five one six three

FIVE ONE SIX THREE
the NSCAD University magazine
NSCAD UNIVERSITY HAS RETAINED MACKAY-LYONS
SWEETAPPLE ARCHITECTS LIMITED OF HALIFAX TO
DESIGN ITS NEW CAMPUS BUILDING AT THE HALIFAX
PORT AUTHORITY. BRIAN MACKAY-LYONS ENJOYS
AN INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION AND HAS WON
A LARGE NUMBER OF AWARDS INCLUDING FIVE GOVERNOR GENERAL MEDALS (THE ONLY ATLANTIC CANADIAN ARCHITECT TO RECEIVE CANADA’S HIGHEST
HONOUR IN THE ARTS); THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE
OF ARCHITECTS HONOR AWARD (THE HIGHEST AWARD FOR ARCHITECTURE IN THE UNITED
STATES); EIGHT LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR MEDALS
OF EXCELLENCE; AND SEVEN CANADIAN ARCHITECT
AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE. WORKING WITH HIM WILL
BE ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING SCULPTORS AND
A NSCAD HONORARY DOCTOR, RICHARD SERRA,
AND BRUCE MAU, ONE OF CANADA’S PRE-EMINENT
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS.
FROM THE GRANVILLE STREET CAMPUS, THE SITE
IS A 15 MINUTE WALK ALONG ONE OF CANADA’S
MOST BEAUTIFUL WATERFRONT BOARDWALKS. THE
PORT CAMPUS WILL BE READY FOR OCCUPANCY BY
STUDENTS IN FEBRUARY 2007. THIS EXPANSION OF
APPROXIMATELY 70,000 SQUARE FEET OF SPACE
WILL ENABLE THE UNIVERSITY TO DEVELOP APPROPRIATE FACILITIES FOR SCULPTURE, CERAMICS,
THE FOUNDRY, METAL SHOP, PLASTICS STUDIO, AND
WOODSHOP, AS WELL AS STUDIOS AND TEACHING
SPACE FOR STUDENTS AT ALL LEVELS OF STUDY.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
I suppose a satisfactory life is one which achieves
a balance between stability and change:
too much of the former leads to ennui; too much of the latter to chaos. Institutions are the same
in this respect. A university that does not grow and change with its period produces art and
design that is not of its period, and one that ceaselessly changes likewise fails to pick up on the
essence of its times.
There is no getting away from the fact that NSCAD University is changing. A few weeks ago
we sent a cheque to the Halifax Port Authority that confirms our possession of a superb new
facility. We have acquired up to 70,000 square feet of open space facing the sea. We now have
three campuses to manage, and many more programmes and courses to run. For the first time
in our history, our numbers have gone over a thousand. And our capital campaign will shortly
go public, to deliver a greater level of material resource than we have hitherto enjoyed in our
history.
That’s change. Having said this, however, it always occurs to me that quite often in life you have
to change in order to remain the same. The thing that will never change at NSCAD is our commitment to all the visual arts, and our determination to be at the frontiers of practice. Therefore, to stay the same, to maintain and expand the aesthetic, ethical and intellectual quality of
what we do, we need all these developments. Thus, this life of change in our institution is geared
toward keeping NSCAD as we all want it.
CONTENTS
Top to bottom:
FEATURES
Dr. Sandra Alfoldy signs copies of her new book, Crafting
Identity: The Development
of Professional Fine Craft in
Canada. Several weeks later, she
celebrated yet another exciting
new release, the birth of son
Viktor. Sandra is the first craft
historian to teach full time in
a Canadian postsecondary
institution.
A graduate seminar class investigated the question, “Is There
Love in Art?” during the spring
semester of 2005. Written by
Mackenzie Frère MFA 05, this essay questions the presence of love
in contemporary art, and indeed
the presence of love itself, in current society – and at NSCAD.
Date of issue: December 2005
Managing Editor:
Marla Cranston
Communications Coordinator
June 03–November 05
Printing:
Transcontinental Printing
140 Joseph Zatzman Drive
Dartmouth, NS B3B 1M4
www.transcontinentalprinting.com
NSCAD’S BOOKSHELF
New releases from NSCAD faculty and alumni
14
TO CREATE OR CURATE
Decoding the public and private face of art
18
ALUMNI PROFILE
Micah Lexier’s quantifiable portraits
26
“IS THERE LOVE IN ART?”
Essay by Mackenzie Frère, mfa 05
30
1970s REUNION
An account by David Peters, b des 76
32
STUDENT DISPATCH
NSCAD on exchange around the globe
02
05
08
10
19
20
24
3 Needles is alumnus Thom
Fitzgerald’s most ambitious
film to date, interweaving three
international stories of personal
redemption in the face of the
HIV epidemic. It stars Lucy Liu,
Chloe Sevigney, Stockard Channing, Olympia Dukakis, Shawn
Ashmore and Sandra Oh.
5163 is published for alumni and friends by
NSCAD University’s Office of Advancement.
The views expressed by contributors are
not necessarily those of the university.
12
Design:
Morgan Rogers B Des 03
Kate Sinclair B Des 03
for co. & co. design
co. & co. is a collective of young artists
and designers, all recent graduates from
NSCAD University. Its seven members are
equal partners and live in Halifax, New York
and Vancouver. Find out more at
www.coandco.ca.
Contributors:
Paula Adamski, interdisciplinary student
Marla Cranston, Communications
Coordinator
Peter Dykhuis, Director,
Anna Leonowens Gallery
Nadia Dziubaniwsky,
interdisciplinary student
Mackenzie Frère MFA 05
Christine Goudie, design student
UNIVERSITY NEWS
ALUMNI UPDATES
EMERGING ARTISTS
ANNA LEONOWENS GALLERY
FACULTY PROFILE
CONVOCATION
ANNUAL FUND
David Peters B Des 76
Erika Proctor, interdisciplinary student
Susan Sheehan, Alumni and Public Relations Coordinator
Contributing Photographers:
David Brown, p. 32
Marla Cranston, p. 00, 01, 03, 04, 19–23,
30, 31
Laura Fauquier, p. 33
Stuart Hay, p. 16
Bob Rogers, professor, p. 21
Susan Sheehan, p. 22
Copy Editors:
Susan Sheehan
Sheelagh Russell-Brown
Direct correspondence to:
Office of Advancement
NSCAD University
5163 Duke Street
Halifax, NS B3J 3J6
Canada
+ 1 902 494 8251
[email protected]
5163 is also available online at
www.nscad.ca.
UNIVERSITY NEWS
DRAWING LAB
NATIONAL ART AWARDS
Psychology meets the artist’s notebook in NSCAD’s new Drawing
Lab, launched in November in the Morse’s Tea Building. A threeyear research project in collaboration with Dalhousie University will
investigate the relationship of eye movement to observation during
the activity of drawing. Associate Professor Bryan Maycock, Division
of Foundation, and Dr. Ray Klein of Dal’s Department of Psychology,
received SSHRC funding to establish the lab for their research. In the
first phase, they will study the eye patterns of established artists and art
teachers, followed by a two-year study of students as they develop from
the status of novice. Eye-monitoring hardware and software will measure and record eye movements in the study, which is titled “Patterns
of looking when drawing from observation: Implications in training.”
Students, faculty and alumni from NSCAD University made a big
impact at a number of prestigious national art awards this year. Four
of the 25 semi-finalists just announced for the Sobey Art Award 2006
have NSCAD connections: alumni Lucy Pullen bfa 94 and Lucie
Chan bfa 01, along with current faculty members Mathew Reichertz
mfa 99 and Adriana Kuiper. The biennial prize is awarded to an
emerging artist under age 40 who has had a recent show in a public
or commercial gallery. Five finalists will be selected this spring. Last
year’s shortlist of five included sculpture faculty Greg Forrest bfa 90,
mfa 95. See www.sobeyartaward.ca for more details.
JEWELLERY TECHNOLOGY
NSCAD University is rapidly becoming a research incubator for
designing and manufacturing jewellery with the latest computer software and three-dimensional printing technologies. INformATION, an
exhibition at Anna Leonowens Gallery in October, unveiled student
prototypes for everything from rings to chess sets and vases. Artists
are embracing these futuristic methods for realizing new forms.
The jewellery department is raising funds toward purchasing the
rapid prototyping machinery that prints three-dimensional product
models of digital designs created on the computer screen. Currently,
a privately-owned machine is for hire when required, and the 3D
objects are “printed” by stacking and laminating successive layers.
These models, made of powder, plastic, wax or paper, can then be
cast in silver or other materials. Associate Professor Pam Ritchie of
the jewellery department travelled to Birmingham, England, to study
the technology for her own jewellery work. When she returned to
Halifax, she convinced the university administration to launch a CAD
(computer-assisted design) facility, and she recently taught the first
full-length course in CAD/CAM. She doesn’t see an end to traditional craft, but is interested in exploring the “wonderful landscape”
between it and computerized modes of production.
Fellow jewellery professor Greg Sims raises philosophical questions posed by the new technology, such as the future possibilities
posed by online purchases of jewellery designs: “It could be transformed to a point where people could download a piece and have it
printed,” he muses.
BELOW: STUDENT DESPO SOPHOCLEOUS USED CAD SOFTWARE TO DESIGN
PAWN RINGS, CAST IN STERLING SILVER. SHE CREATED A WAX MODEL FROM A
3D POWDER PRINTED ORIGINAL.
02 UNIVERSITY NEWS
Mathew Reichertz was one of the top three award-winners in the
seventh annual RBC Canadian Painting Competition
www.rbc.com/paintingcompetition, which is supported by the Canadian Art Foundation. The NSCAD painting faculty member received
$15,000 for his ominous oil titled #16 from the series and is using the
earnings toward funding a painting studio. More than 1,200 entries
were received for Canada’s largest award disbursement for painting;
also shortlisted in the eastern Canadian region were Yang Hong mfa
05, for his striking abstract encaustic pieces, and Paul Bernhardt bfa
03, who paints with tar and oil on steel. An exhibition of work by the
winners and finalists toured prominent galleries across Canada this fall,
starting at the Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery. Upon receiving his
award on Oct. 7 at the SMU Gallery, Mathew thanked other Halifax
#16 FROM THE SERIES, TINY TOWN, OIL ON CANVAS, 48" × 36", 2005,
MATHEW REICHERTZ
JOINING THE CIRCUS
Textiles student Tanya Liquorish is taking a hiatus from her studies
to travel the world with Cirque du Soleil. She was invited to join the
Cirque touring production Saltimbanco, as wardrobe assistant starting
November 14. The show’s upcoming stops include locations in Brazil,
Argentina, Chile and Mexico.
“I was going to turn it down,” she admits, adding she has really
been enjoying her textiles education and the exploding fashion
program at NSCAD. Tanya’s fashion designs are a crowd-pleaser at the
annual Wearable Art show, as well as in exhibitions at Anna Leonowens Gallery. But with strong interests in textile design, gymnastics and
travel, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity: “It’s everything I love,
combined in one neat package. Art and acrobatics, that’s kind of my
thing.”
TEXTILES STUDENT TANYA LIQUORISH IS TAKING A HIATUS FROM HER STUDIES TO
TRAVEL THE WORLD AS A WARDROBE ASSISTANT WITH CIRQUE DU SOLEIL.
artists and said it’s “one of the most intelligent art communities I’ve
come across.” The award has a profound impact on national profile
for artists – since his nomination, Yang Hong has had a number of
high-profile exhibitions, including Weather or Not at Lennox Contemporary in Toronto in November. He has also joined Paul Bernhardt in
the stable of NSCAD artists at Studio 21 Fine Art in Halifax.
Beth Letain bfa 05 was the Nova Scotia winner in the BMO 1st Art!
Competition this year, for her mixed media artwork, Days Are Where
We Live. The awards celebrated 13 graduating artists from more
than 100 post-secondary institutions across Canada. Provincial
winners each received a cash prize of $1,000 and their artworks were
displayed this fall in an exhibition at the First Canadian Place Gallery,
Toronto. The art is now making the rounds of BMO offices across
Canada, joining a distinguished corporate art collection that includes
such Canadian masters as Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, Tom Forrestall
and others. See www2.bmo.com for details.
Student Jenn Grant is also making the most of international travel
opportunities, with an extremely promising singing career. In June,
she released her debut album Goodbye 20th Century and has been
winning new fans across the Maritimes ever since. Student and multiinstrumentalist Ruth Minnikin is also touring nonstop and getting
international radio support as a solo artist and with several bands,
including The Reels. For several concerts in Ontario this summer,
Jenn filled in on vocal duties for Ruth in the orchestral pop band The
Heavy Blinkers. Jenn and the Heavy Blinkers Trio also embarked on a
three-week tour of the U.K. and France that began Nov. 24. See
www.jenngrant.com and www.ruthminnikin.ca for more details.
BIG YEAR FOR FILM AT NSCAD
Alumnus Thom Fitzgerald’s new feature film 3 Needles premiered
September 9 at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was
also the Atlantic Film Festival’s gala premiere where it earned the
Best Direction Award and the Cinematography Award. In his most
ambitious film to date, Thom interweaves a trio of stories examining
personal redemption in the face of the HIV epidemic: a blood clinic
in China, a religious mission in South Africa, and the porn film scene
in Montreal. The powerhouse cast includes Lucy Liu, Stockard Channing, Chloe Sevigny, Olympia Dukakis, Shawn Ashmore and
BELOW: STILL, FROM THOM FITZGERALD'S FILM 3 NEEDLES, 2005. FITZGERALD WON
BEST DIRECTOR AT THE ATLANTIC FILM FESTIVAL
For the second summer in a row, a NSCAD jewellery and metalsmithing graduate took the Best of Show Award at the Toronto Outdoor Art
Exhibition. Anna Lindsay MacDonald bfa 04 earned the top award
for her Queensway Ring Set, made from silver and laminated paper,
and she also earned the Jewellery Award Honourable Mention. She
also won Best Jewellery Design in the Metal Arts Guild exhibition,
Northern Lights, held at the Design Exchange in Toronto. Lisa Turner
bfa 04 took the Printmaking Best of Category award at TOAE for
her lithograph, Heartbeat. Li Chai mfa 03 won the Text/Image Best
of Category Award for her Top of Mice Dress, a Jacquard doublewoven gown of silk and cotton, while Lydia Klenck bfa 01 took the
Fibre Award Honourable Mention for Stomach Fetish, made of cloth,
embroidery and a frame. The Ceramics Award Honourable Mention went to Ying-Yeuh Chuang bfa 01 for It Blooms on the Day, an
intricate ceramic sculpture with plexiglass rods. Many other NSCAD
students and alumni participated in North America’s largest outdoor
art exhibition, which drew an estimated 100,000 visitors to Nathan
Phillips Square. www.torontooutdoorart.org
UNIVERSITY NEWS 03
Sandra Oh. Thom’s co-producer was Bryan Hofbauer, who also plays
a doctor in the film and is now teaching Production Management
in NSCAD’s undergraduate film program. On July 8, Thom opened
emotion picture gallery in a historic townhouse below his offices on
Bishop Street in Halifax.
The Atlantic Film Festival’s Rex Tasker Award for Best Documentary
went to Sluts: The Documentary, written and directed by Andrea
Dorfman bfa 95. In this insightful new film, Andrea tracks down girls
and women who were labeled “sluts” in high school. Ranging in age
from 17 to 82, they describe how they got their “bad rep” and how
it affected them then and now. There’s a Flower in My Pedal, a new
short film by Andrea, screened at the Toronto International Film
Festival, at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Jason Buxton bfa 03 earned the CBC Television Script Development
Award for his feature script, Denial, awarded at the festival during
the Linda Joy Media Arts Society Awards. His short, The Drawing,
has screened extensively in Canada, Europe and the U.S. and was
recently selected for competition in Circuito Off Venice International
Short Film Festival. It was also acquired for worldwide distribution by
California-based Big Film Shorts, one of the world’s largest distributors of short films.
MEMBERS OF SUNSCAD, NSCAD’S STUDENT UNION, ENJOYING THE NEW STUDENT LOUNGE
SPACE IN THE SEEDS BUILDING. CLOCKWISE THEY ARE: GREG DENTON, BETHANY RIORDANBUTTERWORTH, LAURA KENINS, MEGAN FILDES, LYNDALL MUSSELMAN, BRENDAN DUNLOP
04 UNIVERSITY NEWS
NSCAD students also made a strong showing at the 25th annual
Atlantic Film Festival. Student films selected for screening included
All Dolled Up, a short comedy by Kate Pomerant; The Rebuilding, a
13-minute drama written by Joshua Pitter and directed by Richard
Carey; and My Own Private Hell, an animated short by Chantal
Tardiff that also won the Most Innovative award at the 14th annual
Atlantic Filmmakers’ Cooperative screening in June. All Dolled Up
was also one of 11 films from across Canada selected for the Student
Film Showcase 2005, hosted in May by the Toronto International
Film Festival Group.
DAWSON PRINTSHOP OPENS
The Dawson Printshop will soon be available as an educational and
practical resource to students and the public. Acquired from Dalhousie
University last year, the Printshop and its collection of historic letterpresses, lead type and other printing equipment is located in the Dawson Room at 1895 Hollis Street. Several upcoming offerings from the
Division of Continuing Studies will make use of the new facility. Some
projects for the course Introduction to Book Arts will take place in the
Dawson Room, and NSCAD invites experienced binders to use the
facility for an Open Studio, beginning in the Winter 2006 semester.
NEW STUDENT LOUNGE
Students have a new place to relax this semester, thanks to the efforts
of SUNSCAD, the student union and other student volunteers. So
far it has been used for everything from cake wrestling to a postcard
exhibition with self-portraits by Foundation students. The bright
and cheerful space was once the back of J.J. Rossy’s pub, and more
recently served as a studio for the Human Powered Vehicles course.
Students scrubbed it out and painted over the former sombre green
with citrus pinks and oranges. “Students need places to hang out
and discuss group projects or assignments...we’re still getting a sense
of what students want from the space,” says Lyndall Musselman,
SUNSCAD President.
Also this fall, SUNSCAD launched a new issue of the magazine Free
Coffee, an upgrade from the former ‘zine publication. Eliza Chandler
bfa 05 spent much of the summer digitizing the historic NSCAD
Women’s Collective files, and these are now available for research in
the SUNSCAD office. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the collective, students hosted Something About the F Word, an exhibition at
Anna Leonowens Gallery exploring whether there is still a need for
feminism in post-postmodern times. There must be – the Women’s
Collective also marked its 30th birthday with a name change. It is
now known as the NSCAD Feminist’s Collective.
ALUMNI UPDATE
Painter Natalie Waldburger bfa 04 participated in the AAF Contemporary Art Fair in New York in October, invited by Toronto’s AWOL
Gallery & Studios. Her solo exhibition Lament was at Bau-Xi Gallery
in Vancouver this fall.
Eight Canadian sculptors attended the Atlantic Stone Carving Symposium for two weeks in September, at the Inverness County Centre
for the Arts in Cape Breton. They included organizer Vanessa Paschakarnis mfa 99 and fellow alumni Niall Donaghy bfa 03, Kathryn
Ellis bfa 95, Kent LaForme bfa 94, Laura Moore bfa 04, and former
faculty member John Greer. Created from Cape Breton marble, the
resulting sculptures were exhibited at the Centre.
CRAFT
THE END OF THE DAY, AN EXHIBITION OF PORTRAITS OF WWII VETERANS BY CATHERINE
JONES BFA 79, OPENED AT THE SENATE IN OTTAWA AND IS TOURING ACROSS CANADA.
FINE ART
April Gornik bfa 76 made a return visit to Halifax for the opening
of her mid-career solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in
June. April lives and works in New York and her landscape paintings
are in the collections of such major museums as The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art and The
Museum of Modern Art.
In October, Province House hosted At the End of the Day, a series of
21 oil portraits of WWII veterans by Catherine Jones bfa 79. Originally unveiled in the Senate in Ottawa last year, the exhibition has
traveled across Canada. It is based on photos taken at the Dinner of
Reconciliation seven years ago in Ortona, Italy, and shows her deep
affection and respect for war veterans.
Denise Cormier Mahoney bfa 83 is founder and chair of the juried art
show, Old Town Art Walk, in Silverdale, Washington. She exhibited her
work in a solo show at The Sidney Art Gallery in Port Orchard, WA.
Carol Morrison bfa 05 sold The Researcher, a 6'×3' portrait to the
Nova Scotia Art Bank, and received the Elizabeth Greenshields
Award. Exhibitions included Blaze at the Craig Gallery in Dartmouth,
and a show of florals at Art Pieces Gallery, Bedford.
In October, Open Studio in Toronto presented the solo exhibition
Alone Together, large photo screenprints by Nick Shick bfa 04. These
“digital-based billboards for banality” resulted from Nick’s Don
Phillips Scholarship, awarded annually by Open Studio to help an
emerging artist of merit develop their professional practice with 12
months of access to the facilities.
C. A. Swintak bfa 03 led a five-month project with the Art Gallery of
Ontario’s Youth Council and other Toronto youth groups, working
as a collective called the Upholstery Militia. They traveled to see the
work of Christo and Jean-Claude in New York, then returned to present The Living Room Project at a number of Toronto public locations,
receiving national media attention. Also, as part of AGO’s Swing
Space series, Swintak created The thing that won’t let you walk away,
an installation of mixed media detritus and office supplies cleared out
in preparation for the gallery’s construction. Now she is co-editing
a book project with the AGO’s Michelle Jacques, titled Impossible
Projects: As Impossible as Possible.
Celebrating its first anniversary, Armstrong Fox Textiles is busy shipping scarves, shawls and clothing to markets across North America
from an industrial bay at Innovacorp’s Technology Innovation Centre
in Dartmouth. Lesley Armstrong bfa 75 and Anke Fox bfa 92 use
a vintage loom to create luxurious original designs from alpaca and
merino wool. The company earned a Niche award at the Buyers
Market of American Craft in Philadelphia. Kate Delmage bfa 95 is
helping develop a new line of fashions. www.armstrongfox.ca.
Alumna Bethanna Briffett opened the Banana Berry Clothing boutique in downtown Halifax in September. Her designs focus on classic
business casual with a flair for detail, natural fabrics and great cuts.
J. Penny Burton bfa 04 is midway through a three-year Masters degree at Concordia University, specializing in craft history and studio
art, in the growing graduate textiles program. She received a grant to
develop a Canadian Craftswomen database this winter.
Alexandra McCurdy bfa 80 curated In the Margins: Canadian
Women Working in Clay this fall at the Mary E. Black Gallery for
Craft and Design in Halifax. The 12 featured artists included Sarah
MacMillan bfa 95 and Ying-Yueh Chuang bfa 01. In November,
the exhibition traveled to London, Ontario, for display and sale at
Jonathon Bancroft-Snell Interiors, one of Canada’s finest commercial
galleries. www.jonathons.ca
Stephanie Rozene mfa 04 is in her second year of teaching ceramics
at Bowling Green State University’s School of Art, in Bowling Green,
Ohio, and was Visiting Scholar at Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, DE. Recent exhibitions include the 11th annual Strictly Functional Pottery National in Lancaster, PA and Mastery In Clay: 2005 at the
Philadelphia Clay Studio. Her work will appear in An Extravagance of
Salt and Pepper at the Baltimore Clay Works in May 2006.
Kay Stanfield bfa 87 was the only Canadian artist in the 5th International Paper Triennial Exhibition, at the Musée du Pays et Val de
Charmey in Switzerland. The juried show ran from June to September, featuring 56 artworks from 20 countries including ochre form,
Kay’s mixed fibre piece with oil and pigment.
New art quilts and works on paper by Laurie Swim bfa 69 were
featured at her solo show Return to the Ragged Shore this fall at Art
Quilt Gallery of the Atlantic, at the Post Office Centre in Lunenburg.
She also presented the group show Clay, Fiber, Paint and Stone at the
Women’s Association Art Gallery in Toronto. www.laurieswim.com.
ALUMNI UPDATE 05
MEDIA ARTS
DESIGN
Scott Conarroe mfa 05 was lauded by Sarah Milroy, Globe and Mail
art critic and former NSCAD student, as “a budding master of his
craft, and one of the more talented photographers to come along in a
while” in her October 14 review of the group show, Exhibit A: Photography from Atlantic Canada at the Prefix Institute of Contemporary
Art. Also this fall, the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery in
Halifax presented the solo exhibition, Prospect 10: Harbour Photographs by Scott Conarroe.
Melon Advertising + Design, founded by Paul Douglas
b des 84 and Cindy Douglas, recently finished a $1.4 million residential renovation project in Halifax. The company is working with
Azorus to market its U First enrollment management system to
universities throughout North America and the U.K. Melon is developing brand, visual identity and packaging for rapid HIV tests being
marketed in countries including Africa, America and the European
Union. They are also helping LightCapture, a U.S. corporation of
world renowned physicists. www.melon.bz
Upon the success of her award of merit from the Society of Environmental Graphic Design in June, Michelle Jospe b des 05 moved to
Austin, Texas, to work at the design firm fd2s where she is involved in
multiple projects for Austin’s transit company, Capital Metro, as well
as a wayfinding project for a hospital in Houston.
Lesley Palfreyman b des 02 is working in San Francisco as Associate
Art Director at Kane and Finkel Healthcare Communications. She
also created the piece Detroit Vernacular, for the FLAK Detroit @
00:00:55 competition, which invited artists to produce 55 seconds of
digital video about Detroit. Her entry has screened at the Cranbrook
Art Museum and the Detroit Film Centre.
Vaughan Dai Rees ma 84 is an educator in Australia and Associate
Dean, International, at the School of Design Studies, College of Fine
Arts at the University of New South Wales. Four undergraduate
design students from his school are on exchange at NSCAD this year,
while one NSCAD student is studying there.
Video art by Teresa Hubbard mfa 92 and Alexander Birchler mfa
92 was featured in four episodes of Art:21 - Art in the Twenty-First
Century on PBS this fall.
Jeanne Ju bfa 05 participated in the emerging Canadian photographers exhibition Proof 12 this summer at Toronto’s Gallery 44. The
avid cyclist also won this year’s Nova Scotia provincial road racing
title in the Open Women’s category, in a 92 km race in June. Accepted
to Chelsea College of Art and Design for January 2006, she is seeking
a cycling sponsorship to offset the costs of her graduate studies.
MediaPackBoard is a series of public interaction performances by
Valerie LeBlanc bfa 72. Valerie wanders through crowds at outdoor
public events, such as the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Using a minidv
camcorder connected to a battery-operated monitor screen on her
backpack style rack, she records and instantly plays back the encounters she has. www.mediapackboard.org.
OTHER
Donna J. Betts bfa 92 graduated from Florida State University in
April with a PhD in Art Education/Art Therapy. She currently resides
in Tallahassee. www.art-therapy.us.
Sharon Gunn ba 84 is teaching visual arts at the International School
of Düsseldorf, Germany. She invited painter Wayne Boucher bfa 75
and children’s book illustrator Terry Rosoe to be artists in residence
at the school for a week in October.
Dr. David A. Murphy bfa 01 received the Doctors Nova Scotia
Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding contribution to the
medical profession and to Nova Scotia, for raising the standards of
medical practice. Awarded on May 28, the honour also marks his
contribution to the art and science of medicine.
Video artist Sarah Gregg Millman bfa 04 is represented at the Silo
gallery in New York. Her first solo exhibition in June, created with assistance from an emerging artist grant from the Canada Council, was
chosen as a “Critic’s Pick” in the online edition of Artforum magazine
as well as the Village Voice.
Matt Reid bfa 99 has been busy playing shows and touring with his
Halifax indie rock band Death By Nostalgia. On Nov. 3, the group
released its first music video, for the tune Cars Cars Cars on its selftitled debut album. It was directed by Becka Barker bfa 00, who is
making preparations to move to South Korea with her husband Jim
Cooper. www.deathbynostalgia.ca.
Los Angeles artist Mark Verabioff anscad 85 received critical notation for several recent exhibitions including Log Cabin at Artists
Space in New York, and the e-flux video rental tour at Portikus in
Frankurt am Main, Germany. His work showcased at KW Institute
for Contemporary Art, Berlin; The Moore Space, Miami; MC, Los
Angeles; and The Backroom in Culver City, California.
Pandora Vaughan bfa 95 completed an MA in Landscape Architecture at the University of Greenwich, UK. Denbighshire County
Council in Wales commissioned her to prepare initial designs for the
new Rhyl Museum of the Seaside, a collaboration with Dobson:Owen
Architects. She was also commissioned by Somerset County Council
in England to design public artwork for a footbridge in Langport,
06 ALUMNI UPDATE
PASSAGES
Michael N. Weir bfa 89 of West Chester, died peacefully at home
on September 22, after a struggle with lung cancer. Well known for
his work in film editing and theatre performance, Michael won the
Atlantic Film Festival award for Outstanding Achievement in Editing
twice, and was twice nominated for Best Editing by the Canadian
Academy of Cinema and Television. He also worked as an AIDS/HIV
counselor and outreach worker to the prostitutes and homeless
people in Halifax. www.michaelweir.com
Somerset, using poetry from workshops with disabled people and
the village of Aberdaron, Wales, for a new landscape scheme for
seafront flood defense. She also participated in the group exhibitions
New Landscapes, at Menier Gallery, London, and A Haunting, in
Manchester.
OPPOSITE: SCOTT CONARROE MFA 05 IS EARNING CRITICAL ACCLAIM ACROSS
CANADA FOR HIS LONG-EXPOSURE COLOUR IMAGES TAKEN MAINLY AT DAWN AND
DUSK, INCLUDING THIS PIECE, DEALERSHIP FROM THE HARBOUR SERIES
ABOVE: RENOWNED ACADIAN PAINTER WAYNE BOUCHER BFA 75 IN DUSSELDORF,
GERMANY. HE WAS ARTIST IN RESIDENCE AT THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL IN OCTOBER, AT THE INVITE OF ART TEACHER SHARON GUNN BA 84.
Garry John Williams mfa 90 of Calgary passed away on May 3, 2005
at home in Calgary. As a sculptor and teacher, he touched the lives of
many and worked in his studio right up until the last days of his life.
His work has been exhibited and collected internationally, but his
prairie roots are reflected in his hometown public sculptures including Rabbit Rise, Aesop’s Fables and the Chinook manhole covers on
many sidewalks around the city.
Kelly Louise Franklin bfa 05, Halifax, passed away September 14,
2005, in Dartmouth General Hospital. Kelly was employed by
Mattatall Signs in Dartmouth
NEW ALU MNI WEBSITES
Anneke Jans Henderson mfa 05, www.annekejans.com
Richard Hoedl bfa 04, Art Guy, www.2artists.ca
Sarah Troper bfa 00, www.sarahtroper.com
ALUMNI UPDATE 07
EMERGING ARTISTS
DUSTIN WENZEL
JARET BELLIVEAU
SCULPTURE
PHOTOGRAPHY
We’ve left the woods, indeed.
That’s the title of Dustin Wenzel’s stunning bronze deer head
sculpture, which went for a dip in Halifax Harbour and now sits
near the base of Electropolis Studios Inc. on the Halifax waterfront.
The deer is Dustin’s featured artwork at the Seawall Sculpture
Court, NSCAD’s outdoor public art site in partnership with the
Halifax Port Authority. Just days after the park’s September launch
date, the 60-pound sculpture vanished; vandals had snapped it from
its secure base.
Dustin had assisted in the inaugural exhibition’s installation and,
even after the theft, volunteered to hand out brochures at the opening. Wandering beside the harbour that day at low tide, he spotted
his deer in the water. It sustained little damage aside from its bluegreen patina finish. He returned it to the show with a more secure
fastening, and won’t repair the finish: “Now it’s part of its history; it’s
part of the story,” says Dustin, whose sculptural work often explores
the destructive impact of human activity on wildlife.
He’s impressed to see so many Haligonians are visiting the site,
at the south end of the waterfront boardwalk: “It’s a nice ending to a
walk where you find yourself at an art exhibit, whether you expected
to or not.”
A quiet observer of nature, Dustin is keenly aware of the responsibility and impact artists can have, and aims to make people think
with his work. Now in his final year, he was one of four students
featured in ARTport ConTEMPORARY, organized by the Art Gallery
of Nova Scotia.
He’s showing a keen interest in curating, and is co-organizer of
a group sculpture exhibition on campus in December, with gallery
director Peter Dykhuis.
“I’ve learned a lot about curatorial selection since having the opportunity to work with Peter. There is a lot of strong work out there
that deserves exposure and I’m interested in learning more about
installation,” he says.
Jaret Belliveau spent the autumn traveling across Canada with his
teenage brother David, in a lovingly restored 1975 Westphalia camper
van stocked with cameras, longboards and Jack Kerouac books. Their
route relied heavily on Explore Canada, a travel guide from 1975, and
sites of historical and cultural significance 30 years ago.
“We’re learning a lot about Canada and ourselves,” says the
Moncton photographer, calling from the road. “We’re finding quirky
places in history that people have forgotten, just to see what’s still
there. How did they pinpoint our Canadian identity then, what were
we proud of?”
Stops have included old growth forests on Vancouver Island,
Japanese internment camps, Russian Doukhobor settlements, the Alberta Badlands, Vancouver’s bustling Chinatown streets and Wawa’s
giant geese, as well as the nearby Fort Friendship, which is abandoned and vandalized. The van broke down twice and was broken
into once but was otherwise a good home with beds, a Coleman stove
and solar panels for charging battery packs and flashes.
Funded in part by Jaret’s Roloff Beny Scholarship, this trip is a departure from his last project, yet also very connected. He and David,
15, hoped their travels would be a healing force after the loss of their
mother Mary, who died of cancer last year.
“It’s definitely a big part of what we’re dealing with. When we get
home, she’s still not going to be there. That’s becoming a bit more of
a reality along the drive.”
Jaret’s spring solo exhibition on campus, Familial Endurance,
documented his family’s struggle as his mother’s health rapidly
declined. The subject matter has resonated deeply with international
curators. Seven of his medium-format colour prints are in the internationally touring exhibition and accompanying book, ReGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow 2005-2025, which has traveled to
Switzerland and Italy, and will soon appear at New York’s Aperture
gallery. Familial Endurance is scheduled for a Contact 06 solo exhibition at Toronto’s Photo Passage gallery next summer. Jaret is now
creating a long-term investigation into the daily lives of a group of
Moncton teenagers.
“Starting forums of discussion is as important to me as my own
creative work,” he says. “It’s what happens to the photos when
people look at them, the thoughts and discussions they generate.”
by Erika Proctor, interdisciplinary student
ABOVE: WE’VE LEFT THE WOODS, 2005, LOST WAX BRONZE CASTING WITH COPPER
PATINA
08 EMERGING ARTISTS
ABOVE: VISITING THE TERRY FOX PARK, MEDIUM-FORMAT COLOUR PHOTO, 2005, JARET
BELLIVEAU
RACHAEL FREEDMAN
JOLANTA LAPIAK
FASHION
MEDIA ARTS
Ask Rachael Freedman about any of her original garment designs
and be prepared for a thoughtful discussion on female identity.
The promising Halifax designer will be among the first to graduate with NSCAD University’s new Minor in Fashion this spring. With
a strong interest in the representation of the female body in society,
Rachael strives in her own designs to achieve a careful balance
between the woman as powerful individual and woman as sensual
being.
“I try to only display one erogenous zone at a time,” she says. “It’s
a manifestation of self and a way for women to display the power
they hold in the world because they are female. Reveal too much and
you’re on display for someone else. If you only show one area at a
time – back, bust, stomach – then you are in control of the display.”
Her intricately constructed apparel emphasizes the natural
shapes and nuances of the female figure, accentuated by unconventional use of colour and texture. The prolific exhibitor’s eclectic
designs – from Asian-inspired dragon jackets to a popsicle stick ball
gown – are always a highlight at NSCAD’s annual Wearable Art fundraiser, and her work recently appeared in two exhibitions at Anna
Leonowens Gallery.
An art university is the ideal setting for fashion studies, says
Rachael, adding that art history and cross-pollination with other artistic disciplines bring much to the creative design process. She often
employs her skills in photography, while textile studies enable her to
create original fabrics for her garments. She also draws ideas from
everything around her – architecture, films, the changing seasons,
books and more.
“Fashion cannot exist on its own; it needs outside influence and
inspiration. It is a continual reflection of the world around us and the
subtle or not-so-subtle social and cultural changes that occur within
our world.”
When you don’t use your ears or mouth for communication, art is a
powerful tool for sharing your thoughts and ideas.
“It’s an unrestricted opportunity to express myself creatively.
Besides that, it’s a universal language we all share,” says MFA student
Jolanta Lapiak.
She often uses “speaking hands” in her artwork, a hybrid of
video, performance, painting, dance, photography and visual poetry.
She prefers to focus on “the distinct ethnic minority of language and
culture, rather than the boundary focus around the ear.”
In one candid video, ASL signers approach strangers with everyday requests such as “what time is it” and “do you have a quarter for
the phone.” Faced with reactions of apologetic bewilderment, the
signers might as well be speaking Hungarian.
Jolanta spent much of her childhood in residential schools in
Poland, as well as a year in an Austrian immigration asylum until age
nine, when her family moved to Edmonton. She received a BFA in
Media Arts & Digital Technologies from the Alberta College of Art &
Design this past spring.
In 2002, she created the prophetic visual poem Tsunami, using
digital motion and painting to evoke reactions similar to those
caused by music. Two years later, Jolanta was traveling along the west
coast of Goa, India, when the devastating underwater earthquake
happened. For a few days she was blissfully unaware of the disaster,
though friends and family in Canada were frantic to reach her.
The silence and solitude of hearing loss can be balanced by
human contact, as in her video Rising Sun. In it, a friend with closed
eyes recites a long poem while Jolanta signs it, with dreamy interplay
between the verbal and visual poetry.
“I do miss out on the experience of music, in terms of sound,”
she says. “However, I couldn’t imagine myself not experiencing the
utter beauty of linguistically complex sign language in the arts, from
poetry to literature. Sharing it with hearing people who don’t know
sign language but can see is like sharing music with those of us who
don’t hear but can feel. The universe works in balance.”
For more on Jolanta, visit her websites at www.i8media.com and
www.handspeak.com
by Nadia Dziubaniwsky, interdisciplinary student
ABOVE: ORIGINAL GARMENT INSPIRED BY GAUDI ARCHITECTURE FROM THE
EXHIBITION SPACES AND PLACES AT THE ANNA LEONOWENS GALLERY
ABOVE: PROSPERITY OF LANDSCAPE, 2005, DIGITAL DRAWING ON PRINT, 34" × 26"
EMERGING ARTISTS 09
ANNA LEONOWENS GALLERY
Landon Mackenzie, Houbart’s Hope
Visiting Artist exhibition
1 – 12 November, 2005
Organized by Alex Livingston, Associate Professor,
Chair, Division of Fine Arts, with the support of
The Canada Council for the Arts
BELOW AND RIGHT:
DETAILS FROM HOUBART’S
HOPE SERIES, BY LANDON
MACKENZIE BFA 76
Brain research is the new frontier in large-format mapping
paintings by NSCAD alumna Landon Mackenzie bfa 76.
Landon has been researching archival maps since
1993, throughout the process of creating her trilogy of
large canvases, The Saskatchewan Paintings, Tracking
Athabasca and currently Houbart’s Hope. The 25 works
are consistent in size – 7’6” high by 10’3” wide – and
play on the process of mapping landscapes from multiple
points of view.
In a Canadian Geographic article, author Alan Moritz
said Landon’s knowledge of North American maps and
“...her ability to incorporate mapping conventions into art
all qualify her as a creative cartographer of the first order.”
Houbart’s Hope refers to the historic Hudson’s Bay
landmark name used from 1612 to the end of the 17th
century, in the epic search for the Northwest Passage. In
recent years, Landon has been intrigued by the shifting
concepts in neurology, one of the fastest-growing areas of
medical research due to new imaging technology. In the
three paintings on view in Halifax, the ideas of neuro-nets,
wiring by firing and electrical/chemical exchanges are playfully set against the search for the Northwest Passage.
“I’m making a whimsical suggestion that our understanding of the nervous system is at about the same place as
10 ANNA LEONOWENS
our geographical concepts were in the 17th century,” says
Landon. “Houbart is my guide.”
This is how Vancouver critic Robin Laurence describes
her work:
Mackenzie uses fleeting images, dots of light, pools of
darkness, fields of colour, cartographer’s grids and disintegrating text to chart her journey through notions of
province, of prairie, of landscape. Her paintings describe
a fictional territory – a Saskatchewan of the mind.
Language is used in these paintings to describe a
metaphoric relationship to a lost set of voices – voices
overridden by history and the process of making a territorial claim.
Landon didn’t study painting while at NSCAD from
1972 to 1976, focusing instead on drawing, printmaking
and animation. Her time here developed “much of the
instinct I have about my work, or how to go about being
an artist… An energy around the school that valued daily
ritual practice with ideas, hunches and concepts (methodology) put me in a good place,” she says.
“I have surrounded myself with intellectual ideas and
colleagues from many fields. That too began at NSCAD
where one night would be a Phil Glass concert and another, a poetry reading by Emmett Williams or a Simone
Forti dance performance,” she recalls.
Since receiving her MFA from Concordia University in
1979, Landon has exhibited widely in Canada and abroad.
Her paintings are in major public and private collections
including the National Gallery, The Vancouver Art Gallery, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, The Art Gallery
of Nova Scotia and the TD Painting Collection. She has
resided in Vancouver for the past two decades and teaches
at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.
with files from Peter Dykhuis, Director,
Anna Leonowens Gallery
Marilyn McAvoy
Alex Livingston
Ron Shuebrook
Susan Wood
Richard Mueller
St u d io 21 Su p p o r t s N SC A D Un i v e r s i t y
• Exhibits Work by NSCAD Faculty and NSCAD Alumni
• Raised $16,000 for NSCAD: Yearly Scholarship Fund
• Exhibits Work by Emerging Artists: “stART”, April 7 - May 3, 2006
• Fundraiser for NSCAD: Fall, 2006
1223 Lower Water St. Halifax, NS
902.420.1852
www.studio21.ca
Paintings Above, by Ineke Graham Owner, Studio 21 Fine Art
ANNA LEONOWENS 11
NSCAD’S BOOKSHELF
A Crop of New Releases
Faculty, staff and alumni are having a productive year in publishing,
and the fall season has seen a profusion of literary achievement in the NSCAD community:
ALLIGATOR
Lisa Moore BFA 88
House of Anansi Press
Based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Lisa Moore is one of Canada’s leading contemporary authors.
Her new novel Alligator was short-listed for the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize this fall. It was
her second Giller nomination; the first was in 2002 for her short story collection, Open. Leading the
vanguard of the new North Atlantic Gothic genre, Lisa enjoys developing characters “responding to
morally perilous situations.” Alligator revolves around an aging filmmaker, a grieving widow, a Russian refugee, a radical teenage tree-hugger and a hot dog vendor.
THE MODERN IDEAL:
The Rise and Collapse of Idealism in the Visual Arts
from the Enlightenment to Postmodernism
Paul Greenhalgh
V&A Enterprises and Abrams Publishing
In his seventh book, NSCAD President Paul Greenhalgh defines and explores the idea of modernity
through five central concepts: style, modernization, progress, ideology and universality. He considers the roles of science and politics, from the first stirrings of industrialism to the definitive arrival
of globalization, and how artists have engaged with the transformations continually imposed by
modernization over the past three centuries.
The rise of idealism in the modern visual arts is discussed, particularly the attempt to create a
definitive style capable of transforming not only art but society as a whole. Also investigating issues
at large in the contemporary art scene, The Modern Ideal speculates about the next phase of modern
practice, identifying the collapse of idealism as a central concern.
CRAFTING IDENTITY:
The Development of Professional Fine Craft in Canada
Dr. Sandra Alfoldy
McGill-Queens University Press
Crafting Identity is the first study of craft’s emergence as a professional artistic practice in Canada,
and a richly illustrated survey of key people, events and organizations that have shaped contemporary Canadian fine craft. Documenting the tremendous advances after the Second World War, the
book contrasts American and Canadian experiences and ideology shifts, including craft from the
unique Quebec and aboriginal identities.
Sandra joined NSCAD's faculty in 2002 as the first craft historian to teach full time in a Canadian
postsecondary institution. She contributed a chapter to the book Made in Canada: Craft and Design
in the 1960s for the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Her next exhibition, On the Table: 100 Years of
Functional Ceramics in Canada, co-curated with Rachel Gottlieb, will open in 2007 at the Gardiner
Museum of Ceramics in Toronto.
12 NSCAD’S BOOKSHELF
CAUGHT IN THE ACT:
an anthology of performance art
by Canadian women
edited by Tanya Mars and Johanna Householder
YYZ Books
Dr. Jayne Wark provides the critical essay, “Dressed to Thrill: Costume, Body and Dress in Canadian
Performative Art,” in this panoramic study of performance and installation art by female artists in the
1970s and 1980s. She also contributes a revealing chapter about media artist and NSCAD professor
Rita McKeough, and her “ethics of compassion.” Jayne is associate professor of art history and chair
of NSCAD’s Division of Historical and Critical Studies. She is currently on sabbatical researching her
book about Canada’s conceptual art history.
BERTH
Carol Bruneau
Cormorant Books Inc.
Nautical symbolism charts the life and difficult choices of an unhappy military wife in Carol’s second
novel, Berth. Protagonist Willa abandons her husband in hopes of finding fulfillment with a mysterious lighthouse-keeper, but her romantic notions clash with the forces of nature and damaging selfdeception. Berth is a reflection of the meandering path everyone must take to selfhood and how most
of us make landfall by grace, fluke, will, or a combination of these.
Carol’s first novel, Purple for Sky, won the City of Dartmouth Fiction Prize and the Thomas H.
Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize. She currently teaches writing part time at NSCAD and is researching
her fourth novel, based on the life of a 19th century sculptress. Her third novel, Glass Voices, is scheduled for release in early 2007.
PASSIONATE COLLABORATIONS:
Learning to Live with Gertrude Stein
Karin Cope
ELS Editions, University of Victoria
Written largely in dialogue and concluding with a play, this academic study explores Gertrude Stein’s
collaborations, including the celebrated author’s exchange of portraits with Picasso. The book is
“...a tremendous achievement that argues an original and controversial thesis at every turn...the quality and range of Cope’s scholarly research is truly outstanding,” according to Maria Gough, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University.
Karin, who was previously an English professor at McGill University, teaches part time and is acting director of Writing Resources at NSCAD. She is working on a novel about flight and completing a
long poem about suicide and de Chirico
with files from Erika Proctor, interdisciplinary student
NSCAD U NIVERSITY PRESS:
February will see two new
releases from The Press:
Ceramics Millennium: Critical Writings on Ceramic History, Theory, and Art
Edited by Garth Clark
Noted ceramics scholar Garth Clark has selected the
best International Ceramics Symposium papers and images from the last two decades of the 20th century. Contributors such as Clement Greenberg, Paul Greenhalgh,
Tanya Harrod and Janet Koplos explore the concerns,
values and historical narratives that shaped the more
confident face of ceramics today.
3 Works
by Martha Rosler
This volume contains three works by Martha Rosler:
the short fiction essay, The Restoration of High Culture
in Chile (1972); her photo work, The Bowery in Two
Inadequate Descriptive Systems (1974); and In, Around,
and Afterthoughts (1981), a critical essay attempting to
develop criteria to define contemporary photography as
meaningful social practice.
NSCAD’S BOOKSHELF 13
TO CREATE
OR CURATE?
NSCAD ALUMNI DECIDING THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE FACE OF ART
THEY ONCE MADE ART; NOW THEY’RE MAKING OPPORTUNITIES, AND NOT JUST FOR THEMSELVES. A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF NSCAD GRADUATES HAVE SET ASIDE PURSUING THEIR OWN ART PRACTICES TO PROMOTE THE WORK OF OTHER
ARTISTS, AND THEY’RE LOVING IT. ARE THEY MASOCHISTS? NO, THEY’RE CURATORS.
IN PUBLICLY-RUN MUSEUMS AND PRIVATELY-OWNED GALLERIES, OUR ALUMNI ARE TAKING CHARGE OF COLLECTIONS
AND EXHIBITIONS, ACROSS CANADA AND AROUND THE WORLD.
by Paula Adamski, interdisciplinary student
OPPOSITE LEFT: INSTALLATION, THE RELEASE FROM BITTERNESS, BY REV. LUKE
MURPHY BFA 88, IN THE GROUP EXHIBITION XLR WITH ROBIN PECK
BFA 72/MFA 75 AND XYLOR JANE, AT CANADA GALLERY IN NEW YORK.
FOUNDED BY PHILIP GRAUER BFA 90 IN 2000, CANADA IS NAMED AFTER THE
BARRACKS AT AUSCHWITZ THAT HOUSED THE CONFISCATED PERSONAL
BELONGINGS OF DEATH CAMP PRISONERS. INITIALLY LOCATED IN TRIBECA,
THE GALLERY MOVED TO THE LOWER EAST SIDE OF MANHATTAN AFTER THE
9/11 COLLAPSE OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTRE. IT CURRENTLY REPRESENTS
20 ARTISTS. GRAUER’S CURATORIAL CAREER BEGAN AT THE KHYBER CENTRE
FOR THE ARTS.
OPPOSITE RIGHT: INSTALLATION VIEW OF A TERRIBLE BEAUTY, A NEW SOLO
EXHIBITION BY JENNIFER ANGUS BFA 84 THAT OPENED NOV. 26 AT THE TEXTILE
MUSEUM OF CANADA IN TORONTO. IT WAS CURATED BY SARAH QUINTON BFA
82, WHO WAS JUST PROMOTED TO SENIOR CURATOR AT THE MUSEUM.
BELOW: BEACON II, AN ACRYLIC ON CANVAS BY FACULTY MEMBER IVAN
MURPHY B DES 92; DETAIL FROM OPEN LANDSCAPE WITH BUILDING, BY JACLYN
SHOUB BFA 88. BOTH ARTISTS ARE ON THE ROSTER AT THE NEW GALLERY
PAGE & STRANGE, LAUNCHED BY ALUMNI NEAR THE NSCAD UNIVERSITY
CAMPUS.
PRIVATE TIME
“Working in a gallery satisfies all my artistic cravings,” says
Victoria Strange bfa 98. She’s co-owner of Halifax’s new
Gallery Page and Strange, which features work mainly by
NSCAD faculty and alumni including Gerald Ferguson,
Cal Lane, Wayne Boucher, Jacklyn Shoub and Jonathan
Johnson.
“Every aspect is exciting for me as an art dealer,” she
says. “It fulfills me intellectually and creatively, and I also get
to swing a hammer!”
She and business partner Victoria Page bfa 01 both
trained as artists at NSCAD, but helping potential collectors appreciate someone else’s work is not just a necessity
of their business plan—it’s what they feel they do best.
“After graduation,” says Victoria Page, “I knew I
could find as much fulfillment in that role, as support and
administrator, as in the role of practicing artist. Working
at a commercial gallery has only intensified those feelings.”
Curating is an art form in and of itself, adds Chris
Lloyd bfa 99, artistic director at the new Third Space
Gallery in Saint John, New Brunswick. While attending
NSCAD, he did a curatorial internship at Anna Leonowens
TO CREATE OR CURATE? 15
ALUMNI VICTORIA PAGE AND VICTORIA STRANGE IN THEIR NEW GALLERY
PAGE AND STRANGE, CONVERTED FROM ITS PREVIOUS INCARNATION AS A
DOWNTOWN TOURIST SHOP.
Gallery, a vital launch-pad for many budding curators. His next step
was directing the Khyber Centre for the Arts.
“I go through spells where I bang off a series of my own drawings
or paintings, but usually this occurs just before an exhibition. Curating and installing the art of other people gives me just as much of a
thrill,” he says.
Charlotte Marble bfa 00, new Assistant Director at Argyle Fine
Art in Halifax, agrees it’s rewarding to assist in developing other
artists’ careers.
“Curating is obviously very different from working at making my
own paintings,” she says. “It’s very sociable, multidisciplinary, specialized retail work. I may not have much time for my own artmaking, but I find the ambience here at the gallery inspiring. When I do
have time for painting, I make the most of it.”
With their proximity to the campus, the two Victorias and Argyle
Fine Art encourage students to get a better handle on the commercial
side of artmaking. Studio 21 Fine Art, located near NSCAD’s new Port
Campus, has long made it a priority to exhibit artwork by emerging
artists and often signs on new gallery artists fresh after graduation,
most recently Yang Hong mfa 05. Studio 21 also introduced a new
painting scholarship this year, and hired Meghan Dorward bfa 05
as communications coordinator, joining fellow alumna Jane Plant
on staff. Though the gallery hasn’t seen many staff changes over the
years, owner Ineke Graham generally hires NSCAD alumni because
they’re “diligent, extremely well versed in artspeak and knowledgeable in terms of art history,” she says.
MORE NSCAD CU RATORS & GALLERY ADMINISTRATORS
This list is a selection of alumni curators. It is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all NSCAD alumni who hold curatorial positions.
If you are a curator or if we have listed you in error please let us know for future stories. Email: [email protected]
Daina Augaitis BFA 84
Chief Curator/Associate Director,
Vancouver Art Gallery
Philip Grauer BFA 90
CANADA, Brooklyn, New York
Bruce Campbell BFA 79
Director/Curator, St.FX University Art
Gallery, Antigonish
Susan Hobbs BFA 75
Susan Hobbs Gallery Inc, Toronto
Mireille Bourgeois BFA 03
Programming Coordinator,
Centre for Art Tapes, Halifax
Tim Dallet MFA 01
Artistic Director, paved art + new
media, Saskatoon
Brandt Eisner BFA 05
Gallery Assistant, Argyle Fine Art,
Halifax
Scott Everingham BFA 04
Administrative Assistant,
Edward Day Gallery, Toronto
Kim Farmer BFA 91
Craig Gallery Coordinator,
Dartmouth
Thom Fitzgerald (88-90)
emotion picture gallery, Halifax
Susan Gibson Garvey MA 81
Director/Curator, Dalhousie University Art Gallery, Halifax
Terry Graff MFA 81
Director, Mendel Art Gallery,
Saskatoon
16 TO CREATE OR CURATE?
Linda Hawke BFA 84
Coordinator, Museum Programs,
Whyte Museum of the Canadian
Rockies, Banff
Bruce Johnson BFA 88
Curator, Contemporary Art,
The Rooms (Art Gallery of
Newfoundland & Labrador)
Gemey Kelly BFA 79
Director/Curator, Owens Art Gallery,
Mount Allison University, Sackville,
N.B.
Arlene Kennedy MA 78
Director, MacIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London
Eleanor King BFA 01
Coordinator, Sobey Art Award
Kelly Mark BFA 94
‘net curating for www.samplesize.ca
Allan MacKay ANSCAD 67
Curatorial & Collections Consultant,
Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery
Brian MacNevin BFA 72
ICARDI institute, Lunenburg
Sigrid Mahr, BFA03
Program Director, The New Gallery,
Calgary
Patrick McCauley BFA 83
Visual Arts Coordinator, Harbourfront
Centre, Toronto
INDEPENDENT CURATORS:
Sara Angelucci BFA 97
former Director, Gallery 44, Toronto
Crystal Mowry MFA 02
Curatorial Assistant, KitchenerWaterloo Art Gallery
Caroline Chan BFA 02
‘net art curator, Toronto
Brian Meehan BFA 83
Executive Director & Chief Curator,
Museum London, London
Christina Ritchie BFA 71
C.A.G. (Contemporary Art Gallery),
Vancouver
Kim Simon BFA 95
Director of Programming,
Gallery TPW, Toronto
Christy Thompson BFA 97
Head of Exhibitions & Administration,
The Power Plant Contemporary Art
Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
Peter Trepanier BFA 77
Head of Reader Services, Art
Metropole Collection, National Art
Gallery Library, Ottawa
Rachel Brodie Venart BFA 92
Collections Manager, Beaverbrook Art
Gallery, Fredericton
Robert Zingone MFA 98
Assistant Curator, Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, Halifax
Susan Barry BFA 99
Board of Directors, San Francisco
Museum; former Assistant Curator,
American Craft Museum, New York
Moritz Gaede MFA 94
Christian Giroux MFA 95
Andrew Harwood BFA 91, Toronto
Sarah Hollenberg BFA 00 Los
Angeles
Steven Holmes MFA 94 Connecticut
Andrew Hunter BFA 90
Dundas, Ontario
Marie Koehler BFA 88, Halifax
Gordon Laurin BFA 86, St. John’s
Alexandra McCurdy BFA 80 Halifax
Ian McKinnon BFA 80
MFA Concordia
Lee Rodney BFA 91
Ron Wakkary BFA 89
Curator of Stadium@Dia, New York;
various projects with Museum of
Modern Art, the Guggenheim, Canadian Nature Museum, Electronic Arts
Intermix
Christopher Pratt
Organized and circulated by the National Gallery of Canada
February 4 - May 7, 2006
sponsored by:
Thierry Delva
Organized by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Museum London
On Exhibition until January 29, 2006
American DJ, 2003. Photo Steve Farmer
Cliff Eyland bfa 82 studied painting at NSCAD
in the early ‘80s, but curating was clearly on his
radar even then. For his graduating exhibition,
he showed the work of a young Jamaican artist,
Joe Clarence.
“Curating is a natural extension of art
practice for many people these days,” says
Eyland, curator for Gallery One One One at the
University of Manitoba.
Unlike private galleries, where the art market drives what goes on the walls, in the public
sphere it’s the curators who decide. Does that
mean curator equals taste-maker?
“I make a contribution to a debate or
debates. I don’t attempt to influence taste. Taste
makes waste,” insists Eyland.
K. C. Kwok bfa 81, Director of The Singapore Art Museum, sees himself “as a taste-facilitator...sometimes I get carried away with my
own strong views on art but my job should really be to facilitate art appreciation and forum.”
Ray Cronin bfa 87 also recognizes the
responsibility that comes with curating at a
public institution; he is Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, where
fellow alumnus Jeffrey Spalding mfa 76 is Chief
Curator. Trained as a sculptor, Ray hasn’t made
a single piece of his own art in five years but explains: “I don’t feel like I’m wasting my talent. I
think I’ve found where I’m of better use.”
As Chief Curator at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Gary Dufour mfa 79 also realizes
the power of the position: “Everything you do
as a curator has an impact. Clarity in the articulation of your intent is critical, so the public can
make discoveries along with you as you do your
research and thinking in public.”
So it’s not about taste-making, but rather
education and communication.
“Curating is a highly collaborative process
with a dynamic exchange of ideas,” adds Sarah
Quinton bfa 82, Contemporary Curator and
Exhibitions Manager at the Textile Museum of
Canada, in Toronto. The process is a form of
communication between artists and curators,
which is then communicated to larger audiences.
“One of the best things about my work,” she
says, “is that I’m in touch with artists on a daily
basis. What could be better than that?”
To these curators, not much. They share
a similar enthusiasm with the private dealers,
but what can be said of the differences among
private, public and artist-run centres?
Curator Jen Budney bfa 95, of the Kamloops Art Gallery in British Columbia, says the
responsibilities and issues change depending
on the venue. Speaking from her own work
experiences, she says “at an artist-run centre,
like Gallery 101, it’s important to take risks with
artists and artworks—and sometimes fail. Now,
at a public gallery in a small city, failure is not
such a good thing—it can have some pretty big
consequences!”
The Americans: Off-Base Housing, Collection of Ron Joyce © C.Pratt
PUBLIC FACE OF ART
Open Everyday 10 - 5pm, Thursday until 9pm
1723 Hollis Street, Halifax 902-424-7542 • www.agns.gov.ns.ca
Gregory Elgstrand bfa 95 is director of programming at YYZ Artists Outlet, an artist-run
centre in Toronto. He has also worked at public
galleries across Canada, including The Art Gallery of Calgary.
“With all of their attendant responsibilities to
corporate boards, museum educators, sponsors,
donors and so forth, the curator is the mediator
between the practice of the artist and the audience,” he says of the public side. “Meanwhile, in
the artist-run centre, the artist determines what
gets seen and how it gets seen.”
Regardless of the differences, one challenge
is universal: money.
“Having worked in both artist-run centres
and public galleries and having a partner
with extensive experience in commercial
galleries, I have been surprised by the similarity of the challenges each one faces.”
For the art world in general, Gregory
has a wishlist. He’d like to see institutions and curators start to think locally
and act globally. He’d like to see more
galleries provide places for visitors to sit
down (“When did looking at art become a
strictly vertical experience?” he wonders.)
And he’d like to see artists take back from
curators their status as “the sexy beasts of
our culture.”
TO CREATE OR CURATE? 17
ALUMNI PROFILE MICAH LEXIER
MFA 84
by Paula Adamski, interdisciplinary student
Equal parts statistician and conceptual artist, Micah Lexier
creates unusual yet very human portraits. Forgoing physical renderings of his subjects, he measures and counts
instead, using quantifiable aspects of life to illustrate a
moment or passage of time.
“I don’t believe it’s possible to do a real, true portrait
of a person,” says the Winnipeg artist, based in New York
since 1999. “So I just take something like their name,
height or age and work with that. That’s the kind of information I like to work with.”
The effect is often poignant and always thoughtprovoking. Consider his 1994 artwork, A Portrait of My
Grandfather. The massive sculpture, assembled from
29,064 laser-cut letter x’s in stainless steel, hangs from the
atrium ceiling of Scurfield Hall at the University of Calgary.
The identical letters represent the number of days his 79year-old grandfather was alive. While the viewer never gets
a physical or emotional picture of Micah’s grandfather, the
overall scope of a long life lived is impressive.
“This one theme, the idea of portraiture, can be seen
through all of my work,” says Micah, and this includes selfportraits. With each new year, the artist undertakes a numerical autobiography, using minimal objects to explore
his selfhood. While age 39, he exhibited 39 wood balls that
were sized exponentially, with the spheres arranged from
smallest to largest diameter. For 40, he represented his age
18 ALUMNI PROFILE
using Australian coins in various combinations that added
up to 40 cents.
“Everything every artist does is a kind of self-portrait in
a way,” he says.
After completing his undergraduate studies at the
University of Manitoba, Micah came to NSCAD “at a very
important point in my development as an artist . . . it definitely shaped me, as many people have told me in seeing
my work they can tell that I went to NSCAD,” he says.
Micah’s work has been reviewed and featured extensively in major art publications for the past two decades.
He exhibits internationally and is currently represented
by the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, Trépanier Baer
Gallery in Calgary, Birch Libralato in Toronto and Gitte
Weise Galerie in Berlin.
Micah’s work continually surprises him, and that
remains one of his true pleasures in art-making.
“Sometimes I don’t intend for pieces to work in the
ways that they do, but my work is smarter than me,” he
says. “I love setting up a process and seeing where it leads
you. Great things happen when you do that.”
For more alumni profile stories, please visit
www.nscad.ca/profiles.
BELOW: SELF-PORTRAIT AS A WALL DIVIDED PROPORTIONALLY BETWEEN
THIS BLACK TYPE REPRESENTING LIFE LIVED AND THE REMAINING WHITE
SPACE REPRESENTING LIFE TO COME, BASED ON STATISTICAL LIFE EXPECTANCY. AS INSTALLED AT THE MACDONALD STEWART ART CENTRE,
GUELPH, ONTARIO.
FAR BELOW: 39 WOOD BALLS (RIGHT) AND DETAIL (LEFT), 2000, MAPLE
WOOD BALLS STAMPED WITH A NUMBER FROM 1 TO 39, PAINTED WOOD
TABLE MEASUREMENTS: 3 × 2 × 17 FEET
FACULTY PROFILE
GLEN HOUGAN
Assistant Professor, Division of Design
Glen Hougan believes in getting students out of the design
studio and into the worlds for which they are designing.
“Out of good research comes good design,” says
NSCAD’s new product design specialist. “It’s rooted in
people’s experiences and you have to design for that. Go
beyond what they say and record what they do.”
As the university expands its programming in this area
of study, Professor Hougan is developing curriculum at
both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He emphasizes ethnographic research, urging students to closely
observe and communicate with the users of their end
products, to properly analyze their needs and patterns of
behavior.
Environmental issues and cultural ergonomics are
also key, particularly when adapting products to suit new
groups of users. In his last post at Syracuse University in
New York, he assigned one class to develop and customize
products for the growing subculture of birders. One resulting product was Biotrail, a series of lightweight, biodegradable stepping stones to help birders find designated walking paths while reducing their impact on forested areas.
Glen holds a Master of Environmental Design from
the University of Calgary and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo. One of his
ongoing research projects involves SIMS, the popular
computer game that allows players to create virtual lives
and environments.
“My interest as a product designer is in using these
virtual lives and worlds to test out scenarios. It’s basically
virtual user testing, as a precursor to real user testing.”
On November 1, his product design class hosted a
spirited competition in Granville Street, a race to build the
best chair from a single sheet of cardboard. Three teams
were marked on speed, quality of construction, innovation
and minimal waste. The exercise was an effective introduction to design teamwork and balancing manufacturing
issues such as material and waste, cost, time and aesthetics.
“I want to help them apply imagination and creativity
in problem-solving, and to understand how human factors, materials and processes influence design decisions,”
he says.
with files from Erika Proctor, interdisciplinary
student
DESIGN PROFESSOR GLEN HOUGAN ENCOURAGES HIS PRODUCT
DESIGN STUDENTS TO DESIGN FOR REALITY, ACCORDING TO THE NEEDS
OF THE END USERS.
FACULTY PROFILE 19
CONVOCATION SPRING 2005
NSCAD U NIVERSITY’S 2005 GRADUATES
Michelle Alarie
Eric Anderson
Joella Arsenault
Louise Artichuk
Kathryn Atwell
Eliza Au
Craig Baltzer
Jeff Baur
Meghan Bissonnette
Meredith Blunt
Amy Boehmer
Michael Boersma
Emilee Boutilier
Joni Nicole Boyle
Kyla Brown
Sara Callahan
Robert Calnen
Mark Canning
Eliza Chandler
Vanessa Clarke
Corrine Coleman
James Colligan
Victoria Comeau
Marielle Comeau
Scott Conarroe
Adrienne Connelly
Maura Coulter
Chris Cowan
Holly Crooks
Chris Cunningham
Marco D’Andrea
Krista Davis
Lisette De Villiers
20 CONVOCATION
Karen Deuitch
Siobhan Doherty
Kenneth Doren
Meghan Dorward
Michelle Doucette
Dan Doucette
Emily Doyle
Colin Druhan
Michael Eddy
R. Brandt Eisner
Melanie Eisnor
Shannon English
Roisin Fagan
Tara Fleming
Margaret Flood
Cam Forbes
Kelly Franklin
Michael Freeman
Mackenzie Frère
Jill Jazmine Gardner
Christine Gaudernack
Christopher Gibson
Martie Giefert
Tara Gilchrist
Laura Giles
Jamila Godwin
Natalie Gordon
Marie France Guay
Dennis Hale
Hilary Hall
Jacinda Hames
Sandra Hamilton
Paul Hammond
Daryl Harding-MacLean
Andrea Hardy
James Hare
Steven Harjula
Lindsey Hart
Charlene Heath
Anneke Henderson
Graham Henning
Michael Hern
Yang Hong
Jennifer Lynne Hood
Stephanie Hopley
Geoff Hughes
Mindy Hurlburt
Victoria Hutt
Emily Hutten
Ji Yeon Hwang
Jenny Hyslop
Jennifer Ingraham
Krista Ireland
Elly Irvine
Rosalynn Iuliucci
Robert Jabbaz
Heidi Jahnke
Pat Jessup
Emily Jones
Michelle Jospe
Jeanne Ju
Michael Kane
Jadwiga Kellock
Pamela Kenny
Regan Kirkland
Heather-Joy Knight
Chris Kozanczyn
Sharla Kruger
Jenny Kuri
Christel Langan
Ji Yong Lee
Francois Léger
Erin Legere
Meaghan LeMoine
Beth Letain
Christopher Lockerbie
Christina MacDonald
Lindsay MacDonald
Jocelyn MacDonald
R. Elisabeth MacDonald
Stephen MacDowell
Robert MacInnis
Randall MacKay
Jordan MacLeod
Sheila MacLeod
Emily MacMillan
Joel Maillet
Evgenia Makogon
Morgan Mallett
Mary Beth Marmoreo
Leigh McGlone
Marcella McKiernan
Keeley McLean
Anathea McLennan
Lucy McMurray
Mya McNulty
Kristina Metcalf
Melissa Meurs
Karen Mitton
Carol Morrison
Jenna Mossip
Sharon Murray
Patricia Nicholson
Shanna Nodding
Bradley Olson
Mauve Pagé
Sara Paine
Marcel-Collyns
Panganiban
Justin Phillips
Derrick Piens
Kate Pomerant
Steve Pritchett
C. Anne Pryde
Devon Reid
Ken Rice
Angeline Richardson
Paul Robert
Dawn Roberts
Anderson
Jennifer Robertson
William Robinson
Dorothée Rosen
Jean Ross
Joanna Roznowski
Mikolaj Rudnicki
Emily Rutledge
Nathan Ryan
Mamta Sajnani
Danielle Sampson
Leah Sandals
Barbara Schmeisser
Michael Schultz
Neil Shaw
Nicholas Shick
Rebecca Singer
Kimberley Smith
Hilary Soper
Daniel St. Amant
Alliston Starkes
Johanna Steffen
Mica Stewart
Benjamin Stiles
Jessica Sullivan
Yuriko Tanaka
Regan Thexton
Graham Thoem
Melissa Townsend
Damien Trainor
Emei Tsai
Nina Turczyn
Trevor Van den Eynden
Ryan Vessey
Jasmine Wallace
Larissa Walrond
Julie Warnock
Sara Washbush
Jessica Waterman
Kathie Watts
Alan White
Danny Woodrow
Adam Worrall
Hilly Yeung
Michael Young
Mar’yan Zaluskiy
A NSCAD REU NION FOR SCU LPTOR AND CU RATOR
On his first visit to Halifax 76 years ago, Claes
Oldenburg was an infant on a transatlantic
crossing with his parents from Sweden to New
York. While a visiting artist here in 1973, he
teamed up with Kasper König for the publishing project Raw Notes, a collection of original
manuscripts from his performance art of the
late 1950s and early 1960s. Dr. König was then
founding editor of the Press of the Nova Scotia
College of Art and Design, now known as the
NSCAD Press. His is currently director of Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany.
Now giants in the contemporary art world,
the curator and the Pop sculptor reconnected at
our April 24 convocation, each receiving a Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa. Dr. Oldenburg’s
marital and creative partner, Coosje van
Bruggen, a distinguished Dutch art historian
and curator, received an honorary degree in
absentia. Renowned for their soft-sculpture
monuments of ordinary objects, such as the
giant hamburger at the Art Gallery of Ontario,
the couple has been busy finalizing the Collar
and Bow project for the new Frank Gehry-designed Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
“It’s a great instinct in a human being to want
to make something,” Dr. Oldenburg told the
graduating class of 196 students, admitting he
initially wanted to be a writer, “but after awhile
I realized I could not penetrate the surface of
life. I decided to face my limitations and make
them the starting point. One thing I could do
was draw. I could depict the surface. I could
project my feelings into form, and that became
my life.”
Words evidently still intrigue him. The
NSCAD Press issued a new cased deluxe edition
of Raw Notes this spring, including a signed
copy of the book and a new signed print, titled
The Office. A Typewriter Print. Ghost Version. The
hand-pulled six-colour lithograph, an update
on Dr. Oldenburg’s 1974 version, was created in
the NSCAD printshop under his supervision.
For more details and a full transcript of Dr.
Oldenburg’s convocation address, please visit
www.nscad.ca.
OPPOSITE: KASPER KÖNIG, LEFT, AND CLAES OLDENBURG,
ACCEPT THEIR NSCAD HONORARY DOCTORATES DURING THE
CONVOCATION CEREMONY AT THE WESTIN NOVA SCOTIAN.
RIGHT: THE OFFICE, A TYPEWRITER PRINT, GHOST VERSION,
LITHOGRAPH PRINT.
DR. OLDENBURG SPENT SOME TIME IN THE
NSCAD PRINTMAKING STUDIO DURING HIS VISIT
TO HALIFAX, INSPECTING THE ARTIST’S PROOF
OF HIS NEW LITHOGRAPH, THE OFFICE, A TYPEWRITER PRINT, GHOST VERSION.
CONVOCATION 21
THANK YOU
ANNUAL FU ND
We happily acknowledge all those who have made contributions to our
Annual Fund. Your support helps the university to continue advancing
the visual arts through education, research and production.
TEXTU RE
$500—$999
Tom Brennan
The Bristol Group
Karen Thiessen BFA 99
PATTERN
$100—$499
Nicoletta Baumeister BFA 82
Dr. Lawrence Buffett
Crystal Burgess BFA 90, BA 92 &
Daniel Burgess BFA 93
Dave Clements & matching gift from
Emera/Nova Scotia Power
Annette Daley
Martha Glenny BFA 84
Trev & Deb Hardy
Diane Hiscox BFA 84
Linda Hutchison B Des 79 &
Bob Mullan
Dr. Jean Johnson,
C.M. honoris causa 99
Wm D. (Doug) Kirby BFA 73
Ralston MacDonnell
Carol Miller B Des 83
Karen Nieuwland BFA 03
Mike Pancura
Marilyn Penley BA 82
David Peters B Des 76 & Rhonda
Rubinstein ANSCAD & BD 83
Jay Rutherford B Des 87
Hyun-Seok Sim MFA 00
Kye-Yeon Son
Jim Smith ANSCAD 83, BFA 89
Kathi R. Thompson BFA 88
Martha Townsend BFA 78
Peter Trepanier BFA 77
Tomoko Uenishi BFA 93
United Way of Greater Toronto
Marilyn Welland
Michael West BFA 88
Helen Wickwire-Foster
Rose Zgodzinski BFA 75
SHAPE
UP TO $99
Sara Almirall BFA 02
Anonymous (2)
Wendy Blanchard
Helen Brown BFA 93
Janice & Jim Boiduk
Janice Carbert BFA 84
Aidan Chopra BFA 98
Joanne Creelman BFA 94
Julie Duschenes BFA 75
Jane Gallinaugh B Des 02
Donna & Archie Gillis
Joshua Harrower BFA 97
Jessica F. Jones MFA 00
Donna Ann MacKay ANSCAD 94
Dawn MacNutt
Brian Meehan BFA 83
Dr. Richard Norman &
Mrs. Diana Norman
Fran Ornstein BFA 75
Marian Peters BFA 03
Vita Plume BFA 82, MFA 93
Karen Ramsland
Lynn Rotin BFA 00
Susan Sheehan
Brian R. Sloan BFA 93
Ian Symons BFA 82 &
Cyndy Lee BFA 89
Joan Timmers BFA 92
Joan M. Tompkins
Pamela Whynott BFA 81
This list represents gifts made specifically to NSCAD University’s Annual Fund from February 1 to November 1, 2005. It is not intended to be a comprehensive list of gifts
made to the university. Please inform us of any errors or omissions by calling Tori Brine in the Office of Advancement at +1 902 494 8251 or email [email protected]
ANNA LINDSAY MACDONALD BFA 04
EARNED THE TOP AWARD AT THE
TORONTO OUTDOOR ART EXHIBITION,
FOR HER QUEENSWAY RING SET, MADE
FROM SILVER AND LAMINATED PAPER
FAR LEFT: QUEENSWAY INVERSION, SILVER
AND LAMINATED PAPER RING SET.
LEFT: DUPONT, SILVER BRACELET
PHOTOGRAPHER, STEVE LEE
NSCAD ALU MNI ELECTRONIC CONNECTIONS
If you have not received our recent
electronic newsletter and would like
to, please email us. Our thanks go
out to all who have sent us alumni
updates for the magazine.
Alumni Social Events
Staying informed helps us to serve
you better. Please review the following list of alumni programs and
services below and tell us, by email,
what interests you most.
Alumni Services
24 ANNUAL FUND
Luncheons/Dinners
Reunions
Regional Alumni Chapters
Student/Alumni Social Events
Group Insurance
Group Travel
Cultural Programs
Other
Personal and
Professional Development
Continuing Education
Public Lectures
Job Opportunities
Submissions/Calls for entries
Studio Practice Issues
Alumni Communications
Alumni News
Any Art Related News
NSCAD Electronic Listserv
University News
Volunteer Service
Alumni Board of Government
Participate in fundraising and events
Help organize a class reunion
Help to locate lost alumni
Organize alumni programs
in your area
Mentorship
Talk with prospective students
in your area
Other
Email us at: [email protected]
NSCAD ON A PLATE
Our thanks to all who attended
NSCAD on a Plate, held in
March at Fid cuisine inventive,
on Dresden Row in Halifax.
The event raised $6,500 for
the Annual Fund. Thirty
art enthusiasts enjoyed an
epicurean delight while receiving inspirational pieces of art
thanks to the generous support
of the following artists:
Doug Bamford BFA 95
Wayne Boucher BFA 75
Joan Bruneau BD 88
Marla Cranston
Alison Cude
Peter Dykhuis
Sue Earle-Bishop BFA 93
Gerald Ferguson
Tom Forrestall
Martie Giefert BFA 05
Paul Greenhalgh
Jacinda Hames BFA 05
Drew Klassen
Karen Konzuk BFA 97
Debra Kuzyk BFA 83
Jocelyn MacDonald BFA 05
Ray Mackie BFA78
Gary Markle MFA 95
Marybeth Marmoreo BFA 05
Jolanne Metke
Lindsay Montgomery
Robin Muller
Brian O’Grady BFA in Art Ed 73
Emilie Rondeau MFA student
Dorothée Rosen BFA 05
Heather Sayeau BFA 81
Susan Sheehan
Jasmine Wallace BFA 05
Robert Williams ANSCAD 85
Gary Wilson BFA 75
Susan Wood
We would also like to express our gratitude to Tina Bevis and Charton Hobbs for providing the wonderful wine, Christopher MacLeod and
Loomis Art Store for contributing packaging for the art, and The Flower Shop for its continued support. Special thanks to Monica Bauché and
Dennis Johnston at Fid Cuisine, for their generous hospitality and culinary talent.
ANNUAL FUND 25
BELOW: LITHO AND RELIEF PRINTS FROM
2004 INSTALLATION HEART ATTACK, BY
LISA TURNER BFA 04
OPPOSITE: YOU ARE THE WEATHER,
PHOTOGRAPHY, RONI HORN, COURTESY
MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY, NEW YORK
ESSAY MACKENZIE FRERE
MFA 05
Mackenzie Louis Frère mfa 05 is a textile artist and educator currently living in Calgary, Alberta. He has exhibited
his handwoven work in Canada, China, Japan and Korea,
and Artichoke recently published extensive excerpts from
his thesis, Immaterial Beauty. The following essay is from
last year’s MFA Seminar class, “Is There Love In Art.”
“My hope was that we could find our way around the
chaos imposed by the ever-increasing professionalization
and institutionalization occurring in contemporary art,”
says professor Stephan Horne. “We were not concerned
with representations of love in art. Instead, the focus
developed around works and processes featuring the
relationship between artist, artwork and audience as the
explicit substance of the art activity.”
26 ESSAY
I am laid open
My skin, my consciousness are turned to glass.
The only risk left now is that of openness.1
RONI HORN WRITES THIS for her friend, artist Felix
Gonzales-Torres on the occasion of his memorial, giving
a loving and vulnerable voice to her loss. Entitled “An
Uncountable Infinity (for Felix Gonzales-Torres),” it is a
startling, beautiful and very original text, particularly in
the context of artists’ writing and contemporary art criticism. I encountered Horn’s writing in a graduate seminar
class with the theme “Is there love in art?” The initial inquiry only served to raise several more. What does it mean
to question the presence of love in art? Why does such a
question appear so romantic or even frivolous to us today?
“What is Is there love in art?”2
Just as few contemporary artists or art writers will claim
they are without love in their own lives, even fewer will tell
you their work is about love, or enacted in or with love.
Why is this? The removal of love from art via a formal or rational criticality alienates us intellectually, emotionally and
bodily from ourselves and from others. If we decide that
love is in art, we may assume it might be captured, reconfigured and expressed through art. But is love not materially
ourselves, you and I? In flesh and in breath love finds its
truest expression as an imprint of your own loving self.
Implicit in the question “Is there love?” is a strong
valuation of love and its place within art and life. To ask
if love is in art suggests that love is potentially lost or
even missing, and levels severe judgment on the ability of
contemporary theoretical discourse to address what art is,
or even has been for centuries. “Is there love?” initiates a
radical and potentially destructive line of inquiry, as the
answer may well absorb (dissolve) contemporary criticality
altogether. What happens if the value of art is no longer
constructed through the exercise of this criticality? One
might argue that if there truly is love in art, any perceived
value becomes self-evident. “Is there love in art?” is actually a proposal for operating in the world beyond our skin,
both in art and with each other.
Cutting to the heart of contemporary paradigms of criticality and the social construction of the self as individual,
“Is there love in art?” invites a loving model for criticism.
To respond effectively to this invitation, we must first dissolve our calcified habits of thinking around the criticism
of works of art and of theoretical discourse in general.
Critical discourse that operates in the absence of love is a
closed circuit of wordplay that may be astute, intelligent
or even reasonable, but ultimately offers little opportunity
for true dialogue. Critical writing is not required to keep
its distance, stay objective, be legible or even (especially)
realistic. “Writers are afraid,” Hélène Cixous explains,
“…fear and lies govern their tastes and their activities.
Fear of what? Fear of death by social starvation, …fear of
not being published, …fear of being unmasked and called
inferior.”3 The writing of a loving criticality is only possible
if we are able to transcend this fear. Writing in love, or as
Cixous writes, free is not a formal option among others. It
is a deliberate choice that demands nothing less than the
self conscious transformation of the self.4 This does not
mean all our writing will be transformative, only that one
must reconsider his or her position between the apparently polar aspects of fear and love if we are to “go and
write free.”5
In “An Uncountable Infinity (for Felix Gonzales-Torres),” Roni Horn elucidates her friend’s work and his life
with language that is at once personal and poetic. I believe
that Horn’s elegy may be read as an innovative piece of
critical writing that provides an access point to the whole
of Gonzales-Torres’s output as an artist, laying bare the
emotional content of his work with intelligent intimacy.
In contrast, I recently read an analysis of Gonzales-Torres’s
work “Untitled (Perfect Lovers)” by Arthur C. Danto. He
begins by decoding the known information about the
work - “…consisting of two identical clocks which keep
time synchronously”6 - its symbolism and predictably
ESSAY 27
THREE PLASMA CUT SHOVELS, 2005, CAL LANE BFA 00
about Gonzales Torres himself. Although he is obviously
familiar with the themes of Gonzales-Torres’s work and
the tragedy of his death, Danto chooses to ignore both
in his summation with the inclusion of the following: “It
would be a beautiful thing if they both stopped running
on the same tick, as it were, like a couple dying in unison.
…It is a very tender and moving piece of art.”7
In reading Danto’s irrelevant suggestion that it would
be beautiful for the clocks to stop in unison, and his summary judgment that the work is tender and moving, we
are neither convinced of his hypothesis nor, in the end,
very much moved. Danto’s creation of a hypothetical
situation (the clocks stopping in unison) creates no understanding of the truth of Gonzales-Torres’s oeuvre and
serves only to distance the critic from a work he claims to
understand.
What then is the difference in Horn’s writing? I believe
she is able to dissolve the conventions of critical distance
and embrace poetry, turning her consciousness to glass.
In doing so, she provides us with an example of loving
criticality that enacts a compelling transformation of the
individual. She writes: “Framed by sky, buildings, roadways, and signs, the photographs out there on the street
– between food and home – bring enigma near. And these
enigmas recur. They are riddles that implicate public
and private, you and me, us.”8 With us Horn poignantly
and gently conjoins subject and other. As a loving text, it
presents a re-imagination of the activities of the individual as part of a communal activity, of us, in which the
goal is a connection to and presencing of self in relation
to the other. Love will not be transformed, because it is
28 ESSAY
transformation. Dissolution is the goal of love. Conflation
of the self with (an)other or self as material embodied (not
expressed) in the practice of the artist or writer of theory
becomes metaphorical for the act (accident) of falling in
love.
Writing about Roni Horn’s exhibition and accompanying book, You Are the Weather, Thierry deDuve describes
“falling in love” with the piece, relating, “love seemed to
me …a matter of content” and later, “I knew on the spot
that the elation I felt had to do with the certainty that
the work’s form was its content.”9 Had Horn managed to
make love itself a form? Impressed by deDuve’s account,
I resolved to find a copy of You Are the Weather. This
impulse was motivated by curiosity. Will I be moved? In
relating this experience, my intention is not to reflect,
echo or even test deDuve’s analysis, but is an attempt
to engage with Horn’s work on my own. My engagement with this work (Horn’s) is necessarily mitigated by
another’s critical analysis and as such, I am enlisted (like
deDuve) as its lover by proxy. Having spent some time
with her beautifully printed book, I can now attest this to
be true. You Are the Weather appears to have evolved from
a practice infused with love. It is a work of uncommon
silence, opening the book to any page I am enveloped by
it. Each frame appears as though it were shot just after
everything has been said – an exquisite, free silence where,
Margrét (Horn’s model) comes out of (or descends into?)
the water, droplets (tears) still now, on her face, fixed in
place by the camera. She looks out, addressing, as deDuve
writes, the fact that she’s being addressed.10 Is there ease
or unease in this reciprocity?
In his analysis, deDuve wonders if Margrét, her features
changing and unpredictable, is herself the weather.11
Although his perception of an analogous relationship of
model to natural phenomena is relevant, I feel that it may
preclude another subtly different association. Horn does
not specify that you are like the weather, but instead that
you are the weather. This peculiar distinction may be the
key to understanding this book’s power as a compassionate and loving work of art, for what is the weather (and
water) if not a primeval index of transformation? Margrét
is surrounded by water that appears in several ways; enveloping mass, disappearing droplets and veiling mist. The
emotional effect of the water in Horn’s images is entirely
arresting. I will not dispute deDuve’s observation that the
model’s expression is as changeable as the weather, or
indeed as water. I wonder, however, if she may actually
personify transformation, just as You Are the Weather
might embody love itself ? The self is not destroyed when
you are absorbed into a work of art, rather your concept
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
of self is expanded, “cast into an abrasive and exquisite
consciousness.”12 At the conclusion of her memorial text to
Gonzales-Torres, Horn writes:
You are more nature, another weather. Your life is a rare
form of transparency
Through which I have observed the world becoming
more present to itself and through which I too have
become more present to myself.13
The willed expansion of an intimacy that envelops the self
and other creates a recuperative and compassionate space
for the revelation of new truth – a space that opens itself
up whole with the warmth of speaking and of breath. The
goal of this loving space is as love itself, transformation.
The presence of love in art was never in question, but one’s
answer to the “what is…” may determine if dissolution
and transformation through the nurturing of a loving
criticality is truly possible.
Roni Horn in Roni Horn p 120
Stephen Horne in conversation, September 28, 2004
Hélène Cixous in “We Who are Free Are we Free?” (trans Chris Miller) in Critical Inquiry, Winter 1993, Vol. 19, No. 3, p 214
Cixous writes, “And when I write, I do not lie. How do I know? Because I do it deliberately.” I bid p 215
Ibid p 216
Arthur C. Danto in The Abuse of Beauty p 138
Ibid p 138, 139
Roni Horn in Roni Horn p 120
Thierry deDuve in Roni Horn p 78
Ibid p 83
Ibid. p 83
Roni Horn in Roni Horn p 120
Ibid p 123
IS THERE LOVE IN ART SCHOOL?
At the start of his View Camera Workshop, Alvin Comiter sometimes teases
students to take a good look around
them, because they may wind up marrying someone in the room.
It happened that way in 1989 for
students Steve Farmer (BFA 89), now a
photo professor, and Joann Reynolds-Farmer (BFA 91), now NSCAD’s
academic secretary for the Divisions of
Fine and Media Arts.
“He asked to use my film holders. I
obliged, and by the last week of classes
we were dating,” Joann recalls. When
they got hitched in 1990, Steve put his
NSCAD ring on Joann’s finger, since the
best man had forgotten hers.
“I still wear it as my official wedding
band,” she admits, but is quick to add
an important house rule: no talk of
money or NSCAD after 7 pm.
Admissions Director Terry Bailey
(BFA 93) and NSCAD Press Manager
Chris McFarlane (BFA 94) got married
on their 14th anniversary in February,
wasting no time once Ottawa recognized same-sex marriages.
“We didn’t want to do it until it was
fully legal,” Chris explains. The work-
place has actually strengthened their
relationship: “We know what the other
one is going through, we can help each
other resolve issues. It’s such a big
part of our lives, so it is helpful.”
Terry had first arrived from Newfoundland with another beau in 1989,
and met Chris in an environmental
planning class. Now the pair is serving
as the client for an intermediate jewellery class project for a wedding ring
design, for something traditional yet
reflective of contemporary possibilities.
Fran Ornstein (BFA 75) also ditched
her beau in the 1970s when she met
Fred Wendt (ANSCAD 77).
“Fred was into garbage,” she
reveals. “He courted me in the dumps
of Nova Scotia, actually. He ended up
working in waste management and
we collected parts of our house over a
year. We basically built our house for
$5,000,” she reveals.
Fran was initially appealing because
she had a car and was a cheap date
– just 35 cents for a draft beer, Fred
recalls. Beer prices have risen since
then, but the Split Crow Tavern’s draft
special still sparks many a courtship
– it broke the ice for Lisa Turner (BFA
04) and RBC painting prize finalist Paul
Bernhardt (BFA 03).
“From a distance he seemed very
serious and uninteresting,” says Lisa,
now doing a master’s in printmaking at
the University of Alberta. That fateful
Power Hour changed her mind and now
she can’t get enough of him, especially
since his current graduate studies are
at Purchase College in New York.
For artist couples, professional
rivalry isn’t an issue as long as you
stick to different art forms, adds Mary
Kim (MFA 04). Her whimsical ceramic
and textile “soft uglies” don’t clash at
all with partner Yang Hong’s (MFA 05)
encaustic paintings, though they both
have a joyful effect.
“We’re pretty compatible that way,”
she says.
It makes sense that NSCAD is a hotbed of love, adds Joann: “It definitely
attracts like-minded folks, and you
can find your soul mate among peers
and colleagues who share your views
on life.”
NSCAD couples:
If you are a couple whose romance
blossomed while at NSCAD we’d like
to hear from you for future stories, so
please let us know at [email protected]
POWER HOUR AT THE SPLIT CROW MELTED THE
ICE BETWEEN LISA TURNER BFA 04 AND PAUL
BERNHARDT BFA 03
ESSAY 29
COLLETTE URBAN, AT RIGHT, MARVELS
ALONG WITH MOMS KATHY MACDONALD
(LEFT) AND LINDA HUTCHISON (MIDDLE)
ABOUT HOW THEIR 70s BABIES DYLAN AND
ERIN GREW UP SINCE THEIR DIAPER DAYS IN
THE CLASSROOMS AND STUDIOS OF NSCAD.
’70s REUNION
by David Peters
B DES 76
Wondering where the lions went—
the reworlding of NSCAD
Who would take the bait? That was the first question that
came to mind when plans of the NSCAD ‘70s Reunion
reached me in San Francisco. After all, we were the conceptual generation, schooled in the distillation of art into language, intent, and – only if required – material evidence.
Attracted by the certainty of alcohol and hors d’oeuvres,
we had consumed countless Art Now sessions advertised
in the daily NOW bulletin. We were wise to the subtle
administrative arts wielded with panache by artist and
president Garry Neill Kennedy. Was this “reunion” some
new trick – an artwork that merely had to be conceived to
exist, independent of actuality?
The reunion bait, as it were, included a tour of the
Granville campus, a night at the legendary Seahorse
Tavern, cocktails at the digs of current president Paul
Greenhalgh, several gallery installations, and a banquet at
Pier 22. Curiosity got the better of me. While living in New
York and SF, I’d kept up with many fellow designers, but I
still wanted to know what had happened to everyone else
in the three decades since graduation. Are the discourses
of art, design and craft still enveloped in their conflicted
solitudes? Are classes peppered again with Americans
seeking to avoid another interminable and unpopular
war? Where is the College (correction: University) headed
nowadays?
I flew to Halifax on Friday September 2nd to find out.
Arrivals were directed to a table in a corner of the lobby of
the modestly renovated Lord Nelson Hotel. There, organizers and maven-in-the-making Linda Hutchison handed
over a purple folder that contained, among the invitations,
directions and drink tickets, not a list of attendees but a
hauntingly thick folio naming those who were “lost” or
otherwise at large. The majority of ‘70s graduates have not
reported in on their whereabouts or successes.
Happily, dozens did come from away. Hello Toronto...
hello Baltimore...hello New York...hello London! When
mixed with the crowd from around the Maritimes, the
trick that was every bit a reunion sprang to life. In a weekend of anecdotes and laughter, we were entertained by the
duality of then-now, missing-present, remembered-forgotten. It was enchanting to re-experience the communal
familiarity that characterized life on the previous Coburg
Road campus, leavened by the obvious affection for the
institution and what it meant to be NSCADian.
The nexus for the most visual and affecting moments
of the reunion was the Anna Leonowens Gallery. Two
situations awaited us there–a showing of many then-radical now-classic art works, curated by Jeffrey Spalding, and
in the back gallery, a dense continuum of black & white
photos, contact sheets, college literature, and video documents. The cool intelligence of the art collection contrasted starkly to the richly detailed evidence of complicated
young lives. Reunions are inescapably emotional and these
shows provided all the sight triggers ...dear friends, living
and dead, reappeared before our eyes...the heart asserting
WONDERING WHERE THE LIONS ARE
We’re hoping to reconnect with
“lost” alumni. Please email
[email protected] with any hints
about the following graduates. For
the complete list, please see the
Alumni & Friends section at
www.nscad.ca.
30 ’70s REUNION
Candace Agnew BFA 78
Danny Blyth MFA 76
Donna Clouston BFA 73
Michelle Desbarats ANSCAD 78
Timothy Devaney BFA 75
Caroline Estabrooks BFA 73
Stephen Fleury BA 77
Marion Olson MFA 77
Richard Purdy BFA 75
Anne Ramsden BFA 77
Elizabeth Shatford BFA 75
Allan Simmonds B Des 75
Fergus Tomlin BFA 72
Susan Veroff BFA 77
Ray Wolf BA & BFA 72
Cordelle Wynne BFA 75
IMAGES FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
FROM RIGHT TO LEFT GERALD FERGUSON, LAUREN SCHOTT BFA 79,
SUZANNE LINDBLAD (PAQUETTE) ALUMNA 72, DAPHNE LARGE BFA 73,
COLLETTE URBAN BFA 80, DONALD LINDBLAD BFA 72
DAVID PETERS B DES 76, ANNE PATTERSON KEARNS B DES 73,
ABBIE CHESSLER BFA 79, BETH CAMPBELL-ROHER BFA 80
THE ORIGINAL WORLD ENCOUNTER GROUP FROM RIGHT TO LEFT
ELAINE OSTROM (DACEY)BFA 72, JANET WALLACE BFA 71, CAROLE
CASSIDY BFA 72, GARRY N. KENNEDY (FORMER PRESIDENT), MARSHA
DELOUCHERY BFA 72, CANDACE SWEET BFA 72
ELAINE OSTROM BFA 72, WALTER OSTROM
its place with head and hand (to paraphrase the motto).
Naturally, we were drawn to The Seahorse, humble tavern
of choice for generations of NSCADians. Elbow to elbow,
tray after tray, story after story. Of visiting artists and
World Encounter. Helvetica and IBM Selectrics. The cage
and the elevator. Scream therapy and Koolex. Nixon and
disco. Past and future.
On the basis of the Granville campus tour led by Gary
Wilson, you can rest assured that campus security remains
as befuddled as ever by the people and artifacts they
encounter on their nightly patrols. As at Coburg Road,
every square foot is fully utilized and well worn by years
of use. Student numbers continue to grow – more than
1,000 to date – putting pressure on such close quarters.
Surprisingly, I learned that less than five per cent of those
are Americans despite the significantly lower cost of
tuition and an ever-broadening curriculum. Since coming
to NSCAD in 2001, president Greenhalgh has embarked
on an ambitious expansion in disciplines, adding film studies, product design and fashion. While still under wraps
in September, we gleaned from Greenhalgh that a “Port
Campus” is imminent, promising to add up to 75,000 sq ft
of studio and classroom space in a vast, vacant and soonto-be-renovated Pier 21 behind the train station.
The creation of a second campus reminded me of one
of the quintessential ‘70s student movements. Nomadism was a rite of passage for our generation, as we set out
on daily migrations along the Spring Garden/Barrington
corridor connecting Coburg with the rough quarters of the
abandoned and desolate “Historic Properties.” Trudging
to and fro gave us time to think. To notice the world. To
ready ourselves for the unknown. To realize no matter
what course we took it was the direction we had chosen
that really mattered.
The class of 2008 will be the next to tell stories of finding their way amidst long winter marches – to be shared at
the next reunion.
Special thanks to Meloche Monnex for
sponsoring the reunion events
DAVID PETERS AND HIS PARTNER, RHONDA RUBINSTEIN B DES 83, ARE
PRINCIPALS OF EXBROOK WHERE THEY ADVISE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE
STRATEGIC USE OF VISUAL DESIGN AND EDITORIAL PROCESSES. THEY
WERE CREATIVE DIRECTORS OF UN WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2005
AND EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTORS OF THE SAN FRANCISCO ISSUE
OF BIG MAGAZINE. THEIR FOUR-YEAR OLD SON, DASHEL, SAYS ART IS
GOOD FOR LOOKING AT.
OUR THANKS GO OUT TO LINDA HUTCHISON, JOY O’BRIEN, ELIZABETH
GUILDFORD, JEFFREY SPALDING, PETER DYKHUIS, TONIA DI RISIO AND
OTHERS FOR ORGANIZING THE REUNION AND EVENTS ALONG WITH THE
OFFICE OF ADVANCEMENT. SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL WHO SUBMITTED WORK FOR THE SHOW AND ATTENDED THE REUNION EVENTS. WE
WON’T SOON FORGET ALL OF THE AMAZING STORIES.
’70s REUNION 31
STUDENT DISPATCH:
AROUND THE WORLD
International study
opportunities at NSCAD
NSCAD has offered international learning opportunities
since the 1970s, with exchange programs, off-campus studies, the World Travel Program and our unique international major in graphic design. Currently, several dozen of our
students are in Mexico, New Zealand, Germany, Scotland,
Ethiopia, Australia, Korea and elsewhere.
GILLIAN TURNHAM
Interdisciplinary student, off-campus study,
Eastern Europe
I left for the Czech Republic, my mother’s country of origin, with the intention of exploring notions of emigration
and national identity. I arrived in a strange yet familiar
place, with half the mind of an outsider but a face so
Czech I could be in a tourist information brochure.
Working in video, I’m trying to find the spaces where
these things become important on a universal level:
meeting with distant relatives, fraternizing with gypsies
and being dealt back-handed lessons in Communism by
eccentric old ladies.
CARLEY COLCLOUGH AND
JOSH TURK
International Major in Graphic Design, Universidad
de las Americas, Cholula, near Puebla, Mexico
Carley: We take classes on a big, gorgeous campus
complete with fountains, lakes and beautiful buildings.
Cholula has an awesome nightlife, the cost of living is
a fraction of what it is in Canada, and I left all my Nova
Scotia winter clothes at home!
Josh: What a great choice it was to split my four year program with Mexico. Broadening my cultural horizons has
better prepared me for my design career. The connections
I’ve made have generated numerous job offers to return
when I graduate, and design firms around the world always welcome other perspectives.
DAVID BROWN
Honours design student, exchange, Cooper Union for
the Advancement of Science and Art, New York City
New York is a whirlwind. With such an abundance of
cultural activity, it is near impossible to be bored here,
but with academic deadlines coming thick and fast, the
next destination is usually the studio. NSCAD and Cooper
Union share much in their general philosophies of visual
art production. From an emphasis on conceptual thinking
and process to the high standards in production, NSCAD
students have been well prepared to take advantage of
this access to a vibrant faculty of top professionals in New
York, and a reciprocal relationship of influence and support with the talented student body here.
32 STUDENT DISPATCH
QUERCY GOLSSE
Interdisciplinary student , exchange,
Canberra School of Arts, Australia
Faculty and students here are friendly and welcoming.
While Canberra has no beach, it’s easy to find a carload
of people on their way with room to spare. Not a day goes
by that I don’t see at least three types of wild parrots, and
kangaroos do in fact wander down main roads at dusk,
and will eat the front lawn!
LAURA FAUQUIER
Interdisciplinary student, veteran of three NSCAD
World Travel Programs to Greece, Italy and Spain
Seeing art’s history firsthand is essential to understanding
where you come from as an artist. One of the first things
you notice when you’re in Europe is the presence of art,
and you become aware of what it means in our world. I
realized I’ve got a real advantage for knowing about art.
Traveling is also great for my interest in photography. It
gives me the opportunity to put my skills to the test.
MIN YANG
Design student, of Shenzhen, China, who plans to
graduate from NSCAD in 2007
I wanted to study here because Canada has a lot of people
from many countries, and Halifax has the longest history
here. The language is hard sometimes in art history, but
teachers and classmates are all really good. I really like the
downtown campus. I study here for the western design
ideas. In China the design is very different.
ABOVE: BIKE WHEEL DESIGN PROJECT BY NSCAD STUDENTS DAVID
BROWN AND NICK WILTON, ON EXCHANGE THIS FALL AT COOPER UNION
IN NEW YORK.
MARGOT DURLING AND
SOPHIA MELANSON
Honours design students, exchange, Hochschule für
Gestaltung, Schwäbisch Gmund, Germany
Emotional Altitude: The Departure
What can you say about two young women leaving everything and everyone familiar for four months? Here we sit,
numbed by a stir of conflicting emotions, grinning at each
other 30,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean.
Please Stand in the Queue
Lesson#1: Pack lightly. We discover airline weight restrictions as we throw half our baggage into the trashcan at
Stanstead Airport. Semi-conscious with jetlag, we find the
formula: all contents minus half divided by three = successfully stowed luggage.
Munich: Land of the Almighty Sausage
Two landing strips later, we collapse into hostel beds,
later awaking to the sounds of Germany. For two days, we
indulge in sausages and beer and get our fill of Bavarian
culture, old friends, street performers and close encounters with cyclists and lions.
Tickets Please: Eat or be eaten
Three transfers, one nearly missed train, a broken luggage
lift and four throbbing arms later, we reach the Schwäbisch
Gmünd train station, where we are greeted by two local
students screaming, “Canada!!!” and are soon treated to a
traditional Schwäbian supper.
AT RIGHT: STUDENTS
SOPHIA MELANSON, LEFT,
AND MARGOT DURLING,
RIGHT, AT JOHANNISKIRCHE
(SAINT JOHANNIS CHURCH)
IN THE MARKETPLATZ OF
SCHWABISCH GMUND,
GERMANY. THE LATE ROMANESQUE BASILICA WAS
BUILT FROM 1220 TO 1250.
Adieu
We part ways for a month. Margot is a nomad hopping
throughout Europe while Sophia explores Berlin’s Bauhaus
archives for research material.
Great Expectations
On our first day of school, we’re pleasantly surprised by
the other exchange students who soon become a close-
knit family, coming from Brazil, France, Portugal, Austria,
Mexico, Puerto Rico, California and Ohio. On a trip to
Stuttgart, we visit the Baden Württemberg history museum and a Max Bill and Otto Dix exhibition.
Go Time
Absorbing the vast range of product design facilities
available, we’re gaining new ideas for industry through
explorations with plaster, hard and soft plastics, silicone,
industrial foam, wood, metal and ceramics.
A Dream Come True
We’re learning about ourselves, meeting new people,
speaking a new language and seeing another way of life
and learning new design methods. We look forward to
sharing the experience with other NSCAD students in slide
presentations when we return.
INTERNATIONAL STU DY STATS
• Each year, 40 to 60 NSCAD
students spend one or two semesters studying off campus
or on exchange.
Ghana, Ireland, Japan, Korea,
Mexico, the Netherlands, New
Zealand, Portugal, Scotland
and the US.
• This fall, 64 international students are studying at NSCAD,
including 18 new exchange
students.
• For our unique international
major in graphic design,
students complete the first
and last years at NSCAD; the
second and third years are
done at the Universidad de las
Américas in Puebla, Mexico.
• The majority of international
students here are from the
US, Germany, Mexico, South
Korea, Botswana, Japan,
Bermuda, the United Kingdom
and China.
• NSCAD offers student
exchanges at 69 partner
institutions in 16 countries:
Australia, China, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany,
• Launched in 2002, our annual
World Travel Program involves
educational trips for academic
credit. Groups of 50 students,
faculty, staff and alumni
have toured historical and
cultural sites in Greece, Italy
and Spain. France is next, in
April 2006.
• The Off Campus Study Program, supervised by faculty,
allows students to complete
course requirements while
traveling, apprenticing or
studying at other schools.
• We established our first exchange program in 1975 with
Cooper Union in New York.
• A precursor to off-campus
study was the World Encounter Program in the 1970s,
which saw groups of students
traveling around the globe for
academic credit.
PHOTO TAKEN DURING THE WORLD
TRAVEL PROGRAM, ROOF OF ANTONI GAUDI’S CASA MILA, BARCELONA,
SPAIN. PHOTO BY LAURA FAUQUIER.
STUDENT DISPATCH 32
5163
DUKE STREET
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
CANADA B3J 3J6
WWW.NSCAD.CA
COVER ARTWORK:
CUL DE SAC
MFA STUDENT CHRISTINE CHEUNG
ACRYLIC ON BOARD, 24" × 16"
2004
PHOTO: MARLA CRANSTON
THIS IS CHRISTINE CHEUNG’S SECOND
AND FINAL YEAR OF HER MFA DEGREE
AT NSCAD UNIVERSITY. THE CALGARY
STUDENT RECENTLY EARNED THE JOSEPH BEUYS SCHOLARSHIP. HER WORK
OFTEN INVOLVES NOTIONS OF ESCAPE,
EXPLORING THE
JUXTAPOSITION OF RECOGNIZABLE
SPACES WITH MOREABSTRACT FORMS.
IN THIS PAINTING, AN EVERYDAY CUL
DE SAC IS TRANSFORMED BY THE SUDDEN STRUCTURE OF A WHITE CLOUD.