Media Releases

Norman Jewison Stream for imagination and the arts created at Victoria University

October 14, 2010

TORONTO, ON — Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty, in the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, announced today the cre­ation of the Nor­man Jew­i­son Stream for Imag­i­na­tion and the Arts, a new stream of study in the unique Vic One pro­gram for first-year uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents at U of T. The stream is made pos­si­ble through the gen­er­ous gift of $1 mil­lion from Blake Goldring, chair­man and CEO of AGF Man­age­ment Ltd.

The estab­lish­ment of the Nor­man Jew­i­son Stream for Imag­i­na­tion and the Arts is inspired by the cre­ativ­i­ty and vision of renowned film­mak­er, and Vic­to­ria University’s 12th chan­cel­lor, Nor­man Jew­i­son. His work has con­tin­u­al­ly ele­vat­ed the pub­lic con­scious­ness of press­ing social issues. Jewison’s 1967 film In the Heat of the Night, about an African Amer­i­can detec­tive inves­ti­gat­ing a mur­der in a racist South­ern town, was a water­shed moment for civ­il rights in the Unit­ed States. His oth­er movies, such as …And Jus­tice for All, A Soldier’s Sto­ry, The Hur­ri­cane and The State­ment, to name a few, fur­ther exem­pli­fy Jewison’s use of cin­e­ma to address issues of racism, prej­u­dice and equal­i­ty, and mat­ters of truth and hon­our.

“It’s a great priv­i­lege to rec­og­nize the remark­able life and work of one of Victoria’s most dis­tin­guished grad­u­ates in this way. Bright, cre­ative young peo­ple will be moti­vat­ed by Nor­man Jewison’s exem­plary com­mit­ment to the arts and social jus­tice,” says Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty pres­i­dent Paul Gooch. “We are very grate­ful to Blake Goldring for pro­vid­ing the means to make this spe­cial expe­ri­ence pos­si­ble for stu­dents.”

Streams of study with­in Vic One explore ideas and events from a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary per­spec­tive in small class­es of only 25 stu­dents. The Nor­man Jew­i­son Stream for Imag­i­na­tion and the Arts will pro­vide stu­dents with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to study how the arts play an inte­gral role in con­fronting the social prob­lems of the time, and to devel­op an orig­i­nal cre­ative work address­ing a social issue.

“The Nor­man Jew­i­son Stream for Imag­i­na­tion and the Arts is quite sim­ply a fan­tas­tic way to rec­og­nize an icon­ic Cana­di­an, par­tic­u­lar­ly giv­en Norman’s com­mit­ment to edu­ca­tion as chan­cel­lor of Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty and as the founder of the Cana­di­an Film Cen­tre,” says Blake Goldring, a grad­u­ate of the Vic­to­ria Col­lege class of 1981. “I also deeply believe in the val­ue of a lib­er­al arts edu­ca­tion and the foun­da­tion it pro­vides for a person’s career prospects after uni­ver­si­ty. Vic One is a pre­mier pro­gram for stu­dents to learn and chal­lenge their ana­lyt­ic and cre­ative skill set. The addi­tion of the Nor­man Jew­i­son stream to Vic One is a mar­velous way to nur­ture cre­ative young minds, and is a great cred­it to Vic and U of T as pre­em­i­nent insti­tu­tions.”

In recog­ni­tion of Goldring’s gen­er­ous gift, the Blake C. Goldring Pro­fes­sor­ship will be estab­lished with­in the Nor­man Jew­i­son Stream for Imag­i­na­tion and the Arts in Vic One.

The Nor­man Jew­i­son Stream for the Imag­i­na­tion and the Arts is planned to be avail­able for the 2011–2012 aca­d­e­m­ic year, pend­ing final uni­ver­si­ty approval of the course cur­ricu­lum. It joins four already estab­lished streams of study with­in Vic One: the Northrop Frye Stream for Human­i­ties, the Lester B. Pear­son Stream for Social Sci­ences, the Augus­ta Stowe-Gullen Stream for Life Sci­ences and the Egerton Ryer­son Stream for Edu­ca­tion.

Vic One stu­dents enroll in two pro­gram-spe­cif­ic cours­es and a co-req­ui­site course, with their remain­ing two cours­es drawn from those offered by U of T’s Fac­ul­ty of Arts & Sci­ence. Also exclu­sive to the Vic One pro­gram is a week­ly series of guest lec­tures by not­ed schol­ars, thinkers and pub­lic fig­ures. Vic One stu­dents com­plete their first year of uni­ver­si­ty hav­ing devel­oped strong research, pre­sen­ta­tion, writ­ing and crit­i­cal think­ing skills that serve as an impor­tant foun­da­tion for their future stud­ies.

Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty launched Vic One in 2003 as part of its efforts to trans­form under­grad­u­ate uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tion and cre­ate a more per­son­al­ized aca­d­e­m­ic expe­ri­ence. The pro­gram has grown from an ini­tial offer­ing of two aca­d­e­m­ic streams of study, in the human­i­ties and in the social sci­ences, to include options for study in the life sci­ences and edu­ca­tion fields. Stu­dent demand for Vic One has also increased, with the recent fall 2010 intake receiv­ing more than five qual­i­fied appli­cants for each of the 150 pro­gram spaces.

Nor­man Jew­i­son was installed as Vic­to­ria University’s 12th chan­cel­lor on May 13, 2004. He con­clud­ed his term of office on Octo­ber 13, 2010.

Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty, found­ed in 1836 as Upper Cana­da Acad­e­my in Cobourg, Ont., fed­er­at­ed with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to in 1890. It com­pris­es Vic­to­ria Col­lege, an arts and sci­ence col­lege of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, and Emmanuel Col­lege, a the­o­log­i­cal col­lege. Includ­ed amongst Victoria’s grad­u­ates are lit­er­ary crit­ic and schol­ar Northrop Frye, Nobel lau­re­ate and prime min­is­ter Lester B. Pear­son, pio­neer­ing doc­tor Augus­ta Stowe-Gullen, Nobel lau­re­ate and co-inven­tor of the laser Arthur Schawlow, authors Mar­garet Atwood, John Bem­rose, David Gilmour and Eliz­a­beth Hay, artist Robert Bate­man, poet Den­nis Lee, actor Don­ald Suther­land, the Hon­ourable Bill Blaikie, for­mer ambas­sador Ken­neth Tay­lor and film­mak­er Nor­man Jew­i­son. Vic­to­ria cel­e­brates its 175th anniver­sary year from Octo­ber 2010 to Octo­ber 2011. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.vicu.utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Jen­nifer Pugs­ley
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer
Alum­ni Affairs and Uni­ver­si­ty Advance­ment
416–585-4489
jennifer.pugsley@utoronto.ca