Liz Ingram has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada and appointed University Distinguished Professor at the University of Alberta. The title of University Professor is one of the highest honours the University can bestow on a member of its academic staff and awards the title only to those individuals who have achieved outstanding distinction in each of the areas of research and scholarship, teaching, and service to the University and community at large. The scholarly work of the University Professor must have merited international acclaim and their teaching and student supervision must be highly esteemed by colleagues and students. Congratulations Liz!

Sue Colberg recently returned from Vancouver and the Alcuin Society’s Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, where Darkfire was awarded the first prize in the Limited Edition category (fine, hand-printed, hand-bound books of significant content). As a top prize winner in the National competition, Darkfire will now be entered in the book design competitions held in Leipzig and Frankfurt, two of the most significant book design competitions in the world.

Sean Caulfield has won the Triennale Prize at the 2nd Bangkok Triennale International Print and Drawing Exhibition (2009). Organized by Silpakorn University, in cooperation with the Siam Cement Foundation in Thailand, this exhibition is held every three years to offer Thai and foreign artists an opportunity to display their most recent works and to demonstrate the progressive development of modern art in Thailand. Sean also won first prize in the 6th Novosibirsk Graphic Biennale (2009) for a print related to his next artist’s book project with Sue Colberg.

Imagining Science, the book Caulfield edited with his brother Tim Caulfield, won first prize at the 2009 New York Book Show in the category of Scholarly and Professional. Imagining Science brings together internationally recognized artists, scientists, and social commentators to feature a body of original artwork and essays which explores the complex legal, ethical, and social concerns about advances in stem cell research, cloning, and genetic testing. Many important questions and themes emerged from this exchange, highlighting the linkages between scientific and creative research. This collaboration also stressed the vital role art can play in critiquing these biomedical technologies, particularly as advancements in science begin to challenge our ethical boundaries.

Current Student News

Jingjing Zheng, an MA candidate in the History of Art, Design and Visual Culture, was recently interviewed on CBC Radio Edmonton and by the Canadian Press. Jingjing discussed a research paper that she has recently co-authored with Professor Lianne McTavish in the Department of Art and Design. “Rats in Alberta: Pest Control and Provincial Identity during the 1950s” analyzes the colourful posters produced by the Government of Alberta to promote its anti-rat campaign.  

Leslie Robinson and Jill Ho-You, current students in the MDes and MFA programs respectively, have received Alberta Heritage Arts Graduate Scholarships. Funded by Alberta Heritage Scholarship Fund, the Arts Graduate Scholarship recognizes and encourages Alberta students who have demonstrated outstanding ability in the arts pursue graduate study. Up to five awards of $15,000 each are available for masters level study in music, drama, dance, literary arts, and the visual arts.

Alumni News

Sandy Bromley, BFA 1979, has received a UofA Alumni Honour Award. Sandy is an award-winning artist, humanitarian, and change agent whose work builds social awareness. Her Gun Sculpture, produced with Wallis Kendal, was created from deactivated firearms and was exhibited internationally at the World’s Fair in Hanover, Germany; the United Nations in New York; and in Seoul, Korea. A Canadian Consortium for Human Security Fellowship on women and post-war conflict societies led to her participation in a series of conferences on the plight of children. Sandy’s social activism reached closer to home when she co-established in 1998 the ihuman Youth Society, a non-profit crisis intervention centre dedicated to helping youth in despair.

Hope Burkard, BA HADVC Honours 2009, has won an Alison White Faculty of Arts Honors Prize. These prizes are awarded annually to graduands with superior academic achievement in the Honours program of the Faculty of Arts. Recipients are students who have maintained the highest GPA in the four years of their programs.

Brenda Draney, BFA 2006, received the distinguished RBC Canadian Painting Competition award for her work, Aim is Important. This award for emerging artists is one of the largest in Canada. Established in 1999, the RBC Canadian Painting Competition is a tribute to Canada's artistic talent. The goal of the competition is to support and nurture Canadian visual artists early in their career by providing them with a forum to display their artistic talent to the country and hopefully open doors to future opportunity.

Tim Lee, BDes 1999, has received a UofA Alumni Award of Excellence. Tim was the 2008 recipient of Canada’s Sobey Art Award, presented annually to a contemporary Canadian artist. He was lauded for the visual and historical complexities of his work, in which he commonly uses photography and video to replicate and re-imagine seminar moments in art history and popular culture. Since 2001, Tim’s work has been exhibited and collected internationally at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, Madrid’s Reina Sofia National Museum, and Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum.

Fiona MacDonald, MA HADVC 2006, has been accepted to do her PhD at Cambridge (King’s College) in Art History with supervision through Anthropology. Fiona’s MA thesis was a cultural history of the Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket.