Orion Series presents Atom Egoyan

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:

Atom Egoyan

Writer, Director, Producer

In Conversation with Atom Egoyan (Q & A)

Moderator: Mitch Parry, AHVS film studies professor
7pm Wednesday, October 9

 

UVic’s Sngequ House, Room 133
(by the SUB, near parking lot 5 off Sinclair Road)

Free & open to all • Evening parking rates in effect

 

Presented by UVic’s Department of Art History & Visual Studies with the participation of the Department of Writing

For more information, please email  arthistory@uvic.ca

About Atom Egoyan

Atom Egoyan is one of the most celebrated contemporary filmmakers on the international scene. His body of work — which includes theatre, music, and art installations — delves into issues of memory, displacement, and the impact of technology and media on modern life.

Egoyan has won numerous prizes at international film festivals including the Grand Prix and International Critics Awards from the Cannes Film Festival, two Academy Award nominations and numerous other honours. His films have won 25 Genies — including three Best Film Awards — and a prize for Best International Film Adaptation from the Frankfurt Book Fair. Egoyan’s films have been presented in numerous retrospectives across the world, including a complete career overview at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, followed by similar events at the Filmoteca Espagnol in Madrid, the Museum of The Moving Image in New York, and the Royal Cinematek in Brussels.

Some of his many films include Seven Veils, The Sweet Hereafter and Chloe.

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

Writing Faculty Reading Night returns

There’s only one chance this year to hear UVic’s top authors reading on the same night: don’t miss the Department of Writing‘s annual Faculty Reading Night, running 7pm Wed Sept 25 in room A102 of UVic’s Turpin building.

 

In addition to the first on-campus appearance by new faculty member Wayde Compton, you can hear the award-winning likes of writers Deborah Campbell, Marita Dachsel, Kevin Kerr, Kathryn Mockler, Sean Holman, David Leach, Lee Henderson and Gregory Scofield as they read new and current work in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, journalism, playwriting and more.

 

Please note: this event will not be recorded, so live is the only way to see it!

World premiere of climate disaster play at Phoenix Theatre

People across Canada came together to help one another during recent climate disasters, and now Neworld Theatre and the Climate Disaster Project are bringing those true-life stories to the stage. Eyes of the Beast: Climate Disaster Survivor Stories is the first full-length documentary theatre production based upon on-the-ground climate disaster reporting and will have its world premiere at the Phoenix Theatre from September 16-21.

“British Columbians have experienced so much loss because of the heat, fire, smoke and floods that have afflicted us,” says Alen Dominguez, Neworld managing director.

“But what stood out to our playwrights was how people supported one another through those disasters—and the need for more support from people in power.”

“Climate change is happening in the here and now,” says Climate Disaster Project founder Sean Holman, also the Wayne Crookes Professor in Environmental & Climate Journalism with the Department of Writing.

“People know that, regardless of what they think is the cause — and they want to talk about the impacts it’s having on their day-to-day lives, and what can be done about them. This is an opportunity to bring those conversations into the community.” 

 

Lytton residents Patsy Gessey & Owen survey the townsite, which was devastated during the 2021 Lytton Creek Fire. Gessey’s testimony, co-created by Climate Disaster Project co-founder Francesca Fionda, is one of more than 30 featured in Eyes of the Beast. (CDP Photo/Jen Osborne)

Audience reflections & leadership solidarity

Every performance is followed by a facilitated talkback, giving audiences a chance to reflect on the stories they’ve heard and share their own experiences of climate disaster. A Vancouver Island political leader will also be present to listen to the performance, as well as the audience, and reflect on how we can help communities impacted by those disasters. Those voices are:

  • former BC Liberal cabinet minister George Abbott (Sept. 16)
  • Minister of Tourism Arts, Culture Lana Popham (Sept. 17)
  • BC Conservative Nanaimo-Lantzville candidate and former NDP MLA Gwen O’Mahony (Sept. 18)
  • BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau (Sept. 20)
  • BC Conservative Oak Bay-Gordon Head candidate and former Victoria city councillor Stephen Andrew (Sept. 21, matinee)
  • Mayor Saanich Dean Murdock (Sept. 21)
 Alumni created, student inspired, media engaged

Working with interview transcripts from hundreds of British Columbians on the frontlines of climate change, Vancouver’s internationally renowned Neworld Theatre has painted a portrait of 30 ordinary people living in extraordinary times — and a province under pressure from the impacts of climate change.

 

Featuring survivor testimonies taken by over a dozen UVic Writing students, the show’s creative team also features the talents of UVic Theatre alumni, including director Chelsea Haberlin and co-writer Sebastien Archibald

Listen to this Sept 10 interview with Holman and director Chelsea Haberlin with CBC Radio’s On The Island host Gregor Craigie, who will be one of the media facilitators during the show.

Read this Sept 13 interview from The Tyee with Neworld Theatre’s Haberlin and Alen Dominguez.  

Read this Sept 15 article from Victoria’s Times Colonist newspaper. 

A fishing guide who took his boat into flooded farmland to rescue an alligator. An actor rushed to the hospital for heat stroke after performing in front of the legislature. A mother figuring out how to prepare her child for the future after fire flattened their town.

Climate disaster is not far away, not happening to someone else. It is here now, happening to us. Eyes of the Beast shows how we still have each other during those disasters, creating community amidst catastrophe.

 

About the Climate Disaster Project

Founded in 2021, the Climate Disaster Project 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. Nearly 300 testimonies have been collected from disaster survivors and shared in local, national and international publications, as well as national radio and television broadcasts.

Tickets range from $18-$34 and are available now via the Phoenix Theatre box office at 250-721-8000 for 7:30pm Monday-Saturday performances running September 16-21, plus a 2pm matinee on Saturday, September 21.  

 

Professional fishing guide Jordi Williams shows one of the photos he took while rescuing animals trapped on the Sumas Prairie during the 2021 Southern British Columbia floods. Williams’s testimony, co-created by UVic writing student Paul Voll, was included in Eyes of the Beast by Neworld Theatre’s playwrights. (CDP Photo/Phil McLachlan)

The cast of Eyes of the Beast: (from left) Jessica Wong, Danica Charlie, Sarah Conway, Vuk Prodanovic

“solastalgia” exhibit closing panel talk

Don’t miss the closing night panel talk for solastalgia [soon to be what once was] — the new exhibit by current School of Music Master’s student in music technology & Ocean Networks Canada artist-in-residence Megan Harton. This event will feature fascinating insights and lively discussion from artists and experts in melding art with science, and environmental activism.

Join us at 7pm Friday, Sept 6, in room 103 of the Fine Arts building, with a guided tour of the exhibit to follow. Panelists include Megan Harton (2024 ONC Artist in Residence), Neil Griffin (2023 ONC Artist in Residence), Pieter Romer (Filmmaker & ONC Indigenous Community Liaison) and Dwight Owens (ONC Associate Director of Learning and Community Engagement).

This exhibit explores the emotional response to environmental change using soundscapes, experimental photography, and video elements alongside nostalgic retro iconography to evoke a sense of “solastalgia”—distress caused by the disruption of familiar environments. By integrating scientific data from ONC’s observatories with artistic mediums, Harton’s work invites visitors to reflect on the impact of climate change, memory and place.

A passionate composer, audio engineer and sound artist, Harton is the fifth artist-in-residence in this continuing partnership between ONC and the Faculty of Fine Arts. “My artistic practice is primarily about using sound technologies in artistic ways,” Harton explains.

For his part, Griffin will share writings developed during his time as ONC’s 2023 artist-in-residence, exploring the mystery of “whale falls” — what happens after whales die, which still remains something of a biological mystery.

“Imagine you build a new apartment building and various people live there as it ages and eventually falls apart,” Griffin says. “That’s what happens with a whale carcass: various scavengers and decomposers move in and out . . . there are even worms that take hundreds of years to burrow single-mindedly through a thick whale vertebrae to get to the marrow inside.”

A graduate student partnership between Fine Arts and ONC, previous artists-in-residence include Neil Griffin (Writing, 2023), Colin Malloy (School of Music, 2022), Dennis Gupa (Theatre, 2020) and Colton Hash (Visual Arts, 2018). 

The call for 2025’s Ocean Networks Canada Artist-in-Residence will be released this fall. 

Wayde Compton joins Writing

Photo: Roger Hur

The Department of Writing is proud to announce their latest hire: author and associate professor Wayde Compton.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Compton studied English at Simon Fraser University where he worked with the likes of authors George Bowering and Roy Miki. He was associated with the Tads group of writers and the Runcible Mountain College study group.

He  was also a co-founder of the Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project, a grassroots organization that researched and advocated for the public recognition of Vancouver’s historical Black community. He later co-founded its successor group, the Hogan’s Alley Society. In 2006 Compton co-founded Commodore Books, Western Canada’s first Black Canadian literary press.

Compton has published six books and has edited two literary anthologies. His collection of short stories, The Outer Harbour, won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 2015 and he won a National Magazine Award for Fiction in 2011. His work has been a finalist for three other City of Vancouver Book Awards as well as the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize.

He has also been writer-in-residence at Simon Fraser University, Green College at the University of British Columbia, and the Vancouver Public Library. He has taught either English Literature or Creative Writing at the following institutions: SFU, ECUAD, Capilano University, Kwantlen University, Douglas College, and Coquitlam College. From 2012-18, he administrated the Creative Writing Program in Continuing Studies at SFU, including the award-winning Writer’s Studio.

Compton has read and presented at institutions across Canada (McGill, the University of Toronto, UBC, SFU, York University, Dalhousie University), the United States (Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley), and overseas (the University of Kent at Canterbury, the University of Havana, National Taipei University).

Co-op brings learning to life

When it comes to mixing the theoretical with the practical, Fine Arts students have been participating in UVic’s vibrant Co-op program since 1986. In the past five years alone, we’ve had more than 300 students earn both academic credit and a monthly wage while getting work experience in their chosen fields.  

This past year, we had 25 students getting first-hand experience in a variety of positions not only in Victoria but also in Parksville, Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast and farther afield in Kelowna, Revelstoke and Alberta. Their positions ranged from museum interpreter and heritage collections assistant to graphic designer, communications technician, assistant public affairs advisor, junior antiquarian bookseller, communications technician and software programmer and developers.  

Art History & Visual Studies student Burke Camara — seen here in the vault at the Revelstoke Museum & Archives, where he worked as a collections assistant — experienced real-world applications of the theoretical practices he’s been studying. “This was a great opportunity to see what jobs are out there and possibly take away some of the anxiety regarding career planning,” he says. “I learned several programs and archival practices, and was able to build meaningful connections in an environment I would want to have a career in.”

Meg Winter is pursuing a Professional Writing minor in journalism and publishing, so was ideally suited for her position as a social media coordinator for UVic’s Faculty of Education. “This has been the most amazing experience I’ve had so far during my time at UVic,” says Winter, seen here shooting video at Victoria’s Pride Parade. “I’ve been able to transfer the skills from my classes into professional experience. The incredible mentorship I received has allowed me to develop both professionally and personally.” 

AHVS student Athena Ivison worked as an interpreter at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, Alberta — not only giving daily tours but also operating in a curatorial capacity. “I was tasked with going through objects that didn’t have current photos on file and updating the records,” says Ivison (seen here holding a pennant from Banff’s alpine Skoki lodge. “This co-op gave me excellent insight into what it’s like to work in a museum setting. I also had an opportunity to work with museum objects, which will contribute to my understanding of art history.”