SCA | Quick News | November 24, 2023
Remembering Norman Armour
The SCA's James Long speaks for all of us at the SCA about the passing of Norman Armour:
It is with tremendous sadness that we lost one of our most esteemed alumni this week, Norman Armour. As a teacher, artist, leader, presenter, producer and mentor, Norman was integral in changing the performing arts scene in this city and country over the last three decades. While some of his most significant accomplishments included the founding of Rumble Theatre in 1990, co-founding and running The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival from 2005 to 2018, and his honorary Doctorate from SFU in 2018, his most indelible mark will be the continued and selfless mentorship he provided to countless artists and producers here in Vancouver, across the country and around the world. His practice was guided by hope, heart and generosity and for that he will be forever appreciated and equally missed. To get a small sense of the man, artist, community member and leader please have a listen to Am Johal’s very recent interview with Norman where they discuss his health, experience co-founding the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and his storied career in the Canadian arts scene. Rest in peace, Norman.
Awards announced!
We're happy to announce the SCA student recipients of some of the Scholarships, Awards, and Bursaries we're able to administer:
- School for the Contemporary Arts Scholarship: $1,000 each to Lauren Han and Rianna Richards
- Steven Shane Scholarship: $3,500 each to Evelina Groll and Sophia English
- Bice Caple Awards: $1,000 each to Justin Perdomo, Kinar Saragih, and Clara Xu
- Brian Taylor Award in Dance: $1,400 to Ruby Henderson
- Bill Jeffries Award for Indigenous Students in the Arts: $1,300 to Lillian Wallman
- Chris Welsby Experimental Film Award: $2,000 to Prapye Srisa-an
- Alderson Interarts Award in the School for the Contemporary Arts: $3,100 to Calla Paleczny
If you're an SCA student, please make sure to follow our social media channels, where we'll announce when the next round of awards are available, which we'll also post on our site HERE.
Marks talks Streaming Media
The SCA's Laura U. Marks talked about Streaming Media's Carbon Footprint & Green Film Festivals on Thursday, November 23, 2023, online for Tangerang, Indonesia's Binus University Alam Sutera. More HERE.
NOT JUST DANCE Symposium
The SCA's Justine A. Chambers and SCA alumni Heather Lamoreoux and Starr Muranko are participating in the NOT JUST DANCE Symposium, which runs November 25 & 26, 2023, at The Dance Centre (677 Davie St., Vancouver), co-presented by Co.ERASGA, Raven Spirit Dance, and The Dance Centre. Tickets and more HERE.
Harmony of the Spheres
The SCA's Owen Underhill was back in building this week rehearsing with the Turning Point Ensemble, which is presenting Harmony of the Spheres on November 25 at 7:30 PM & November 26 at 2:30 PM at UBC's Telus Studio Theatre at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Road, Vancouver). More HERE.
Unsettled Sites: Haunting Canadian Colonialism
From the archives (but with very current implications), here's the SCA's Raymond Boisjoly and Jonah Gray having a conversational-review of Unsettled Sites: Haunting Canadian Colonialism, featuring work by Marian Penner Bancroft, Wanda Nanibush, and Tania Willard, which ran at SFU Gallery in Burnaby, from May 7 to July 29, 2016. Read it HERE.
Maier in Copenhagen
The SCA's Stefan Maier will be at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from December 4 – 9, 2023, where he'll host a workshop, give an artist talk, and do a collaborative performance with sound artist Ragnhild May.
Stircrazer on tour
Architek Percussion are taking the SCA's Sabrina Schroeder’s Stircrazer on tour to Luxembourg and Bergen. More HERE.
Chambers and Kwan's Timeless Talk
The SCA's Justine A. Chambers and the Libby Leshgold Gallery's Vanessa Kwan are holding the "third and final installment" of the Contemporary Art Gallery's Timelines Talk series, which "invite open reflection on the future of 'Vancouver,'" on December 7, 2023, at 7:30 PM (555 Nelson St., Vancouver). More HERE.
SCA Wayback machine!
Go back in time to a version of the SCA's website from 2007 or so (and it sure looks like it!), which was discovered by chance by Suze Shore, the SCA's Director's Assistant. Mysteriously, it's still online! See it HERE.
Free Absolute Unit
With the SCA's Stefan Smulovitz and SCA alumnus Aysha Dulong contributing "electronics," John Korsrud's Absolute Unit is playing a free show on Saturday, November 25, 2023, at 7:00 PM in the Atrium at the Woodward's complex (111 W. Hastings St., Vancouver. More HERE.
See How We Run
Featuring SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement (VOCE) staff Julia Aoki, Kathy Feng, and Samantha Walters (the latter two of whom are also SCA alumni), here's the first episode of See How We Run, the new series from Below the Radar, the podcast from our friends in VOCE. Listen HERE.
Robinson talks Communication as Critique
SCA alumnus Dylan Robinson, who's also an Associate Professor in the School of Music at UBC, is giving a talk on Friday, December 1, 2023, followed by a reception from 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM in the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre here at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver), presented as part of SFU's School of Communication's 50th Anniversary programming. RSVP HERE.
Remembering Iris Garland through Tessa Perkins Deneault’s thesis
Read The Dance Current on the recently completed these project by Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology's Tessa Perkins Deneault’s on Iris Garland, who helped establish the dance area at the SCA. Read it HERE.
PuSh 2024
Here's Stir Vancouver on the recently-announced lineup for the 2024 edition of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, which includes SCA alumni Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim's asses.masses, Simona Deaconescu and SCA alumnus Vanessa Goodman's BLOT – Body Line of Thought, and Theatre Conspiracy and SCA alumnus David Mesiha's Same Difference (which has Milton Lim on Projection Co-Design and SCA alumnus Aryo Khakpour as one of the Dramaturges). Read it HERE.
Support ReIssue
Support ReIssue, the "interdisciplinary art writing platform" edited by SCA PhD student Casey Wei, which publishes such interesting texts as "In praise of hockey players on canvas: Artworkers from class division to new solidarities" by Steff Hui Ci Ling, which you can read HERE.
Sound in the show
SCA alumnus Michelle Sound joins Matthew Kirk, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Nadia Myre, and Judy Chartrand for an exhibition at Macaulay & Co. Fine Art (293 East 2nd Ave., Vancouver), opening Saturday, November 25, 2023, from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM. More HERE.
Congratulations, Megan!
Congratulations to SCA alumnus Megan Stewart, who was awarded a Leo Cheverie Cultural Connector of the Year award at the 2023 Prince Edward Island Arts Awards for her work on The River Clyde Pageant, which she co-founded, and related projects. More HERE.
Ecdysis online
The film version of SCA alumnus Emmalena Fredriksson's Ecdysis is having its "online premiere" on Sunday, November 26, 2023, at 8:30 PM (PST). Watch it HERE.
Behind the scenes with Zahak, the Serpent King
The Biting School's (SCA alumnus Aryo Khakpour and Arash Khakpour) premiere of Zahak, the Serpent King, runs November 30 – December 2, 2023, at The Annex (823 Seymour St., Vancouver), presented by New Works. Click through HERE for a behind the scenes montage and grab tickets HERE.
East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast
Theatre Replacement's East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast, which runs November 22, 2023 – January 2, 2024, at The Cultch (1895 Venables St., Vancouver), includes SCA alumni Howard Dai (Assistant Director), Sophie Tang (Lighting Designer), Cindy Mochizuki (Scenic Illustrator), Daniel O’Shea (Production Manager / Technical Director), and Maiko Yamamoto (Enchantress / Miso Potts), who's also the Artistic Director for TR. More info and tickets HERE.
…wreckage upon wreckage…
Under the artistic leadership of SCA alumnus Nancy Tam, A Wake of Vultures' …wreckage upon wreckage…, "a durational performance installation for solo performer accompanied by an immersive soundscape," runs December 2 & 3, 2023, at Dumb Instrument Dance's Morrow (910 Richards St., Vancouver). More HERE.
Plural Presence(s)
Art Action Earwig 예술행동그룹 이어위그, the "multidisciplinary performance collective" of SCA alumni Minah Lee and Wryly Andherson, are part of the exhibition Plural Presence(s), which runs November 5 – 26, 2023, with a closing reception on Saturday, November 25 from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, at the Pat Martin Bates Gallery (1800 Store St., Victoria). More HERE.
Shifting Paradigms
SCA alumnus Tin Gamboa joins Donna Redlick for Shifting Paradigms on December 3, 2023, from 3:45 PM – 6:45 PM at The Dance Centre (677 Davie St., Vancouver), for the last New Works' NW In Practice session of the year. More HERE.
How Would Lubitsch Do It S4E01
Listen to S4E01 of How Would Lubitsch Do It with SCA alumnus host Devan Scott and guest Jennifer Fleeger on Lubitsch's The Love Parade (1929). Listen HERE.
Second Spring pop-up
As part of their residency at the Western Front, SCA alumnus Julian Yi-Zhong Hou, Prince Nifty, Eddy Wang, and Fan Wu are presenting a "pop up shop" with Second Spring during the WF's normal hours and during special events. Click HERE for more.
Silverfox at SOVA
If you're in or around Dawson City, catch an artist talk by SCA alumnus Krystle Silverfox on November 29, 2023, at 6:00 PM at the Yukon School of Visual Arts (SOVA) (3rd Ave. & Queen, Dawson).
Decolonial Toolkit for Climate Artists
SCA MFA student Kevin Jesuino shared this "new free resource that is available for use by artists and arts organizations." Read on:
This resource – the Decolonial Toolkit for Climate Artists – is a straightforward document that addresses the intersection of colonialism, climate change and the arts. More specifically, the Toolkit aims to help artists consider their own cultural conditioning, confront the inseparability of colonialism and climate change, and develop a decolonial foundation for both the climate art field, and the arts sector more broadly.
The Decolonial Toolkit for Climate Artists emerged from multiple sessions with TRAction’s 5-member Indigenous Advisory Council, including Chantal Stormsong Chagnon, Cole Alvis, Sandra Lamouche, Starr Muranko and Jacob Crane. Along with TRAction's co-directors, Melanie Kloetzel and Kevin Jesuino, the Toolkit received key support from the four Climate Connectors of the Climate Art Web, Flora Aldridge, Mayumi Lashbrook, Nicole Schafenacker and Jen Yakamovich.
Please feel free to share this resource with your networks to support the ongoing decolonizing efforts in the arts sector. And feel free to direct any questions to tractionplanet@gmail.com.
Vox Organi: loscil + Lawrence English
In case you missed the sold out event, you can now watch the video archive of SCA alumnus Scott Morgan (Loscil) and Lawrence English's performance together on October 20, 2023, at Pacific Spirit United Church, presented as part of Vancouver New Music's 2023 Festival, Vox Organi. Watch it HERE.