Erin Scott’s MFA thesis performance, Truth or Consequences.

Erin Scott earned her MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Writing and Performance from 2016 to 2018. Her thesis project was an interactive, storytelling game-show called Truth or Consequences.

“Working on my MFA was the most focused creating time I have had since becoming a mother in 2011! While earning my degree, I established myself as a scholar, a teacher, and an artist.”

Prior to working towards an MFA, Erin finished her undergrad degree at UBC Okanagan with a major in Creative Writing, and a minor in Indigenous Studies, which she completed in 2011.

Everyone knows that it is a fine balance to find time creating and producing as an artist, supporting yourself financially and raising a family.

“I was recently out of school and looking for work that was in my field, but still contract based, so I would have time to continue working on my show and preparing for a potential tour.”

Erin became Co-Executive Director of Fat Cat Children’s Festival in September 2018. The festival has been running for 29 years in Kelowna and is a beloved festival celebrating art and children. In addition to this position, Erin is the Executive Director of Inspired Word Café.

IWC is a community non-profit focused on providing high calibre performance poetry, workshops, and open mic events, and is vital to the literary community here in the Okanagan Valley as one of the only literary organizations. They support both professional and amateur writers in their expression of self through words, and represents marginalized members of the community, taking pride in being a haven for those who are often undervalued and under-served in the arts.

The experiences Erin had during both of her degrees helped her develop as a practicing artist and gave her a set of skills she could use as an organizer of events in the community.

She learned how to run events, from conception to realization. She learned how to engage with professional artists in her field and develop her network of colleagues and contacts. She learned how to lead a team and delegate work to be able to extend her capacity by working intimately within community. She also learned how to lean on her mentors during tough emotional and personal times in her life.

“I think we often talk about the career part of university, but if you are fortunate like I was, you will also develop deep connections with professors who will support you as a whole human, with all kinds of emotional and personal needs, as well as academic and professional ones.”

Using her close ties to UBCO, Erin has worked with the other members at IWC to create a partnership with the FCCS annual reading series. The Milkcraters of the Moon Reading Series, organized by Creative Writing faculty members and IWC provides an engaged audience to hear a number of visiting and local writers, and gives opportunities to emerging poets and writers at their open mic spots at each event.

“In many ways, this partnership has been a revitalization of FCCS’s Reading Series, as it has a new crowd, with a different set of interests and values shaping the selection of visiting authors. It feels fresher than it has in years.”

Erin continues to work on her art practice with performances in the community and collaborates with many local artists, performers and writers. This past winter, Erin presented a storytelling event with Creative Writing professor, Michael V. Smith, and showcased her performance, Truth or Consequences at the Living Things Festival in February of 2019.

Ann Richards with some of her work in the print studio at UBC Okanagan

Ann Richards submitted two works to the Lessedra Mini Print Annual Exhibition in Sofia, Bulgaria at the Lessedra Art Gallery.  Approximately 241 artists submitted a total of almost 700 miniature prints.  Ten other UBCO students submitted and had their works accepted to the exhibition as well.  From all of the accepted works, a four-person international Jury selected Ann’s lithographic print, Fractured Sphericity, for Third Prize.

As there were so many works from UBC Okanagan students accepted into the exhibition this year the exhibition organizer, Georgi Kolev,  requested that they be mounted in a ’special presentation’ – a mini exhibition within the larger exhibition.  This is the second time UBCO students have been honoured in this way.  They were also granted a ’special presentation’ back in 2011 and we have been asked to make another next year in 2020.

“Ann took a very experimental and process-oriented approach to making her prints this past year”, noted professor Briar Craig. “She often allowed natural forces and serendipity to come into play with the production of her work to create a dialogue between imagery that is both human and naturally controlled.”

Lithographic print by Ann Richards

Ann is “interested in expressing human and natural interactions to start a discussion about climate change that isn’t overwhelmed by statistics and rhetoric”.

Ann will also be represented in a UBCO Student Printmaking exhibition entitled  Early Impressions at the Vernon Public Art Gallery   (July 25th to October 23, 2019).  Lubos Culen and FCCS prof, Briar Craig, co-curated the work of 13 UBCO printmakers for the exhibition.  There will be student talks about their work in the exhibition sometime this fall.

Ann grew up on a farm outside of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan. She started her university journey at the University of Central Florida, where she played volleyball for the University for 3 years. While there the team won conference during her first year and she was team captain during her third year. Ann then transferred to UBCO to play for the Heat for two remaining 2 years of athletic eligibility, while on the road to earning her BFA degree. While playing for the Heat in her first season, the team earned a spot competing in Nationals in Quebec City, and last year she was named captain of the team. Her future plans are to graduate with my BFA, work towards a teaching certificate, and to sign a professional volleyball contract with a European team.

Lithographic prints by Ann Richards

BA student Noelle Viger as the reader for the ceremony on June 7th

At this year’s convocation ceremony on June 7^th, the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies faculty and staff were happy to see nine masters and doctoral students, sixty Bachelor of Arts students, and fifteen Bachelor of Fine Arts students cross the stage.

“The Dean’s office and the entire FCCS faculty and staff are extremely proud of the year’s graduating students.  After many years of hard work and determination, ups and downs, our students crossed the stage at convocation, each and every one of them baring a radiant smile of success.” Says Marianne Legault, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies for FCCS.

After the ceremony, a reception was held in the Creative and Critical Studies building for all of the FCCS graduates and their guests to continue the celebrations of the day.

Bryce Traister, Dean of FCCS raised a glass to toast this year’s graduating class and their families.

“This year we say farewell, congratulations, and thank you to a group of super talented and hardworking students across the faculty. We say farewell to one of the smallest groups of BFA grads in our history, even as we welcome one of the largest entering BFA cohorts in UBCO’s fourteen years. We congratulate our big award winners and our quiet achievers alike. Your commitment to the arts, to culture, your practices and your interventions are truly inspiring, and for that, you have our thanks.”

FCCS is also pleased to recognize the achievements of the following graduating or continuing students who received awards for their outstanding academic performance this year:

• Mirabel Ankora, Art History and Visual Culture Scholarship
• Evan Berg, Asper Graduating Prize; Norma and Jack Aitken Prize in Visual Arts; UBC Okanagan Visual Arts Award; Head of Class (BFA)
• Megan Butchart, Kelly Curtis Memorial Scholarship in English
• Nevada Christensen, Cultural Studies Scholarship
• Selena Clark, Spanish Scholarship
• Ayla De Grandpre, French and Spanish Scholarship
• Eddy Duc Minh Dinh, Bachelor of Media Studies Scholarship
• Bailey Ennig, Asper Scholarship
• Josh Fender, Grizzli Winery Awards in Fine Arts Excellence
• Amelia Ford, Jack and Lorna Hambleton Memorial Award
• Angela Gmeinweser, Elinor Yandel Memorial Award in Fine Arts
• Faye Ilsley, French Essay Prize
• Elizabeth Izquierdo, Grizzli Winery Awards in Fine Arts Excellence
• Miranda Mitchell, Creative Studies Transfer Prize in Creative Writing
• Emily Moroz, French Scholarship
• Brian Murphy, English Scholarship
• Peter Navratil, Interdisciplinary Performance Scholarship
• Jessica Peitsch, Creative Writing Scholarship
• Sarah Polak, Grizzli Winery Awards in Fine Arts Excellence
• Margaret Ann Richards, Craig Hall Memorial Visual Arts Scholarship in Printmaking
• Amy Salter, Okanagan Visual Arts Scholarship; Grizzli Winery Awards in Fine Arts Excellence
• Lark Spartin, Grizzli Winery Awards in Fine Arts Excellence
• Sara Spencer, Doug Biden Memorial Scholarship in Visual Arts
• Arianna Tooke, Visual Arts Scholarship; RBC Royal Bank Visual Arts Scholarship; Murray Johnson Memorial Award in Visual Arts
• Noelle Viger, Dr. Shelley Martin Memorial Scholarship
• Melissa Weiss, Creative Writing Prize
• Aiden Wilhelmina de Vin, Asper Scholarship; Frances Harris Prize in Fine Arts
• Zoe Wineck, German Canadian Harmonie Club Prize in German Studies
• Angela Wood, Grizzli Winery Awards in Fine Arts Excellence

FCCS Faculty Margret Reeves and Janet MacArthur, this years Mace Barer

Bryce Triaster with BFA Medal in Fine Arts recipient Evan Berg and his mom, Mary Berg

MFA students Erin Scott, Nazanin Sahebnassagh and Richard Amante

Celebration with FCCS graduates

Bachelor of Arts students

Ramine Adl congratulating his student

MFA graduate Mariel Belanger with FCCS prof and supervisor, Virginie Magnat

What: Technology, Culture, and Education Unconference
Who: Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCSS)
When: June 18, 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.; June 19, 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Where: UBC Okanagan Campus, Commons building

UBC Okanagan is hosting an unconference on Technology, Culture, and Education on the UBC Okanagan Campus on June 18th and 19th. The conference, organized by professors Emily Murphy and Karis Shearer in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, is welcoming participants from the Okanagan technology, culture, and education communities. The event is generously hosted in the UBC Okanagan Library in the beautiful new Commons building.

What is an unconference?

Unconferences are informal, participant-driven events that facilitate peer-to-peer learning and collaboration. While attendees generate and propose ideas on the day, organization of the event happens spontaneously to suit participant interests and support community building.

If you have an idea about technology and culture, how you’d like education to address these topics, or problems that education can solve, propose a session! Sessions can be presentations, brainstorming sessions, or workshops. Commit to as much as giving a presentation or as little as asking a question and facilitating a discussion.

Why participate:

Are you:

• An entrepreneur or business owner who wants to hire students with critical thinking and technology skills?
• A student interested in culture, history, and technology?
• A teacher interested in how to teach technology and culture together?  
• A researcher interested in how technology and culture come together in different classrooms?
• A librarian or public sector employee interested in supporting learning in technology and culture?

Join us with a problem, a solution, a skill, a workshop, a presentation, or a question!

Register for the unconference: http://bit.ly/TCE_UnconfReg  

And propose an idea: http://bit.ly/TCE_Unconf

Conference Schedule

Tuesday, June 18

• 1:30-2:00 Afternoon Unconference Welcome and Planning
• 2:00pm-3:15pm Breakout I—Unconference-style Breakout Sessions (rooms TBA) 
• 3:15-3:45 Coffee Break (at participants’ cost)                                               
• 3:45-5:00 Breakout II—Unconference-Style Breakout Sessions (rooms TBA)  

Wednesday, June 19                                 

• 9:30am-10:00am: Morning Unconference Welcome and Planning
• 10:00am-11:00am: Breakout III–Unconference-Style Breakout Sessions (rooms TBA)                 
• 11:00am-11:30am: Coffee Break (at participants’ cost)                                                 
• 11:30am-12:30pm: Breakout IV–Unconference-Style Breakout Sessions (rooms TBA)

Short Story Contest Winners: (left to right) Victoria Alverez, Aria Davis, Erin Scott, Dania Tomlinson, Matt Rader, Alyssa Kong, Katie Welch, Akke Englund

Dania Tomlinson, lecturer with UBC Okanagan’s Creative Writing Program and previous contest winner, had the task of selecting the best new short stories this year. The top stories were announced at a public event at Milkcrate Records in April, with each of the writers reading a part of their story.

The annual contest, organized by the Creative Writing program in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, is a writing competition open to fiction writers in British Columbia’s Southern Interior. Writers submit their stories, which are then read, anonymously, by faculty, and the shortlisted stories are sent to a guest judge to choose the winners in the adult and high school categories.

Erin Scott graduated with her MFA in 2018, with a specialization in Interdisciplinary Studies. Her story, “Turn First to the Body in Real Space”, earned her the top spot in this year’s contest.

“What made the top three stories stand out was not only their freshness, but each author’s narrative control,” says Dania. “Erin Scott’s winning story is whimsical and witty. It is deep without seeming to try too hard. I fell in love with the narrator; I didn’t want to leave her head. This story is only five pages long and it accomplishes a lot.”

Second place this year with her story “Saint Watching Over House About to Burn” was Katie Welch, a writer from Kamloops. Third place went to recent MFA graduate, Victoria Alvarez with her story “Castañas”; Victoria was also in the top three in the 2017 contest.

“My favourite part about Katie Welch’s second place story is the subtly apocalyptic setting paired with the narrator’s sometimes flowery language. This story takes many risks! It is like nothing I’ve ever read before,” Says Dania. “Victoria Alvarez’s historical short story, Castañas, is carefully researched and beautifully told.”

Dania commented that there were so many fantastic concepts in the shortlist that did not make the top three—a story based around a marshmallow salad, another that begins with a death and goes backwards, a reimagining of a totally disturbing murder. With some polishing, paring down, or expanding, any of the stories on the shortlist could have been winners.

This is the second year that the contest has had the high school category, with Alyssa Kong of Okanagan Mission Secondary winning top honour with her story, “Ich Habe Mich Verloren.” Second place was Aria Davis of Kelowna Christian School, with a story entitled, “A Silver Necklace,” and third was Akke Englund of Salmon Arm Secondary School, with her story “Meadowside Manor.”

“I did not expect the narrative maturity these young authors demonstrated in their writing. Alyssa Kong’s winning story ends with such a fantastic twist that I was thinking about it hours later. It still gives me goosebumps.” Noted Dania.

This year, the Okanagan Short Story Contest had $2,000 in prize money to present from contest funders and sponsors: the Central Okanagan Foundation, the Amber Webb-Bowerman Memorial Foundation, and the Kelowna Capital News. The first-place author received $1,000; second-place winner received $400 and third place received $200. Top high school student also received a $200 prize.

In the fall of 2018, Bryce Traister, Dean of the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, was invited to give a series of lectures in Moscow and St Petersburg, on the occasion of the launch of the Russian translation of David Foster Wallace’s 1996 novel, Infinite Jest.

The trip was organized by the Moscow Embassy, Cultural Affairs Division, of the US Department of State. Whose mandate is to bring American artists and academics to Russia to engage Russian citizens with American culture. During his nine day visit, Traister presented a total of twelve lectures on Infinite Jest, on his own work on American Puritanism, and on the American dramatist, Arthur Miller, a favorite in Russia.

We met up with Dean Traister to talk about his research, the trip to Russia and how the trip impacted him.

Tell us about your research.

My research is primarily in the area of colonial American literature and culture, specifically religion. I am interested in how the legacies of Puritanism shaped and continue to shape politics and society in the United States today. I believe you can’t really understand America without understanding its past, and understanding the United States today is an important activity for everyone.

How did this trip change you, or change your perspective?

Wow. So I was a kid in the 70s, growing up in the chilliest phases of the Cold War, thinking that, any minute, the missiles would fly and we would all die in a nuclear fire or of radiation exposure. Russia, or the Soviet Union, was the “evil” agent in that extended national fantasy, and even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the “opening” again of Russia to the West, I took those memories with me to Russia.

The monuments to Lenin and Stalin are still there; the “wall of Heroes” is still displayed on the mighty Kremlin wall facing Red Square. But this is also the new Russia; their country, while not exactly “open” in the way we think of an open-access country, is curious about the West. Suspicious of it also, in various ways.

I loved interacting with Russians, in person, at cafes, on the subways. There is a kind of grim determination set in the faces of the Moscow subway riders, descending 100s of feet on the longest escalators I’ve ever seen, but there is also a ready wit and humor that came out at different times.

What was the most exciting or fascinating thing that you did while you were in Russia?

Hard to pick only one. I was invited to attend a lecture at Spaso House, the historical residence of the US Ambassador to Russia (whom I met), and I watched a debate erupt between the visiting speaker, a US political scientist talking about the (poor) state of US-Russian relations, and a famous Russian TV news anchor, who got into it over the Russian annexation of Crimea. Geo-Diplomacy right in front of me, while the US Ambassador fed his dogs treats in one of the most famous diplomatic buildings in the country.

The frosty political relationship between the US and Russia (and Canada) affected me directly, as I was told, on leaving Moscow, that I had become a “person of interest” to Russian state security because I entered the US Embassy several times, and visited Spaso House, all of which was tracked by Russian security. I hope that file is closed!

Oh, and the art! The art! The art!

Why was this trip important for your research?

In certain respects, it wasn’t—I am not a specialist in the American postmodern novel. But in another important sense, it confirmed my belief in the importance of bringing our work in the humanities and arts to the world, even if it involves a little risk (and a lot of time).

The Russians were fascinated by my talks about American Puritanism, how it explains so much, not just about the US, but about the resurgent millennial nationalism that the Russian Federation’s current president is advancing very specifically through the Orthodox Church.

As academics, we have much to offer, even when we think we don’t.

Statue of Stalin, Moscow (photo by Bryce Traister)

Kremlin Wall, Moscow (photo by Bryce Traister)

What: Disability, Access, and Art at UBC Okanagan: A Roundtable discussion

When: Tuesday, April 17 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Where: The AMP Lab, FIP 251, Fipke Centre, 3247 University Way, UBC Okanagan campus

UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies is hosting a roundtable  discussion for students, faculty, and staff who identify as disabled or are identified as disabled, and how they navigate this in a university setting.

This event is planned alongside the launch of creative writing professor Matt Rader’s new book, Visual Inspections. Part memoir, part essay, part poetic investigation, this book reflects on disability, access, vision, pain, community and resilience.

Moderated by Rader, this event invites all members of the UBC Okanagan community to listen, tell stories, and consider what art-making can teach about negotiating access as individuals and as a community. This roundtable discussion offers an opportunity to share personal experiences in a public setting

Rader notes that professors and students alike struggle at times understanding the principles that inform policy around accommodation.

“Many students, faculty and staff at UBC Okanagan find ourselves disabled by our bodies, bureaucracies and built environments,” says Rader. “I wanted to create a space to have a conversation about the issues that we face, the ways we can deal with them and to make everything as transparent as possible.”

In working with these students at this institution, Rader says his only real strategy is to make everything as transparent as possible, and to negotiate the issues some people face through conversation.

“This book would not exist without community, so the launch of the book is an occasion to bring some awareness to accessibility issues.”

The launch of Rader’s new book will take place on April 17, at Kettle Rover Brewery and will include two Masters of Fine Arts students, Richard Amante and Victoria Alvarez, reading from their final thesis.

Matt Rader is the author of four books of poems: Desecrations (McClelland & Stewart, 2016), A Doctor Pedalled Her Bicycle Over the River Arno (House of Anansi, 2011), Living Things (Nightwood Editions, 2008), and Miraculous Hours (Nightwood Editions, 2005), as well as the story collection What I Want to Tell Goes Like This (Nightwood Editions, 2014). His poems, stories and non-fiction have appeared in numerous publications across North America, Australia and Europe including The Walrus, Geist, 32 Poems and The Wales Arts Review, as well as several editions of Best Canadian Poetry in English.

Students from an Advanced Drawing class in the BFA program, have been working all year on a mural design to transform University Way into an experimental public art piece. These students, lead by visual arts professor Aleksandra Dulic and teaching assistant Emerald Holt, came up with the idea to convert the road into a locally situated, yet imaginative river.

“The mural responds to the ideas of human and environmental wellbeing in the Okanagan,” explains Aleks Dulic, “the class engaged in a set of readings on the topic of local sustainability to create experimental mural design that celebrate solutions that empower community resilience and diversity within the Okanagan.”

The larger goal for this project is to create an invitation for other classes and interests to participate over this year, with the overall purpose of enlivening and celebrating the campus public space with a positive and inspiring sustainability narrative.

The Campus Planning and Development and Campus Operations were closely involved into realization of this project. Led by David Waldron’s vision to initiate this temporary mural on the road along the University Way, this project celebrates the decision to convert the road into a pedestrian zone.

The initial mural, created in the fall of 2018, acted as an aspiration is to create an invitation for other classes that continued to develop this design this spring, with the overall purpose of enlivening this public space on campus.

As outlined in the UBC strategic plan “places play a profound role in shaping the experience of the people who work and live in them; people, in turn, are powerful influences on their places.” Building on this reciprocal relationship between people and places, the aim is to engage the students in thoughtful and conscious dialogue with Okanagan’s rich heritage across Indigenous peoples and settlers, local sustainability, and socio-environmental wellbeing.

“This artwork is be shaped and reshaped, as students get deeper into the researching and exploring the multifaceted colors of our beautiful Okanagan.” Says Dulic.

These students have worked transform the University Way road into a space for poetic expressions that enables our communities to experience, celebrate and extend their understanding of the Okanagan.

Students involved in the project are: Sara Spencer, Sidney Steven, Brock Gratz, DJ Haywood, Cassie McKenzie, Barb Dawson, Clare Addison, Gary Alexander, Reggie Harrold, Chelsea Robinson, and Mirjana Borovickic.