University of Victoria, Canada
Kevin McGinn
Being Creative
Creative Being
Vol. 2, No. 2 | Winter 2012
Dean’s Message
2 Talking TEDx
Acting Dean Lynne Van Luven
guarantees she’ll listen to
whatever you’ve got on your
mind
2 Faculty News
Fine Arts was once again on
stage at TEDx Victoria, this
time featuring History in Art’s
Jamie Kemp (above)
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New hires, new books,
notable media coverage,
awards, accolades, faculty
visitors and more
Fine Arts Helps Keep UVic Golden
50th anniversary celebrations to continue in 2013
sculpture “Craft” by Audain Professor Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas, backstage tours of the Phoenix, a drumming workshop with Music instructor Jordan Hanson,
a screening of the Writing department’s Leo Awardwinning web series Freshman’s Wharf, a “sight reading”
open house with faculty and students in the School of
Music, an alumni talk by Carla Funk, Victoria’s first poet
laureate, and the debut of our popular self-guided
Campus Art Tour map.
Colton Hash
Given the fanfare around UVic’s golden anniversary,
it’s worth noting the significant role Fine Arts has
played in the university’s history. With the establishment of the School of Fine Arts in 1964, we were
one of UVic’s foundational programs, and our
transition to full faculty status in 1969 cemented our
importance; in fact, we are still B.C.’s only standalone fine arts faculty. As Peter Smith notes in his
campus history, A Multitude of the Wise, “With the
powerful and highly regarded Department of Music
acting as Faculty flagship, Fine Arts sailed on proudly,
becoming one of UVic’s major areas of growth.”
Distinguished Alumna Eve Egoyan performs on Disklavier
piano at her 50th anniversary concert in October
lery’s two exhibits, Collections at 50 (now closed) and
Other highlights this fall have included History in Art’s Honoris Causa: Artist Honorary Degree Recipients (to
March 9); and a full range of concerts by the likes
Acts of Intervention symposium; aboriginal author
and Writing alum Richard Van Camp speaking at First of the UVic Orchestra, Chorus and Wind Symphony.
That growth has resulted in the outstanding faculty Peoples House; Phoenix grads Peter ’n Chris appearing
Also notable was Writing grad Alisa Smith being
we have today, which has been an important part in the Spotlight on Alumni; Eve Egoyan’s Distinguished
named one of five outstanding alumni at the “Celebraof celebrating UVic’s 50th anniversary. While
Alumna concert, featuring a work for Disklavier piano
tion of 50 Years of Excellence,” for her book The 100and interactive video; Writing’s All-Star Alumni ReadSeptember’s Homecoming event didn’t exactly
Mile Diet, which kicked off the locavore movement.
result in a stampede of returning Fine Arts alumni, ing Night, which featured 10 acclaimed grads reading
we did program a full range of events, including a to a packed house; the Dean’s Lecture by Marcus
Watch for more anniversary events to come in 2013,
faculty jazz recital by Patrick Boyle, an exhibit of the Milwright at the downtown library; Legacy Art Galincluding an exhibit by the Visual Arts faculty.
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University of Victoria, Canada
Vol. 2, No. 2 | Winter 2012
Heads in the Cloud
Best Supported Acting
“Acting: temporarily assuming the duties or authority of another”
—Online Dictionary
That’s me, acting without any training in acting. Fortunately, there’s a
template to follow—and lots of policy and precedent to guide me. I’ve
been filling in for Dean Sarah Blackstone since she left on administrative
leave on July 1, 2012, and I’ll continue as “acting” until June 30, 2013.
“The thing about being an Acting Dean,” I told a roomful of cultural
administrators recently, “is that it’s a
temporary position, so you can tell me
anything. There’s no guarantee I can do
anything about it, but you can certainly
tell me!”
The first thing I can tell you for sure
about being Acting Dean is that it’s
educational: one thinks she knows her Van Luven: up for “acting” award?
workplace, but I’ve boarded a non-stop learning train.
The second thing I can tell you is that the University of Victoria is staffed
with dedicated and hard-working people who seem to worry about
almost everything. In my recent experience, one of the hardest working groups is the support staff who sustain us on a daily basis all across
this campus. Theirs are the unseen (and sometimes unsung) jobs that
keep the machinery of university education rolling, day after day—with
genuine good will, often augmented by years of experience. They are not
“acting” in any sense of the word.
So, thank you everyone: to the Fine Arts students who challenge and
inspire us, to the staff who support us, to the professors and instructors
who share their expertise—and, yes, to the administrators, who aim to
keep us on an even keel. Happy holidays to you all, and best wishes for a
serene and productive 2013.
—Lynne Van Luven, Acting Dean
$16,000 from Benefit Album
First cheque in, CD still selling well
Proving that music really is the gift that keeps on giving,
School of Music Professor Emeritus Ian McDougall
presented Fine Arts with a cheque for $16,000 in early
December—the first significant payment in the “one
potato” fund created by the sales of his Fine Arts benefit
CD, The Very Thought of You.
Seen here with Associate Vice-President of Alumni and
Jamie Kemp’s TEDx fuses very old with very new
Last year it was Writing professor David Leach talking about kibbutzing the ’hood. This
year the Faculty of Fine Arts was once again represented at the latest TEDx Victoria
conference, courtesy of History in Art Ph.D. candidate Jamie Kemp.
Kemp’s talk at the November
17 event TEDx: Momentum
was titled “Heads in the Cloud,”
and looked to the past to ask
how technologies can support
a teaching method based on
meaningful social engagement.
Kemp offered an interactive
presentation linking her research History in Art PhD candidate Jamie Kemp at TEDx Victoria
on medieval manuscripts with some of the most current technologies used in
classrooms today.
One of the highlights of the presentation was a video which displayed some of the
treasures from the medieval manuscripts collections in UVic’s McPherson Library.
TEDx Victoria gave the 400-person audience a chance to see the library’s 13th century
copy of Bartholomaeus Anglicus’ On the Properties of Things, a medieval encyclopedia and school book that is a major subject of Jamie’s doctoral dissertation.
The presentation was inspired by insights from her own teaching through History in
Art and Medieval Studies, and her work as Educator-in-Residence with MediaCore,
a Victoria and London (UK)-based education technology company. In her latter role,
Kemp is working on a project called “The Flipped Institute”, a website that provides
resources for educators who want to use video to push their lectures online and
spend class time facilitating more personalized learning experiences.
During her talk, the TEDx audience at the Victoria Conference Centre was asked to
help create this body of resources by sharing ideas for generating student interest in
learning via on-the-spot text messaging.
Let’s see who from Fine Arts will make the TEDx lineup next year!
Development Ibrahim Inayatali (left)
and acting Music Director Susan
Lewis Hammond, McDougall is
clearly pleased with the album’s
success, but realizes the necessity
of keeping it in the public eye. “The
record is popular now and selling
well, but it’s important to keep it going,” said McDougall.
Currently available downtown at Munro’s Books, Lyle’s
Place and Larsen Music, The Very Thought of You can also
be found on-campus at the Bookstore, Arts Place, the
School of Music, Phoenix Theatre and
the main Fine Arts office. “It’s great
you had the vision to do this and
make it benefit all of Fine Arts,” Lewis
Hammond told McDougall at the
presentation. Inayatali agreed, noting
he will be taking copies of the CD
along on an upcoming alumni trip to Hong Kong. “This is
your life’s work, to be supporting students perpetually.”
If you have yet to pick up a copy, don’t forget The Very
Thought of You makes a great gift for the holiday season!
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University of Victoria, Canada
Vol. 2, No. 2 | Winter 2012
Around the Courtyard
More than just 50th anniversary events
Colton Hash
Colton Hash
Clockwise from below: Carla Funk at Writing’s All-Star
Alumni Reading Night; the sculpture “Craft” by Michael
Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Madeline Sonik with Butler Book Prize
founder Brian Butler; Art Rowe spies his media moment;
Martin Segger speaks at Legacy’s Collections at 50 exhibit
Big news for the Writing department this fall includes
the hiring of playwright Kevin Kerr, the imminent
retirement of Lorna Crozier (who just launched her
latest, The Book of Marvels), David Leach’s naming
as the director of the Technology & Society program
and popular CBC host Jo-Ann Roberts as 2013’s
Harvey S. Southam Lecturer. On the awards front,
Bill Gaston earned gold in the National Magazine
Awards (and released his latest novel, The World),
Madeline Sonik won the City of Victoria Butler
Book Prize for Afflictions and Departures, and Patrick
Friesen won the ReLit poetry award for his Jumping
in the Asylum. MFA student Connor Gaston was
invited to TIFF with his short film Bardo Light and
the Whistler Film Festival with Stuck, and Dan
Hogg was just announced as a winner of the Script
To Screen development partnership . . . . Theatre
welcomes sessionals Bronwyn Steinberg and
Michael Armstrong (also a Writing MFA candidate)
and new Audience and Client Services Liaison person
Acclaimed aboriginal author
and noted Writing grad
Richard Van Camp made
a quick speaking visit to
First Peoples House in early
September to kick off our
Faculty’s contributions to
the continuing 50th
Anniversary celebrations
Catherine Plant. Meanwhile, Leslie Bland announced his forthcoming feature-length documentary, Gone South: How Canada Invented Hollywood, and
Conrad Alexandrowicz’s production of The Good
Person of Setzuan was well-received by local critics
. . . . Over in Visual Arts, multi-disciplinary Tlingit/
Aleut artist Nicholas Galanin is this year’s Audain
Professor and Jennifer Stillwell was represented
in the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Winnipeg Now exhibit.
Vikky Alexander has a series of photographs in
the National Gallery of Canada’s current exhibit
Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012 and Sandra Meigs
provided visuals for a concert by Toronto’s Continuum
Contemporary Music (which also involved Music’s
Christopher and Ben Butterfield and Anne
Grimm). Paul Walde programmed some great
Visiting Artists, Tara Nicholson had an exhibit at
Deluge and curated another at the Slide Room this
fall, and Thomas Chisholm was a finalist for the
second year in a row for the RBC Canadian Painting
International artist Brendan Fernandes was one of the
many artists in Visual Arts’ ongoing Visiting Artist series
Competition, in which Visual Arts alum Katie Lyle
won honourable mention and $15,000 . . . . On top
of the other History in Art news in these pages,
Allan Antliff visited England in October to speak
about anarchism, and he also participated in the
Cage 100 Festival . . . . Associate professor Susan
Lewis Hammond finishes her term as the Acting
Director of the School of Music at the end of 2012,
while Gary Froese is this year’s director of the
UVic Chamber Singers. Art Rowe was on Shaw TV
recently speaking about the Steinway pianos, Christopher Butterfield received a lot of coverage for
his Cage 100 Festival, Andy Schloss brought in
author and musician Jaron Lanier to mark the Alan
Turing Centennial, the Lafayette String Quartet
held their seventh annual Health Forum, as well
as a Steinway fundraiser with acclaimed pianist
Robert Silverman, and Dániel Péter Biró’s Kivrot
HaTa’avah was selected for the ISCM 2013 World
New Music Days in Kosice, Bratislava, and Vienna.
Writing chair Bill
Gaston made the
cover of noted Canadian
book mag Quill & Quire
this fall, thanks to his
latest novel, The World.
(We’re just waiting to
see if there’s going to
be a sequel called The
Universe.)
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University of Victoria, Canada
Vol. 2, No. 2 | Winter 2012
Intervening in the Arts
Musings from a Chair
Some days I feel so grateful to be working in this Faculty, surrounded
by creative people of all denominations. I’m impressed by people who
have the talent and imagination to create a piece of music, write a
poem or book, fashion a moving drama or art work. One of the places
in my world where I enter a state of flow is doing workshops on art
historical writing with our graduate
students in art history. It’s a leap of
the imagination to enter into another
person’s research project and help
them hone their unique voice.
I’m sure we all share the same
response as teachers, even if what we
do looks different on the outside. It’s
that listening deeply to a student talk
about a research/ creative problem,
helping them find just the right image History in Art has created a
– word –note – gesture – form. When challenging Christmas quiz
contest this year. Visit their
you hit the right place together there’s a
homepage to give it a try!
resonance, a moment of zing! You have
hit the sweet spot. Then there’s the places in between where the words
are just working, doing what is necessary to fill in the shape; those
places are much needed, worthy, but not very exciting. Still, they fill the
repertoire. We listen, we listen, and next thing we know, we have hit
another sweet spot where the ideas and the words come together in
harmony. The ideas are clear, strong and powerful.
Who could imagine that you could feel this way about teaching art historical writing or grants-crafting for fine artists? Maybe it’s because my
office is located in a hub of creativity, below the Department of Writing,
which is also generating its sense of the word—and I’m catching the
vibes from Music, Theatre and Visual Arts. Hallelujah!
History in Art charrette shakes it up
History in Art has been making some savvy departmental moves of late. Notable among
these have been proactive recruitment material (such as their online course teaser
podcasts); media coverage of faculty (Lianne McLarty), alumni (Dianne Carr) and students
(Courtney Burrell); involvement in both on- and off-campus communities; and some
simple grassroots outreach initiatives (the fun Christmas Quiz on their homepage).
Also of note is the charrette that was
held as part of History in Art’s eighth
annual Faculty Research Symposium
in late September. This year’s theme
was “Acts of Intervention: The Arts
and Social Change” and, in addition
to the regular day of interdisciplinary
presentations, they asked visiting
Orion guest lecturer Luigi Ferrara to
facilitate a charrette.
Luigi Ferrara (left) leads the September charrette
The charrette is a collaborative, creative process that comes out of the design world, taking
participants from idea generation, conceptualization and research to development and
presentation in a very short period of time—and is a tool Ferrara regularly uses in his role
as an architect, designer, educator and director of the Institute Without Boundaries. “It’s not
just a brainstorming session, but a more structured problem-solving initiative,” says Erin
Campbell, who organized the charrette alongside departmental colleague Carolyn ButlerPalmer. “Everyone was really excited about the process. Participants took it very seriously,
but still had fun—and some of the ideas that were generated were remarkable.”
After breaking into groups, over two dozen HIA faculty, students and other Fine Arts guests
discussed and presented a number of ideas during the two-hour session—including one
for a mobile “artmobile”—until one group’s idea about “performing the art on campus”
was selected as the winning concept. “So much of the art on campus is invisible,” explains
Campbell. “We decided we needed some kind of intervention with it to make people notice
it—thus the idea of ‘performing’ the art.” (Watch for an actual performance in the spring.)
— Catherine Harding Clearly pleased with the success of the process, does Campbell see potential in using it
either departmentally or faculty-wide in the future? “Absolutely. As a problem-solving tool
Catherine Harding is the Chair of the History in Art Department.
and an idea generator, the charrette process is fantastic.”
Future newsletters will feature reports from different chairs.
FACULTY OF FINE ARTS
PO Box 1700 STNS CSC
Victoria BC V8W 2Y2
email [email protected]
www.finearts.uvic.ca
Creative Being is published twice
a year by the Faculty of Fine Arts
to communicate the faculty’s
goals, achievements, strategic
direction and activities in order
to connect teaching faculty, staff
and alumni with each other and
the university.
Keep up to date with via the Faculty
blog, Artsy Type, which you can find
on the Fine Arts homepage. (Or
subscribe to the RSS feed and be
notified of each new update.) We’re
also very active on Facebook and
Twitter, so there are plenty of ways
to stay connected!
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