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

Take our Spring 2026 student survey!

by | Mar 23, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, Graduate, School of Music, Theatre, Undergraduate, Visual Arts, Writing

1969 was a year of transformation: the moon landing, the Stonewall riots, Woodstock, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre opens, Margaret Atwood publishes her first novel, Canada becomes officially bilingual . . . amidst that time of change, Fine Arts emerged as UVic’s newest Faculty.

With our 60th anniversary coming up in 2029, Fine Arts is currently doing a short survey of our community, and student opinions and experiences are an essential part of this process. We invite you to add your voices with this anonymous survey: it only has eight questions and should take you less than 15 minutes.

Take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/GRDP8LX

You’ll also see an option to enter to win one of ten $50 ONECard top-ups on the final page. Your prize entry will be totally separate from your anonymous survey responses.

Deadline for entries is April 7.

Paul Walde on how art can shape our relationship with the environment

by | Mar 18, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, climate, Events, Faculty, Visual Arts

Weather is one of the forces that shape our daily lives, yet we rarely think of it in terms of art. But for award-winning intermedia artist, composer, curator and University of Victoria Department of Visual Arts professor Paul Walde, weather is so much more than just the title of his latest exhibit, Paul Walde: Weather Conditions. 

Walde’s body of work has long explored unexpected interconnections between landscape, identity and technology, most notably by his 2013 site-specific sound performance Requiem for a Glacier, which featured a 55-piece choir and orchestra filmed live on the Farnham Glacier in BC’s Purcell Mountains. Running until April 11 at UVic’s downtown Legacy Gallery, Weather Conditions — curated by Carolyn Butler Palmer, the Williams Legacy Chair in the Department of Art History and Visual Studies — offers a double exhibit of site-specific video installations, both reflecting weather and art history in unique ways. Paul offers his insights with this Expert Q&A. 

Q. Weather is one aspect of the human experience that everyone shares: we predict it, discuss it, try to avoid it and arrange our lives around it. Why bring it into a gallery space?

A. Another aspect of the human experience is that we’re altering our climate through our actions, and this is altering the weather. Extreme weather events are on the rise and there is new concern that, if we continue on the path we’re on, the low-lying clouds that do a lot to reflect sunlight and keep the Earth cool could disappear, leaving only the higher altitude clouds which will accelerate climate change exponentially by allowing more sunlight in and trapping that heat. As an artist, I’m interested in how cultural attitudes shape our relationship with the environment. 

Q. Your creative practice has been engaged with environmental issues for the past 30 years. How can art bring awareness to issues like climate change in ways that science or politics can’t?

A. The great thing about art is that it can present information to people in experiential ways, including emotional and spiritual dimensions. This is a very different experience than being told something. Science and politics tend to tell people things but, as a professor, I’ve found folks really don’t like to be told anything. It’s more effective to create experiences that allow people to draw their own conclusions. This way, the information is internalized and becomes a part of their own thought processes, so the level of engagement and uptake is greater. The duration of my work is also important in this, as these longer works provide opportunities for people to think for themselves—which is in direct opposition to the “attention economy” and how content is consumed on social-media platforms. 

Q. You often stage your performances in challenging locations highlighting the natural environment — glaciers, lakes and, most recently, old-growth forests — then pair them with meditative music that you compose. What’s your intention with these interdisciplinary juxtapositions?

A. I believe that culture comes from the land, where one is in the world that shapes who they are. This attitude has been affirmed and informed by the work that I’ve been doing with the Awi’nakola Foundation over the past six years. By bringing obvious cultural activities like opera, classical music and art handling into the natural environment, I’m essentially saying that these sites are cultural. The fact that contemporary urban societies don’t seem to recognize this is part of my point. I’d add that cultural values that don’t make this connection are the main reason we’re facing impending environmental catastrophe. What could be more valuable than clean water, clean air and abundant biodiverse ecosystems? Yet here we are feeding water to data centres that are also using vast amounts of energy, making it harder to transition to clean energy.

Q. Both pieces in this exhibit — “Of Weather (For Geoff Hendricks)” and “Tom Thomson Centennial Swim” — reference the work of other artists. How important is it to acknowledge the history of art, and the role of the individual artist, in your work? 

A. Art history is happening all around us all the time.Acknowledging this history is another way of acknowledging where aspects of cultural thought come from, good or bad. For me, art history is sometimes a scaffolding of ideas to build upon and other times it’s something to push back upon. For example, the work of the Group of Seven was very dominant when I was growing up in northern Ontario, where the Group made their first trips. As a young artist, however, their approach didn’t connect with me. Since then, I’ve attempted to make alternative landscape art that deals with the complex issues that frame our relationship with the environment.

Q. Tell us about the “image ballet” that will be performed on March 28. What’s the intention of having pictures of clouds move around an indoor environment, and how does that reflect the original staging of this piece?  

A. For the past 25 years the artworld has become more globalized and mobile. There are now dozens of international biennials and art fairs. Behind the scenes in these events are armies of art-handlers who are moving, setting upand taking down these shows. There is, of course, also a massive carbon footprint connected with these activities. By moving images of clouds around, I’m referring to how we as humans are changing the weather and are therefore responsible for it. And, on another level, because the “image ballet” involves large canvases being moved by art handlers, I’m referring to the art world’s culpability in all of this. 

Weather Conditions runs until April 11 with two live musical performances on Saturday, March 28, at Legacy Gallery (630 Yates). Registration is required for the live musical performances.

A media kit containing high-resolution photos of Paul Walde and his exhibit Paul Walde: Weather Conditions is available on Dropbox. 

Win $1,000 in the Community Impact Award!

by | Mar 10, 2026 | Art History & Visual Studies, donor, School of Music, Theatre, Undergraduate, Visual Arts, Writing

Who wants to win $1,000? You do, of course!! Since 2021, we’ve given out over $15,000 to 13 students in our annual donor-funded Fine Arts Community Impact Award! If you’re a UVic Fine Arts undergrad (any year) who has been creatively active outside of your classes, then you qualify to enter the 2026 Fine Arts Community Impact Award.

This sixth annual, entry-level, juried award is designed to reward Fine Arts students who have demonstrated outstanding creative activity with Victoria’s larger creative community. The award is open to any full-time current or graduating undergraduate student registered in Art History & Visual Studies, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts or Writing. (Sorry, Fine Arts must be your declared major, not just an elective you’re taking.)

Entry deadline: A completed submission package — including the submission form and all supporting materials — must be received by 5pm Thursday, April 30.

Enter here: https://finearts.uvic.ca/forms/award/

What qualifies?

  • Any kind of art exhibit or curation project
  • Public readings or literary projects
  • Plays or performances
  • Concerts or recitals
  • Educational, digital or administrative work
  • Fundraisers or drag shows
  • Etc etc etc (we’re all about the etc!)

It doesn’t matter if you were paid or volunteered, organized or participated, are a continuing or graduating student — if you did something creative in Greater Victoria (between Sidney and Sooke) between Jan 2025 & April 2026 and it wasn’t for course credit, then you qualify!

Helpful hints

Our first helpful hint is simple: enter! We usually get less than 15 entries for this award, and give out two $1,000 prizes, so your odds are very good! Other suggestions:

  • if you’ve applied before but didn’t win, you can apply again (as long as your project falls into the current timeframe)
  • you can nominate yourself or be nominated by an organization or other person
  • speak to the awards criteria in your application
  • capture the immediate & overall impact of your project (remember, the jurors don’t know you or what you did, so make sure it’s clear)
  • include reference letters that speak about your involvement (rather than the overall organization or event)
  • help the jury get to know you as a student: what you’re studying, how this project fits into your creative practice or academic journey
  • include some photos of your nominated activity
  • if you received a grade for your activity, it probably doesn’t qualify for this award
  • read about our previous winners: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021.

Previous winners

Previous students have won for a wide variety of projects, including:

  • directing plays for Sooke Youth Theatre
  • working with the Early Music Society of the Islands
  • creating & painting a large-scale mural for the Island Medical Program
  • producing shows with Timetheft Theatre Society
  • mounting art exhibits at Xchanges Gallery & the fifty-fifty arts collective
  • coordinating youth workshops for Music Discoveries
  • setting up a livestream system for Christ Church Cathedral
  • creating The Vault Gallery at the Rockslide Studios
  • organizing an art show for the ArtSea Community Arts Council
  • working with the Victoria Children’s Choir
  • performing with Pacific Opera’s “Pop-Up Opera” initiative
  • volunteering with VOS Musical Theatre Society
  • interning with Open Space Artist-Run Centre

The fine print

Entry deadline: A completed submission package — including the submission form and all supporting materials — must be received by 5pm Thursday, April 30.

Enter here: https://finearts.uvic.ca/forms/award/

What you’ll need:

  1. A description of your community-engaged creative activity (maximum 500 words), including a title page with your contact information & declared program as of April 30 (ie: Writing, Visual Arts, etc)
  2. A letter from the organization or individual explaining how you were involved (maximum 300 words)
  3. Two letters of endorsement of the project (maximum two pages and from different people than #2: letters must be written by people who are not related to the nominee)
  4. Your resume, CV or short portfolio.

Questions? Email johnt@uvic.ca

About the award

Fine Arts has been the city’s artistic incubator for well over 50 years, helping to produce creative and scholarly talents across the cultural spectrum. Our campus community continues to contribute to the arts locally, nationally and internationally — with many of our students, alumni and teaching faculty now working in forms and mediums undreamt of when we were established in 1969. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, our Community Impact Awards put the spotlight on current students who are reaching beyond their full-time studies.

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

The awards will be presented as part of the ProArt Alliance’s annual Greater Victoria Regional Arts Awards gala in fall 2026. Winners are expected to attend and receive their awards in person from the Dean of Fine Arts.

2025 Impact Award winners Sophie Hillstrom (left) and Sage Easton-Levy (right) with Fine Arts Dean Allana Lindgren