Stories from the Creative Edge
Undergrad
New Student Welcome — and welcome back!
If you're new to Fine Arts, we'd just like to offer you a big welcome — as well as a hearty "welcome back" to all our returning students! We/re happy to have you join our vibrant student community here in Fine Arts. But we appreciate that first year can be a difficult...
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Your guide to Fine Arts Fringers
No question, the annual Fringe Fest is one of Victoria's best-loved festivals of any kind. Now in its 31st year, the Victoria Fringe Festival offers 330 performances of 58 shows by 350 artists in nearly a dozen venues around town — as well as a number of free...
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Experiences of migrant youth explored in new play
How can theatre activate the experiences of migrant youth, while at the same time providing a window into the experiences they face while assimilating into a new culture, new society and new city? Questions like this are at the heart of a new Applied Theatre...
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Visual Arts student keeps sex safe . . . and cute
Third year Visual Arts student Cassidy Luteijn is making the news as one of the finalists for a Canada 150 condom wrapper design contest. Her uniquely “Canadian” imagery includes a hippy beaver and a moose draped in underwear. As she explains in this interview in the...
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Graduating Visual Arts project a bold step forward
It sounds like a riddle: what has six legs, was built for camping and can walk on its own? The answer, however, is no joke — it’s actually the incredibly complex final project of Visual Arts BFA graduate Xiao Xue. Aptly titled “Something to Ponder On: A Walking...
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UNO Fest thick with Fine Arts talent
From the underground to the mainstream, Intrepid Theatre’s annual UNO Fest is a hotbed of contemporary solo theatre and performance. Originally launched by Theatre alumna Janet Munsil in the basement of Victoria’s Bedford Hotel in 1997, UNO Fest is celebrating 20...
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Visual Arts BFA show is both an exhibit and course
The end of the academic year also means the start of the annual Visual Arts BFA show—which, for the current crop of graduating students, means Another Year. The BFA grad show is always one of the highlights of the year here in Fine Arts, and the current exhibition is...
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Event in Victoria’s queer history inspires new play & course
A new play written by Department of Theatre professor Jennifer Wise and performed by Theatre students celebrates a little-known event in Victoria’s gay history. Wise's A Queer Trial tells the real-life story of John Butt, an openly gay Victoria man who, in 1860, was...
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Phoenix play proves that politics never really changes
Politics is a difficult game: there’s pressure to appease voters and deal with multitudes of issues and complaints, all while being sandwiched between different levels of government regulations. But while this all may sound terribly current, the latest Phoenix...
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Research and creative practice on view at Ideafest 2017
Ideafest — UVic's week-long free festival of world-changing ideas — is once again ready to welcome thinkers, innovators, artists and audiences to a fascinating range of events across campus. This year’s festival features hundreds of speakers, presenting on topics...
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Minor in Digital and Interactive Media in the Arts announced
Starting in May 2017, the Faculty of Fine Arts will begin offering a new minor in Digital and Interactive Media in the Arts (DIMA). DIMA will allow you to combine current electives with new training in interactive media as part of your UVic Bachelor degree. "Our minor...
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20 questions with Music student Margaret Lingas
Fourth-year School of Music voice student Margaret Lingas didn’t begin seriously training as a vocalist until she was 15 years old, getting her start with the Oxford Girls’ Choir back in 2006. Since then she’s been on a fast track to singing success, with an...
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Phoenix frequent among 2016 Critic’s Choice winners
The 16th annual Victoria Critics' Choice Theatre Awards were announced on CBC Radio's On The Island at the end of December and, as always, there were plenty of Fine Arts alumni among the 2016 nominees and winners. We've got a breakdown of the awards below, but you can...
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Four horns for the win
Winners of the School of Music’s annual Concerto Competition are usually solo performers, but in the upcoming UVic Orchestra concert on November 26, four horn players will take centre stage in a performance of Schumann’s "Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra."...
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Southam Lecturer Vivian Smith talks gender & journalism
We may be living in the 21st century, but that doesn’t mean we’ve achieved gender equality in Canada. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of journalism, as Vivian Smith well knows. The 2016 Southam Lecturer for the Department of Writing, Smith is drawing...
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Writing event features inaugural Lorna Crozier Scholarship recipient
Even though she’s now retired, beloved poet and Department of Writing professor Lorna Crozier continues to have an impact on campus: a highlight of the popular annual faculty reading night—happening 7 p.m. on Sept. 28 in room 105 of UVic's Hickman building—will be the...
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A September full of events
Welcome to a new semester, a new academic year and a totally fresh series of events in Fine Arts! Even though it's only September and the academic year has just begun, we're already looking at a busy month of concerts, readings, guest lectures, exhibits, plays and...
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Welcome (back) to Fine Arts!
It's that time of year when we welcome all our new and returning Fine Arts students! On top of the formal Orientation schedule, there are plenty of fun — and free — events happening all week. First day of classes is Wednesday, September 7, and that's also a day packed...
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Phoenix at the Fringe 2016
Anyone concerned about post-degree prospects for Fine Arts students should consider the ongoing success of students in our Department of Theatre. For 50 years now, Phoenix Theatre has been producing some of Canada's finest theatre artists by instilling in them the...
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Paths to Reconciliation
Situated on traditional Coast and Straits Salish territory, UVic is recognized for its commitment to and expertise in innovative programs and initiatives that support Indigenous students and communities. We recognize the special role the university can play in...
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School of Music announces new brass scholarship
The sound of studying just got a little sweet for first-year UVic School of Music students, thanks to a new brass scholarship from Yamaha Canada Music. Beginning in the fall of 2016, and continuing for the next three years, the Joan Watson Memorial Scholarship will...
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Double-medal winning grad Kelsey Wheatley offers an inspiring example
Each year, the Victoria Medal is awarded to the student with the highest GPA in the Faculty of Fine Arts. Similarly, the Governor General's Silver Medal is awarded annually to UVic’s top undergraduate student—but it’s a rare day indeed when both awards are given out...
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Regan Shrumm wins Lieutenant Governor’s Silver Medal
While much of the convocation spotlight naturally falls on our undergraduates, we’re pleased to see recent Art History & Visual Studies alumna Regan Shrumm step back into the spotlight on June 15 as the recipient of UVic’s 2015 Lieutenant Governor’s Silver...
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Theatre grad Jasleen Powar steps into the intercultural spotlight
Most students wait until after graduation to start making their mark on the world, but Jasleen Powar already has something to sing about. Graduating with a BFA in theatre on June 15, the 24-year-old Powar has been making waves as Vancouver rapper Horsepowar, thanks to...
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Gareth Gaudin’s Perogy Cat gets a book—and theme song
With puffy white features and a lovable personality, the Perogy Cat is an iconic local comic character whose popularity has inspired art projects worldwide. Now the plump feline ventures onto the high seas in The Perogy Cat, a hardcover kids’ book illustrated and...
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Visual Arts alumna Jody DeSchutter creates a fresh perspective
Jody DeSchutter working on her Centennial Square panels in fall 2015 DeSchutter comparing fabric swatches before painting the patterns onto her mural panel (photo: Leya Anderson) DeSchutter shows off her in-process panel, with the fabric patterns and stylized tree...
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A busy spring for Writing
It's been a busy spring for the Writing department, with a wide variety of faculty and alumni in the spotlight for award nominations and new book releases. Poetry professor and Governor General’s Award-winning poet Tim Lilburn has released The Names (Penguin/Random...
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Annual BFA show reveals “Iterations” of contemporary art
If you think organizing an art show is simply about hanging paintings on a wall, think again. As the annual Bachelor of Fine Arts graduating exhibit in the Department of Visual Arts reveals, there’s as much innovation as inspiration behind a well-planned exhibition....
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Audain Professor Rande Cook raises awareness with class and art
One of the best things about an annual guest teaching position is the diversity it offers students. Now in its sixth year in the visual arts department, the Audain Professorship of Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest has benefited from a variety of...
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Technology promotes dynamic learning
Call it learning 360. When Writing professor Maureen Bradley teaches digital media for storytellers, her venue is a departure from the typical university lecture hall: no podium, desk seating or front of the classroom. Instead, tables with roller-wheel chairs line the...
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Four from Visual Arts shortlisted for Philip B. Lind art prize
When Vancouver's Presentation House Gallery announced the eight nominees for their inaugural Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize in March, the Visual Arts department was proud to have connections to half the nominees. Among the artists nominated for this new $5,000...
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2016 Youth Poet Laureate Ann-Bernice Thomas speaks her mind
Ann-Bernice Thomas doesn’t even hesitate when asked the most surprising aspect of being named the City of Victoria’s 2016 Youth Poet Laureate. “All the attention,” she says with a quick laugh. "Considering I didn't really hear anything about last year's poet, it's...
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