Stories from the Creative Edge
Awards
A Bridge Between Two Worlds: Kirk McNally’s new ADCARA role
While new hires are a regular part of faculty life, it’s rare that we see the creation of entirely new administrative roles. One of the Faculty highlights of 2025 was the inauguration of two brand-new Associate Dean positions: Associate Dean Indigenous, held by...
2025: Year in Review
It’s hard to believe 2025 is already over: some years crawl like watching paint dry on a canvas, while others speed by at the rate of a can’t-put-it-down bestseller. Given that the 2000s will likely come to be known as the century when attention spans reduced faster...
Uplifting Indigenous voices on Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is coming up fast on December 2! We encourage you to join UVic's campus community and grads from around the world by pitching in to support student success, health, well-being and the programs that help make UVic the special place it is. This year, the...
Two students win 2025’s Community Impact Awards
Sophie Hillstrom (left) with Dean Allana Lindgren and Sage Easton-LevyCongratulations go out to the recipients of our fifth annual Faculty of Fine Arts Student Community Impact Awards: just-graduated School of Music student Sophie Hillstrom and current Theatre student...
Robert Amos receives Honorary DFA
An artist, art historian, author and arts writer, Robert Amos has dedicated most of the past four decades to documenting — both journalistically and visually — Victoria’s visual arts scene, whether with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Times Colonist newspaper...
Writing professor wins Bill Good Award
Congratulations go out to UVic Writing professor Sean Holman on winning the Bill Good Award at the 2025 Webster Awards on Nov 3! The Bill Good Award is presented to a BC individual or organization that makes a significant contribution to journalism in the province, or...
Call for grad student proposals: 2026 ONC ArtScience Fellowship Program
UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) are now calling for graduate student applications for the paid 2026 ONC ArtScience Fellowship program. The application period closes on December 23, 2025. The ArtScience Fellowship strengthens connections...
Meet Music’s 2025 Concerto Competition student winners
This year’s UVic Concerto Competition celebrates exceptional musicians whose talents span genres, generations, and geographies. The competition finals were held in April 2025 and we can’t wait to hear them perform their winning concertos with the UVic Symphony...
Deb Miller Landau makes a name with her crime story
Every journalist is always on the lookout for their next great story. For Vancouver-born Deb Miller Landau, a magazine article on a cold case in the American South became the assignment of a lifetime, leading Landau to write an entire book on the explosive,...
Visual Arts MFA student earns Audain Award
Edith Skeard (centre) receiving the Audain AwardCongratulations go out to Visual Arts MFA candidate Edith Skeard on being named one of five BC graduate students to receive a $7,500 Travel Award from the Audain Foundation on Sept 26. As a complement to the prestigious...
Inaugural JRSP residency showcases new sculptural work
A sculptural installation by Canadian artist Siobhan Humston will be on view exclusively at UVic from October 9-14, showcasing the results of a new artist-scholar residency created in association with the Jeffrey Rubinoff Foundation and UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts....
2025 ONC ArtScience Fellow debuts exhibit
When Parvin Hasani applied for the 2025 ArtScience Fellowship with Ocean Networks Canada — the sixth Fine Arts graduate student to hold this position — she proposed exploring the extreme ecosystems of deep-sea hydrothermal vents via her sculptural practice. Now, after...
New competition prize for music students
Let’s say it’s 1912 and you’re a young, musically inclined girl who enjoys whistling . . . but your father says it isn’t “ladylike“ to whistle: what do you do? If you’re Eleanor Gray, you embrace the song in your heart and pursue singing lessons instead. Fast-forward...
Celebratory theatre empowers acceptance
Theatre students Simran Kang (left), Isabella Derilo & Alynne Sinnema in the 2024 production of Salty Scent of Home (Photo: Dean Kalyan)It can be hard for people who never experienced immigration to understand the challenges faced by immigrants and refugees, but...
Climate professor receives $2.5 million grant to document stories globally
Fires rage, floods devastate, storms surge: every day we hear about the impacts of climate change, with ever-increasing casualty counts and infrastructure damage tipping into the billions. But all too often, climate politics and media reporting favour the voices of...
Sean Holman wins BC journalism award
Congratulations go out to UVic Writing professor & Climate Disaster Project founder Sean Holman on being named the 2025 recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation's Bill Good Award. Presented annually by Western Canada's preeminent journalism foundation, the Bill...
UVic theatre grad headed to London for MFA
El Newell receives the Spirit of the Phoenix Award from professor Peter McGuire (photo: Sadie Kupery)With over 200 students graduating from Fine Arts on June 12, we're not able to profile everyone but Theatre student El Newell is an outstanding representative of her...
Climate Disaster Project play wins award
Congratulations go out to the Climate Disaster Project on winning Silver in the "Environmental and Climate Change" category at the Canadian Association of Journalists Awards on June 1 for Eyes of the Beast:Climate Disaster Survivor Stories, a documentary play about...
Hidden networks spark ONC artistic residency
From the human body’s neural connections to unseen water channels sustaining life in arid landscapes, the mysterious nature of invisible systems has always fascinated artist Parvin Hasani. “Hidden networks have always sparked my imagination and fueled my exploration...
Inaugural JRSP Artist-Scholar Residency announced
In partnership with the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park (JRSP), Fine Arts is pleased to announce that Canadian artist Siobhan Humston has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the UVic/JRSP Artist-Scholar Residency for 2025-2026. During her time at the Rubinoff...
Instructor & Lehan Lecturer wins $25K award
Congratulations go out to Theatre instructor and 2025 Lehan Family Activism & the Arts Lecturer d’bi.young anitafrika, who has been awarded a $25,000 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. An internationally acclaimed Black-queer-feminist non-binary dub poet,...
Writing grad Kyeren Regehr is Victoria’s newest Poet Laureate
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...
Distinguished Alumni Awards: Tania Willard
We congratulate 2025 Presidents’ Alumni Award recipient Tania Willard, a mixed Secwépemc and settler artist whose research intersects with land-based art practices. A graduate of the Department of Visual Arts (BFA, 1998), the work of Kamloops-born Willard activates...
Distinguished Alumni Award winner: Chari Arespacochaga
Chari Arespacochaga is an acclaimed theatre director and educator at the College of Fine Arts at Florida State University (FSU) where she is the Director of the MFA Directing Program. Her theatrical direction credits include Rent, Kinky Boots (Short North Stage), The...
Submission call for $1K Student Impact Awards!
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,...
Three REACH Award winners in Fine Arts
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...
Distinguished Alumni Award: Crystal Clark
Indigenous Community Alumni Award recipient Crystal Clark is a Cree/Dene and Métis mother, an artist and an Indigenous education specialist who has worked within First Nations and public schools. She holds a Master of Educational Technology, Bachelor of Education,...
Distinguished Alumni Awards: Cassandra Miller
We are thrilled that Cassandra Miller is the recipient of one of the 2025 Presidents’ Alumni Awards. Born in Victoria, Cassandra received her Bachelor of Music in Composition and Theory from UVic in 2005; her brother, the award-winning graphic designer Emrys Damon...
Supporting the next generation of writers in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community
Thanks to the Candis Graham Writing Scholarship, an award created by the Lambda Foundation alongside friends and family of the renowned lesbian-feminist writer and teacher, UVic student Zoe Bechtold is able to explore her diverse interests in writing and performance...
Indigenous research and community springs from arts lab
From left: Heather Igloliorte with Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab staff Chris Mockford & Natalie RollinsThere’s a new Indigenous arts research space at the University of Victoria (UVic) that is looking up—way up—to the arts of the circumpolar region, as well as...
Sounds for Soldiers: Emily Armour’s Music for Veterans Project connects young musicians with military vets
Music alum Emily Armour with Pipe Major Roger McGuire of the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) at 2024's 80th anniversary of D-Day event at Victoria's Bay Street Armoury When it comes to honouring veterans, many people wear a poppy on November 11 and then...
Top 10 Fine Arts stories of 2024
There’s no better time than the start of a new year for a moment of reflection on the previous year’s accomplishments. With that in mind, we're happy to present the Fine Arts Top 10 of 2024: an inspiring series of story highlights about our students, faculty and...