Aird & Berlis LLP stepping up with annual award to help York University startups succeed

September 20, 2017

Aird & Berlis York University Innovation York

From left to right: Daniel Everall, associate, Aird & Berlis; Graham Topa, associate, Aird & Berlis; Randy Williamson, partner, Aird & Berlis; Rhonda Lenton, president and vice-chancellor, York University; Robert Hache, vice-president Research & Innovation, York University; and Jeff O’Hagan, vice-president Advancement, York University (image: Trina Turl)

Toronto law firm Aird & Berlis LLP, together with its partner Randy Williamson, will support the next high potential venture to come out of York University’s entrepreneurship unit with a generous donation of cash and legal services.

Aird & Berlis’s support for Innovation York’s entrepreneurship unit, LaunchYU, was announced at the program’s graduation Sept. 19. Students who had completed an intensive 20 weeks of training in the LaunchYU AccelerateUP program pitched their ventures to an audience of industry executives, investors and government officials at the event.

The three top ventures were awarded $5,000 from Innovation York. These ventures will now work with mentors throughout the fall in order to compete for the new Aird & Berlis StartupSource Market Entry Award.

In late January, these top three ventures will be judged on the progress they have made and their ability to take their venture to market. The top startup will be awarded $12,500 and receive an equal amount of Aird & Berlis’s StartupSource legal services. The total value of Aird & Berlis’s and Williamson’s commitment is expected to be $100,000 over the next four years.

Daniel Everall, associate, Aird & Berlis; Graham Topa, associate, Aird & Berlis; Randy Williamson, partner, Aird & Berlis; Rhonda Lenton, president and vice-chancellor, York University; Robert Hache, vice-president Research & Innovation, York University; and Jeff O’Hagan, vice-president Advancement, York University (image: Trina Turl)

Williamson, a partner in Aird & Berlis LLP’s Corporate/Commercial Group, has been a member of York University’s Board of Governors since 2013. He chairs York’s Alumni Board, its Pension Board of Trustees and its Endowment Fund’s Investment Committee. He is an alumnus of York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School.

“Our firm’s StartupSource Group is focused on the success of the next set of Canada’s great companies, helping them organize themselves, and their investor and other partner relationships,” said Williamson. “We also help them leverage and protect those relationships and their valuable intellectual assets. We believe that the companies coming out of York University’s LaunchYU programs could be among those great Canadian successes, and we are delighted to support them in getting there.”

LaunchYU has supported more than 1,850 entrepreneurs and more than 90 ventures in its first three years of operation. Open to students, faculty, staff and community members, its goal is to support high impact for-profit and non-profit ventures during their formative years.

“LaunchYU engages entrepreneurs across campus and in the surrounding community to connect, collaborate, learn and succeed,” said Robert Haché, York’s vice-president Research & Innovation. “Entrepreneurship has become an integral part of the innovation culture at York University.”

LaunchYU has three programs that support entrepreneurs: IgniteUP, a mentorship program; RevUP, a pre-accelerator workshop series; and AccelerateUP, a four-month intensive program to support 20 ventures annually to build, launch and scale.

The new Aird & Berlis StartupSource Market Entry Award for the top AccelerateUP graduate is designed to help the winning venture maximize their opportunity for success.

About Aird & Berlis LLP

Aird & Berlis LLP is a leading Canadian law firm based in Toronto, serving clients across Canada and globally. The firm’s practice encompasses all principal areas of business law, including corporate/commercial, corporate finance, banking, insolvency and restructuring, energy, environmental, infrastructure/P3, technology and intellectual property, litigation, labour and employment, municipal and land use planning, real estate and tax. The firm’s diverse client base ranges from entrepreneurs to multinational corporations.

Science-policy forum to explore multiple impacts of systemic pesticides

September 19, 2017

Non profit to help declining bee population

The David Suzuki Foundation and York University are presenting an important one-day symposium on the impacts of systemic pesticides, Sept. 21, from 9am to 5pm, in the Stong Dining Hall, Stong College, Keele campus.

Attending the symposium will be a cohort of leading scientists from Canada, Europe and the Far East. Symposium delegates will discuss the long-term impacts of systemic pesticides due to the large-scale prophylactic application of these pesticides in agriculture, the significant negative ecological consequences of these chemical agents on biodiversity, and the devastating impact on pollinators.

Adverse impacts have also been documented on a wide range of other organisms in terrestrial, aquatic, wetland, marine and benthic (organisms that live in the lowest level of a body of water, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers) habitats. The Government of Ontario, in recognition of these effects, brought in strict restrictions on the use of neonicotinoid insecticides as part of a wider strategy to promote pollinator conservation in the province. Other jurisdictions have followed, including the City of Vancouver, Quebec and France and the federal government’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency has proposed phasing-out one neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, completely.

Among the scientists who will be speaking at the symposium, is York PhD candidate Nadia Tsvetkov (MSc ’14). Her research focuses on the sub-lethal effects of pesticides on honey bee behavior. Along with Tsvetkov’s presentation, delegates will hear from members of the International Task Force on Systemic Pesticides (TFSP), whose ground-breaking research on the impacts of neonicotinoid insecticides has played a significant role in helping to educate policy-makers on the impacts of neonicotinoid pesticides, and the need for alternatives. In addition, the lead authors of two recent high-profile papers published in Science and Nature, Ecology and Evolution on the impacts of neonicotinoid pesticides on wild bees and honey bees will also be speaking at the symposium:

Nigel Raine, Rebanks Family Chair in Pollinator Conservation, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph.
Jean-Marc Bonmatin, deputy chairman of Task Force on Systemic Pesticides (TFPS), CNRS-Center for Molecular Biophysics (CBM), Orléans, France.
Maarten Bijleveld van Lexmond, chairman of TFSP, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Nadia Tsvetkov, Department of Biology, York University.
Elizabeth Long, Department of Entomology, Ohio State University.
Elizabeth Lumawig-Heitzmann, secretary of TFSP Public Health Working Group, Marinduque Biological Field Station, Philippines
Francisco Sanchez-Bayo, Department of Plant and Food Sciences, University of Sydney.
Adrienne Bartlett, research scientist, Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Kumiko Taira, chair of TFSP Public Health Working Group, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Japan.
Lorenzo Furlan, chairman of TFSP Working Group on Alternatives, Veneto Agricultura, Centre for Agricultural Research in co-operations with the University of Padua, Italy.
Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, Faculty of Agriculture & Environment, the University of Sydney, Australia.
Lisa Gue, David Suzuki Foundation.
Madame Delphine Batho (former French Environment Minister).

Tickets are $20 each and are available at http://bit.ly/2fyYsvI.

More about the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides

The Task Force on Systemic Pesticides is an independent group of scientists from all over the globe, who came together to work on the Worldwide Integrated Assessment of the Impact of Systemic Pesticides on Biodiversity and Ecosystems. The mandate of the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides (TFSP) has been “to carry out a comprehensive, objective, scientific review and assessment of the impact of systemic pesticides on biodiversity, and on the basis of the results of this review to make any recommendations that might be needed with regard to risk management procedures, governmental approval of new pesticides, and any other relevant issues that should be brought to the attention of decision makers, policy developers and society in general.”

A highly multidisciplinary team of 30 scientists from all over the globe have jointly made a synthesis of 1,121 published peer-reviewed studies spanning the last five years, including industry-sponsored ones. Key findings of the task force have been presented in a special issue of the peer reviewed scientific journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research, titled “Worldwide Integrated Assessment of the Impacts of Systemic Pesticides on Biodiversity and Ecosystems.”

For more information, visit http://www.tfsp.info/.

York Professor Patrick Alcedo receives Pinoy of the Year award

September 19, 2017

York University Professor Patric Alcedo receives the Pinoy of the Year Awards (image: Christian Ryan Panganiban)

York University Professor Patrick Alcedo was presented the Pinoy of the Year award at the Golden Balangay Award Ceremony on Sept. 9 in Toronto.

Patrick Alcedo York University Pinoy of the Year — York University Professor Patrick Alcedo receives the Pinoy of the Year Award. Photograph by Christian Ryan Panganiban

Alcedo is a professor of dance in the School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) and a faculty associate of the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR). He was nominated for the award as part of a nationwide call for outstanding Filipinos in Canada.

The Golden Balangay Awards were created to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of Filipino Canadians and mark their historical achievements as an immigrant community.

“If you meet Professor Alcedo in person you can see why he deserves the award,” said YCAR Director Abidin Kusno. “He brings a contagious optimism and an ambitious energy to everything he does.”

Alcedo was born and raised in Aklan, Philippines. He left the Philippines in 1996 when he moved to the United States for his doctoral studies and subsequent fellowships. He arrived in Canada in 2007 when he accepted a job as an assistant professor at York.

“As a Filipino immigrant, I faced many challenges when I first moved here,” said Alcedo. “Even though immigrating to Canada by myself did not scare me, I suffered from pangs of loneliness in the beginning. Unlike most Filipino immigrants, I did not have any family members in Toronto.”

Despite the challenges he faced, Alcedo has accomplished a lot in his young career. He is a recognized expert in dance ethnography and Philippine traditional dances. He has also produced and directed several films focusing on social and cultural topics related to the Philippines. His academic work focuses on the performance of gender, folklorization of religion, and world dance in the diaspora.

Alcedo received his PhD in dance history and theory from the University of California, Riverside, where he then became a postdoctoral fellow with the Southeast Asian, Text, Ritual, and Performance Program. In 2007, he took residence at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. as a Rockefeller Humanities Fellow in Theorizing Cultural Heritage.

The Golden Balangay Awards aim to promote excellence, hard work, higher education, entrepreneurship, public service, positive relationships and community involvement in the Filipino community in Canada.

When asked about the significance of the awards, Alcedo said, “While we, Filipinos, are proud of our immense contributions to Canada’s care-giving industry, I hope that we also will become major movers and shakers in other fields, such as business, media, law, governance, research, education and the arts. These awards are a wonderful step towards celebrating our journeys as migrants.”

For more information about the Awards visit http://goldenbalangayawards.com/

Schulich names new building in honour of entrepreneurs Rob and Cheryl McEwen

September 18, 2017

The Schulich School of Business at York University announces that its new graduate study and research building will be named in honour of Rob and Cheryl McEwen, long-time supporters of the school who are known for their leadership, entrepreneurialism and philanthropy.

An artist’s concept drawing of the new building

The naming of the Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Study & Research Building, which will open in late spring 2018, was celebrated Sunday during an unveiling ceremony at the new building’s construction site next to the Seymour Schulich Building on the Keele campus. Following the announcement, the McEwens joined York University President & Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton, Schulich School of Business Dean Dezsö Horváth and other dignitaries and guests for a celebratory reception that featured an Innovation and Discovery Gallery showcasing the school’s Centres of Excellence and Research Office.

The Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Study & Research Building will stand among the most environmentally sustainable academic buildings in North America and is a cornerstone element of the business school’s Leading Change fundraising and alumni engagement campaign, which aims to raise $50 million by 2021. To date, Leading Change has raised close to $35 million. Leading Change is an initiative of IMPACT: The Campaign for York University, which has a fundraising goal of $500 million with more than $350 million raised to date.

The McEwen’s $8-million donation is one of the largest gifts ever received by the Schulich School of Business. With this new donation, the McEwens have donated more than $10 million to the school.

(Left to right) Kathleen Taylor (MBA/JD ’84); Judy Schulich; Rob McEwen (MBA ’78); Cheryl McEwen, Dean Dezsö J. Horváth, President, York University, Rhonda Lenton; and President, Graduate Business Council, Alexandra Simpson — Above: From left, Kathleen Taylor (MBA/JD ’84, LLD (Hon.) ’14), Judy Schulich, Rob McEwen (MBA ’78, LLD (Hon.) ’05), Cheryl McEwen, Dean Dezsö J. Horváth, York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton, and Schulich Graduate Business Council President Alexandra Simpson

“The Schulich community is honoured and privileged to receive this valuable support from Rob and Cheryl McEwen, two of Canada’s most inspiring philanthropic and business leaders, who understand the critical importance of continued investment in leading management research and graduate education,” said Horváth. “The Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Study & Research Building, as part of the overall Schulich School of Business complex, will provide an ideal environment for faculty, visiting scholars, corporate and government leaders, as well as students and other stakeholders to collaborate and engage in new research discoveries, as our school continues to remain at the forefront of management education and research.”

“We are thrilled and so proud to have this opportunity to support the School’s new Graduate Study & Research Building,” said the McEwens. “As long-time members of the Schulich alumni community, we appreciate the transformational developments that have taken place at Schulich and that have helped it earn recognition as one of the world’s leading business schools.”

“Rob and Cheryl McEwen’s gift represents a milestone announcement in a number of ways,” said Lenton. “It is one of the largest gifts received by the Schulich School to date, and it will enable us to continue providing new, state-of-the-art spaces for our students, faculty and staff, creating the best possible environments in which to advance the world-class teaching, learning and research excellence underway here at York. We are deeply grateful to Rob and Cheryl, long-time friends and supporters of York University, for ensuring that Schulich remains one of the world’s leading innovators and global forces.”

Rob McEwen (MBA ’78); Judy Schulich; President, York University, Rhonda Lenton and Dean Dezsö J. Horváth — From left: Rob McEwen (MBA ’78), Judy Schulich, York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton and Dean Dezsö J. Horváth

Rob McEwen, a former Schulich Graduate Business Council president who graduated with an MBA in 1978, is one of seven co-chairs of Schulich’s Leading Change campaign and sits on the Dean’s Advisory Council. The founder and former chairman and CEO of Goldcorp, McEwen is chairman and chief owner of McEwen Mining. Inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2017, McEwen was awarded the Order of Canada in 2007 and was named Canada’s Most Innovative CEO by Canadian Business magazine in 2006, among other honours. In 2005, McEwen received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from York University.

Cheryl McEwen is a community leader, entrepreneur and philanthropist. She is the recipient of a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award for her contributions to advance research in regenerative medicine and stem cells. Her leadership roles include serving as vice-chair of UHN Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation, which raises money for research, education and enhanced patient care. She is also an entrepreneur, having worked for 25 years within the fashion industry, and is the founder of Make My Day Foods Inc. and the creator and manufacturer of The Veggie Puck®, an organic, frozen and nutrient-dense vegetable mixture to add to drinks.

As philanthropic leaders, the McEwens have invested more than $50 million over the years in support of excellence and innovation within the health care and education sectors.

Designed by the award-winning international architectural firm Baird Sampson Neuert Architects, the 67,000 square-foot building will address the need for increased student study and social space, as well as accommodate growth in new academic programs and modern research facilities to accommodate the School’s growing research activity and research culture. Schulich’s Research Office and Centres of Excellence, including the Centre for Responsible Business, the Centre for Global Enterprise, the Brookfield Centre in Real Estate and Infrastructure, and a future Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics, will all be housed in the new building.

The building will include many technical features at the forefront of environmental sustainability in North America. It will optimize the use of solar energy and use shading devices to maximize daylight. A 27-metre high solar chimney will drive passive natural ventilation and pre-heat the air intake. The building will be among the very few in Canada to incorporate Thermally Active Building Systems – radiant heating and cooling. The building will also feature a green roof and rainwater recapture system, as well as a number of other leading-edge technical features.

VPRI seeks input from York community on Strategic Research Plan (2018-2023)

September 18, 2017

The Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI) is launching a consultation process to gain input from the York University research community on the development of a new Strategic Research Plan for 2018 to 2023 to replace the current plan reaching its endpoint in 2018.

Vice-President Research & Innovation, Robert Haché, is looking for input for the next Strategic Research Plan

The new plan will reflect on our progress over the last five years (2012-2018), and inform our ambitions for the next five years, building on past success and current excellence to pursue upcoming opportunities. VPRI will be advised in the consultation process leading to the new plan by a Strategic Research Plan Advisory Committee comprised of individuals from the University and community, whose membership will be announced shortly.

The goal is to engage the community in a discussion of goals and values to provide shape to a refreshed Strategic Research Plan that will set the vision for the continuing development of research at York for the next several years. The expectation is to provide the community with a draft of the plan in early 2018, with a final version in spring 2018.

“Regular updating of York’s Strategic research plan is necessary to highlight excellence and maintain a focus on emerging opportunities for research, scholarship and creative activity as York continues to grow its research,” said Robert Haché, vice-president research & innovation. “The Strategic Research Plan helps to articulate and foster support research development across the University while providing a strategic framework for driving our research reputation forward in areas of opportunity.”

The Strategic Research Plan for 2012 to 2018 is being refreshed

Seeking to create a document with the broadest possible support, VPRI is inviting all members of the York community to contribute to the development of the refreshed Strategic Research Plan by sharing their points of view throughout the consultation and development process. The University community is invited to participate in feedback sessions, town hall meetings and other events being organized or through an online feedback portal that is available at our SRP Refresh website here.

Through an extensive process of broadly-based consultations, VPRI will arrive at a plan that articulates well-defined goals within an aspirational vision that broadly engages and is strongly supported by the University academic community.

Haché, in collaboration with the Strategic Research Plan Advisory Committee, invites all members of the community to be an engaged part of a comprehensive consultation process that will help York University continue to move forward in research excellence and scholarship.

Stay tuned for more detailed information about the Strategic Research Plan consultation launch and open forum.

For more information, click here.

Philip Monk, director and curator of the AGYU, to retire

September 17, 2017

Philip Monk

Lisa Philipps, interim vice-president academic & provost, has issued the following message to the York University community:

I am writing to inform members of the York community that Philip Monk will be retiring as Director/Curator of the Art Gallery of York University, effective December 31, 2017. Philip has provided outstanding leadership to the Art Gallery since 2003, significantly enhancing its profile within York and in the local and national arts communities with an award-winning program of exhibitions and publications. Under his guidance the Gallery has become a focal point for civic and educational engagement, and a catalyst for innovative projects with students, faculty and community.

We will be undertaking a search with the goal of appointing the next Director/Curator of the Art Gallery by July 1, 2018. Further details about the committee and search process will be provided in the near future.

I am pleased to announce that Ms. Emelie Chhangur will serve as Interim Director/Curator of the AGYU from January 1 to June 30, 2018. Emelie joined the AGYU in 2003, and since 2008 has served as Assistant Director/Curator of the gallery. During this period Emelie has played a major role in developing the profile of the AGYU, including in 2005 the founding of an artist-residence program. She is known for her process-based, participatory curatorial practice and the creation of long-term collaborative projects performatively staged within and outside the gallery context, including leading York University’s participation in the opening of the cultural program of the Parapan American Games in 2015 with Ring of Fire. Emelie has authored a number of books, and regularly presents papers at international conferences, as well as contributing to talks, lectures, and symposia here at York and in the local and international art community. She is the recipient of over 20 Ontario Association of Art Galleries Awards (OAAG). Her trans-disciplinary research has been funded by grants from SSHRC, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council and has resulted in collaborations between professional visual artists and York students from across a diverse range of Faculties and departments at York. She obtained her Master’s degree in Visual Studies from University of Toronto where she wrote her thesis on the intersection of curating and dramaturgy.

I want to thank Philip Monk and to wish him all the best as he leaves York; and I look forward to working with Emelie in this new capacity to continue to advance the Art Gallery of York University.

Major gift for new telescope opens Universe to York U students, wider community

September 17, 2017

Allan Carswell donation

Above: From left, Faculty of Science Dean Ray Jayawardhana with York U Professor Emeritus Allan Carswell, President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton and Univeristy Professor Paul Delaney unveil the sign in Allan Carswell’s honour for the new Allan I. Carswell Astronomical Observatory

Have you ever wanted to take a closer peek at the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, Saturn’s magnificent rings or brilliant newborn stars in the Orion Nebula? A donation announced on Sept. 14 of $500,000 from the Carswell Family Foundation, matched by York University and its Faculty of Science, for $1 million toward a new, one-metre custom telescope, will bring such celestial sights within reach of students and members of the public.

When installed, the new telescope is expected to be the largest situated on a university campus in Canada. The telescope’s larger aperture, along with a new CCD instrument and automated operations, will enhance the hands-on learning experience and undergraduate research opportunities for York U students, and better reveal wonders of the night sky to the public, onsite and online. Faint nebulae and distant galaxies, as well as details of the polar caps on Mars, for example, will be easier to see.

The observatory at York U has been a prominent hub for science outreach to the broader community since 1969. About 5,000 visitors a year come for public viewing on Wednesday nights, while there are online viewing opportunities for scores more on Monday nights when York students and faculty host the popular “YorkUniverse” radio show on astronomy.fm online. That’s when members of the public from around the world can request the telescope be pointed to their favorite celestial target. In recent years, the observatory has also become a popular venue for marriage proposals.

“This generous gift to the Faculty of Science from Allan Carswell and the Carswell Family Foundation will further enhance student learning and community outreach, two of our core priorities at York University,” said President & Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton. “Allan continues to be a great champion of teaching and learning that crosses boundaries and benefits the broadest range of people. His gift will create a galactic legacy—literally and figuratively—that will have a lasting benefit for York University and beyond.”

Above: The Horsehead Nebula. Photo by recent York Science student Richard Bloch

In honour of Allan Carswell’s gift, his long-time contributions to science and long-standing philanthropy to the University and community, York U also announced that the observatory has been renamed the Allan I. Carswell Astronomical Observatory (or Carswell Observatory, for short). Carswell is a York U physics professor emeritus who was instrumental in developing LIDAR systems while at the University, and is co-founder with his wife Helen of Optech Incorporated, which developed LIDAR technologies now used around the world and in space. He led a team as part of NASA’s Phoenix mission to Mars where a LIDAR device designed by Optech explored the surface and atmosphere of the red planet.

As a professor at York U, Carswell worked out of the Petrie Science and Engineering Building next to the observatory that now bears his name. The Carswells have given generously to York U over the years. This latest is one more in a string of gifts that will have a great impact on the University, as well as the broader community.

“We are delighted to be able to expand and enhance the capabilities of our cherished campus observatory with a powerful new telescope, and to name it in honour of Professor Emeritus Allan Carswell, a highly respected and beloved member of the York Science community,” said Faculty of Science Dean Ray Jayawardhana. “The enthusiasm of our students who operate the observatory is infectious and inspiring. Week after week they serve as terrific ambassadors for science by sharing the wonders of the night sky with children and adults who live near here, and even with people from far reaches of the globe who connect with our observatory online.”

The observatory is already home to a fleet of astronomical telescopes, including 60cm and 40cm Cassegrains, and five 20cm telescopes, which were used recently for the partial solar eclipse, attracting about 2,000 community members to York’s Keele campus.

“Astronomy is all around us; it excites and stretches the imagination. The observatory at York has played a unique role in ‘hands-on’ student education and outreach to the public since the science faculty was established in 1968,” said Allan Carswell. “The Carswell Family Foundation is extremely pleased to support the expansion of this very special facility and its increasing impact in the future.”

This gift is a part of Impact, The Campaign for York University and supports its pillars of building stronger communities and mobilizing new ways of thinking.

AGYU welcomes the downtown to uptown in advance of the subway

September 15, 2017

Nep Sidhu with Nicholas Galanin, No Pigs in Paradise, 2015-2016. Photo: Kikuyama Yoshihiro

This fall, the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) welcomes downtown with an exhibition program dedicated to the future of Toronto. Opening Friday, Sept. 15 with a special event that runs from 6 to 9pm, the exhibition Migrating the Margins exemplifies the new conditions of artistic production in Toronto reflective of the vast changes in the city’s culture as a result of decades of immigration and life in the suburbs.

Migrating the Margins features commissioned artwork by Erika DeFreitas, Anique Jordan, Tau Lewis, Rajni Perera and Nep Sidhu as well as public art-works by Farrah-Marie Miranda, Sister Co-Resister and Otherness.

Rajni Perera, Vivek, 2015. Courtesy of the Artist — Rajni Perera, *Vivek*, 2015. Courtesy of the Artist

Migrating the Margins looks at how a new generation of Toronto artists is imagining this place, and picturing its future, by realizing the conditions of the future that exist now—due to the unique situation of Toronto’s demographics. This imagination is the altogether different and unexpected product of the multicultural dream: a cultural synthesis unique to Toronto—now the mixing of cultures and not just their (un)equal representation.

The exhibition is co-curated by Emelie Chhangur and Philip Monk and continues until Dec. 3.

Who needs a Performance Bus when you have a subway?

After 14 years, The AGYU is retiring The Performance Bus. Get on the last-ever Performance Bus with host Kiera Boult, departing from OCADU,100 McCaul Street in Toronto, on Friday, Sept. 15, at 6pm sharp and ride into the opening of Migrating the Margins. The free bus returns downtown at 9pm.

The suburbs strike back

Rajni Perera, Nana, 2016. Courtesy of the Artist. — Rajni Perera, *Nana*, 2016. Courtesy of the Artist.

First: A weekend of performative discourse in the suburbs.

On Sept. 16 and 17, the AGYU plays host to an Ambulatory Symposium of workshops, discussions, and performances. Anchored by Farrah-Marie Miranda’s “Speaking Fruit” and Sister Co-Resister’s “Walking Salon,” the weekend’s activities migrate between the gallery, the Black Creek Community Farm, and the Stong Farmhouse to activate the histories and geographies of the Keele Campus.

“Speaking Fruit” is a mobile, roadside fruit stand and design studio that feeds the movement for migrant farm-worker rights. On Sept. 16 at Black Creek Community Farm, “Speaking Fruit” brings migrant farm workers and Indigenous food producers together with artists and community organizers. By eating, drumming and dancing, participants consider what comes out of the soil and how; and by participating in growing practices, they will till the soil of the future.

On Sept. 17, in collaboration with Nettie Lambert, Shane Camastro (Titiesg Wîcinímintôwak), Janet Csontos and Lisa Myers, Sister Co-Resister’s Walking Salon works through concepts of belonging, proprietary understandings of land, and Canada’s immigrant paradigm and treaty partnership identity. Artists and academics Syrus Marcus Ware and Gloria Swain from the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) guide collective investigations by weaving together a series of interruptions that do not underestimate the divisive lines that suburban boundaries can create and that normalizing notions of belonging can maintain. Suburban Hospitality is co-presented with FES and programmed by Suzanne Carte, Emelie Chhangur, Lisa Myers and Honor Ford-Smith.

Then: A discourse about performing suburbia.

Tau Lewis, Self Portrait, 2016. Mixed media, 2016. (detail) Collection of Michelle Schultz. — Tau Lewis, *Self Portrait*, 2016. Mixed media, 2016. (detail) Collection of Michelle Schultz

As part of the City Institute’s Global Symposium “Beyond Suburbia,” AGYU convenes a panel that looks at the specifics of curating in suburbia. Taking place from 4:30-5:45pm on Oct. 20 at The Underground Restaurant on York University’s Keele campus, On the Edge of Curating: Toward new practices afield asks: How is “being on the edge” off-centred curating? What special circumstances does the suburban locale offer curating at the level of practice and how does this locale’s social and civic particularities challenge curating’s conventions or concerns? Curated and moderated by Emelie Chhangur (AGYU), the panel features Jordan Strom (Surrey Art Gallery, BC), York U Professor Janine Marchessault, Randell Adjei (RISE, Scarborough), Émilie Renard (La Galerie, centre d’art contemporain, Noisy-le-Sec), and respondents Christine Shaw (Blackwood Gallery) and Alissa Firth-Eagland (Humber Galleries).

Othering AGYU Vitrines

An AGYU commissioned, site-specific work by Otherness (Pamila Matharu + Marilyn Fernandes) borrows from the conventions of advertising and the rhetoric of multiculturalism to turn AGYU Vitrines into lightboxes that frame education as a primary tool of colonial story-telling. A montage of text, found images, and narrative taken from a discarded social science textbook The People We Are: Canada’s Multicultural Society (Gage, 1980), Taking a page… questions the Canadian immigrant paradigm by offering up a historiographical lesson on notions of belongingness.

Audio Out comes inside!

Audio Out, AGYU’s listening post, once located outside the gallery’s front doors, is now a listening bench – located in our newly re-designed lobby! Next year’s program is guest curated by Darren Copeland of NAISA. First up is The City (Sept. 15 – Oct. 22), a tour of Kolkota by Debashis Sinha, but a view from the cosmopolitan version of Toronto. Following (Oct. 23 – Dec. 3), is a radiophonic piece by Parisa Sabet titled “Visiting Grandpa.”

For more information on AGYU Out There: The Better Way, visit www.theAGYUisOutThere.org.

Expanding the pura vida of York University’s Las Nubes Project

September 13, 2017

York U faculty member and her husband stand in Las Nubes, Costa Rica

Don and Adrienne at Penas Blancas River – site of the old log bridge

When Professor Adrienne Perry (MA ’84, PhD ’91) describes her most vivid memories of Costa Rica, she conjures images of pura vida – “pure life” – the country’s greeting celebrating existence: verdant rainforest trees enveloped by vines, orchids and other epiphytes.

“It’s so full of life,” said Perry. “It’s life growing on life.”

View of Las Nubes rainforest from the York property across the river

Perry, a professor in York’s Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Health, and her husband, Reverend Don Downer, visited Costa Rica several times as ecotourists and fell in love with the country’s people and biodiversity. After enrolling as undergraduates to participate in the field course in the Las Nubes rainforest offered by the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), the couple decided to make a gift of two plots of land in 2013 to support York’s Las Nubes Project. Now, through a subsequent donation, Perry and Downer have enabled York to purchase two more parcels of land for the expansion of the Las Nubes conservation area.

Don Downer and Adrienne Perry at Penas Blancas River, the site of the old log bridge

“We were excited about what York was doing, and we wanted to be a part of it,” said Perry. “We were inspired by the vision of the Las Nubes Project and, when additional adjacent land became available, we wanted York to secure it to expand York’s land base.”

The donation feeds into the mission of the Las Nubes Project: to serve as an international hub dedicated to promoting education and research on Neotropical conservation, community well-being and sustainable livelihoods.

“The purchase of this land will enhance York’s Las Nubes Project by helping us to continue to protect the rainforest, assist in local community building and support conservation, education and research,” said Ravi de Costa, interim dean of FES. “We are extremely grateful to Professor Perry and Reverend Downer for their continuous support for our initiatives in Costa Rica.”

The new property comprises a building lot and 75 acres of protected land, including two wetlands, a waterfall and a small river. Research opportunities into the various species of flora and fauna abound.

“It’s an area in which much research is yet to be done, and what better reason to donate than to help protect the hidden wonders that are still to be found,” said Downer. “This is a way for us to preserve the environment. As researchers explore and make great discoveries, we’ll be provided with more data to bolster protectionist arguments.”

Adrienne Perry prepares to head on to the trail that leads to Las Nubes

One of the recent discoveries is a wetland habitat for rare frogs previously thought to be extinct in the region. Downer, an enthusiastic nature photographer, is thrilled about the finding, which underscores the couple’s reason for giving.

“We’re committed to taking care of the world and, by doing so, we take care of everything that’s important,” he said. “We want this for the future, and we hope that through our gift other people will experience the awe and wonder of the Las Nubes rainforest in Costa Rica.”

Researchers revisit attention and consciousness puzzle

September 13, 2017

Image shows an analog wall clock

A clock ticks away in the background while you’re absorbed in a book. When you shift your attention to the clock, does its ticking seem to get louder? Philosophers and psychologists have debated the answer since the late 19th century when William James and Gustav Fechner staked out opposing positions.

Now a philosopher-psychologist duo from York University has entered the debate with their article “Attention and Mental Paint,” published in the September issue of Mind & Language.

York U Professor and philosopher Jacob Beck and vision scientist Keith Schneider met when they were both affiliated with York’s Centre for Vision Research (Schneider has since moved to the University of Delaware). “We soon realized we were approaching the same question from different angles,” said Beck, “so we decided to team up.”

In recent years, psychologists have developed new techniques to study attention’s influence on appearance and Schneider has been at the forefront of that movement. By using carefully constructed stimuli and manipulating where people attend, he has shown in a controlled laboratory environment that attention does not influence appearance. A ticking clock seems no louder when attended.

Philosophers have also rediscovered the question of attention’s influence on appearance. “Philosophers are interested in the question,” said Beck, “because it speaks to the relation between two of the mind’s most puzzling features: representation and consciousness.”

In their article, Beck and Schneider develop a new theory of how attention, consciousness and representation interrelate. They contend that attention alters consciousness, but without changing what the mind represents.

“The view we reject says that attention is like paint – mental paint. It changes how things look by changing what is represented,” said Beck. “The view we defend says that primer is a better metaphor for attention. Primer is applied underneath an exterior coat of paint and so only makes an indirect contribution to the finished product. Similarly, attention alters conscious experience only indirectly, without altering what is represented.”

Beck and Schneider posit that attended stimuli are more salient – they are marked as important by the perceptual system – but they aren’t experienced as more intense. Attending to a ticking clock makes it pop out in consciousness, but it doesn’t make it appear any louder.

For more, see the article abstract at: http://bit.ly/2f7Ceng.

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