Writing grad Kyeren Regehr is Victoria’s newest Poet Laureate

by | May 5, 2025 | Alumni, Award, Graduate, Writing

Once again, the City of Victoria’s Poet Laureate position has gone to a Department of Writing alumni.

Writing grad Kyeren Regehr was recently appointed as the City of Victoria’s latest Poet Laureate. Regehr (MFA ’13, BFA ’11 + a Fine Arts Victoria Medal recipient) is an award-winning literary poet and the current artistic director of Planet Earth Poetry, one of Canada’s longest-running weekly reading series. She will serve her term beginning April 2025 and, in addition to curating community events, she will also be hosting The Poet Laureate Podcast.

“I’m honoured to serve as Victoria’s seventh Poet Laureate on lək̓ʷəŋən homelands and look forward to deepening our connection to poetry and one another,” she says.

Kyeren follows in the literary footsteps of previous Poet Laureates John Barton and Carla Funk (plus UVic grad Yvonne Blomer), making our grads three of the seven Poet Laureates since the position was created in 2006. Writing can also boast of having four previous Youth Poet Laureates among the 11 youth who have held the position: Eva Haas, Eli Mushumanski, K.P. Dennis and Aysia Law. (Shauntelle Dick-Charleson is the newest Youth Poet Laureate.)

Regehr is an award-winning poet, writer and the author of Cult Life, which was a finalist for the national ReLit Awards and Victoria’s own Butler Book Prize; her Disassembling A Dancer won the inaugural Raven Chapbooks contest. Her poetry has appeared in top literary journals and anthologies across Canada, Australia and the US, and she has won or been shortlisted for more than two dozen literary contests.

Beyond the page, Regehr’s background in professional dance and theatre gives her poetry an unmistakable rhythm. She once found herself in the finals of the Victoria Poetry Slam completely by accident after encouraging her students to perform. Now, as Artistic Director of Planet Earth Poetry, she continues to champion the literary arts

“We’re delighted to have the talents of Kyeren and Shauntelle representing the City as Poet Laureates,” says Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto. “I look forward to seeing their work inspire and connect residents of all ages through the power of poetry.”

Sean Holman presents at My Climate Story summit

by | Mar 28, 2025 | climate, donor, Writing

When 20 of the best climate storytellers from around the world present their ideas at the international My Climate Story project on April 10, UVic will be in the room as well: Writing professor Sean Holman was selected out of nearly 100 submissions to share a lightning talk about the ongoing impact of his Climate Disaster Project. Hosted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability & the Media and the Princeton High Meadows Environmental Institute, My Climate Story is a live, online, two-hour climate storytellers’ summit which you can watch for free.

About the Climate Disaster Project

Founded at UVic in 2021, the Climate Disaster Project is an international teaching newsroom that has trained hundreds of students at 13 post-secondary institutions to work on the frontlines of this ongoing humanitarian crisis by creating an extensive archive of eyewitness accounts.

“Educators at post-secondary institutions across Canada and around the world have spent hundreds of hours teaching students how to compassionately help survivors share their stories,” says Holman, UVic’s Wayne Crookes Professor of Environmental & Climate Journalism. “Our students then take that knowledge into the community to co-create a people’s history of climate change that honours the human dignity of their experiences.”

To date, over 300 testimonies have been collected from disaster survivors and shared in local, national and international publications, as well as national radio and television broadcasts. 

About the Climate Storytellers Summit 

Over 20 speakers will present at the Climate Storytellers’ Summit on April 10. Join them live online to hear from people harnessing the power of climate storytelling across ages and stages, topics and time zones. The diverse lineup of speakers includes a journalist, poet, data analyst, healthcare executive, dancer, author, anthropologist, photographer, professor, oral historian, indigenous rights advocate, high school and college students, retired park rangers, and documentary filmmakers, among others.

Each will share a lively five-minute presentation about the ways that climate stories can disrupt business as usual, grapple with history and inspire hope. The summit and its companion documentation and resource hub will offer a platform to present climate storytelling work and to learn and connect with others working in this important space.

Stream the Climate Storytellers’ Summit live on Thursday, April 10. Full details and free registration here.

New exhibit & partnership

In other Climate Disaster Project news, Kamloops-based independent community news outlet The Wren has  published a series of testimonies from climate disaster survivors around the city and as far away as Bolivia, India, Kenya, and Sri Lanka.

Thompson Rivers University journalism professor Jennifer Chrumka has led the co-creation of these 24 testimonies with her students, and also arranged for short text excerpts to be presented as an art exhibition at the Kamloops Art Gallery in April: Fragments from the Frontlines: Voices and Portraits of Survival, featuring photographs from Jess Beaudin.

This is just the latest effort by the Climate Disaster Project to raise the voices of climate impacted communities to make sure their experiences aren’t forgotten and their knowledge is shared locally, regionally, and globally. 

“I don’t think that this is something that anybody can prepare for”, says TRU student Reagan Wilkinson, who shares her experience of 2024 hurricanes Helene and Milton with Climate Disaster Project contributor Hamida Marufu.

 

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