Gateway to art

Faculty of Fine Arts

Talking About Art

Art History & Visual Studies

Dr. Chen Shen

Dr. Chen Shen

Dr. Chen Shen Vice President of Art & Culture at Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)Museum and Object Being the Agency in Transforming Peoples’ Lives. Dr. Chen Shen serves as the Vice President of Art & Culture at Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), responsible for research...

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Michèle Moss

Michèle Moss

Michèle Moss Dancer, choreographer, researcher Description As well as being co-founder of Calgary’s concert jazz dance company and community school DJD (Decidedly Jazz Danceworks), Michèle Moss is an associate professor with the University of Calgary’s Faculty of...

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Strength in Spirit

Strength in Spirit

Strength in spirit Living with COVID-19 Artists work This last year has been a particularly challenging one for the art world. COVID-19 spread across the world like a wildfire, forcing us into a public lock-down. Confined physically, Indigenous artists have had to...

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Blue and White

Blue and White

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria Dr. Heng Wu AGGV Curator of Asian Art Adjunct Assistant Professor, Art History and Visual Studies University of Victoria Marcus Milwright Department Chair, Professor Art History and Visual Studies

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Pop goes the art!

Pop goes the art!

Legacy Art Galleries exhibit unites two alumni through art Absurdist leopard-print paintings may not pop immediately to mind when you think of Victoria’s artistic legacy. But that’s an oversight a new Legacy Maltwood exhibit will address with Eric Metcalfe: Pop...

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JB MacKinnon on “The Day The World Stops Shopping”

JB MacKinnon on “The Day The World Stops Shopping”

We can’t stop shopping. And yet we must. This is the consumer dilemma that noted author J.B. MacKinnon is addressing in this special Department of Writing Orion Lecture. The author of five books of nonfiction, MacKinnon is also an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic and Atlantic, as well as the Best American Science and Nature Writing.

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Dr Fahmida Suleman

Dr Fahmida Suleman

Since the late 19th century, museums have devoted attention to Islamic art and craft, encompassing objects dating from the seventh century to the present. Ideas about how the diverse and fascinating visual and material cultures of the Islamic world should be displayed have changed significantly over time, reflecting the broader trends in museum practice.

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Life Stories

Life Stories

Life Stories Exhibition brings to light a provocative array of visual and material culture from the University of Victoria Art Collections that engages with life stages and related rituals. The exhibition runs December 2, 2020 - April 3, 2021 at the Legacy Art Gallery...

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Jennifer Baichwal

Jennifer Baichwal

Discover the life story of the planet  Join Canadian filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal in conversation with local writer, filmmaker and TV producer Barbara Todd Hager for this lively Orion Series discussion, which is part of the public programming for the exhibition Life...

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Nonfiction Podcast

Nonfiction Podcast

Nonfiction Podcast with David Leach & Deborah Campbell A conversation between UVic writing professors David Leach and Deborah Campbell (plus guest authors and experts) about the art, craft and ethics of researching, writing and revising creative nonfiction,...

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A glazed Stonepaste Bowl

A glazed Stonepaste Bowl

What is stonepaste, and why was this material so important in the development of glazed pottery across the Islamic world? This talk considers a Medieval glazed stonepaste bowl from the Tushingham collection and looks at the ways in which the form and decoration were...

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A Painting from Hama

A Painting from Hama

What unusual substance was used to make this painting? This talk considers a monochrome painting on paper made in 2005, and discusses the cultural significance of the substance used in the paint.Figure 1.Painting on paper by Sameer Tanbur. Hama, 2005. Private...

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A Brass Lunchbox

A Brass Lunchbox

How many different techniques were required to manufacture this brass lunchbox? This talk examines the form and function of the lunchbox, and links it to earlier examples produced during the Mamluk sultanate (1250-1517) in Egypt and Syria? Figure 1. Brass lunchbox,...

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A Glass Medicine Bottle

A Glass Medicine Bottle

Why do we often use the term ‘balsam’ to describe a soothing medicine? This talk discusses a small glass bottle dating to the nineteenth century, and connects it to the use of medicinal tree resins in ancient and medieval times.Figure 1. Clear glass bottle of...

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A Brick Dome in Iran

A Brick Dome in Iran

Why is brick such an important material in the architecture of Iran, and how was it used both for structural and decorative purposes? This talk examines an elaborate dome built over the prayer hall of a medieval mosque in the town of Ardistan in central Iran.Figure 1....

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The Wildflowers Around Victoria Painted on Silk

The Wildflowers Around Victoria Painted on Silk

Elizabeth Yeend Duer (1889–1951) was born in Nagasaki, Japan. Her father was an Englishman, Yeend Duer (1846–1921) and her mother a Japanese woman, Yasu Tsunekawa (née Zama, 1859–1936). Elizabeth grew up knowing much about both English and Japanese culture and language and learned to selectively deploy this knowledge, depending on context and the message she wished to convey.

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Nashtifan Windmills

Nashtifan Windmills

In a world where we are surrounded by high-tech architecture, why is it important to study and preserve different forms of vernacular architecture? This talk looks at the windmills of Nashtifan and examines the structural and functional features of these vernacular...

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Crafts of Syria

Crafts of Syria

The Traditional Crafts of Syria ​What can we learn about the artistic traditions of a country by learning about the lives and working practices of its artisans? This site allows you to explore the rich heritage of crafts in Syria from the seventh century to the...

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Three Wooden Amulets

Three Wooden Amulets

What leads people to make protective charms and why do these objects take some many different forms? This talk examines three amulets from Afghanistan, and links them to a tradition that stretches back before the birth of Islam.Figure 1. Carved wooden amulets,...

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Two Ceramic Bowls

Two Ceramic Bowls

Why might people drill through ceramic bowls. This talk examines what drill holes might tell us about the practices of display and repair in the Medieval Islamic Middle East.Figure 1. Sherds from a decorated lead-glazed bowl, excavated in Karak, Jordan. Late twelfth...

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Two Brass Candlesticks

Two Brass Candlesticks

Why did craftsmen choose to copy the styles and techniques of earlier periods? This talk examines a pair of inlaid brass candlesticks made in Cairo, and argues that the revivalist decoration is both inventive and expressive of the spirit of the time.Figure 1. Brass...

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A Woven Rug from Jordan

A Woven Rug from Jordan

How do nomadic groups in the Middle East make their rugs? This talk examines a fragmentary flat weave rug from Jordan and considers the materials and methods involved in its manufacture.Flat weave woollen rug purchased in Jordan. Probably mid twentieth century....

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Three Conder Tokens

Three Conder Tokens

What do a druid, a mythical king, and an eighteenth-century Engish actor have in common? This talk examines the phenomenon of Conder tokens, and explains what economic circumstances brought into being this unusual form of money.Obverse faces of three copper halfpenny...

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A Silver Trade Coin

A Silver Trade Coin

Can we always trust the date we see on a coin? This talk examines one of the most famous coins ever minted, the Maria Theresa Thaler, and asks why it became so popular in countries like the Yemen. For more on the history and circulation of the Maria Theresa Thaler...

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J. M. and Jerusalem

J. M. and Jerusalem

Why did the capture of Jerusalem by General Allenby in 1917 have such an impact across the world? Explore this topic through a painting produced on the Western Front by a soldier, known only as J. M.‘Our feet shall stand within Thy gates, O Jerusalem. Psalm CXXII.’...

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J M’s Hut

J M’s Hut

What can we learn about the identity of the mysterious J. M. by looking at his paintings and drawings? This talk examines a painting of an officer’s hut from the World War I sketchbooks by J. M.‘Little Grey Home in the Wet.’ Watercolour painting by J. M., 1917–18....

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