The Creative School year-end shows enhanced by academic and industry collaborations

The Creative School year-end shows provided students from the School of Professional Communication (opens in new window)  (ProCom), School of Image Arts (opens in new window)  (IMA), and School of Performance (opens in new window)  with the valuable opportunity to connect with industry professionals in their fields of study. These schools leveraged their unique relationships with key industry experts to provide students with a space to network candidly, connect internationally, and create a strong foundation for their creative careers.

Professional Communication’s year-end show goes international

This year, the School of Professional Communication (ProCom) took its year-end show, Signify (external link, opens in new window) , international in a collaboration with London College of Communication (external link, opens in new window)  (LCC) at the University of the Arts London, UK. Students from both Toronto and London, UK were given the opportunity to showcase their communication research at the symposium where students, staff, faculty, and industry professionals were invited to view their work (external link, opens in new window)  via video.

Sadia Kamran (opens in new window) , Manager of International Development at The Creative School, facilitated the collaboration and brought the idea to ProCom earlier this year. To help execute the event, fourth-year ProCom student lead, Morgan Crawford teamed up with LCC student lead, Patricia Mozolova to create and manage the flow of the event, compile guest lists, select a digital platform, and also moderate the live panel sessions.

Another project by fourth-year ProCom student Stephanie Sturino, Mindful or Mindless? The Female Consumer at the Intersection of Fast Fashion & Sustainable Shopping (external link, opens in new window)  examines the rise of overconsumption culture among female Gen-Z consumers and explores the creative ways consumers can look to learning more sustainable practices.

Laura Baker (opens in new window) ,  ProCom departmental and events assistant, said that about 25 students participated in this global symposium between LCC and ProCom. “It was really amazing to see the event come together so quickly with the help of ProCom/Creative School staff and the incredible staff team at LCC,” shared Baker. “We all noted how grateful we were, given the current circumstances, to be able to put on a virtual global symposium that otherwise may not have been possible to do in-person given the distance between the two institutions.”

The international symposium gave students the opportunity to hear feedback directly from industry professionals in their fields of interest, as well as engage with them in an informal setting following the panels. After the live event, all attendees received a ‘Look Book’ featuring every student’s research abstract and contact information so that industry professionals could follow up with students about their research. “All of our panelists,” said Baker, “were very open to having the students contact them following the event with further questions.”

School of Image Arts collaborates with CONTACT Photography Festival

The School of Image Arts (IMA) held its annual capstone exhibition, Maximum Exposure (external link, opens in new window)  (Max Ex), in conjunction with CONTACT Photography Festival (external link, opens in new window) , Toronto’s annual festival of photography exhibitions and events. The online exhibition featured innovative work by 200+ emerging artists working in photography, video, and digital media. Max Ex has always been part of CONTACT, a festival that vitalizes greater Toronto every year with a city-wide festival of photo-based exhibitions, outdoor installations, talks, and portfolio reviews by Canadian and international artists.

Annie MacDonell (opens in new window) , assistant professor at the School of Image Arts notes that IMA has had a long-standing partnership with the festival, separate from Max Ex, to present a more focused one or two person exhibition at the Alliance Francaise gallery. “The featured IMA students get to work with a curator from CONTACT to put together a thoughtful and comprehensive show,'' MacDonell states. For many students, it's their first professional experience outside of the school.

This year, featured IMA students were given the opportunity to work with CONTACT to create a 25-foot high public installation. “With Max Ex moving to an online format [due to COVID], we came up with the idea of also doing public artwork on the facade of the IMA building,” said MacDonell, noting that the ambitious and complex project got a hand from Ben Freedman (external link, opens in new window) , artistic project manager at CONTACT and IMA alumnus. The public installation mural that showcases the fourth-year thesis work is expected to be displayed on the windows of the Image Arts building following the end of the current lockdown.

Working with Freedman on the installation was a dream collaboration, says MacDonell about the wealth of experience he brought in tackling the logistic and creative challenges that come with covering a building with photographs. He showed students past CONTACT projects and provided insight into industry expectations, what questions they should ask, and offered feedback tailored to Max Ex and the IMA building installation. “[Freedman’s] understanding of Max Ex and the school made his contribution invaluable,” said MacDonell.

In addition to the collaboration with Freedman, IMA established connections with industry professionals early on to sponsor a number of important awards for student work in the exhibition. Soon-to-be IMA alumni, Samantha Jackson and Madison Bowman from the Max Ex team (external link, opens in new window) , noted the impact of these industry connections, “[they] allowed gallerists, printers, framers and other professionals to connect with the students' work, and create a foundation for their creative careers.”

School of Performance creates bespoke play with fu-GEN Theatre Company

For their year-end show, the School of Performance presented a virtual, live theatre production world-premiere of rabbit hole (opens in new window)  on April 15th, 2021. The play was written and directed by co-founding fu-GEN Theatre Company (external link, opens in new window)  Artistic Directors David Yee and Nina Lee Aquino. 

rabbit hole is a deep dive into the world of streaming culture, cancel and apology culture, voyeurism, and social capital. The bespoke project written for fourth-year actors began rehearsals during COVID lock-down when the school had switched to virtual learning. 

Associate Professor and Chair of the School of Performance, Caroline O’Brien (opens in new window) , shares that this opportunity to work with a renowned Canadian playwright and director was extremely beneficial to students. In addition to Yee and Lee Aquino, students worked with lighting designer Michelle Ramsay who brought invaluable experience to design jam sessions on the implementation of ideas. 

This year, the School of Performance ran a series of panels and masterclasses with innumerable artists from across the globe joining them virtually. Among the topics explored were equity and diversity, student wellness and agency, design, directing, film making, and costume fitting. 

“The generosity and enthusiasm of the artists was much appreciated, and we all learned a lot,” said O’Brien. “While we all look forward to 'coming back better', we have made the most of a situation that was always uncertain and sometimes uncomfortable. There were some powerful learning opportunities, and surprising skills and achievements. Our community rallied and brought out the best in one another, even when the personal contact that we so rely on was unavailable.”

The Creative School at Ryerson University

Entering its eighth decade, The Creative School is a global centre of media and creative invention. As a disrupter in innovative education, The Creative School is dedicated to developing creators with authentic voices who engage directly with creative industries around the world.

With 23 undergraduate and graduate programs that are shaping the future of their fields and tight-knit partnerships around the world, The Creative School offers more opportunities to educate the next generation of creative leaders than anywhere else.

An earlier version of this article was published prior to the faculty's rebrand and was edited to change all occurences of "FCAD" to be "The Creative School".