This fall — refresh, renew and revitalize!

Leisure Learning

Treat yourself to a Leisure Learning course

This fall, expand your horizons with UNB Leisure Learning courses. With over 50 courses available, there's something for everyone. Enjoy classes in everything from Beekeeping and Sewing to Photography and Painting to Yoga, French and other languages.

Experience something creative and enjoyable this fall. Try Leisure Learning's in-person Watercolours on the Go on Saturdays, from Sept. 14 to Oct. 5. Join painter Katie FitzRandolph to explore watercolour painting, while creating an illustrated travel journal that will bring back memories for years to come. All painting skill levels are welcome.
 

Are you planning a trip to Italy? Enrich your visit with Italian for Travellers on Monday evenings (in-person classes), Sept. 23 to Dec. 16. You'll learn elementary conversational skills – gaining the confidence to ask for things like food, shelter, directions, and the all-important gelato.

Interested in other languages? Check out Leisure Learning's extensive language course selection – French, Arabic, German, Mandarin and American Sign Language. Also new this fall, in-person Spanish classes. Olé!
 

Dreaming of being a writer? Enrol in the online course Introduction to Creative Writing running Mondays, Oct. 1 to Nov. 19. Whether you want to write for yourself, your friends and family or aspire to turn writing into a career, this course is a great entry point. Writers of all experience levels are welcome. Write on!
 

Enjoy early bird discounts for fall courses

Register two weeks ahead for any Leisure Learning course and receive a 15% discount*.

*Discount does not apply to French and One-on-One Language courses.
 

UNB Design Works

A big "thank you" to all our staff and campers for making this the best summer yet! Mark your calendars now to sign up for our summer 2025 camps - registration will open on March 1, 2025. Avoid waitlists and register early.

Follow us on Facebook to see what camps we'll be offering during March Break. Registration opens Dec. 1, 2024.
 

UNB Art Centre

Explore the wonder of artist Terry Graff's Avian Cyborgs

Experience the unique and thought-provoking work of visual artist Terry Graff, in his national touring exhibition Avian Cyborgs. The exhibition involves over 400 paintings, collages, assemblages and sculptures with a persistent avian motif in an elaborate techno-fantasy that focuses on Graff's life-long exploration of the relationship between nature and technology. The exhibition opens at the UNB Art Centre on Friday, Sept. 20 and runs until Dec. 6.

While birds and machines were dominant motifs in Graff's childhood drawings, he started making sculptural assemblages of ducks fused with machine parts and scrap materials in the early 1970s, in effect extending their physical abilities beyond their normal limitations. He used diverse repurposed and upcycled materials, along with cast-off found objects to create his unique avian creations.

"As a mirror image of ourselves, the Avian Cyborg is an expression of how we use technology to increase our human capabilities, while at the same time consistently making ourselves more vulnerable to the harmful consequences of its dark side," says Graff.

The hybridized harbingers are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine and invite viewers to think deeply about the nature of the world, the creatures that belong to it, and the technology that we use to enhance or destroy it.

"These tiny winged creatures have survived over 150 million years and are now endangered and face extinction as a result of humanity's egocentric exploitation of the planet," says Marie Maltais, the Director of the UNB Art Centre. "While war, the warming planet, and Covid-19 continue to challenge us today, Graff fuses savagery and whimsy to arm the birds' delicate bodies, enabling them to withstand the concussion of contemporary reality."

Graff's vast body of work has been presented regionally, nationally, and internationally to critical and popular acclaim. Along with his studio practice in Island View, New Brunswick, Graff has had a distinguished career as a curator, an art educator, an art writer, and a gallery director. He has served as director of four public art galleries in four different provinces (Beaverbrook Art Gallery, NB; Mendel Art Gallery, SK; Rodman Hall Art Centre, ON; and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, PEI), as well as the director of the artist-run Struts Gallery. Graff has curated over 200 exhibitions and authored numerous articles, catalogues and books on both contemporary and historical art.

As an art educator, Graff served as Education Curator for the Art Gallery of Windsor, taught visual arts as a high school art teacher in Ontario and New Brunswick, and developed a special program for gifted children designed to encourage and expand creative thinking. In addition, he has been an advisor for several postgraduate art students, taught drawing and sculpture at Mount Allison University and Contemporary Management in Arts and Culture at the University of New Brunswick. He has been a tireless advocate for the importance of art in people's lives and as an essential ingredient for the health and well-being of communities.

The UNB Art Centre in Fredericton is the final destination for Avian Cyborgs, having previously been shown at the Art Gallery of Sudbury in Ontario, the Woodstock Art Gallery in Ontario and the Cape Breton University Art Gallery in Sydney, Nova Scotia. In conjunction with the exhibition is a copiously illustrated, multi-authored, 200-page book about Graff’s art published by Xeno-Optic Research Lab and Press. Stay tuned for a series of talks that will unfold throughout the exhibition, which runs from Sept. 20 to Dec. 6.

The UNB Art Centre (506-453-4623) is located at Memorial Hall, 9 Bailey Drive, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. The galleries are open 9 am - 4 pm weekdays and during special events. Admission is free to members of the public.
 

From the UNB Collection

Raymond Martin, Kangiqsujuaq: Le Jour
2019
Oil on canvas
101.6 x 152.4 cm

As a self-taught artist, Raymond Martin defies some of the conventional approaches to painting which creates a highly personalized style. His paintings like Kangiqsujuaq: Le Jour positively glow as the red ground layer is brought forward to become an integral part of the composition. Martin lays the ground colour on the canvas and then incises into it using a sharpened chopstick to define the shapes. His paintings appear simple in their whimsical portrayal of landscapes and interiors, yet they hold a complex relationship with the mythical and spiritual. This painting is one of a number the artist painted following a trip to Nunuvik in 2018.

Born in Lac-à-la-Croix, Quebec, Martin studied psychology at the University of Ottawa earning his bachelor's degree in 1981. He later received his master's degree in psychology from the Université de Moncton. He has been a practising psychologist and a practising artist for almost 40 years. He is part of the renaissance of Acadian artists that occurred in New Brunswick in the late twentieth century. He maintains a studio at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre in Moncton.
 

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go.unb.ca/enrichment | 506 453-4623 | pce@unb.ca