OCAD U student group Art in Public Spaces invites you to their speaker series of artists and members of the Toronto public art world who discuss their work, including inspiration, proposals, fabrication, and they will respond to your questions.

OCAD U student group Art in Public Spaces invites you to their speaker series of artists and members of the Toronto public art world who discuss their work, including inspiration, proposals, fabrication, and they will respond to your questions.

Get involved with the experience of installing public art by joining the Art in Public Spaces club at OCAD U.

An online art party to gather, catch up, and make some art!

This year, to make sure everyone stays safe and comfy, OCAD Artist Alley has decided to go virtual!

Come to OCAD's student-run Holiday Artist Alley! You'll find a wide variety of beautiful posters, prints, zines, stickers, greeting cards, ceramics, fashion, jewelry items and more from local creators. Support 50+ OCAD U artists and alumni. This event is open to the public so come by and support local artists! FREE ADMISSION!

Remember to BRING CASH as most artists do not have card readers. There are ATMs in the building. We are a wheelchair accessible space. Please take the (main lobby backside) elevators to the 2nd floor. Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/ocadartistalley/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/ocadartistalley/

We'll be revealing artist profiles leading up to the event! If you want to volunteer or have questions, please contact: kmoore@ocadu.ca The OCAD Artist Alley is a student initiative, created with support from OCAD Student Union, to give Students and Alumni across all programs the opportunity to exhibit and sell their work. Poster art by Becky Wu. Tickets NOT needed for entrance

The Faculty & Curriculum Development Centre: Indigenous Education Speaker Series invites all OCAD U students, faculty, staff and the broader community to attend a public talk by:

DR. NIIGAAN SINCLAIR Friday, November 22^nd, 2019 | 1:30 pm-3:00 pm OCAD U, 100 McCaul St, Room 190 

All are welcome

RECONCILIATION

Dr. Sinclair will be speaking about Anishnaabeg art and literature, bridging understandings towards reconciliation.

“Reconciliation is about the hard work of sharing. It's about resources, time, space and land. This means commitment to change, in all its complicatedness.” Niigaan Sinclair, Winnipeg Free Press, 08/17/2018

Dr. Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair is Anishinaabe from St. Peter's/Little Peguis, Manitoba. Currently on sabbatical as an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba, his work spans national and international print and publications. In 2018, he joined the Winnipeg Free Press as a columnist and in May 2019, Niigaan was named Canada’s Best Columnist, winning also a distinguished National Newspaper Award. He is also a recovering high school teacher.

Dr. Sinclair’s talk will be followed by a question and answer period.

All are welcome!  

OCAD U Teaching Expo - CALL FOR PROPOSALS -

CHALLENGING OUR ASSUMPTIONS: TOWARDS MORE INCLUSIVE WAYS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE: November 26, 2019  

Organized annually by the Faculty & Curriculum Development Centre, the OCAD U Teaching Expo is an opportunity for all who teach or support learning in the OCAD U community to gather and share practices, ask questions, build relationships and collaborate with fellow educators. This peer-reviewed, full-day event is dedicated to reflecting upon our teaching and learning practices through workshops, presentations, facilitated discussions and demonstrations of class activities. The Teaching Expo will be held on Friday, January 17, 2020 at OCAD University. This year, we are pleased to feature invited speaker Dr. Tanya Titchkosky, Professor in Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto.

The theme of this year’s Teaching Expo invites you to consider how we, as educators, practitioners and scholars, need to challenge our assumptions—about our students, classrooms, disciplines, creative practices, institutional policies, and ourselves. Do we sometimes assume that all our colleagues share the same background knowledge, or all our students bring the same key skills or a shared understanding of classroom culture to their studies? How do we commit, as a university, to be “student-ready”? 

Reflecting on these assumptions and perspectives will deepen our understanding of the multi-faceted and diverse histories and backgrounds of our learners, colleagues and institutional policies and practices. Join colleagues from across the university in a critical dialogue that seeks to challenge our assumptions as educators and share new perspectives and strategies for inclusive teaching. We will also engage in discussion and activities grounded in the principles of Universal Design for Learning, an approach to teaching and learning that values reflection and embeds equity, diversity and accessibility into our practices. 

Proposal submissions are welcome from all faculty and staff who support teaching and learning at OCAD U. When preparing proposal submissions, we invite you to consider such questions as: 

• What assumptions underpin our work as educators in an art and design educational context? What is the impact of these assumptions? 
• What are some of the challenges we have in our classroom/studio/office around accessibility, equity and inclusion? 
• What are some of the unique strategies, approaches or theories that inform our inclusive teaching practices?
• How does our research and/or practice drive our perspectives on disability, oppression, social justice, Indigenous learning and decolonization in higher education? 
• How do we engage with students/colleagues? What strategies do we use to actively listen and collaborate with others? 
• What means/formats do we use to present new information? How do we plan for different learning preferences, languages, age, culture, abilities and experiences? How do we work across these differences to foster creativity and innovation? 
• How do we encourage our learners to show their knowledge in multiple ways?  

TYPES OF SESSIONS (30 or 60 minutes each):  

Mini-lesson: Facilitate a hands-on activity where participants will become your actual students and will share their reflections from that perspective. 

Teaching or educational research presentation: Present a successful project or assignment that you have developed for your students and initiate a reflective dialogue with your peers, or share with your peers a completed or in-progress educational research project.

Faculty/staff/student panel: Bring together a panel of faculty, staff and/or students to discuss any aspect of teaching and learning at OCAD U. If you are interested in this option but do not have a panel, please let us know.

Roundtable: Lead an informal discussion with colleagues about a specific issue concerning teaching and learning, share strategies, brainstorm ideas and collaborate with peers.

TO PROPOSE A SESSION FOR THE TEACHING EXPO:  

Submit a brief proposal by e-mail to fcdc@ocadu.ca (with subject line: Teaching Expo Proposal) by the extended deadline date: November 26, 2019. 

Please include the following information: 

• Presenter's name
• Title of session
• Type of session: (1) mini-lesson, (2) teaching or educational research presentation, (3) faculty/staff/student panel, (4) roundtable
• Duration of session (i.e. 30 or 60 minutes)
• Brief description (150 – 250 words)
• Learning outcomes (40-word limit)
• Strategy to actively engage participants during the session (i.e. group discussion, think-pair-share)
• Supplies you will use (i.e. AV, flip chart paper, sticky notes, markers, pens, etc.)

Session proposals will be reviewed by a Teaching Expo Program Committee, composed of faculty and academic staff, and responses will be sent to applicants by December 16^th, 2019. 

If you have any questions, please contact Mariela Giuliano, Education Developer, FCDC: mgiuliano@ocadu.ca

Andrew Atkin, Ahmed Drebika, Jiaqi Yuan

Opening reception: October 10, 5-8pm

October 11- November 3

Regular hours:

Wed - Sun:1 - 5pm

All three artists are interested in highlighting the duality of contemporary issues and explore the relationship of humanity to the highly industrialized society we find ourselves within. 

Through combining two forms of contrasting nostalgia, Ahmed Drebinka manages to produce creations that are earnest and sublime. Ahmed employees video game and CGI visual language that he grew up with to recreate the Libya that no longer exists after almost a decade of civil war. While the digital environments he creates harken back stylistically games of his youth, they contain symbols of the violence which has wreaked devastation and havoc on his homeland. Since Ahmed left Libya in 2013, the changes he notices when visiting have had a profound impact on him, and in his work, he uses technology to lament the upheaval of his birthplace while also trying to piece through what it has become today. 

The performative nature of Jiaqi Yuan’s agnostic automations embody representations of developmental learning. Her sculptures are cautionary observations reflecting on technology’s increasingly pervasive role in child-rearing. In her work Future Toy, for instance, Jiaqi reaches to the past for a traditional Chinese folk drum, which has been modernized through automation in order to consider the increasing dependence on technology children are devolving and warns of it becoming an emotional pacifier with dehumanizing effects. While Jiaqi laments the cotemporary phenomenon of mechanization and her observations are cautionary, through their repetitive kinetic motions the resulting objects become meditative to behold.  

Andrew Atkin creates interconnected systems based on organic and electronic components, in which he explores the history and impact of our material usage while offering a hopeful alternative. Andrew investigates the abilities of material science and food infrastructure to shape people into communities, ultimately speculating how the future can be shaped cooperatively through thoughtful making. By gestures such as replicating a Styrofoam cup out of stoneware, Andrew’s work suggests that an optimistic outcome can be achieved by embracing the technological trauma rather than wiping it from memory.