Welcome to the University of Victoria Art Collections

The Emergence of Architectural Modernism II: UVic and the Victoria Regional Aesthetic in the late 1950s and 60s
November 30, 2011, to February 25, 2012
The second in a series of exhibitions and publications exploring the relationships, personalities and projects contributing to the development of a regional modernist aesthetic in the postwar Victoria urban landscape. uvac.uvic.ca/Architecture_Exhibits

Image: Hubert Norbury (photographer), Bay Parkade Entry 1960

• Legacy Art Gallery, 630 Yates St.

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The Silent Observer
February 8 to April 2, 2012
UVic honourary degree recipient Ted Grant features his latest work, a continued exploration of healers: this time from the point of view of medical interns. Grant captures these young men and women as they journey across the threshold, from student to physician.

A lecture by Dr. Grant will be held on March 10 at 2 p.m. in Room A003 (McPherson Library, Lower Level).

• Maltwood Prints and Drawings Gallery at the McPherson Library

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BC Arts Council Project Assistance Grant — Increasing Accessibility to Indigenous Art Collections

With the assistance of a 2011 BC Arts Council Project Assistance grant we are increasing public accessibility to our historic and contemporary First Nations art collections. This project seeks to improve physical and digital access in the following ways:

• Increase access to our contemporary First Nations print collection consisting of over 2,700 prints and preparatory drawings and over 260 artists.
• Complete the documentation and physical storage preparation for our new Maltwood Prints and Drawings Gallery at the McPherson Library. Having all of these materials fully documented and accessible will develop a strong foundation for classes and the general public to access this facility and its collections for research, direct study, exhibitions and future events such as artists' talks and lectures.
• Increase the public use of our aboriginal collections via our online database and the Canadian Heritage Information Network's Artefacts Canada database.
• Assist First Nations artists with the sale of their work by providing a complete reference database.
• Fine tune the searchability of our online database fields including more specific culture group names, including traditional First Nations place names.
• The addition of a new reference system for cultural groups on the database and the inclusion of traditional place names into our searchable
  geographic origin categories will broaden public knowledge about both the collections and artists. An increased documentation of artists' biographic information through database entry also assists in public usage and the promotion of Aboriginal artists in the collection. The completed documentation for the Indigenous Art Collections online database will allow for increased accessibility to the collections via internet resources, therefore publicizing the collections on both a national and international scale.

These collections are central teaching collections to a number of faculty members in Anthropology and History in Art and we look forward to expanding our capacity to collaborate with university classes and First Nations community members as part of our longterm academic integration and community engagement initiatives.

Top image: Reg Davidson, Raven Stealing Moon, 1987
Bottom image: untitled totem pole fragment, unknown artist, 1925–1950

Health, Art & Community
Opened late January
The Cool Aid Community Health Centre presents Health, Art & Community, a permanent exhibition of works from the University of Victoria Art Collection. The exhibit intends to promote relationships between cultural activity and well-being. Visit www.coolaid.org for more information about the Victoria Cool Aid Society.

• Access Health, 713 Johnson St.: Mon–Tue: 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Wed–Thurs: 9 a.m.–8 p.m. Fri: 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Sat: 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

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Divergence: Insights into Studio Practices
February 29 to April 14, 2012
From the studios of 19 University of Victoria art education instructors in the Faculty of Education comes a rich and diverse exhibition of images and objects that range through traditional and newer media.

Image: Bill Zuk, Opal Ice

• Legacy Main Gallery, 630 Yates Street

Mark Laver: Shining Examples
March 1 to 31, 2012

Be it urban parks after midnight, trailer park fires, nocturnal car crashes or rural highways, Mark's Laver exhibit reveals a battle between the psychological and narrative power of nocturnal imagery and the allure of oil paint itself. Smeared, swirled, glazed and dripped, the luscious materiality of paint is as much the subject of these paintings as the landscape Laver calls home.  

Image: Mark Laver, I Want to be a Shining Example

• Legacy Small Gallery, 630 Yates Street

On Communities and Nations
April 4 to May 26, 2012

This exhibition examines historian Benedict Anderson’s concept of imagined communities in relationship to the emergence of First Nations printmaking practices in the late twentieth century.

Image: Sean Nattras, Unctuous #2

• Legacy Small Gallery, 630 Yates Street

Visual Arts MFAs
April 18 to May 12, 2012

Graduate students in Fine Arts show recent works.

• Legacy Main Gallery, 630 Yates Street

Transformation: Works by Duncan Regehr
May 30 to August 18, 2012

The expansive career of UVic honourary degree recipient Duncan Regehr is represented through drawings, paintings, sculptures, mixed media, and poetry, all on the theme of transformation.

Image: Duncan Regehr, Benevolence

• Legacy Main Gallery, 630 Yates Street

The City Talks is a free public speakers' series featuring distinguished urbanists drawn from the University of Victoria as well as from outside Victoria. Visit the Legacy Art Gallery for the two remaining sessions on Feb. 23 and Mar. 15. Admission is free. Please click here for more details.

The City Talks:
How the earth became a collection of land uses: urban planning and law in historical perspective
February 23, 2012, at 7:30 p.m.
Mariana Valverde, Professor of Criminology, University of Toronto

Mariana Valverde is the Director and a professor of the Centre of Criminology, at the University of Toronto, and does research mainly in the sociology of law.

Profesor Valverde's fields of inquiry are social and legal theory, socio-legal studies, and historical sociology

Currently, Mariana is doing comparative research in the history of urban planning and urban policing, with a focus on how cities have used a variety of tools to separate 'good' from 'bad' neighbourhoods. The time period is the century of the suburb, i.e. 1870s-1970s. An article based on that research, "Seeing like a city", appeared in Law and Society Review, 2011.

She is also planning to do research, in the near future, on public-private partnerships used to build urban infrastructure and urban amenities.

• Legacy Art Gallery, 630 Yates St.

The City Talks:
Seeing Like a City
March 15, 2012, at 7:30 p.m.
Warren Magnusson, Professor of Political Science, University of Victoria

Warren Magnusson is a political theorist with a particular interest in the urban and the local as sites of politics and government. He has written extensively on the theory of local government, the character of urban politics, the nature of social movements, and the forms of political space. His two most recent books are A Political Space: Reading the Global through Clayoquot Sound (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), edited with Karena Shaw of UVic’s School of Environmental Studies, and The Search for Political Space: Globalization, Social Movements, and the Urban Political Experience (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996).

• Legacy Art Gallery, 630 Yates St.

Former UVic curator honoured
Martin Segger named an ambassador by Metchosin School of the Arts
Grania Litwin, Victoria Times Colonist, Sunday, July 3, 2011

Historian, curator, University of Victoria professor and connoisseur of art and architecture Martin Segger is being honoured as this year's ambassador of the arts by the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts.

The celebration gala was July 8.

Segger, who was born in England but came here with his parents in 1957, was director of the Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery at UVic from 1979 until his retirement in December 2010.

"He has played a vitally important role in the cultural scene of Victoria as a teacher, author and administrator," said Dave Skilling, president of MISSA.

A true renaissance man—having a master of philosophy in renaissance culture studies from the University of London—Segger has had a lively and expansive career having authored many books and international distance education courses. The former Victoria councillor is president of the Commonwealth Association of Museums and has served on many boards, including the Heritage Canada Foundation and BC Heritage Trust.

During 37 years at the Maltwood, he manoeuvred the collection from a modest 1,200 items to 27,000 works ranging from contemporary canvases to Islamic art.

He ushered the university collection out of the vaults and onto the campus walls, and attracted millions in donations from patrons like Michael Williams and Myfanwy Pavelic.

The celebration of the arts gala, being held at Lester B. Pearson College, continues MISSA's annual tradition of recognizing valued cultural leaders who have helped guide and grow the arts in BC. More information at www.missa.ca.

Conservation Scientist Awarded Honorary Doctor of Science by University of Victoria (PDF)
Internationally renowned, but particular friend to the Canadian and British Columbia museum communities, Mary-Lou Florian was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Victoria at its recent Spring Convocation. Her introduction by the university orator and her speech to the assembly tells of a fascinating and exciting professional life's journey. To read the citation and her convocation address follow this link.

Maltwood Gallery at the McPherson Library
Come and check out our newest gallery space, which opened in October 2010. The Maltwood Prints and Drawings Gallery at the McPherson Library houses our permanent collection of works of art on paper: prints, paintings, drawings and photographs.