join us in supporting local emerging artists and this year’s graduating Visual Arts students!
 
—Claudia Phillips

Visual Arts joins new downtown studio

by | Apr 2, 2026 | Faculty, Graduate, indigenous, News, Research, Visual Arts

We’re excited that UVic’s Visual Arts department is part of Victoria’s newest collective studio and gallery space: The Hourglass. Developed by Vancouver Island Visual Arts Society (who also run downtown’s ambitious 80-artist Rockslide Gallery), with support from the City of Victoria’s Storefront Activation Program, Hourglass is an 8,500-square-foot space housed in the former Volvo dealership at Yates and Cook, now repurposed to house 18 art studios and an exhibition space.

Visual Arts professors Heather Igloliorte (Canada Research Excellence Chair in Decolonial & Transformational Indigenous Art Practices) and Joel Ong (Canada Research Chair in Emergent Digital Art Practices), along with three graduate students, will have dedicated studios in the Hourglass.

“Having studio and presentation space at the Hourglass studios gives us a place to create and a place to connect,” says Visual Arts chair Megan Dickie. “We’re excited to build stronger ties with the Victoria arts community and to see MFA students working alongside our new faculty.”

Visual Arts will also maintain a small project space in the building to share work by students, instructors and community members: the first public presentation was the group exhibition The Work Yet to Come, which ran March 27-29 and featured the work of eight early-career Indigenous student artists.

One of the grad student studios

Like so many arts spaces in Victoria — including the bustling Rockslide itself — the Hourglass location is destined to be short-lived, as the property is slated for redevelopment into a 21-storey mixed-use tower over the next few years. But until then, it will serve as the city’s latest innovative arts space.

Follow the Hourglass here