Four NSCAD masters students were awarded the 2024 Canada Graduate Scholarship totaling $70,000 in financial support for the completion of studies and to further their respective research projects.
The Canada Graduate Scholarship program provides support to high-calibre students who demonstrate a high standard of achievement in undergraduate and early graduate studies. Funding comes from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
MEET THE RECIPIENTS
Gracia Isabel Gomez Cantoya
MFA Ceramics candidate Gracia Isabel was awarded the scholarship for her research, titled: De-colourizing the narrative in the Canadian arts and crafts community, in times of decolonization.
Inspired by her upbringing in Mexico City, Gracia hopes to “de-colourize the narrative” surrounding systemic racism in Canada, and how categorizing people based on race, ethnicity, and skin colour creates a barrier for artistic collaboration. Using clay as a medium, her research is based on critical race theory, studies on colourism, intersectionality and decolonizing methodologies as tools to encourage cultural exchange without discrimination.
“This research is my reflection in the core human values that have led us to the historical intersection we are living in,” says Gracia. “I believe all humans share a common essence that I am aiming to reach. I think this is the only place from which we can establish a genuine connection.”
Drawing inspiration from Mexican lattice walls/celosías—a hispano-moresque architectural feature first introduced to Mexico in the 16th to 17th centuries by Spanish colonizers—Gracia will use porcelain and light as a metaphor of whiteness in a world of colour. She also plans to use computer graphics modeling, and 3D printing methods to study translucent casting slips, light systems, and patterns, creating tri-dimensional modules (3D bricks/tiles) to be used in large-scale pieces for a solo show at the end of the program.
“The project exhibition will also help me find a language in clay to visually articulate the idea of ‘de-colourization of the narrative,’” she writes in her proposal.
Janelle Ledua
MFA Craft student Janelle was awarded the scholarship for her research, titled: Healing Art for Homeless Indigenous Populations.
Janelle’s research focuses on the limited access to art that unhoused Indigenous communities experience while navigating homelessness, and how bridging that gap will create a sense of belonging and support for them.
“There is a lack of access to art resources for Indigenous communities facing housing insecurities and homelessness,” she writes in her proposal. “With the funding received from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, my investigation will seek out pathways to empower these individuals who are simultaneously working through personal and generational trauma from residential schools and beyond.”
Working in collaboration with NorthWind Counselling Services, Janelle hopes to establish The Creative Arts Healing Project, fusing trauma-informed care with artistic expression. This research will identify essential resources beyond basic art studio supplies; tailoring the program to the vulnerably housed Indigenous population, fostering mentorship opportunities within the Indigenous art community, promoting the preservation of Indigenous art modalities, while collectively decolonizing studio and art education practices.
Janelle was also awarded the Scotia Scholars Master’s Award from Research Nova Scotia.
Katherine Rae Diemert
MFA Expanded Media student Katherine was awarded the scholarship for her research, titled: Visualizing Internet Ecologies through Interactive Media: The Transatlantic Cables as a Case Study.
Katherine’s research aims to explore the development of contemporary internet infrastructures through relating with creatures in those environments. This includes the ways geography, territory, colonialism, and other economic factors impact the way we use and interact with digital communications.
“Public narratives often equate the digital with wireless cellular systems and satellites. Yet, the majority of digital communications that our contemporary world relies on utilize the often-unseen physical infrastructure of undersea cables. These cables travel around the globe through oceans and shoreline ecosystems using routes established long ago,” she writes in her proposal.
Through interactive installations and media artworks, Katherine aims to engage and educate the public about this unseen infrastructure, and the increasing connection between climate change and technology in terms of land use, coastal encroachment, and natural resources.
“We so often talk about technology nowadays as if it’s a trap – one of our own making,” she says. “I hope to explore those feelings, concepts, and potentially how we might escape to experience a different, personal web.”
Rebecca Zynomirski
Art Education student Rebecca was awarded the scholarship for her research, titled: Exploring Geology in the Anthropocene: Embodied Art Practices as Research into Deep Time and Climate Change.
Her research addresses the urgency and abstraction of the climate crisis through embodied art practice. Situated in “The Anthropocene,”—an unofficial unit of time used to describe the period when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems—the project uses deep time to challenge anthropocentric views and foster connections between humans and the natural world.
“As the climate crisis becomes more palpable due to extreme weather events, grasping scientific facts alone is insufficient,” she writes in her proposal. “Artists, scientists, and scholars are turning to art to highlight the urgency of climate change.”
With the scholarship, Rebecca will create a series of workshops that will become places of transformative learning. She hopes that her research will make scientific and geological concepts more accessible, contribute to addressing the climate crisis through art, and provide educators a pedagogical framework for teaching scientific concepts experientially.
“As an elementary school teacher, I recognize the need to make complex topics like the climate crisis more accessible. My goal is to facilitate critical conversations and deepen our connections with the natural world,” she says. “I hope this work gives educators creative, experiential tools to make scientific and geological concepts both relatable and urgent in the classroom, while also encouraging people to reflect on their own relationship to land and place.”