Notice Board

At the University of Lethbridge, we enjoy promoting the projects and achievements of our very active students, staff, faculty, and alumni.  Faculty, staff, and students might have been primarily occupied with studies here on campus, but that wasn’t enough to keep them from breaking through boundaries… even international ones! 

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ART

-       Tanya Harnett (Art & NAS) has her exhibition Scarred/Sacred Water on display in two locations in UK. The exhibition is at the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen Scotland until Jan. 30, 2015. At the exhibition’s opening in August, Tanya did an artist’s talk jointly with Eriel Deranger, from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, a recognizable face in Alberta’s anti-oilsands movement. Scarred/Sacred Water is also on display at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Pitt Rivers Gallery, Oxford University, Oxford, UK from October 17, 2014 until May 3, 2015.  Tanya presented an artist talk on October 17 at the exhibition’s official opening.  Tanya also spoke on the topic of the Lebret Residential Petroglyphs as part of the Women’s Scholars Speaker Series on November 13.

-       Art faculty, alumni, and MFA candidatesspoke at the sixth edition of Articulations at SAAG, where art historians and artists shared their insight and expertise, providing an occasion and some new tools for thinking critically and engaging in conversation about art:

• Anne Dymond (Art)
• Cindy Baker (MFA Art candidate)
• Les Dawn (Art)
• Jane Edmundson (MA ’14, BFA Art ’06)
• Mary Kavanagh (Art)

-       Denton Fredrickson’s (Art; BFA Multidisciplinary ’01) artwork "Montanaside with Police Blotter," was recently published in the first issue of "Parking Lot,” an independent non-commercial handmade publication addressing inquisitive minds around the globe. Based in Amsterdam, the publication acts as a platform for original works by international contemporary artists, thinkers, poets, writers, and activists. As an interdisciplinary project, it encourages collaborations, experimentation, and a total disregard for comfort zones.

-       Student Grant Spotted Bull (BFA NAA) was featured in our UWeekly News.

-       A group of Art faculty will present their exhibition at the Trianon Gallery from late November to January 2015, with “senselikeblueplace”.  Dagmar Dahle (Art), Mary Kavanagh (Art), Annie Martin (Art), and David Miller have created an exhibition that examines their individual studio production in relation to one another’s, exploring what they feel is a shared sensibility. Through exchanges that have unfolded over months and even years, the exhibition presents works by the four artists in conversation.  The exhibition also offered talk/tours with the artists in attendance, with the next scheduled for January 6, 2015, at 12 PM with writer Erín Moure.

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DRAMA

-       Lisa Doolittle’s (Drama) multistage arts-based inclusion work reaches another milestone. 

• Video: The UpStart project video, part of the Complex Social Change project (2012-14) funded through the Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund, Research Services, University of Lethbridge, is complete.
• Book Launch: The launch for the Complex Social Change catalogue - including an article and photographs of the UpStart project by Lisa Doolittle and Dr. Jean Harrowing take place in January 2015.
• Fall Presentation: Lisa says that her arts-based inclusion work continues to grow in her Dance and Theatre for All Abilities (Drama3850A) class. Four of the UpStarts and two new additions are registered in the class, where students are creating dance and theatre pieces together with Doolittle and visiting artist Pamela Boyd of MoMo Mixed Abilities Dance Theatre, Calgary.  A public showing of their work took place on November 26.
• Inclusion: Auditions for the Mainstage production (March 2015) were held on November 23.

-       Sandra Paetkau (BFA Dramatic Arts/BEd '95) has been teaching high school in Saudi Arabia for the past few years. She and her new American husband are working together on a British Panto Theatre Production of Treasure Island in Saudi Arabia in December. She has also been designing costumes for her husband’s theatre group for the past three years.

-       Ryan Reese’s (BFA Dramatic Arts ’13) play Before the Night Takes Us just won the 2015 BSMT Dwellers Competition for emerging Alberta playwrights. As part of the prize, the play receives dramaturgical assistance from Alberta Playwrights’ Network (ATN) in preparation for production by Theatre BSMT at the Motel in the Epcor Centre next May.  ATN also provides the winner with a one-year membership to APN.   Before the Night Takes Us also won the 2014 Alberta Playwriting Competition Discovery Prize.  Ryan’s play Ascending the Blue won the 2013 Alberta Playwriting Competition Discovery Prize and took second place in the 2013 U of L Play Right Prize competition.

-       Theatre Outré’s production of The Birth of Casper G. Schmidt by Sky Gilbert debuted in November.  The production had many U of L connections:

• Jay Whitehead (Drama faculty; BFA Dramatic Arts ‘05) - Director
• Jocelyn Haub (BFA Dramatic Arts ‘13) - Actor
• Devon Brayne (BFA Dramatic Arts ‘13) - Actor
• Aaron Collier (Penny gallery coordinator) - Designer
• Richie Wilcox (Drama faculty) - Artistic Associate

-       Nicholas Hanson (Drama)  was in Toronto in November, as an invited participant of the Performance, Placemaking, & Cultural Policy workshop, a SSHRC-funded event that brought together artists, policy makers, arts administrators, and community activists from across Canada.  Nicholas also taught a workshop in advanced improvisational performance last month for the Edmonton-based Rapid Fire Theatre, one of North America's premiere improv organizations.

-       Craig McCue (BFA Dramatic Arts ’13) appears in a featured role (he's the one in the final moment) during the latest Heritage Minute video. 

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MUSIC

-       Mezzo-soprano, Dr. Sandra Stringer (music) performed the Musaeus String Quartet, on September 26 in Casa.  Gypsy Love is the first performance in the LSO’s Chamber Music Series and part of Lethbridge Art Days.

-       Andrew Staniland (BMus 2000), recognized as one of Canada’s leading classical music composers,  has just received one of the highest honours for an academic in Canada -- membership in the Royal Society.  Recently, the Society established a College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, Canada’s first national system of multidisciplinary recognition for the emerging generation of Canada’s intellectual leadership.  Dr. Andrew Staniland is one of two Memorial University professors to receive this signal honour.  

-       Airdrie Robinson (MMus ’14) was the first presenter at Emerging Sounds, the new joint project of the U of L Music Department and Lethbridge Public Library that includes lectures and recitals.  Airdrie presented a lecture based on her Master’s thesis which she also presented at the Music Conference Alberta in Edmonton: Influence of the French Violin School in Violin Pedagogy: Examining the Role of the Methode de Violon.

-       Rolf Boon’s (Music) Six Miniatures for clarinet and piano, performed by Don Ross and Roger Admiral, was broadcast on CJSR 88.5 Edmonton October 23 at 9:00 am on Avant Garde and Beyond.  The performance being used on the show is from the Society for New Music Edmonton CD, Brief Confessions.  Avant Garde and Beyond also airs in Ontario and Central Europe. 

-       Music Faculty, alumni, and students represented the University of Lethbridge through the U of L Wind Orchestra at the Music Conference Alberta in Edmonton, directed by Dr. Chee Meng Low (Music). Voice major Camille Rogers performed a major aria in the Gala Concert at the Winspear Centre as part of the conference, and conference presenters included Dr. Ed Wasiak (Music Education), Dr. Blaine Hendsbee (Music), and Airdrie Robinson (MMus ’14).

-       Arlan Schultz’s (Music) new work for solo flute, Entwirrung, premiered in Poland on November 4, 2014 and then performed again on March 30, 2015 in Greece by Dr. Iwona Glinka.  Dr. Glinka is Principal Flautist of the Athens Symphony Orchestra, a core member of the Hellenic Contemporary Music Ensemble and an international soloist in contemporary music.

-       Ian Fundytus (BMus ‘14) has been offered a contract with Calgary's Cowtown Opera as one of their ongoing roster of artists and he will also be singing the role of Gugliemo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte next spring.

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NEW MEDIA

-          Aaron Taylor (New Media) has recently published professional work in two online magazines, and two articles in peer-reviewed journals.

• “Performative Seriality and the Regenerations of Doctor Who.” In Media Res. 10 April, 2014.
•  “New Media and the Solipsistic Romantic Comedy.” Press Play. 30 May, 2014.
•  “A Cannibal’s Sermon: Hannibal Lecter, Sympathetic Villainy and Moral Revaluation.” Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image 4 (2014).
• “Avengers Dissemble! Transmedia Superhero Franchises & Cultic Management.” Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance 7.2 (2014): 181-94.

Aaron also had published a featured book review of George Melnyk’s Film and the City: The Urban Imaginary in Canadian Cinemain the October 2014 issue of Alberta Views.

For those interested in the latter essay, please don’t hesitate to contact Aaron for an offprint. Aaron also recently completed a six-year term on the Executive Committee of the Film Studies Association of Canada. He served as the Vice President of the Association from June 2012 to June 2014.

-          Deric Olsen’s (BFA Multimedia ’03; New Media faculty) locally produced drama Common Chord appeared as part of the Free New Media Film Series on October 8 at the Lethbridge Public Library Theatre.  The film earned Deric Alberta Music Production Industry Association award nominations for Best Director,  Best Editor,  Best Screenwriter (shared with Trevor Carroll) and Best Dramatic Production over 30 minutes, (shared with George Gallant).

-          Bob Cousins (New Media) was selected to represent Canada at the“BlueCat Screenplay Competition,” which focused on international screenwriters during October with 31 Days Around the World With BlueCat Screenplay.  BlueCat Screenplay Competition is a renowned American script competition, writer’s resource, and community for screenwriters. Bob Cousins has been a long time participant in the competition.

-          Brendan Matkin (BFA New Media ’13) created this lovely little film for National Film Board HotHouse program.  The film, which uses data from smart phone sensors, was created using the Processing environment, which is being introduced to the U of L New Media program next year. After a year of waiting, the film has just been released for public viewing.  Brendan is one of six people selected (from more than 100 applicants) to work with the NFB HotHouse Animation program last year.  During the paid apprenticeship, he spent 12 weeks working with a team that included a mentoring director, and technical and post–production experts.

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If you know of any U of L alumni, student, staff, or faculty member with research, creative works, or achievements that deserve recognition, please forward any article or release to Katherine Wasiak at katherine.wasiak@uleth.ca