Speaker Series

Upcoming Speakers

2025 Winter

  • Tuesday March 11, 5:15 p.m. | FAB 2-20
    Elisa Harkins (Visiting Artist), Artist Talk | "In this public talk, I will provide an overview of my practice as an artist and musician, focusing on how I integrate language revitalization, Indigenous histories, and traditional songs into my work. I’ll also touch on the process of blending contemporary art forms with cultural traditions and the importance of Land Back and sovereignty movements."  (view poster)

    Monday March 10, 7 p.m. | Timms Centre for the Arts
    Join Elisa Harkins for a performance of Wampum / ᎠᏕᎳ ᏗᎦᎫᏗa multidisciplinary performance blending Indigenous song, electronic composition, and movement to explore themes of language, sovereignty, and cultural memory. (view poster)

  • Thursday March 13, 10 a.m. | FAB 2-20
    Christopher Swift, Visiting Artist in Printmaking (Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Design at Binghamton University (SUNY)), Rethinking Design as a Collaborative Practice | The talk will explore how printing, archives, and material processes shape perception and challenge traditional notions of authorship in design. It will cover projects ranging from cyanotypes and camera obscuras to offset and risograph printing, emphasizing the unseen labor and collaborative networks—both human and nonhuman—involved in reproduction and design. (view poster)


About our Speaker Series

The Department of Art & Design hosts several visiting and local speakers annually. The Visual Art & Design Forum (VADF) is a speaker series for scholars, creative researchers, artists, and designers to discuss their projects with the 海角社区 community. Presentation formats vary widely, from the traditional lecture to dynamic panel discussions.


Previous Speakers

2025 Winter

  • 22 January 2025, 3:30 p.m. | Online: Shi Wenhua, Independent Filmmaker – The Act of Seeing (Something I Learned) (view poster)
  • 16 January 2025, 5:15 p.m. | FAB 2-20: Kelly RuthReality Is Not As It Seems (view poster)

2024 Fall

  • 21 November 2024, 5:15 p.m. | FAB 2-20: Dr. Erandy Vergara-Vargas, Assistant Professor of Art History, MacEwan University – Making Noise in the Public Space, Here and Over There (view poster)
  • 12 September 2024, 5:15 p.m. | FAB 2-20: Rachel Duckhouse, Visiting Artist: Printmaking – Same River Twice (view poster)
  • 10 October 2024, 5:15 p.m. | FAB 2-20: Beth Frey, Visiting Artist: FAB Gallery / Sculpture & Expanded Media – Artist Talk (view poster)
  • 17 October 2024, 5:15 p.m. | FAB 2-20: Zoë Heyn-Jones, Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow (2023-25), 海角社区, Department of Art & Design and Drama – Decomposition + Regeneration: Composting Art, Design & Performance in the Americas (view poster) 

2024 Winter

  • 18 January 2024, 5:15pm  FAB 2-20: Emmanuel Osahor – Notes on the Garden (view poster)
  • 01 February 2024, 2:00pm  Zoom Online (RSVP to gallery@ualberta.ca to receive event link): Niedzielski + Molina - From Here to There (view poster
  • 07 March 2024, 5:15pm  FAB 2-20: Robin Alex McDonald (Assistant Professor, Department of Studio Arts, MacEwan University) – Pink Triangles, Blue Feelings: Representations of Depression in 2SLGBTQ+ Contemporary Art (view poster
  • 14 March 2024, 5:15pm  FAB 2-20: Alicia Proudfoot (Artist in Residence, Sculpture)  –Somatic Archive through Sound and Form (view poster

2023 Fall

  • 14 September 2023, 5:15pm  FAB 2-20: Agata Stronciwilk (Wirth Institute Scholar) –  (view poster)
  • 28 September 2023, 11:00am Zoom Online: Kate Sellen (Health Design Studio, OCAD), Michelle Chan (Design Lead, Government of BC) and Christine Watridge (Health Communication Design Studio, St. Louis, Missouri) –  (view poster)
  • 12 October 2023, 11:00am Zoom Online: Katie Dainty (North York General Hospital), Damyen Henderson (University of Toronto), Maria Cheung (Taboo Health, Founder and Creative Director), Joe Langley (Lab4Living, UK) –  (view poster)
  • 19 October 2023, 5:15pm FAB 2-20: Raneece Buddan (Artist in Residence, sculpture) – Material Exploration: A Way Home (view poster)
  • CANCELLED: 23 November 2023, 5:15pm FAB 2-20: Mary Kavanaugh (University of Lethbridge) – Trinity, Then and Now (view poster)

2023 Winter

  • 17 January 2023, 5:15pm  FAB 2-20: Jill Miller FUTURE PERFECT (view poster)
  • 26 January 2023, 5:15pm  FAB 2-20: Riaz Mehmood – Poetic Resistance: Reflections on Ghazal: Songs for Home (view poster)
  • 14 February 2023, 2:15pm  FAB 2-20: Richard Boulet and Yvonne Mullock – Panel Talk chaired by Professor Sean Caufield (view poster 1; view poster 2)

2022 Fall

  • 22 September 2022, 2pm online:
  • 26 September 2022, 5pm online:
  • 05 October 2022, 4pm online:
  • 16 November 2022, 2pm online:  (Live Q&A/Artist talk pre-recorded)
  • 29 November 2022, 10am online:

2022 Winter

  • 24 March 2022, Howie Tsui: "Artist Talk"
  • 10 March 2022, Panel discussion with Aijie Shi, Anran Tu, Yi Liu, and Yiyin Xue: "The Double Life of Objects: Nature, Nation, Narratives and Their Material Incarnations in Twentieth-Century China"
  • 09 March 2022, Cinthia Sifa Mulanga: "Artist Talk"
  • 17 February 2022, Juliana Cerqueira Leite: "Public Lecture"
  • 03 February 2022, Heather Leier: "Public Lecture"

2021 Fall

  • 12 October 2021, Takeshi Takeno: ""
  • 23 September 2021, Lori Blondeau: ""

2021 Winter

  • 25 March 2021, Lisa Silverman: "Rethinking Jewish Space in Vienna before 1938"
  • 04 March 2021, Jackson 2bears: "Studio and Research Practices"
  • 11 February 2021, Ellen Lupton and Bon Ku: ""
  • 28 January 2021, Christina Battle: ""

2020 Fall

  • 19 November 2020, Owen Mundy and Joelle Dietrick: ""
  • 22 October 2020, Camille Turner: ""
  • 01 October 2020, Lindsey V. Sharman: ""
  • 22 September 2020, Paul Coldwell: ""

2020 Winter

  • 12 March 2020, Andrea Pinheiro: ""
  • 06 February 2020, Catherine Crowston: ""
  • 23 January 2020, Shafraaz Kaba: ""

2019 Fall

  • 21 November 2019, Marta Filipová: “Global, Post-imperial, or National? Austrian, Hungarian and Czechoslovak Pavilions at Interwar World’s Fairs”
  • 07 November 2019, Mitch Mitchell: ""
  • 17 October 2019, Yvonne Mullock: ""
  • 10 October 2019, Leigh Bridges: ""
  • 03 October 2019, Ouri Scott: "Indigenizing Design: Practice, Process, Product"
  • 26 September 2019, Jose Martinez: “”
  • 12 September 2019, Tom Rice: ""

2019 Winter

  • 13 June 2019, Denise Costanzo: ""
  • 04 April 2019, Sadiq Javer: ""
  • 02 April 2019, David Gibson: ""
  • 19 March 2019, Kelli Anderson: "The Hidden Talents of Everyday Things"
  • 17 January 2019, Ruthann Godollei: ""

2018 Fall

  • 22 November 2018, Matthew Witkovsky: "Štyrský, Toyen, Heisler: Between the Private and the Popular"
  • 08 November 2018, Allen Ball: ""
  • 25 October 2018, Brad Necyk: "Telling Stories Otherwise"
  • 11 October 2018, Jane Fine: ""
  • 27 September 2018, Jesper Alvær, ""
  • 25 September 2018, Jonathan Shaughnessy, "The Contemporary as Global: Collecting and Exhibiting the “Art of Our Time” at the National Gallery of Canada"
  • 20 September 2018, Miguel A. Aragon: ""

2018 Winter

  • 12 April 2018, Sandra Bromley: ""
  • 05 April 2018, Sean Caulfield: ""
  • 29 March 2018, Hong Kal: "Visual Images that Witness the Sewol Ferry Disaster in South Korea"
  • 15 March 2018, Monica Tap: "To see how the land lies"
  • 14 March 2018, Namiko Kunimoto: "Anxious Bodies in Postwar Japanese Art"
  • 08 February 2018, Kim Dorland: ""
  • 01 February 2018, Blair Brennan: ""
  • 18 January 2018, David Candler: ""

2017 Fall

  • 07 December 2017, Susanna Barlow: ""
  • 30 November 2017, Liz Ingram: ""
  • 09 November 2017, Tanya Harnett: ""
  • 02 November 2017, Marilene Oliver: ""
  • 26 October 2017, Etienne Zak: ""
  • 19 October 2017, Kristoffer Neville: "s"
  • 18 October 2017, Chrispin Elsted: ""
  • 21 September 2017, Naomi Potter: ""

2017 Winter

  • 16 March 2017, Jason Urban: ""
  • 09 March 2017, Jude Griebel: ""
  • 16 February 2017, Cindy Baker: ""
  • 26 January 2017, Scott Rogers: ""

2016 Fall

  • 03 November 2016, Eric Waterkotte: ""
  • 30 October 2016, Laura Prins: ""
  • 27 October 2016, Annea Lockwood: ""
  • 20 October 2016, ""
  • 06 October 2016, Josip Zanki: ""