There are two stories Jack Wong tells to explain his journey from engineer to children’s author: One rises out of the types of projects he worked on in his hometown of Vancouver leading up to the Olympics circa 2008. “A lot of those projects were controversial—relocating vulnerable populations, widening all the highways to increase vehicle capacity, perhaps at the expense of public transit,” he says. “Outside of my job, when conversations came up about what I did, I found myself avoiding questions about it. It was troubling that I was lying about my work, not because I knew what I was doing was negative, but because I didn’t have the critical capacity to actually form an opinion. When I started having those feelings, I knew I was in trouble.” The other is how when he was a kid, he excelled at both drawing and math, leading grown-ups around him to urge him towards an architecture career. When he graduated engineering school, he visited Europe with the intent to draw iconic structures en plein air to create an architecture portfolio, “then had the realization… I didn’t actually like buildings! For so long I’d gone on other people’s assessment of me based on aptitude alone.” he says. “I went to Europe telling everyone I was preparing to apply to architecture school, and I came back wanting to go to art school.”

He moved to Halifax in 2010 to pursue his BFA at ��ܽ����Ƶ. His debut children’s book, When You Can Swim, received both the and the . His third book, All That Grows, is out in March and can be pre-ordered now wherever you buy books (Wong likes in Halifax).

What made you choose ��ܽ����Ƶ from the other side of the country?

I wanted to shake things up—I’d lived in Vancouver most of my life. In February of 2010 I went to Portfoilo Day at ��ܽ����Ƶ and visited the other campuses in major cities. Halifax was the most different I could get while still being in Canada. I loved it as soon as I got here. After the visit, Bryan Maycock sent me a hand-calligraphed postcard telling me to apply to ��ܽ����Ƶ. I ultimately took Foundation Drawing with him, and had the pleasure of working with him for several years at the ��ܽ����Ƶ Drawing Lab.

I can’t even imagine the differences between engineering and art school.

It’s so night and day in every aspect. I went from a lecture hall with 100 students and never finding anything in common with the person in front of the class, to having instructors that encouraged one-on-one interactions. If I had any questions, I had someone to talk to. Having professors to go to not only for the content that’s being conveyed in the class, but everything outside of it—from career-planning to getting settled in Halifax.

And what were your career goals?

I came into ��ܽ����Ƶ with a fairly conventional view of being someone who made painting or drawings for galleries. By third year, a lot of those ideas were challenged and I also found it a lot of fun to work in installations and performance art. So at the end of ��ܽ����Ƶ I was thinking about everything from making imagery to being a curator and finding my place in the artist-run centre ecosystem.

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sits back from the street in full view of a construction site and in the shadow of another, an arts centre painted the colour of the sky on a late autumn afternoon. Its owner, Emily Falencki, is a New Yorker who came to Halifax “for love and ��ܽ����Ƶ—that’s what makes people move, isn’t it?” she says. Half of the 10,000-square-foot space’s bottom floor is Falencki’s commercial gallery, —fresh off a group show featuring ��ܽ����Ƶ Alumi, ��ܽ����Ƶ staff and long-time ��ܽ����Ƶ faculty members: Ursula Johnson, Melanie Colosimo, Sarah Maloney, Tim Brennan, Sheilah ReStack, Ryan Josey, Jenny Yujia Shi, William Robinson, Kayza DeGraff-Ford and many more. The other half houses the , which runs arts programs and outreach. Upstairs are artist studios (there’s a long waiting list of prospective tenants), a dark room, meeting spaces, and a communal kitchen. 2482 Maynard opened in October of 2020.

What made you want to create a space like this?

The whole idea came from living in the city for many years, being in the arts community, and seeing the need. One of the main needs was studio space—there is very little. A city of this size, a city bigger, a city smaller—they all support the arts and dedicate those kinds of spaces for making. And this city (surprising to no one who has lived here for a long time) does not.

The other thing was falling in love with—through my children and the work that they do—Wonder’neath. Wonder’neath had very precarious, not accessible housing for many years. I really didn’t want them to have to leave the neighbourhood, and they were facing that. The other thing I wanted to do for a very long time was open a commercial art gallery. This building allowed us to do it all.

Is there an existing space somewhere else that you modelled this on?

No, there are spaces—I’ve heard of them in other cities—but I think it’s quite different in terms of collaboration between private business and a non-profit. And in terms of the way we all operate separately, and do our own thing and our own programming.�� But we are all committed to using the entire building to support the arts and Artists.

We could fill it five times over. It has proven how much the city does need space for Artists, and how much it brings to a neighbourhood, and how successful it can be.��

When you become involved in the business of art, does it take away from the practice of art?

That’s a very good question. The way that I present this commercial space and what I do here is very much artist-led. That’s my expertise, and that’s where I come at this from—even though I’m using a commercial model and what I’m trying to do is hustle and make money for artists. Does it take away the time? Always.

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What have you done since leaving ��ܽ����Ƶ?����

After I graduated, I moved to Toronto and did a Master’s in Film degree at York University and I taught in both a high school and university setting. I then started my own company, IDRA Productions, in 2020. Growing my company has been my main focus since then. We have been developing TV shows, feature films, and short films, and I have also been learning how to produce.

What are you currently working on or have you most recently worked on? What is this work about?��

Through IDRA, we are currently developing two TV shows— a multicultural animated show and a live-action show set in Toronto during the 1980s raids. We are also developing a few feature films in Arabic, Persian, and English.

What continues to inspire your work?��

My community. My friends, my colleagues, my peers, the film community, the art community, the queer community. I was in Beirut during the explosion and only nearly survived. Just after the explosion, I saw so many people make art out of their experience and it inspired me to create my own. Those moments in life make you realize how important it is to have a community of artists and content creators and filmmakers. This is where my inspiration comes from.

How did your time at ��ܽ����Ƶ contribute to your career path?

��ܽ����Ƶ was the best time of my life. It gave me a platform and a space to make work and to show my work. It helped me get into festivals in Toronto and Montreal where I won awards. So that really opened up the way for me in terms of my career. Also, the friends I made there, including the faculty, are the friends that have stayed with me and supported me throughout my journey.

What was your��favourite��part of ��ܽ����Ƶ?��

The physical space. The studio, the equipment, and the community within it. ��ܽ����Ƶ offered a safe space where we could be creative without feeling the pressure of competition. Having been to a non-arts university to study film, I can tell you how different it is. At ��ܽ����Ƶ I had access to so many different kinds of art that I was able to incorporate into my film projects. Doing film at an arts university was a powerful experience and I highly recommend it to prospective film students,

What was your biggest takeaway from your time at ��ܽ����Ƶ?��

The film program taught me that art isn’t just about concept. You can have a great idea but if you don’t know how to sell it, how to get people involved, how to create a loving environment around it, it goes nowhere. It’s about building love around your art. Art isn’t just about the conceptual, it’s also about the practical, the physical, and connections that surround it to make it happen.

What is the��proudest moment of your filmmaking career?
Starting my production company with my business partner has been the proudest moment for me so far. That and being told that when I was on stage accepting an award at the Film at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, Wim Wenders whispered to a friend that I had great hair.

What do you wish you had of known when you were a student?��

Not to take things too personally or too seriously. As artists, we really want to protect the things that we make and we don’t realize how useless it is to protect something that is art. Art changes. It’s about giving and taking and breathing. So I wish I had of taken things a little less seriously.

What is something you can’t wait to do next in your career?��

My first feature film which I have been working on for two years. It will be shot in Canada, Lebanon and Argentina in English and Arabic.

Learn more about Raghed and IDRA Productions:
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What have you done since leaving ��ܽ����Ƶ?

When I graduated from ��ܽ����Ƶ as a printmaker with a minor in painting, I quickly realized I couldn’t afford a printing press so I pursued painting and evolved as an artist from there. I lived in the US for quite some time and worked as an art teacher, sharing my passions with my students. It wasn’t until I moved to Seattle in 2000 that I starting working on my art full time. I had my own studio and worked with the Women Painters of Washington group, which was an excellent resource for me in the development of my art. In 2020, my husband and I moved back to New Brunswick, where I am from. Most recently, I was accepted into the Kingsbrae International Artists in Residence program in St. Andrews, which was the most rewarding gift that I have ever been offered as a creative.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a series that evokes the dreamscape. When I started thinking about moving to back home to the East Coast, it prompted reflections on my childhood memories and all the different phases of my development there. It’s sort of like a thought discovery. Each panel is designed to represent an intangible observation of nighttime dreams or a child’s memories, distorted through the mist of time. The artistic goal of this series is to reconnect with a younger stage of development and a simpler worldview.

��What continues to inspire your work?

I am a narrative artist and I like the idea of telling our stories to find our shared commonality and to focus on the things that unite us. There is so much in our world that divides us and pits us one against the other and I want to stand up and pinpoint the things that bring us together as humans. In a world that seems so dark, it’s important to reconnect with the fundamental values of hope, understanding and acceptance.

How did your time at ��ܽ����Ƶ contribute to your career path?

I went to ��ܽ����Ƶ quite young and ignorant about who I was as an artist and what it means to be an artist and ��ܽ����Ƶ opened up my mind and helped me discover my voice. If I didn’t have that foundation of confidence that ��ܽ����Ƶ gave me, I might have gone in a different direction.

��What was your favourite part about ��ܽ����Ƶ?

��ܽ����Ƶ gave me my first opportunity to be in a collaborative environment with other artists where we talk and share. Artists are meant to inspire and be inspired so being around other artists who not only understand what I am talking about when I talk about my art but also have something to contribute, that’s an incredibly powerful and meaningful experience.

��What was the biggest takeaway from your time at ��ܽ����Ƶ?

To trust my training and the importance of my voice. ��ܽ����Ƶ really made a point of validating what we felt was an important concept or idea. It’s so important as an artist to have confidence in our voice and even though it took me a while to truly believe that, it was ��ܽ����Ƶ that had planted that seed for me.

What is the proudest moment of your art career?

Getting into the Kingsbrae International Artists in Residence program was a validation and told me to keep doing what I am doing. The time spent alongside other creatives, living in the same house, creating without time constraints for 30 days, became for all of us, a bond. Each of us worked on our proposed body of work with a focus only an environment like this could offer. We got to know each other, shared ideas and enjoyed developing friendships as like-minded creatives. It was a gift of time, creativity, and validation as an artist and I am now carrying that confidence into my work.

��What do you wish you had known when you were a student?

The importance of confidence. I looked around too much and saw what other people did and believed that their voice was more important than mine. I wish I had known that I could listen to and believe in my own voice more.

��What do you think is next for you?

It’s all exploratory at this point. I want to figure out where I belong in New Brunswick and what my role is going to be here. Is it bringing artists and studios together, is it doing residencies, is it teaching workshops? I am open to what being a New Brunswick artist looks like for me.

You can learn more about Denise and check out her portfolio on her website at .

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Fogo Island Arts (FIA) and ��ܽ����Ƶ University are pleased to announce a new internship partnership made possible through the generous support of artist and former ��ܽ����Ƶ faculty member Eric Fischl. The Eric Fischl Fogo Island Arts Internship will offer two ��ܽ����Ƶ University students or alumni the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in arts administration with Fogo Island Arts in 2021-22.

“We are delighted to pursue our work with Eric Fischl and to forge new connections across the Atlantic Region, all in the service of creating exceptional opportunities for learning and exchange,” said Nicolaus Schafhausen, FIA Strategic Director. “We are extremely grateful for Eric’s support as well as the chance to work with students trained within the rigorous creative framework and celebrated history of ��ܽ����Ƶ University.”

Participants in The Eric Fischl Fogo Island Arts Internship program will work as support staff in the offices of Fogo Island Arts, contributing to day-to-day program operations and communications over a three-month period. The interns will receive a stipend and will be provided with housing, travel expenses, and studio space, in addition to invaluable opportunities to engage with FIA’s international artists-in-residence and community members across Fogo Island. The ��ܽ����Ƶ University partnership is the second FIA internship program funded by Fischl and follows the same parameters as the ongoing partnership with the New York Academy of Art (NYAA), established in 2017.

“Fogo Island Arts is a place where artistic exploration, research and knowledge-sharing is nurtured and encouraged,” says Melanie Colosimo, Director of ��ܽ����Ƶ University’s Anna Leonowens Gallery. “This type of learning opportunity is incredibly valuable, as putting practice into play can prove to be a pivotal moment in establishing a career in the arts. The ��ܽ����Ƶ community is fortunate to have access to this internship.”

The partnership between FIA, Fischl, and ��ܽ����Ƶ University reflects a shared understanding of the need for expanded educational opportunities within the contemporary art world, as well as the critical role that art and education play in enriching communities.

Applications will be open to ��ܽ����Ƶ students and alumni in March 2021. For more information on the internship and application procedure, please visit ��ܽ����Ƶ University’s .

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‘One Wave’ is curated by Mireille Eagan, and is circulated by The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, St. John’s, NL.

View the exhibition .

See more of Ned’s work at .

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“Julie is a true craft historian with a dedicated connection to ��ܽ����Ƶ,” said Dr. Ann-Barbara Graff, Vice-President (Academic and Research), ��ܽ����Ƶ University. “She has a deep commitment to the radical transformation of craft history reflecting the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion. She’s also a valued member of the Nova Scotia arts scene. Her work with local artist-run centres such as Eyelevel and with non-profit organizations such as Books Beyond Bars set a great example for students on how to bring the arts to all corners of our community.”

After graduating from ��ܽ����Ƶ, Dr. Hollenbach earned an MA, Art History, from Queen’s University, before finishing her PhD in Art History from Queen’s in 2017. She has produced a number of peer-reviewed essays and curatorial projects to date, and has published research on contemporary and historical craft and art, material culture studies, museum studies, and gender studies.

“I really enjoy centering queer, feminist, and decolonial methodologies in my research and teaching,” explained Dr. Hollenbach. “My current research investigates the genealogy of Western middle-class leisure and consumption within the Canadian settler-colonial context. This work considers historical shifts in labour and production, class, and gendered social and material relations. My research demonstrates the impact colonialism has had on craft as  a racializing process ��ܽ����Ƶ in Canada.”

Dr. Hollenbach is excited to expand on these themes with ��ܽ����Ƶ students, and is looking forward to connecting with students from all over the world via ��ܽ����Ƶ’s developing slate of online programs.

“The circumstances we all find ourselves in right now are challenging, but they also present a wonderful opportunity to teach, learn and grow as artists,” she said. “Artists produce some of their best work in challenging times. I’m really looking forward to seeing what our students create during this time, and I’m excited to connect online with students from a number of different countries and backgrounds.”

Outside of the classroom, Dr. Hollenbach retains her connection to the provincial arts community by working with a number of programs and organizations. Along with curating projects at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and MSVU Art Gallery, Dr. Hollenbach has recently worked as  a mentor with the Media Art Scholarship Program(Centre for Art Tapes), as well as serving  as a guest curator during studio visits to the New Graduate Mentorship Program at Visual Arts Nova Scotia (VANS).

Dr. Julie Hollenbach commences her new role as Assistant Professor of Craft History and Material Culture in the Division of Art History and Contemporary Culture at ��ܽ����Ƶ on July 1, 2020.

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Joanne is known for taking great joy in selecting items for a still-life�� painting, taking inspiration from form, shape and colour combinations. View her virtual exhibition at St. Mary’s Station Gallery by clicking .

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During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Duane Jones (BDes 2004) launched the #KeepCreating��ܽ����Ƶ initiative to celebrate ��ܽ����Ƶ alumni and friends’ amazing work.

#KeepCreating��ܽ����Ƶ gives our community a chance to both inspire and be inspired.

Share your work today by using the hashtag #KeepCreating��ܽ����Ƶ and enjoy what others have made.

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