Women’s Achievements at ECU | International Women’s Day 2021

Artists Diane Blunt, Megan Jensen, Sydney Frances Pascal and Kelsey Sparrow organized, curated and participated in the 2020 Aboriginal student art exhibition. Titled Here, the show brought artist Christie Lee Charles to ECU for a performance at the Feb. 24 opening reception.

Artist Meghan Jackson (BFA 2019) was just settling into her role as Coquitlam’s artist-in-residence when lockdown began. And while the pandemic would — and continues to — shape the face of arts both in Vancouver and around the world, Meghan was already working to confront a trend of siloed and decentralized arts communities that had been shaping Lower Mainland cultural practices since long before the pandemic struck.

During the churning uncertainty and eerie silence of early lockdown, artist Abi Taylor donned a bandana and headed out, paintbrush in hand, to brighten Vancouver’s boarded up streetscapes with her murals.

From her balcony in East Van, artist Sara-Jeanne Bourget (MFA 2019) (along with her partner, artist Mark Johnsen, MFA 2020) began a virtual printmaking residency to combat lockdown-era isolation. Most of a year later, and the Patio Press residency project is well into the second round of its new printmaking fellowship, first established in 2020 in partnership with ECU.

Later in the year, students in Sara-Jeanne's third-year drawing would find themselves inspired by their instructor’s emphasis on paying closer attention to one’s immediate surroundings and developing a deeper appreciation for the communicative power of the everyday.

Artists and ECU faculty members Lindsay McIntyre and Annie Briard both landed solo exhibitions during lockdown as part of the 2020 Capture Photography Festival. Lindsay’s show, Lindsay McIntyre: the tool of the tools, opened virtually via Marion Scott Gallery. Annie’s show, All the Light You Cannot See, was presented virtually by Mónica Reyes Gallery.

Later in the fall, Annie would be featured in a new book presenting conversations between authors and visual artists on the subject of disinformation, propaganda and the persuasive power of language. And in the new year, Annie’s solo exhibition, Within the Eclipse, opened at the Burrard Arts Foundation following her residency there.

In April, 2020, the Sobey Art Foundation announced it was cancelling most of the 2020 edition of its much-anticipated annual Sobey Art Award program due to the pandemic. Instead, each of the 25 artists on the jury-selected longlist were awarded $25,000. ECU alums Tsēmā Igharas (BFA 2011) and Zadie Xa (BFA 2007) were named to that longlist.

Multidisciplinary artist Erica Stocking (BFA 2004) was one of the first Canadian artists to offer a model for response to the rapidly evolving isolation requirements everyone was facing as COVID-19 swept through communities nationwide.

Designer Allison Chan (MDes 2020) used her graduation project, Interpulse, to point to data visualization as a tool for breaking people out of the “fugue of daily routine.”

Interdisciplinary artist, writer and educator Laiwan released TENDER, a complex book of poetry featuring works spanning 30 years.

Loretta Todd, award-winning filmmaker, writer, digital storyteller, and creative director of the Indigenous Matriarchs 4 (IM4) research project, was lauded for her persistent and innovative approach to keeping the “cameras rolling” on the APTN children’s series Coyote’s Crazy Smart Science Show, despite the global film industry being virtually stopped in its tracks by the pandemic.

In May, artist, scholar, researcher and educator Tiffanie L. Ting was appointed as ECU’s new Executive Director of Continuing Studies.

With help from her apprentice, artist Mary Rusak (BFA 2020), artist Kitty Blandy (BFA 2009) responded to the pandemic with Meditation Pathway, an installation work that saw the pair carving and curving a looping footpath into the ground outside Kitty’s house.

Designer Zoë Boudreau (BDes 2019) led a group of ECU design alums to create ‘Non Isolating Postcards’ — free, printable postcards to encourage people to reach out and connect with loved ones from inside isolation.

Artist Stella Zheng (BFA 2020) designed a striking illustration for Solidarity Forever, a collaborative artist-initiated fundraising project which supports artists, arts and culture organizations, frontline service organizations and businesses in Vancouver’s Chinatown.

In an effort to combat the impact of COVID-19 on local restaurants and businesses, artist, designer and ECU alum Jodie Lavery started collecting donations in exchange for small paintings on paper. Her initial goal was modest, but she quickly surpassed her own expectations.

An exhibition of new works by Vancouver-based Iranian-Canadian artist Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi (MFA 2017) at the Sunshine Coast Arts Council’s Doris Crowston Gallery garnered attention from all corners of the province, with Mehran featured in a podcast, a CBC Radio interview and in print.

Artist and ECU staff member Taryn Coulson took time out from working on a new mural in her department’s offices to talk about her practice, her influences and the relationship painting has to a world saturated by digital imagery.

A drawing by artist and ECU associate professor Alexandra Phillips was selected for the prestigious Derwent Art Prize Exhibition.

Video producer, arts-based researcher and ECU faculty member Sarah Van Borek, aimed to channel the intensified awareness of place and experience brought by lockdown to her summer sound-arts course, ‘Nature Speaking.’

Artist Melany Nugent-Noble (MFA 2015) spoke in the summer about her 2020 project When it is necessary to stand still. In February, 2021, she took time to reflect on the fantastic reception it received from members of the public.

Writer and director Anaïsa Visser (BFA 2013) was still in the final months of her MFA studies at UBC when COVID hit. During the summer, she brought that firsthand experience to her ‘Bring Your Own Device’ video production course — her first time teaching at Emily Carr University.

Interdisciplinary artist and ECU faculty member Diyan Achjadi launched a new book looking back at her public art project Coming Soon!. The year-long work, commissioned by the City of Vancouver, used the built environment as a support for prints evoking themes of decay, change, gentrification and the political dimension of urban planning.

During the summer, poet, writer and ECU faculty member Jacqueline Turner led her students through coursework aimed at encouraging collaboration in creative practice.

Artist Fadwa Bouziane (MFA 2019) built her summer 2020 course with an aim to show students how performance art can be a space of resistance against the experience of loneliness, the trauma of isolation and the bizarre ordeal of conducting business and social life through a screen.

Over a series of summer courses, artist Russna Kaur (MFA 2019) encouraged her class to look no further than the place they call ‘home’ for inspiration. Months later, in early 2021, Russna shared the outstanding news that her largest-ever painting — a work she says was key in her artistic development — had been acquired by the Vancouver Art Gallery.

As Connie Watts, interdisciplinary artist and designer, and associate director of Aboriginal Programs at ECU, completed an extensive design project for M’akola Development Services in Langford, BC, she took a moment to talk about the possibilities that are opened up by rethinking — or unthinking — the relationship between the categories of art and design.

The glaring paradox between COVID-era expressions of public care and the simultaneous and repeated displacement of former residents of the Oppenheimer Park tent encampment spurred ECU student Rebecca Wang to turn to podcasting to document the ongoing story of people experiencing homelessness in one of the world’s wealthiest cities.

Bloom, a film written and directed by multidisciplinary artist Sara Page (BFA 2020), was selected to appear at the 2020 New West Film Fest (NWFF). Sara’s short film, Revenge of the Supermom, would also go on to win numerous awards and be featured at festivals across the United States and Canada.

A series of college works by artist and ECU faculty member Randy Lee Cutler, begun in the early days of lockdown, were selected for public display on bus shelters across Vancouver as part of the City of Vancouver’s Platforms 2020: Public Works project.

Under mentorship of design activist and fashion and sustainability pioneer Kate Fletcher, designers and ECU students Morgan Martino and Naomi Boyd took aim at systemic inequity with their project, Pocket Change. The project focused on how textiles can be a site for reclaiming agency.

POOL, a project led by designer and ECU grads Nura Ali, Annie Canto and Jean Chisholm under mentorship of writer, editor and Artspeak director/curator Bopha Chhay, explored new models for community-building, and new ways of approaching the work of community support and activism.

Yarlung, the fourth-year student animated short film by artist and recent ECU grad Kunsang Kyirong (BFA 2020) was awarded first prize for Canadian Student Animation at the 2020 Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF).

Artist and ECU alum Gloria Wong (BFA 2020) was featured in one of a suite of spotlight stories on outstanding work by recent arts and design graduates in online magazine It’s Nice That.

As the pandemic put an end to any number of projects and events all over the world, foundation students Parnian Amani, Kashish Hukku Jani and Hayley Ng (with guidance from faculty member Jacqueline Turner and second-year student mentor Thu Le) knuckled down to produce Points of Connection — the 2020 anthology of writing by foundation students.

Across the Bridge, an animated short created by Alisha Steinberger (BFA 2020) with her partner Goody Chao Wu (BFA 2020), appeared as an official selection at the renowned Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Artist Ann Marie Fleming (BFA 1989) had her animated short Old Dog featured in 2020’s SPARK Animation Film Festival in Vancouver.

Artist Carollyne Yardley’s works reflecting on the blurry boundary between the human and non-human worlds were featured as part of a group show at Fazakas Gallery.

Gillian Siddall, President and Vice-Chancellor of Emily Carr University, was named to the 2020-2021 board of directors for Universities Canada.

Accomplished designer and educator Karin Jager (1985) — whose 30-year-old design for the United Nations’ World Food Programme was still proudly borne by the organization when it won the Nobel Peace Prize last year — spoke about her success, crediting it to a lifelong emphasis on authentic human relationships.

33’ Lot, a student documentary by Sarah Genge, made the rounds at film festivals in 2020, with an appearance in the national student short-film competition at the prestigious Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal (where it represented Emily Carr University) and an appearance as an official selection at the Whistler Film Festival.

Artist, designer, curator and community advocate Lou-ann Neel (BFA 2015) won a Fulmer Award in First Nations Art from the BC Achievement Foundation (BCAF).

DIY Brush Making, a project led by artist and ECU faculty member Mimi Gellman, provided video and PDF tutorials for using found materials to create brushes with unique mark-making capabilities — a vital lesson as many artists face barriers to purchasing pricey supplies from retail outlets.

Caylee Raber, director of the Health Design Lab at ECU, led the Come Alive project through its third year of helping families come together, even during COVID-19.

Michelle Chan (BDes 2020) harnessed the power of participatory design to craft healthcare systems that grant more agency to patients.

Sydney Frances Pascal, artist, researcher, activist, family archivist and community advocate, found a portal for rekindling connections in hide-tanning, and another in the community she discovered at the Aboriginal Gathering Place.

Serisa Fitz-James (BFA 2020) was chosen as PoMoArts’ next Ceramic artist in residence.

On January 6, accomplished educator and community facilitator Marcia Guno joined ECU as the university’s new Vice-Provost, Students. Marcia, who is from the Nisga'a Nation, brought with her an exceptional record of supporting student empowerment.

The Rear Window Cinema project, led scholar, curator and ECU faculty member Alla Gadassik brought moving-image arts squarely into the public sphere, by transforming the private windows of artists into screens for public viewing.

Artist and ECU faculty member Julie Andreyev and her students paired with Vancouver New Music musicians to create a series of eight Polydimensional Score pieces.

ECU Research Faculty Lead Emily Smith headed the Fibreshed Field School initiative; a community-activated program connecting a wide range of artisans, farmers, and educators with local fibre systems and supply chains.

Vivian Chan, artist and ECU illustration student, worked nights over the summer to create the many dozens of characters that now populate the virtual world of Chinatown XR.

Our Sparkles, a short animated film by animator Catelyne Ma (BFA 2020), garnered high praise at festivals as far afield as the UK, and earned Catelyne an internship at award-winning Vancouver animation studio Linetest.

An ongoing audio/video project by artist and second-year ECU Master of Design student Oluwasola “Sola” Kehinde Olowo-Ake found new legs as a podcast.

An artist talk and solo exhibition of works by artist and ECU faculty member Christine Howard Sandoval at the Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG) opened in February. The show explores the relationships between land, language, image and archive.

Artist and ECU faculty member Gina Adams completed a new series of porcelain works, titled Broken Treaty Medallions, and was featured in a Wall Street Journal article for her contribution to a major exhibition of works at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR.

Designer and ECU faculty member Sophie Gaur discussed her strategies for bringing an emphasis on personhood and agency to the practice of designing for an event as old as the world.

We encourage our readers to look back through the ECU news archives to discover all of the truly extraordinary contributions women have made and continue to make both within our university community, and to the world more broadly.