by John Threlfall | Sep 25, 2019 | Art History & Visual Studies, Faculty, Graduate, Research, Visual Arts
As a celebration of global contemporary art, the opening of the Venice Biennale in May 2019 provided the ideal backdrop for the formal signing of a three-year research agreement between UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts and La Fondazione Morra, a major art centre in Naples. The first formal agreement between the Faculty and an Italian cultural institution, it also paves the way for further engagement, collaboration and exchange between institutions.
“Our association with Fondazione Morra creates new opportunities for UVic scholars and artists to explore contemporary art from a multidisciplinary and global perspective,” says Susan Lewis, Dean of Fine Arts and current Acting Associate Vice-President Academic Planning. “The partnership will inform our faculty’s research and creative practice, and enhance the impact of our work abroad.”
Visual Arts chair Paul Walde with Fondazione Morra founder Giuseppe Morra in Venice’s Piazza San Marco
Preeminent archives and collections
Founded in 1969, the Foundation—along with its 2016 addition of the purpose-built museum, Casa Morra—is one of the most important archives of contemporary artistic and cultural production in the region and beyond. The Morra Foundation houses preeminent archives and collections documenting post-1945 theatre, painting, photography, sculpture, music, sound and concrete poetry, and conceptual and performance art.
Fine Arts will support faculty travel to Naples—including through the Orion Endowment in Fine Arts—where the Fondazione Morra will provide apartments and access to its rich archives and collections. A related agreement to support student activities was signed earlier this year. The agreement builds on collaborations initiated by Dr. Allan Antliff of UVic’s Art History & Visual Studies department, and includes plans to establish a field school and symposia. Fine Arts also plans to host a visit by Fondazione Morra director Teresa Carnevale and founder Giuseppe Morra over the next year.
“This moment creates an unprecedented joint venture that allows us to focus the attention of the Foundation on students by offering them a unique and intense experience made of crossings, connections, journeys and intersections . . . with a perspective on the future,” noted Morra director Teresa Carnevaleas the agreement was signed in Venice’s famed Piazza San Marco.
A transformational partnership
Fondazione Morra founder Giuseppe Morra and director Teresa Carnevale with UVic’s Susan Lewis in Venice’s Piazza San Marco
These agreements are a key example of the Faculty’s efforts to engage globally, promote student mobility and exchange, and share the impact of its research and creative practice on a world scale. Dean Susan Lewis first visited the Fondazione Morra in June 2018 to explore a potentially transformative faculty-wide partnership, and Visual Arts chair Paul Walde will be the first faculty member to visit the Fondazione Morra under the new agreement.
“Giuseppe Morra is a key figure in the presentation, promotion and development of international contemporary art in Italy,” says Walde. “The Morra collection and archive is world-class and this ground-breaking agreement provides our faculty and students unprecedented access to these extraordinary materials.”
Describing the new partnership as of “great cultural value,” director Carnevale says she sees the Fondazione Morra as “a driving and support element for students from all over the world,” and is excited to make the archives and collections of Casa Morra available to UVic’s faculty and students.
by John Threlfall | Mar 8, 2019 | Faculty, Writing
Award-winning poet and novelist Patrick Lane passed away on March 7 at age 79, the result of a heart attack. His publisher, McClelland & Stewart, made the announcement, calling Lane “one of Canada’s most renowned writers” — a claim few would argue.
Patrick Lane, 1939-2019
Lane’s distinguished career spanned 50 years and 25 volumes of poetry, as well as award-winning books of fiction and non-fiction, published in over a dozen countries. The winner of numerous accolades — including the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence, the Canadian Authors Association Award and three National Magazine Awards — he was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 2014.
His passing made headlines in media outlets nation-wide, including (but not limited to) CBC News, the Globe & Mail, CBC Radio’s As It Happens and On The Island, the Toronto Star, Radio-Canada, Times Colonist, the Vancouver Sun, CHEK TV, CTV, Victoria News, The Tyee, CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter and North By Northwest (skip to the 00:56 mark to hear Writing professor Bill Gaston and alum Carla Funk, and 2:07 for alum Steven Price, and then jump to the 2:08 mark to hear this March 10 archived interview with Patrick Lane himself).
An influential member of the Department of Writing from 1992 to 2004, Lane was also famously married to Writing professor emerita Lorna Crozier; indeed, the Globe and Mail once described the beloved pair as “BC’s poetry power couple” and, in her acclaimed poetry collection The Book of Marvels, Crozier wrote of her husband, “We are at home with one another; we are each other’s home.”
Crozier herself reflects on Lane’s legacy in this March13 Canadian Press interview: “He brought beauty into even those places that do not have beauty on their own, and into the lives of people who are struggling,” she said. “He gave them a voice, and he gave them a place in letters. And I can’t think of many other poets who have done that.”
A free community gathering to honour and remember Patrick will be held from 7-9 pm Saturday, April 20, in UVic’s David Lam Auditorium (MacLaurin Building). This event will replace a previously scheduled ceremony to present him with the George Woodcock Award, originally slated for April 27 at the sxʷeŋxʷəŋ təŋəxʷ James Bay branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library.
Organizers are expecting a capacity crowd for this limited-seating event; please arrive early to avoid disappointment.
There will also be a second public memorial on May 19 at Langham Court Theatre.
A writer to remember
An editor, anthologist and frequent media commentator about poetry and Canadian culture in general, Lane was also a much sought-after teacher, having held positions at the University of Saskatchewan and as writer-in-residence at the universities of Toronto, Alberta, Manitoba and Concordia University. In recognition of his service to Canadian literature, he received a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) from UVic in November 2013, as well as honorary doctorates from UBC, McGill University, UNBC and VIU.
“BC’s poetry power couple”: Lane & his wife, Lorna Crozier
“Patrick inspired several generations of new writers with his poetic vision and generous spirit,” says David Leach, current Writing chair. “He would mentor and champion his students long after they had graduated from his classroom, and UVic. And while he was known as one of our country’s greatest poets, he was also a masterful and incisive prose stylist in fiction and personal essays with a voice unique to Canadian literature.”
He was also honoured to be one of the few poets to see his work gathered and published as a collected works in his lifetime: 2011’s The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane included more than 400 poems, dating back to 1962.
“What makes this career even more remarkable is that Patrick’s formal education stopped with the completion of high school. However, through wide reading and dogged perseverance, he became one of the best educated and unconventionally brilliant people I have ever encountered,” wrote noted Canadian author Guy Vanderhaeghe in support of Lane’s honorary doctorate.
Remembered by students, colleagues
Formal awards and designations aside, Lane was admired and well-loved by colleagues and former students, many of whom have gone on to influential literary careers themselves.
Patrick Lane (right) with Esi Edugyan & Bill Gaston at the 2013 BC Book Prizes
“No one can sum up adequately what a major figure like Patrick contributed,” says Writing professor Tim Lilburn, a literary colleague and close friend of Lane’s. “I can’t think of anyone who has had a more profound impact on Canadian poetry over the last 50-plus years. He was a great poet and an extremely generous mentor.”
That’s a sentiment with which double Giller Prize-winning author Esi Edugyan clearly agrees; having studied under Lane at UVic, she has described him as “my first great teacher.”
Carla Funk — the City of Victoria’s inaugural poet laureate — credits Lane with her future path; he was her first poetry instructor when she first enrolled at UVic when she was just 18 years old. “It was my very first creative writing class,” she told CBC Radio’s As It Happens in this interview from March 8. “He was the instructor who pushed me toward that, coaxed me and guided me and encouraged me toward this way of poetry, which was a different way of looking at the world, a different way of being in the world.”
Fellow alumni including acclaimed novelist Steven Price and former Victoria poet laureate Yvonne Blomer also fondly recalled Lane as an influential teacher, supportive mentor and close friend, when they spoke to both CBC Radio’s North By Northwest and the Times Colonist, respectively.
“He was a giant of Canadian letters, one of our most essential writers,” wrote UVic Chancellor Shelagh Rogers upon the news of Lane’s passing. The long-time host of CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter, Rogers well knows Lane’s esteemed place in the world of Canadian literature. “He was also a mensch. #RestinPoetry.”
Lane’s first book (1966), and his last (2018)
Born in 1939 in Nelson, BC, Lane earned early praise for his poems based on his “working man” experiences, and helped spearhead a new generation of Canadian poets by co-founding the small press Very Stone House in 1966. His first poetry collection, Letters From The Savage Mind, debuted that same year, and his final novel, Deep River Night, was published in 2018. His frankly honest 2005 memoir, There Is A Season, chronicled his rehabilitation from alcoholism, and earned him both the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence and the BC Award for Canadian Nonfiction.
He was, as Vanderhaeghe notes, “a writer’s writer, universally respected and applauded by his peers as one of the most significant and gifted Canadian poets of the last half-century.”
Honoured by UVic
“We express our condolences to Lorna and their family for this deep loss,” says Susan Lewis, Dean of Fine Arts. “Patrick is a legend in the field of Canadian poetry. I was deeply moved by his 2013 convocation address when we honoured him as Doctor of Letters.”
During that address which can be read in its entirety here, Lane poetically encapsulated 65 years of his life, reflecting on the changes he had seen both in the world and himself during that time. It seems only fitting to offer these final words from the poet himself:
Lane receiving his Honorary Doctorate in Nov 2013 (UVic Photo Services)
“I stand here looking out over this assembly and ask myself what I can offer you who are taking from my generation’s hands a troubled world. I am an elder now. There are times many of us old ones feel a deep regret, a profound sorrow, but our sorrow does not have to be yours. You are young and it is soon to be your time. A month ago I sat on a river estuary in the Great Bear Rain Forest north of here as a mother grizzly nursed her cubs. As the little ones suckled, the milk spilled down her chest and belly. As I watched her I thought of this day and I thought of you who not so long ago nursed at your own mother’s breast. There in the last intact rain forest on earth, the bear cubs became emblems of hope to me.
Out there are men and women only a few years older than you who are trying to remedy a broken world. I know and respect their passion. You too can change things. Just remember there are people who will try to stop you and when they do you will have to fight for your lives and the lives of the children to come.”
by John Threlfall | Dec 19, 2018 | Alumni, Art History & Visual Studies, Award, Faculty, indigenous, Research, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing
There was certainly no shortage of Fine Arts news in 2018, given that we tracked nearly 300 local, national and international media stories about the creative activities of our faculty, alumni, students and staff . . . and those are just the stories we know about.
From our new faculty members—including Rick Leong, Sasha Kovacs, Deborah Campbell, Katharina Clausius and Michael Elliott—to a new batch of websites for our departments of Art History & Visual Studies, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing and the School of Music, Fine Arts continues to grow and evolve as we move closer to our 50th anniversary in 2019/20.
While it was hard to choose favourites from amongst the many stories that appeared in both traditional and social media, here (in no particular order) are our choices for the top 10 Fine Arts stories from our faculty blog.
Benjamin Butterfield named to the Royal Society of Canada
Benjamin Butterfield (UVic Photo Services)
Three UVic faculty members received the country’s highest academic honour by being named 2018 fellows of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) in September—and among those joining the distinguished ranks was School of Music professor Benjamin Butterfield.
While Butterfield has won international plaudits as one of Canada’s best operatic tenors, he is equally passionate about his role as head of voice for UVic’s School of Music.
“With a performance career, the more you’re in the game, the more you’ll be asked to be in the game,” he explains. “But my obligation is really to teaching . . . for me, it’s less about pursuing my ‘career’ and more about being here for students who sing, and who want to learn to sing—that’s my day job, that’s my real life, that’s what’s most important.”
Butterfield is now the eighth Fine Arts faculty member to be inducted into the RSC, including Fellows Mary Kerr (Theatre), Harald Krebs (Music), Tim Lilburn (Writing), Joan MacLeod (Writing) and Sandra Meigs (Visual Arts), as well as RSC College member Dániel Péter Biró (Music) and RSC Medal winner Jack Hodgins (Writing, retired).
Read more about Butterfield’s RSC appointment here.
Esi Edugyan wins second Giller Prize
Fine Arts has no shortage of alumni success stories, but it’s hard to top internationally acclaimed Department of Writing alumna Esi Edugyan, who won her second Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2018 for her latest novel, Washington Black.
Edugyan won $100,000 on the 25th anniversary of Canada’s richest literary award, and also earns the distinction of being one of only three authors to twice win the Giller Prize, alongside M.G. Vassanji and Alice Munro.
Washington Black was also nominated for the Man Booker Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize—as was her previous 2011 Giller Prize-winning novel Half-Blood Blues. Indeed, having only published three novels (including her debut, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne), Edugyan’s back-to-back wins for Washington Black and Half-Blood Blues is doubly remarkable, especially when you consider both were shortlisted for the coveted trifecta of fiction awards.
Read more about Edugyan’s Giller win here.
Carey Newman is the new Audain Professor
Carey Newman receiving his Order of BC from
Lieutenant Governor the Honourable Janet Austin and Premier John Horgan in September
When Kwagiulth and Coast Salish artist Carey Newman’s Witness Blanket was unveiled at the University of Victoria in 2014, it was clear the large-scale installation would quickly become a national monument and spark reflection and conversation about residential schools, settler-Indigenous relations and reconciliation. Now, Newman will continue the conversation as the sixth Audain Professor of Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest with the Visual Arts department.
“This is breaking new ground for me,” said Newman in June. “I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to convert the experience of mentorship into a more formal educational setting.”
It’s been a big year for Newman: on top of being declared the Audian Professor for the next three years, he was granted the Order of BC, was named the inaugural recipient of the Professional Arts Alliance of Greater Victoria’s Regional Arts Award, played a role in the Aboriginal Canadian Entrepreneurs program with the Gustavson School of Business, received a Saanich150 art commission and debuted his new “Witness Blanket” documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Read more about Newman’s Audain position here.
Carolyn Butler Palmer advises on new $10 bill
When Art History & Visual Studies professor Carolyn Butler-Palmer received an email from the Bank of Canada back in 2017, she didn’t put much stock in it. “To be honest, I thought it was a scam email,” she laughs, “but in fact they wanted to speak to me as an art historian.”
While it’s no secret now that Canada’s new vertical $10 bill features Nova Scotia civil libertarian Viola Desmond, Butler-Palmer was under a strict confidentiality order for several months starting in summer 2017 while she was consulted by the Bank of Canada about the proposed design. One of a number of experts contacted, Butler-Palmer came to their attention due to the Globe and Mail coverage of her early 2017 exhibit Ellen Neel: The First Woman Totem Pole Carver at UVic’s Legacy Gallery.
“It was a real honour to be asked and to be able to work on such an important change in our currency,” Butler-Palmer said in this recent interview with the Martlet. “I think the change is really reflected too, [particularly] that they changed the orientation as well . . . to signify the change in the way that they represent Viola Desmond on that bill.”
Find out more about Butler Palmer’s involvement in the $10 bill here.
The Drowsy Chaperone a stunning success
Douglas Peerless as the Man in the Chair (photo: Dean Kalyan)
The response to Phoenix’s fall mainstage production of The Drowsy Chaperone, directed by Jacques Lemay, was fantastic. Audiences and reviewers alike praised this production as one of the finest in Phoenix’s 50-plus year history.
“This is one of the best shows staged by the university’s theatre department in recent years and should not be missed,” notes thisTimes Colonist review by Adrian Chamberlain. “Everything about this elegant, detailed production works well: the excellent costumes, set, acting, dancing, choreography . . . . [this is] a truly superior piece of theatre that will undoubtedly be a highlight of the season.”
It was such a hit, in fact, that they ended up adding two additional shows after the entire run was essentially sold out in November!
Read more about the amazing success of The Drowsy Chaperone here.
The Orontes Guitar Quartet welcomed as Visiting Artists
(l-r) Orwa Al Sharaa, Gaby Al Botros, Nazir Salameh & Mohammed Mir Mahmoud in front of UVic’s Fine Arts Building, November 2018. (UVic Photo Services)
The dramatic story of four musicians escaping daily violence in Syria for a fellowship in UVic’s School of Music caught the attention of The Globe and Mail in December, and became one of UVic’s top news stories of 2018.
Alexander Dunn, an internationally renowned guitarist and UVic music instructor for nearly three decades, played a vital role in bringing the guitar quartet to UVic by working for the past 18 months with two US-based organizations—the Artist Protection Fund (APF), an innovative initiative of the Institute of International Education, and the non-profit organization Remember the River.
Now safely in Victoria as the recipients of a prestigious Artist Protection Fund Fellowship grant, the Orontes quartet offer a remarkable message about the power of music, hope and determination. The quartet told the Globe and Mail that their peaceful lives in Syria had been disrupted by the civil war, and violence and terror became commonplace. But when the ensemble started to play together, “we forgot everything because we just focused on what we are doing,” as recounted to The Globe’s arts reporter Marsha Lederman in a December 8 article in the national edition of the newspaper.
Read more about the Orontes Quartet here—and be sure to watch this Globe and Mail video of the quartet playing together.
Colton Hash named Artist in Residence for Ocean Networks Canada
Colton Hash with his full-size sculpture of an adolescent female orca (photo: Ashton Sciacallo)
Victoria-based artist Colton Hash became the inaugural recipient of an Artist-in-Residence program by the Faculty of Fine Arts and Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), a UVic initiative. The new ONC residency will strengthen connections between art and science, and broaden perspectives on major issues ranging from technology and the environment to biodiversity and healthy communities.
A recent graduate of UVic’s combined undergraduate program in Visual Arts and computer science, Hash was selected for the residency from a field of nearly 70 local, national and international applicants. He will hold the position from November 2018 to March 2019 and, following his residency, will provide a public exhibition of the resulting body of work.
“I see this as a great opportunity to collaborate with ocean scientists and experiment with digital media to communicate some of the dynamic processes that play a critical role in coastal waters,” says Hash. “Whether it’s how a kelp forest responds to climate change or how the thawing of frozen methane affects sediment stability of submarine slopes, I hope I can use interactive art to inspire viewers to care more about what is happening beneath the ocean’s surface.”
Read more about Hash’s ONC residency here.
Fine Arts hosts Reconciliation & the Arts forum
There was a capacity audience for the Nov 15 forum at the Baumann Ctr (photo: Fiona Ngai)
The fourth annual Building Reconciliation Forum was hosted at UVic in November and, as part of the two-day event, Fine Arts hosted a panel discussion on First Nations Art Practice & Reconciliation.
Presented in partnership with Universities Canada, the Building Reconciliation Forum brought together close to 250 thought leaders from universities, Indigenous governing bodies and communities, and federal and regional government officials from acorss Canada to consider how universities are answering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.
As part of the Forum, Fine Arts Dean Dr. Susan Lewis hosted a near-capacity panel discussion on First Nations Art Practice & Reconciliation at downtown’s Baumann Centre, featuring a range of local artists, administrators, activists and alumni discussing how Victoria’s arts community can advance decolonization and reconciliation.
Panelists included Visual Arts MFA alumna and the City of Victoria’s inaugural Indigenous Artist in Residence Lindsay Delaronde; the Belfry Theatre’s Indigenous cultural advisor Kristy Charlie and executive director Ivan Habel; Pacific Opera’s director of community engagement Rebecca Hass; Open Space board member and Visual Arts sessional instructor Charles Campbell; Legacy Gallery director Mary Jo Hughes; and Art Gallery of Greater Victoria curator of engagement Nicole Stanbridge.
Also during the forum, the Theatre department hosted Nomad, a musical and visual journey through Inuit history with Inuk singer-songwriter and Order of Canada recipient Susan Aglukark.
Find out more about the First Nations Art Practice & Reconciliation event here.
Bill Gaston wins Victoria Book Prize
Department of Writing professor Bill Gaston won the 2018 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for his short-story collection The Mariner’s Guide to Self Sabotage (Douglas & McIntyre). Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and co-sponsor Brian Butler presented Gaston with his $5,000 prize at a gala October 17 event at downtown’s Union Club.
2018 was a strong year for the Writing department at the Victoria Book Prize, given that fellow nominees included professor emerita Lorna Crozier (What the Soul Doesn’t Want), longtime instructor Patrick Friesen (Songen) and longtime Faculty of Fine Arts colleague and Dean’s External Advisory Committee member Maria Tippett (Sculpture in Canada: A History).
Gaston is also one of 10 authors nominated for the prestigious RBC Taylor Prize for his 2018 memoir, Just Let Me Look At You (Hamish Hamilton).
Read more about Gaston’s win here.
Twin Kennedy win Distinguished Alumni Award
Twin Kennedy are now Distinguished Alumni (UVic Photo Services)
It’s only been 10 years since sister duo Twin Kennedy graduated from the School of Music, but during that short decade, the acclaimed country/roots duo already released two albums, toured across North America, moved to Nashville and won the hearts of country radio and fans alike. The sisters headed back to UVic in February to be honoured as the Fine Arts winners of UVic’s 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award—an award that’s doubly special this year, given that it was presented during the School of Music’s 50th anniversary.
Know for their distinctly “Canadiana” country roots sound, seamless harmonies and heartfelt songwriting, Carli and Julie Kennedy (BMus ’08) have been dubbed “the next big thing in country music” by the Nashville Music Examiner and Twin Kennedy’s 2017 winter single “Cold Weather” was chosen by Rolling Stone as one of the “10 new country and Americana Christmas songs to hear right now!”
“We’re very proud of years at UVic,” says Carli. “Not everyone in the popular-music world has a degree, and it’s an important part of our story. To be recognized for that side of our career is a huge honour; it means a lot to us.”
“And we did it together!” laughs Julie.
They now join the ranks of our previous Fine Arts Distinguished Alumni Award winners: visual artist Althea Thauberger (MFA ’02) director Glynis Leyshon (BFA ’73), author Esi Edugyan (BA ’99), lighting designer Michael J. Whitfield (BA ’67), director and filmmaker Mercedes Bátiz-Benét (BFA ’02), poet Carla Funk (BFA ’97), musician Paul Beauchesne (BMus ’88), author Deborah Willis (BA ’06), environmental designer Valerie Murray (BA ’78), author Eden Robinson (BFA ’92) and visual anthropologist Andrea Walsh (BA ’91).
Find out more about Twin Kennedy’s award here.
by John Threlfall | Nov 9, 2018 | Alumni, Events, indigenous, Visual Arts
UVic is this year’s host for the fourth annual Building Reconciliation Forum, in partnership with Universities Canada, the national organization for Canadian universities. The forum (Nov. 15–16) brings together close to 250 thought leaders from universities, Indigenous governing bodies and communities, and federal and regional government officials to consider how universities are answering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.
There was a capacity audience for the Nov 15 forum at the Baumann Ctr (photo: Fiona Ngai)
This year’s theme is Ts’its’u’ watul tseep, meaning to help one another. The teachings of Coast Salish First Nations guide us to “work together in a good way” and “to be prepared for all work to come” so that universities across Canada make a difference in the lives of Indigenous students and their communities.
Panels over two days are addressing TRC topics such as child welfare, language and culture, education, health and justice. Participants will be discussing how universities and their partner institutions can work with Indigenous communities to answer the Calls to Action, obstacles to answering these Calls, and how universities can make a positive difference for Indigenous students and communities. Forum discussions will be compiled into an open-access report. See the schedule of events.
As part of the Forum, Fine Arts Dean Dr. Susan Lewis will be hosting a panel discussion on First Nations Art Practice & Reconciliation. Local artists, administrators and activists will discuss how Victoria’s arts community can advance decolonization and reconciliation. The moderator for the panel is local Cree/Metis TV producer and writer Barbara Hager, and panelists include:
The panel runs from 6:30–9:30pm Thursday, Nov 15 at Pacific Opera Victoria’s Baumann Centre, 925 Balmoral Road. Note: while this event is free, it is technically already sold out. Some seats may be available at the door.
Susan Algukark
Also during the Building Reconciliation Forum, Fine Arts will be hosting noted Inuk singer-songwriter and Order of Canada recipient Susan Aglukark as she presents Nomad, a musical and visual journey through Inuit history, shedding light on some of the psychological and cultural impacts of the rapid change in Canada’s North. Seating will be extremely limited for this event running from noon-1:30pm on Wednesday, Nov 14, in the Chief Dan George Theatre in the Phoenix Theatre building.
We acknowledge with respect the Lkwungen-speaking peoples on whose traditional territory the University of Victoria stands, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
by John Threlfall | Aug 20, 2018 | Alumni, Art History & Visual Studies, Award, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing
Never underestimate the impact a donation can have for students. For many, both undergraduate and graduate, it can make all the difference in their academic career.
“As a student from a rural town and a lower income family, this scholarship will go a long way in making it possible for me to focus on my studies in the coming academic year,” says Lauren, a third-year Theatre student.
For some, it provides opportunities previously undreamt of — “I didn’t think I’d ever have the opportunity to go to university, and the generosity of your gift has already made such a lasting impact on my studies,” says Laura, a third-year Visual Arts student — while for others, it offers the chance to realize their dreams: “My dream to teach music would be much more difficult without the generosity of you and your family,” writes John, a fourth-year student in the School of Music, in a donor thank-you letter.
The Faculty of Fine Arts distributes over $1.5 million annually from more than 200 separate student awards, benefiting students in all five of our departments. Each year, we’re proud to not only distribute funds from previously created or endowed awards, but also to facilitate the creation of new awards — in fact, 2016/17 saw six new awards created.
Here are just a few of them:
Writing professor Maureen Bradley in the active-learning classroom
Technology expands the horizons of literature
A lifelong love of literature, theatre and education has been fused with digital technology, thanks to a $25,000 donation by Dr. Robert Aitken in memory of his mother. Mary Aitken was a well-loved teacher at both Mt. Douglas and Esquimalt Secondary schools who strongly believed in fostering creativity and keeping up with the latest technology. Now, the Mary Aitken Legacy Scholarship will support students in our new Digital & Interactive Media in the Arts minor, enabling future generations of writers to get their start.
New art therapy scholarship established
There’s no doubt art can make you feel better, and now the Centre for Human Science Research and Its Relation to Human Science Association (formerly the British Columbia School of Art Therapy) has donated $32,000 to establish a new award. The Kathleen G. Collis Art Therapy Scholarship will support Fine Arts students with an interest in phenomenological approaches or other forms of community engaged creative activity that contributes to the field of art therapy and the therapeutic use of the arts.
Dean Susan Lewis (left) with Anna & Eunice Lowe
Fundraiser grows Legacy Scholarship
The Faculty of Fine Arts co-hosted an elegant fundraising dinner at the Union Club in June, in support of the Stephen and Eunice Lowe Legacy Scholarship. A silent auction of over 80 items of art and sculpture from Eunice Lowe’s private collection raised over $18,000 for the scholarship, which is awarded to an undergraduate in either Art History & Visual Studies or Visual Arts. Widow of the late celebrated artist, Stephen Lowe, Eunice has tirelessly and graciously sought ways to support our students with her generosity of time and financial support and as an arts ambassador for our community.
New Music award commemorates CFUV host
For over 30 years, Eric LeBlanc’s blues show Let the Good Times Roll appeared weekly on UVic’s CFUV radio. While he spent 25 years as the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory’s librarian, Eric was also a self-taught blues scholar: his collection of thousands of recordings was donated to CFUV after his death in 2015, and over 300 music-related books were donated to the McPherson Library. Now, friends and family have created the Eric LeBlanc Memorial Scholarship for School of Music students with a passion for jazz and blues.
Making the most of a century
Samantha Krzywonos (far right) marks the
98th birthday of longtime donor Tommy Mayne in 2016, with three Theatre student recipients of his scholarship
When noted teacher, philanthropist and lifelong theatre devotee Tommy Mayne passed away in April at the remarkable age of 99, he had already begun to see the impact of his legacy: the Thomas and Elizabeth Mayne Bursary in Theatre, established in 2010, has benefited a number of students, many of which Tommy was able to meet. “I was filled with admiration at his generosity,” said Theatre professor Brian Richmond on his passing. “The city—and the arts community—has lost a wonderful man.”
New awards this year
Indeed, the impact of these kind of gifts lingers long after students graduate. “This award comes at a crucial moment in my studies,” noted one Masters candidate in Theatre. ”Simply put, I don’t know how I would be able to graduate [without it].”
We are grateful to these and our other donors who expanded the range and breadth of awards available to our students by establishing new awards this past academic year:
Sarah Blackstone Endowed Scholarship in Theatre
Dave Ian Dunnet Music Education Scholarship
Eugene Dowling Scholarship Fund in Music
Roger J. Bishop Writing Prize
As Miriam, a second-year Writing student, puts it, “This award has lit me with the confidence I need to take risks and trust my voice and my visions.” It’s hard to not feel good about making this kind of a difference in a student’s life.
To learn more about our giving initiatives, please contact Fine Arts Development Officer Samantha Krzywonos at 250-721-6305 or finedev@uvic.ca.
