J.E.A. Crake Emerging Art Critics
In December 2020, the Owens Art Gallery announced a new student mentorship project — the J.E.A. Crake Emerging Art Critics program. This professional development initiative was designed to give aspiring student writers the opportunity to work with an experienced art critic under circumstances similar to those of professional, independent art critics. Students worked independently and as part of an editorial team developing content for No Ducks, an online art magazine exploring visual art and culture. During their internship, students worked under the supervision of Emily Falvey, Director/Curator of the Owens Art Gallery, who edited and copyedited their work and provided mentorship in the fundamentals of art writing.
No Ducks (2020-2021) features the writing of Shivanya Albas, Jordan Arsenault, Noah Lubendo and Laika (Pollock) Dadoun.
Shivanya Albas is a Bachelor of the Fine Arts student at Mount Allison University, with minors in Art History and Sociology. She was born and raised in the Okanagan Valley, where, with the assistance and inspiration of committed helpers and family, she developed a burning desire to contribute something of value. Albas has risen to a position of leadership, citizenship, artistic and academic achievement in her community. She is a member of several groups across campus, including the Indigenous Student Support Group (ISSG), and is Assistant Don at Bennett House. Through the visual arts and courageous, inclusive storytelling, she is committed to creating a voice for those on the margins seeking the light. Her motto is, “If you’re destined to be a little odd, you might as well defy the odds.” She is the winner of the 2021 Philp Drawing Prize (Pierre Lassonde School of Fine Arts).
Jordan Arsenault is currently a student at Mount Allison University who hopes to find work in the environmental field. He recently moved to Sackville from just outside Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2018, he was a volunteer with Katimavik in Winnipeg and Nanaimo. The following year, he was selected to attend the ECOSOC Youth Forum in New York with UNA-Canada, as well as the Prime Minister’s Youth Summit in Ottawa. While he isn’t entirely sure where he is headed in life, he knows there will be many amazing adventures along the way!
Noah Lubendo is an emerging writer based in Vancouver, Canada. He recently graduated from Mount Allison University with a major in Political Science and minor in Sociology. As a poet and essayist, Lubendo is concerned with cultural hybridity, post-colonial thought, and Blackness as it relates to his Congolese heritage. His writing is influenced primarily by Ta-nehisi Coates, Jericho Brown, and Kendrick Lamar, and he hopes to publish a full-length manuscript soon. Although still improving his craft, Lubendo recently won the regional IPAC Student Thought and Leadership Award and was selected for publication by Vancouver Poetry House.
Laika (Pollock) Dadoun is a fourth-year student in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Mount Allison, with a minor in Museum and Curatorial Studies. Her career aspirations shifted to arts and culture management in 2017, after volunteering as a curatorial assistant at Canada’s Penitentiary Museum, where she also worked subsequently as an attendant. This will be Dadoun’s second occasion working with the Owens, as she served previously as the J.E.A. Crake ArtsWork Accessibility Intern in 2019. Her academic and studio achievements include the Laura Sophia Wood Prize, which she received consecutively in 2019 and 2020.
We would like to acknowledge, honour, and pay respect to the traditional owners and custodians — from all four directions — of the land on which we live. It is upon the unceded, ancestral lands of the L’nuk (Mi’kmaq) that the Owens Art Gallery and Mount Allison University are located. While this area is known as Sackville, New Brunswick, it is part of Siknikt, a district of the greater territory of Mi’kma’ki. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which the Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik, and Peskotomuhkati first signed with the British Crown in 1725.
The J.E.A. Crake Art Critics at Large program was made possible with the generous support of the J.E.A. Crake Foundation and Mount Allison University. J.E.A. Crake ArtsWork Internships are intended to provide Mount Allison University students with opportunities for experiential learning and to enable them to explore career options in the Arts.
No Ducks’ graphic design and logo were created by artist, Hannah Bridger.
