Visual artists, writers and performers can spend a month at the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre

UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) is launching a new opportunity for artists, writers and performers to spend some creative time in a wooded retreat.

The FCCS Woodhaven Artist-in-Residence program provides a paid residency opportunity that is open for Canadian and international artists to stay between four-to-eight weeks at the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre in the summer.

Woodhaven includes a large heritage home with three self-contained apartments and a studio cabin on a large parcel of heavily-wooded parkland neighbouring Bellevue Creek. For years, FCCS has invited artists, writers and scholars to come to UBC Okanagan and work with the students, faculty and community members during the academic year.

This new program creates another dedicated opportunity for acclaimed artists and writers to work with the FCCS community during the summer months, explains Dean Bryce Traister.

“This residency program will give our visitors uninterrupted time and space to live and create in a beautiful nature conservancy. This is an experience that can foster and accelerate artistic process and creation, and we are excited about the people we will get to work with in the coming years,” he says.

The 2021 season will be reserved for writers of all genres. The FCCS faculty will invite writers to apply for a paid Woodhaven Eco Culture Residency and one writer will be chosen for the residency.

The selected writer will be expected to spend time on their own writing and spend part of their time on public outreach. This residency includes accommodation in the large two-bedroom home located at the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre as well as full use of a writing studio on the property.

“Having time to work with and learn from other artists and writers from outside of our community allows us all to develop professionally and broaden our experience with arts and culture,” says Nancy Holmes, FCCS creative writing professor.

“We are also excited about the potential creative and critical encounters between the visiting writer and the Summer Indigenous Intensive program, a month-long residency that gathers artists, curators, writers and scholars to engage in contemporary ideas and discourse, and is a place for new ideas rooted in Indigenous art-making.”

Applications for the residency are now open and will be accepted until March 5. For more information on the application and the residency, visit: fccs.ok.ubc.ca/artist-in-residence

About the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre

The Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre is located at 969 Raymer Road, in Woodhaven Nature Conservancy Regional Park. 3.5 hectares of the Regional District of Central Okanagan has been designated for conservation of wild animals and their habitat. It is part of a vital wildlife corridor along Bellevue Creek which flows down from Myra Bellevue Provincial Park.

Through an agreement with the Regional District, FCCS manages a large heritage home with three self-contained apartments, providing opportunities for FCCS graduate students to live during the academic year and a place for visiting artists and scholars to stay during the summer months. There is a small studio cabin on the property—an ideal place to hold seminars, small retreats, art projects, events and meetings.

About UBC’s Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

UBCO holds annual fiction writing competition

Up and coming writers are encouraged to submit entries for the annual Okanagan Short Story Contest.

Now in its 23rd year, the short story contest has a long history of bringing new and emerging writers to the Okanagan community. Past winners have been published with Penguin Random House, Arsenal Pulp Press and NeWest Press. They have also been featured in numerous magazines and journals across the globe, explains Nancy Holmes, creative writing professor in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS).

“Competitions like the Okanagan Short Story Contest are where a lot of writers get their start,” says Holmes. “We are always impressed with the calibre of entries we receive and we are excited to see what this year’s submissions will bring.”

This year’s judge is Frances Greenslade, acclaimed Canadian author and English professor at Okanagan College. Greenslade’s 2012 novel, Shelter, was named one of UK’s Waterstones 11 most promising debut novels that year and was nominated for both an Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award and the BC Book Prize Ethel Wilson Award.

The short story contest is open to fiction writers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia: east of Hope, west of the Alberta border, north of the US border and south of Williams Lake. The deadline for submissions is March 1, at midnight.

All entries must be between 1,000 and 4,000 words, and writers are welcome to submit as many entries as they wish. There is a $15 entry fee for each submission, but no charge for high school students. All proceeds go towards UBCO creative writing scholarships.

FCCS is offering cash prizes to the top three stories—$1,000, $400 and $200; the first prize winner also wins a one-week retreat at the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre in Kelowna. For the fourth year in a row, the top short story by a high school student in the region receives a $200 cash prize.

Winners will be announced at a virtual event in the spring.

Co-sponsors of the contest are FCCS, TD Canada Trust and the Central Okanagan Foundation. For a full list of contest details, rules and past winners, visit: fccs.ok.ubc.ca/short-story

About UBC’s Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

It will be an unusual Christmas for many as virtual gatherings have become the norm this season.

2020 will go down as one holiday season that’s hard to forget

While it’s true that Christmas 2020 may not go down in history as the most joyous, a team of UBC Okanagan experts suggest it doesn’t have to be a holiday season to regret. The experts’ advice includes everything from online shopping tips and getting some exercise to curling up with a good book.

Careful while shopping online, suggests Faculty of Management researcher Ying Zhu.

“Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, people should be more mindful of their shopping budget. It’s easy to lose ourselves in the world of online shopping. Balance joyful feelings with a budget.”

Ying Zhu suggests putting down the tablet or smartphone when holiday shopping online, especially when you plan to buy indulgent products in an effort to stem pandemic stress. Her research has shown that study participants were more likely to indulge in guilty pleasures when shopping online with a touchscreen device (i.e., a smartphone) versus a desktop computer. The reason is that using a touchscreen evokes consumers’ experiential thinking, which resonates with the playful nature of hedonic products.

Find creative ways to get some exercise, says School of Health and Exercise Sciences’ Matthew Stork.

“Due to the winter weather and current COVID-19 restrictions, finding ways to stay physically active is more challenging than ever. Try new outdoor activities like skiing or snowshoeing, go for socially distant walks or find creative ways to be active at home.”

If you’re busy, or overwhelmed this holiday season, add some “exercise snacks” into your day. Go up and down the stairs three times in a row, or take a five-minute walk to the end of the street and back. Even short bouts of exercise can add up and can help keep you fit at home.

And if you want to get a bit more out of your workouts—add tunes.

“Music is a simple, yet powerful strategy that can enhance your exercise and make it more enjoyable.”

Okanagan School of Education Associate Professor Stephen Berg focuses on active, healthy children and youth.

Berg has several suggestions for making sure children, and the entire family, have a good holiday season. The idea is to stay active.

“It may seem simple, but getting outside and going for a walk is beneficial. With limited daylight hours, getting outside, even if it is for a short time, will help boost the immune system and provide some much-needed energy.”

Other tips include limiting the treats, trying something new—like a YouTube workout the family can do together, volunteering, and setting basic and small goals, like getting outside for 30 minutes a day.

“My final tip would be to do your best to stay balanced,” he adds. “Quite simply, this has been a unique year. Let children have some fun, relax and breathe. Connect with them. Play board games, find out what they are doing online.”

Alex Hill, who teaches astrophysics at UBCO, suggests people look to the stars as a new activity this holiday season.

When there are clear skies during the holidays, grab a pair of binoculars and get outside after dark, says Hill. The next few days will be spectacular because Jupiter and Saturn will pass quite close to each other—a 400-year benchmark.

“To find them, look southwest as it gets dark, which is nice and early this time of year, about 45 minutes after sunset. If you hold your fist at arm’s length, they’ll be a bit more than two fist lengths above the horizon. They’ll be the brightest ‘stars’ by far and easy to see.”

With binoculars, you should also be able to see the rings of Saturn and the four largest moons of Jupiter. While Jupiter and Saturn are both spectacular with binoculars, they are visible without.

“They won’t look quite like they do in Hubble Space Telescope images you might see in books, but it’s still amazing to be able to see the rings and the moons with your own eyes.”

Fall in love with reading all over again suggests Marie Loughlin, who teaches in UBCO’s English program.

Her advice to anyone is to get settled comfortably with a good story. Loughlin and colleagues suggest books to help relieve stress, help with loneliness or fill in time spent alone.

George Grinnell suggested Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys (Penguin/Random House 2020). “This is easily one of the most compelling and artistically complete novels I have read in a long time.”

Margaret Reeves suggests Thomas King’s newest novel Indians on Vacation (HarperCollins, 2020), saying it is well worth reading for its wry sense of humour.

Joanna Cockerline recommends Idaho (Chatto & Windus, 2017) by Emily Ruskovich; it is set in the rugged mountains of Idaho and is tied around a devastating secret that impacts the life of a man facing early dementia.

Sean Lawrence suggests Andrew Kaufman’s All My Friends Are Superheroes (Coach House, 2003); the ordinary guy Tom has a close group of friends and a wife, all of whom are actually superheroes.

Finally, suggests Loughlin, Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales, of which the author’s iconic reading will be featured on CBC over the holidays.

Try something completely new or outside your comfort zone, suggests psychology Professor Lesley Lutes.

“My students suggested we do an online cooking class together,” says Lutes. “I must admit, my first thought was ‘oh lord, this is going to be a disaster.’ But I said yes because they suggested it and I could see they were struggling. I had never done anything like this before and had no idea how it would go.”

Lutes picked a favourite recipe and purchased all the ingredients, including a candy cane and gluten free dessert. It was a great success and she would do it again in a heartbeat.

Lutes shares other suggestions on how to make the most of this atypical Christmas:

• Try and accept this holiday season for what it is, instead of what it should have/could have been.
• If you can connect virtually with friends—do it!
• Deliver, either virtually or to front doors of your friends and loved ones, gestures of your love/affection/appreciation.
• Try and find humour and levity in the moment—and put it to good use.

“This was truly one of the most challenging years in modern history,” Lutes adds. “I hope everyone can take some time to slow down, reflect and find safety, love, and feelings of hope during these final days of the year. May 2021 bring us all some much-needed relief but also the resolve to make everything that happened this year matter.”

UBCO hosts annual gala evening of art and entertainment

What: Art on the Line gala and fundraiser
Who: Various artists with special host UBCO Professor Michael V. Smith
When: Saturday, February 27, 2021. Pre-gala cocktails at 5:30 p.m., online auction at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Virtual event
Cost: $190 (one ticket guarantees one piece of artwork) or $25 to be part of the on-line festivities

UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, in association with the Visual Arts Course Union, is not letting COVID-19 stop a popular annual tradition.

Art on the Line has gone virtual this year and will be held as a stay-at-home gala affair. The evening will be an entertaining celebration where some 150 juried works of art are curated for an online exhibition, explains Tiffany Douglas, Art on the Line co-coordinator.

“For the first time you can enjoy the night with your art-loving friends around the world. We are excited about organizing the 2021 event with the challenge of having to re-think and re-invent how it will be presented,” says Douglas. “This will be the 19^th annual Art on the Line fundraiser and gala that celebrates the work of local artists where guests can buy some amazing and original artwork by local celebrities and soon-to-be discovered student artists”

A silent auction will run throughout the night and the winning bidder will be asked one question. If answered correctly, an additional piece of art could soon brighten their home.

“The online format will certainly be different but it’s given us the opportunity as artists to be more creative and we’ve been having fun pushing the envelope on what an interactive experience can be like,” says Miah Olmsted, also an Art on the Line co-coordinator.

To make the event as special as possible, Olmsted says guests are encouraged to dress up in 1920’s-style clothing and hairstyles along with sequins and pearls. Guests are also invited to join a pre-gala party that starts at 5:30 p.m., where a local award-winning bartender will do a step-by-step walk through of how to make original prohibition-style cocktails (guests supply the ingredients.) Guests can also pre-order a meal delivery basket containing a curated wine or beer tasting with local food pairings. Tickets are sold separately for this special pre-event and are available online when purchasing tickets to the main event.

“With the locally designed and managed Trellis platform, we believe the evening will run smoothly and we can link to each artist’s social media channels or websites. This will help our contributing artists experience new ways to connect with their patrons,” says Olmsted. “Our amazing host, Michael V. Smith, will certainly glitter as he leads us through a night of glamour. We encourage everyone to get into the frivolity.”

Organizers are still collecting two-and three-dimensional artworks to be donated for the event. If you’re interested in submitting a piece of artwork for consideration, high- resolution images of the work can be sent to aotl@ubcovacu.org to be juried and approved. 

“The tickets make excellent holiday gifts, too,” says Douglas, adding the funds raised at this event support visual arts students in many ways including the fourth-year exhibition and UBCO’s visiting artist program.

This year’s event is sponsored by alumni UBC

Tickets are available at artontheline2021.eventbrite.ca

The mural represents a CTQ Consultants engineering project that helped protect fish habitat at Harrison Hot Springs.

Murals animate public spaces and add a sense of pride to communities

A UBC Okanagan visual arts instructor used a large concrete wall as a canvas, piles of scaffolding and gallons of paint to turn a summer art course into an urban beautification project.

David Doody, a UBCO Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) alumnus, has been active in the public art realm since completing his degree in 2006. As a visual arts instructor and a member of the Uptown Mural Project, he decided to take a summer art course to a whole new level.

The Kelowna Uptown Mural Project is supported by the Uptown Rutland Business Association. As its artistic director, Doody works to plan each of the urban art murals, connecting artists with the project and working on the project management.

“The uptown mural project grew out of a desire to bring more art to public spaces,” Doody says. “By creating exciting and energetic works of public art, we are transforming our communities into dynamic open-air galleries.”

Doody has been part of UBCO’s department of creative studies for the past two years, where he teaches painting, drawing and sculpture. This summer he taught a fourth-year painting class, leading the students through the many steps necessary to plan, pitch and deliver a public mural.

“UBC’s department of creative studies partnered with CTQ Consultants to create this exciting new art education experience for BFA students,” says Doody. “This course gave students an experience common to painting murals including the use of projectors, mechanical lifts, and a variety of paint applications and techniques.”

For this summer project the students worked to create a full-scale permanent public mural in the heart of Kelowna’s Cultural District. Over the course of the five-week class in July and August, the students met and worked collaboratively to paint a colourful two-storey mural adjacent to the CTQ Consultants building on St. Paul Street.

CTQ Consultants were enthusiastic about supporting the first UBCO mural course, says founding partner Matt Cameron, adding that they have had positive previous experiences building portions of the campus as well as creating the first-ever engineering scholarship which is now a bursary into perpetuity.

“Although we submitted many of our projects to help David create the CTQ mural, showcasing our 2020 theme of community, we asked that he select an appropriate reflection of what CTQ means to our community and what the community means to CTQ. What David chose was one of our highlights and challenges which turned into an amazing project at Harrison Hot Springs.”

Cameron explains a project where an old pump was inefficient in moving floodwaters, creating a fish mortality rate of 100 per cent. Cameron came up with an old concept—an Archimedes Screw pump which originally was created in 250 BC—and added power to it. The pump was painted a fish-friendly canary yellow and, once operational, reached the goals of both reduction of fish mortality to under 2 per cent and safe handling of any potential floodwaters.

“This collaboration with UBCO and CTQ, combined with the hard work of many individuals, has given the students an opportunity to create their masterpiece in our parking lot on the north-facing wall at CTQ’s Kelowna office. This is a great addition and our entire team is proud to have been a part of cheering up the downtown core,” adds Cameron.

Street art initiatives and murals have revitalized urban centres across the country, adds Doody. These open-air public galleries add a splash of colour onto aging architecture and breathe new life into their surrounding communities.

“These vibrant and bold contributions to the neighbourhood, are celebrated by locals and tourists all year round,” he says. “They are recognized as important sites for contemporary Canadian culture.”

Learn more about the uptown mural project at: www.uptownmurals.com

About UBC’s Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

The mural represents a CTQ Consultants engineering project that helped protect fish habitat at Harrison Hot Springs.

Murals animate public spaces and add a sense of pride to communities

A UBC Okanagan visual arts instructor used a large concrete wall as a canvas, piles of scaffolding and gallons of paint to turn a summer art course into an urban beautification project.

David Doody, a UBCO Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) alumnus, has been active in the public art realm since completing his degree in 2006. As a visual arts instructor and a member of the Uptown Mural Project, he decided to take a summer art course to a whole new level.

The Kelowna Uptown Mural Project is supported by the Uptown Rutland Business Association. As its artistic director, Doody works to plan each of the urban art murals, connecting artists with the project and working on the project management.

“The uptown mural project grew out of a desire to bring more art to public spaces,” Doody says. “By creating exciting and energetic works of public art, we are transforming our communities into dynamic open-air galleries.”

Doody has been part of UBCO’s department of creative studies for the past two years, where he teaches painting, drawing and sculpture. This summer he taught a fourth-year painting class, leading the students through the many steps necessary to plan, pitch and deliver a public mural.

“UBC’s department of creative studies partnered with CTQ Consultants to create this exciting new art education experience for BFA students,” says Doody. “This course gave students an experience common to painting murals including the use of projectors, mechanical lifts, and a variety of paint applications and techniques.”

For this summer project the students worked to create a full-scale permanent public mural in the heart of Kelowna’s Cultural District. Over the course of the five-week class in July and August, the students met and worked collaboratively to paint a colourful two-storey mural adjacent to the CTQ Consultants building on St. Paul Street.

CTQ Consultants were enthusiastic about supporting the first UBCO mural course, says founding partner Matt Cameron, adding that they have had positive previous experiences building portions of the campus as well as creating the first-ever engineering scholarship which is now a bursary into perpetuity.

“Although we submitted many of our projects to help David create the CTQ mural, showcasing our 2020 theme of community, we asked that he select an appropriate reflection of what CTQ means to our community and what the community means to CTQ. What David chose was one of our highlights and challenges which turned into an amazing project at Harrison Hot Springs.”

Cameron explains a project where an old pump was inefficient in moving floodwaters, creating a fish mortality rate of 100 per cent. Cameron came up with an old concept—an Archimedes Screw pump which originally was created in 250 BC—and added power to it. The pump was painted a fish-friendly canary yellow and, once operational, reached the goals of both reduction of fish mortality to under 2 per cent and safe handling of any potential floodwaters.

“This collaboration with UBCO and CTQ, combined with the hard work of many individuals, has given the students an opportunity to create their masterpiece in our parking lot on the north-facing wall at CTQ’s Kelowna office. This is a great addition and our entire team is proud to have been a part of cheering up the downtown core,” adds Cameron.

Street art initiatives and murals have revitalized urban centres across the country, adds Doody. These open-air public galleries add a splash of colour onto aging architecture and breathe new life into their surrounding communities.

“These vibrant and bold contributions to the neighbourhood, are celebrated by locals and tourists all year round,” he says. “They are recognized as important sites for contemporary Canadian culture.”

Learn more about the uptown mural project at: www.uptownmurals.com

About UBC’s Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

Rick Mercer will deliver the 2020 keynote address. Mercer was a 2010 UBC honorary degree recipient.

Virtual ceremony takes place Wednesday as more than 1,900 students graduate

UBC Okanagan’s Convocation of 2020 will go down in history as a unique event. Instead of students, parents and faculty joining together on campus, the celebrations will be held virtually.

“The context of 2020 has made necessary a very different approach to our graduation ceremony this year,” says Deborah Buszard, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UBC’s Okanagan campus. “While the ceremony will be virtual, the remarkable achievements of our students are very real and worthy of recognition. I invite everyone to join me in celebrating the Class of 2020.”

This year, 1,925 students have qualified for convocation from UBC Okanagan—that includes 1,600 undergraduates, more than 270 students who have earned a master’s degree and 45 newly-conferred doctorate degrees.

While convocation is a time of celebration, it’s also a time of long-kept traditions. The program will begin with Chancellor Lindsay Gordon presiding over the virtual ceremony. UBC President and Vice-Chancellor Santa J. Ono and Buszard will both address the Class of 2020 live, dressed in full academic regalia. And graduates will have an opportunity to take a virtual selfie with President Ono.

UBC has arranged for Canadian icon and comedian Rick Mercer to deliver the 2020 keynote address. Mercer was a 2010 UBC honorary degree recipient.

Students have had the opportunity to purchase graduation regalia, special graduation gifts, create a personalized commemorative graduation video clip, download congratulatory signs and sign a guest book with congratulatory messages.

The virtual ceremony will last 45 minutes and it will be livestreamed on June 17, with a pre-show beginning at 2:30 p.m. The ceremony begins at 3 p.m. and a 20-minute virtual alumni reception takes place at 3:55 p.m. The ceremony can also be watched on YouTube, Facebook or Panopto, a platform that is accessible from many countries. To find out more, visit: virtualgraduation.ok.ubc.ca

“These are, indeed, unusual times, and UBC students have shown once again their resilience and ability to cope and thrive in the face of change,” says Buszard. “With everything they have accomplished over these past months and over the course of their studies, I couldn’t be more proud of the extraordinary UBC Okanagan Class of 2020. Congratulations.”

This year’s medal recipients

• Governor General’s Gold Medal: Mike Tymko
• Lieutenant Governor’s Medal Program for Inclusion, Democracy and Reconciliation: Dominica Patterson
• UBC Medal in Fine Arts: Aiden de Vin
• UBC Medal in Arts: Ellie Jane Fedec
• UBC Medal in Science: Nicholas Kayban
• UBC Medal in Education: Alyssa Pembleton
• UBC Medal in Nursing: Christopher Popel
• UBC Medal in Management: Amanda Campbell
• UBC Medal in Human Kinetics: Madison Pows
• UBC Medal in Engineering: Tyler Ho

About UBC’s Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

Bachelor of Fine Arts graduates share their final work on an online platform

What: UBCO Visual Arts Graduation Virtual Exhibition Launch: Any Moment
Who: Graduating artists in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program
When: Friday, May 15
Where: Virtual Exhibition, anymomentexhibition.ca

Each spring graduating visual arts students at UBC’s Okanagan campus prepare a final art exhibition as they complete their program.

This year’s exhibition, titled Any Moment, was scheduled to open to the public in an on-campus reception in mid-April. However, as Visual Arts Professor Myron Campbell explains, the art will now be shared as a virtual exhibition.

Due to the current COVID-19 situation and the cancellation of the event, the students had to come up with new ways to complete their work and share it with the arts community, explains Campbell.

“Each student set up space at home to complete the work, and they have been working together with a writer and web designer to create a virtual exhibition,” he says. “This vibrant cohort of students continued to produce artwork in makeshift studio spaces in bedrooms, on balconies, in kitchens, the outdoors and even a camper trailer.”

Any Moment includes a wide variety of work such as sculpture, video installation, painting, drawing and animation. Though the work is diverse, a shared element between each artist is an interest in themes addressing memory and place.

“Their collective resiliency is as impressive as it is inspiring having accomplished UBC Okanagan’s first BFA graduation virtual exhibition,” says Campbell.

The exhibition showcases a range of the best works created by 10 emerging artists.

“This year’s graduating students have been busy creating diverse artworks full of personal storytelling and connection to place,” says Lecturer Katherine Pickering. “We’re really looking forward to having this work available for the public to experience this heartfelt exhibition of work.”

Visual arts student Sara Spencer notes it is disappointing the students will not get to show their work in the usual exhibition space, however creating an online exhibition has been a great experience.

“While we can’t have everyone together at a live exhibition, it will still be good to have a virtual exhibition and be able to reach so many more people,” she says. “It will create more opportunities and help to brighten up the world around us.”

This is a great opportunity to see what the next generation of local artists in the Okanagan are producing, adds Campbell.

The exhibition opens Friday, May 15. For more information, visit: anymomentexhibition.ca

UBCO fine arts graduate Sara Fletcher works on a video while creating her art instalment for the graduate student virtual exhibition.

About UBC’s Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

Nancy Holmes, poet and associate professor in UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies.

UBCO’s Nancy Holmes explains why we turn to poetry in the face of adversity

In this unprecedented time of fear, bewilderment and isolation, poetry is a beacon. It speaks to the complex emotions that are unleashed at times like this, says Nancy Holmes, poet and associate professor in UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies.

“It is hard to express our deepest anxieties and longings, so we turn to poetry especially in times of intense disruption,” she explains. “Poetry’s job is to try to say what cannot be said.”

This is why, she notes, we want poetry for special occasion cards, why we recite poems at funerals and why we listen to songs when we are in love. In World War I, she says, The Oxford Book of English Verse was one of the most well-read books in the trenches. Poetry is our go-to art in times of upheaval and catastrophe.

Right now, people are reeling with massive cultural and personal shifts as COVID-19 affects everything that was once normal. These changes are disturbing and incomprehensible at some level. Finding poetry that speaks to individuals might help get them through the next few weeks, Holmes says.

“These days, certain lines of poetry are coming unbidden into my head, like Irish poet WB Yeats’ ‘Things fall apart/ The centre cannot hold’ and the American poet Carmen Tafolla’s update on this phrase: ‘Things falls apart/ sometimes people too.’ These two phrases show that poetry addresses the big picture as well as the most intimate personal experiences.”

Most of us, she adds, are in the midst of both social and personal confusion this month.

As we move through the many uncertainties and alarms of this pandemic, she says poetry gives us a way to live with our inner turmoil.

“Most of us are experiencing a shock to our daily lives, but there are also people who are sick or who have lost people they love,” Holmes says. “For millennia, poetry has been an art that people turn to in order to cope with these traumatic experiences.”

She argues that art is an essential way human beings learn about, explore and express their understanding of the world, with its final form only limited by the extent of human creativity.

“From paintings, sculptures and mosaics to literature, theatrical performances and architecture, art has helped humanity learn about ourselves and our relationship to other people and the universe,” says Holmes. “Poetry, along with music, seems to be the art we are drawn to in times of intense personal and social transformations.”

Holmes says that there is a poem for nearly every feeling and situation human beings have encountered, and new poems are being written to explore what it is like to be alive now. She says that reading poetry offers benefits of consolation, release and enlightenment. But she also encourages people to write their own poetry.

“Writing a few poems is a nourishing way to spend a few hours,” she says. “I really encourage everyone to sit down and express feelings, terrors or love for people and the planet. It can be genuinely therapeutic.”

About UBC’s Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

Poet, editor and fiction writer will select Okanagan Short Story Contest winner

John Lent, a Vernon-based professional author, editor, singer and songwriter is this spring’s writer-in-residence at UBC Okanagan. He will be on campus from March 9 to 26 working with students, faculty and the community in various writing and literary projects.

The writer-in-residence program promotes Canadian writing and literature to Okanagan residents and provides emerging writers an opportunity to get feedback on their creative work, explains Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Professor Nancy Holmes.

Vernon-based author, editor, singer and songwriter John Lent is this spring’s writer-in-residence at UBC Okanagan.

“Our definition of a great writer-in-residence is someone who has writing expertise and who loves to talk to emerging writers about their work,” says Holmes, a creative writing instructor at UBCO. “John more than fits the bill.”

Lent, who taught Creative Writing and Literature courses at Okanagan College for more than 30 years, has published 11 books and edited 35 volumes of poetry, fiction and non-fiction for publication.

While in residence, he will announce this year’s winners of the Okanagan Short Story Contest. Lent will also read and offer feedback on manuscripts from local writers. Writers of fiction or poetry are invited to submit manuscripts for review and feedback. Deadline for manuscripts is February 21. For details, visit: fccs.ok.ubc.ca/about/events-workshops/authors

“John is a terrific writer, a master teacher of fiction and poetry, an in-demand editor and someone who pretty single-handedly created the contemporary literary culture in the Okanagan,” says Holmes. “We are so looking forward to having John on campus again. People lucky enough to be involved will have a great experience.”

Lent will hold the inaugural Sharon Thesen Lecture on Writing. The lecture—Aspects of Poetics in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry: a practical logic of legacies, a working arc of continuance—takes place on Thursday, March 19 at 7 p.m., in the University Theatre (ADM 026). This lecture is free and open to the public.

Thesen, a renowned Canadian poet and editor, was the first full professor in the department of creative studies and is now a UBC professor emerita.

“The UBC creative writing program wants to honour all that she contributes to Canadian literature and all that she did to establish the creative writing program at UBC Okanagan,” adds Holmes.

We decided an annual lecture that tackles key issues of contemporary writing, poetics and Canadian literature was the very thing that would recognize her significant contributions to British Columbia, to Canada and to UBC,” she says. “We’ll be recording each lecture which will be given by UBC faculty or visiting authors. The lectures will be a wonderful resource of contemporary thinking by writers.”

As judge of this year’s Okanagan Short Story Contest Lent will also announce the final winners. The four winning authors will host readings of their submissions on Thursday, March 25 at 7 p.m. at the Okanagan Regional Library, 1380 Ellis St., Kelowna.

About UBC’s Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca