UVic Fine Arts

Thrilled to have ethnobotanist, artist, IndigiFuturisms developer, community educator & Indigenous matriarch T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss @uvic.ca as our 2026 Lehan Family Activism & the Arts lecturer: she visited classes, offered a VR showcase of her IndigiFuturisms work & gave a public lecture. Busy!

Our recent @uvic.ca "Autolume" workshop brought together an exceptional group of artists, students, community members & researchers to learn about a new, small‑data approach to creative AI, developed by Philippe Pasquier & SFU's School of Interactive Arts & Technology’s Metacreation Lab.

Our annual @uvic.ca Activism & the Arts series offers 2 chances to engage with ethnobotanist, artist, community educator & Indigenous matriarch T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss: a public talk (5pm Feb 25) & a VR workshop (1-4pm Feb 24).
Info: finearts.uvic.ca/.../2026/02/...

How can music capture climate change? @uvic.ca Music prof Joanna Hood commissioned "Northwest Passages: 13 Alarms from the Arctic" & will perform it at the International Viola Congress in Paris. "To be able to bring environmental issues together with music is a perfect match.” More: bit.ly/4bF30NF

Artist-researcher & @uvic.ca professor Joel Ong imagines creative approaches to the environment by exploring the field of #artscience. A Tier II #canadaresearchchair in Emergent Digital Art Practices, he explores the use of emerging technologies on artistic practices.
Read more: bit.ly/48mNAf2

For #GivingTuesday on Dec 2, Fine Arts @uvic.ca is raising funds to uplift Indigenous voices through our sxʷiʔe ̕m “To Tell A Story” Indigenous Writers & Storytellers Series. We encourage you to join the #UVic community & grads worldwide in supporting this unique program! Donate here: bit.ly/4rxxhDL

We're excited to announce that acclaimed performer-composer & pioneering electronic/electroacoustic music artist @sarahbellereid.bsky.social will be joining our @uvic.ca School of Music as a technology professor starting Jan 2026!
finearts.uvic.ca/research/blo...

3 @uvic.ca Writing students are featured @theguardian.com for a @climatedisaster.bsky.social COP30 partnership: Raamin Hamid, Fernanda Solorza & Ashley Ciambrelli spoke with climate survivors in India, Peru, Brazil & Maui.
finearts.uvic.ca/research/blo...
Pics: Chad Hipolito (F/A), Gouchen Wang (R)

Congrats to $100K Sobey Art Award winner & #uvicvisualarts alum Tania Willard. Also a 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient @uvic.ca, she's clearly having a big year! Seen here at the DAAs in April with Dean Allana Lindgren (right) + Visual Arts alumni Rose Spahan & Crystal Clark.

Congrats to @uvic.ca Visual Arts MFA Edith Skeard on receiving a $7,500 Audain Foundation Travel Award! As a complement to the $100K Audain Prize, the Audain Travel Awards were established in 2019 to support access to career-enriching international art experiences for student artists. bit.ly/4pZitgk

We were delighted to host @uvic.ca Acting President & Vice-Chancellor Qwul’sih’yah’maht Robina Thomas at our ongoing Haa Huupa lunch series on Sept 24, where she offered frank, funny & fresh insights into her own academic journey & the challenges facing Indigenous students today.

Fine Arts was thrilled to be so well-represented at the launch of the new @uvic.ca Kula Library Futures Academy on Sep 15: Esi Edugyan, Richard Van Camp, Atom Egoyan, Sean Holman + Shelagh Rogers, Lawrence Hill, Dave Obee & many other fascinating thought leaders! www.uvic.ca/library/abou...

Fascinating results from our latest @uvic.ca Fine Arts ArtScience annual grad student residency with our colleagues at @oceannetworks.ca: Visual Arts MFA Parvin Hasani's sculptural installation explors deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Find out more: bit.ly/46BsRDi
#artsci #oceanart #uvic

The School of Music @uvic.ca celebrates the new $40K Eleanor Gray Memorial Piano & Voice Duo Competition Prize — created as part of an overall $2M bequest by donor Douglas Gray to honour his mother. This annual art song competition will see students win $1,500 & $1,000 cash! ow.ly/HxTW50Ws823

On July 24, @uvic.ca Visual Arts professors mount a remarkable day of art on the land: Paul Walde,
Kelly Richardson & Makwala-Rande Cook present Ax’nakwala (Part 1) in support of saving old-growth forests & supporting Indigenous sovereignty. Read more:
finearts.uvic.ca/research/blo...

A man stands and speaks to a group in a classroom while holding papers; two people in the foreground are seated with laptops and notebooks.

Congrats to @uvic.ca Writing prof Sean Holman on the new 6-year, $2.5-million SSHRC Partnership Grant "From Catastrophe to Community" — a global initiative with 27 institutions training 500 students/journalists to share experiences/wisdom of 1,000 climate survivors. news.uvic.ca/media-releas...

Very proud that @uvic.ca Writing professor Sean Holman has won 2025's @jackwebsterfdn.bsky.social Bill Good Award. "I’ve devoted my life to journalism because of the harms it can repair," says Holman, who is also the founder of UVic's Climate Disaster Project. More: finearts.uvic.ca/research/blo...

Congrats to our 200+ new @uvic.ca Fine Arts graduates! Celebrating Convocation Day with you on June 12 was an exciting & emotional time — thanks to everyone who came out to make it such a success!

Congrats to @uvic.ca's Climate Disaster Project on winning "Enviro/Climate Change" Silver award @cajournalists.bsky.social for Neworld Theatre's "Eyes of the Beast" — 1st time a play has been nom'd! Ideal timing too, as it's being remounted June 18-22 @sfu.ca's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts!

Congrats to @uvic.ca Theatre instructor & 2025 #uvicarts Lehan Activism & the Arts Lecturer d'bi.young anitafrika on winning a $25K Metcalf Arts Prize! d’bi also recently received a $242K Canada Council grant to establish a digital theatre archive—find out more here: finearts.uvic.ca/research/blo...

Gordon Lightfoot aside, the musician behind the Belfry's hit "If You Could Read My Mind" is @uvic.ca alum Tobin Stokes (also co-creator of their Joni Mitchell show). Adding to this show's success are #uvic alumni Kelt Eccleston (right), costumer Emily Friesen & ASM Kelsey Cain. Show runs to May 25!

We're excited to be hosting the international Across Lands & Waters gathering of 60 circumpolar & Pacific artists/curators here in #UVic Fine Arts this week. The public is welcome to a free day of art & discussions, 1-7pm Thurs May 1: finearts.uvic.ca/research/blo...

Looking for art that grabs you? @uvic.ca Visual Arts BFA show now open 10-6 to April 20: 12 rooms filled with contemporary art by 35 emerging artists! Seen here by graduating #uvic students (in order): James Boyle, RJ Klippenstein, Meagan Webster & Harry Ritter West events.uvic.ca/event/97436-...

For 10 days the entire @uvic.ca Visual Arts bldg gets turned into Victoria's largest emerging artist gallery! "If Traces Remain" features contemporary art by 35 BFA students: painting, sculpture, photos, digital, installations & more. Opens 7-10pm April 11 then 10-6 daily to April 20 at #uvic.

Hear @uvic.ca Writing professor & @climatedisaster.bsky.social founding director Sean Holman at the Climate Storytellers’ Summit on Apr 10: chosen from 100 submissions, Holman will be one of 20+ speakers on how climate stories spark change. Register here:
environment.princeton.edu/climate-stor...

We had an incredibly busy opening for our new Taqsiqtuut Research-Creation Lab by @uvic.ca Visual Arts CERC professor Heather Igloliorte: from the "qiaqstuq" installation & panel talks to Carey Newman's Witness Blanket VR, it was an inspiring showcase of contemporary Indigenous digital art!

Looking forward to seeing how Shakespeare gets a post-climate change/blurred gender twist in our new mainstage student production of Twelfth Night, March 13-22 at #UVIc Phoenix Theatre! finearts.uvic.ca/theatre/main...

Fascinating & insightful keynote by @uvic.bsky.social Visual Arts professor & Canada Excellence Research Chair Heather Igloliorte at the Canadian Museum Association 2025 museum studies symposium held Feb 19-20 at #UVic. Her talk ideally suited the theme of "Teaching, Learning, & Reciprocity".

Excited to see @uvic.bsky.social Music professor & acclaimed tenor Benjamin Butterfield back on stage with Pacific Opera in their latest production: The Little Prince! Tix still available 7:30pm Feb 21/25. pacificopera.ca/event/the-li...
(Timothy Matheson Photography) #uvicarts #yyjarts

Curated by AHVS professor Carolyn Butler-Palmer, "Victoria & Expressionism’s 2nd Wave: The Point Group" runs to April 5 at #UVic Legacy Gallery. With works by 12 artists selected from UVic's vast art collection, it captures the exciting sense of modernism in Victoria during the ’60s. bit.ly/3X2WTL8