Artists, Connections, and the place of the University in the Arts Ecology of Saskatchewan

Fri., Nov. 25, 2016 3:30 p.m. - Fri., Nov. 25, 2016 5:00 p.m.

Location: University of Regina, ED 113

Dr. Ian McWilliams completed an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Canadian Plains Studies at the University of Regina in 2014 and is currently a researcher with the Saskatchewan Partnership for Arts Research as well as the Research Officer for the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance. Apart from his work on the current arts ecology of Saskatchewan, his
research also focuses on Town Hall Opera Houses and related performative events within late nineteenth and early twentieth century prairie communities as catalysts and vehicles for place-making and the development of social cohesion in the Canadian west. For the past decade, he has been variously employed as an actor, broadcaster, student, and educator. McWilliams earned both his B.F.A. and M.A. at the University of Saskatchewan.

Sam Hage is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at the University of Regina. His research interests are in the areas of Global Change and Complex Systems, Risk and Uncertainty, Research Methodology and Statistics, Survey Design, Social and Cultural Capital, and the Sociology of Knowledge and Education.

Dr. Mary Blackstone (Professor Emerita, Department of Theatre, University of Regina; Director, Centre for the Study of Script Development) serves as Director of the Saskatchewan Partnership for Arts Research. She oversees both the evolution of the partnership and the 3 year arts ecology research project. Past Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Regina, current board member and chair of the Research Committee for the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance, and current or past board member for several other provincial arts organizations, Blackstone brings a broad knowledge of the provincial arts scene and demonstrated administrative ability. For the past 13 years she has also served as Director of the Centre for the Study of Script Development (a community-based research centre set up in 2000 by 10 partner organizations from the arts community). She has worked as a dramaturg with playwrights and directors in the development of new dramatic work for stage, screen and new media. She worked with the Canadian Panel on Research Ethics towards the 2nd edition of the Tri-Council Policy Statement. As an early modern cultural historian she examines the role of travelling English performers and the networks they formed in the negotiation of political allegiance, social, cultural and religious values in the communities they visited. Although distant in geography and time, her study of the cultural neighbourhoods created by early modern performers, draws on theoretical material relating to place making as well as cultural and economic networks that are central to the study of the local arts ecology in Saskatchewan.