University of Victoria

The partnership between the University of Victoria (UVic) and the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park (JRSP) began in 2016, with the JRSP’s endowment of a 4-year doctoral fellowship in the Art History and Visual Arts Department. In 2023, the Rubinoff Foundation expanded its partnership with the Faculty of Fine Arts through the Jeffrey Rubinoff Scholar in Art as a Source of Knowledge Endowment. This fund instigated all current collaborations between JRSP and UVic, including a professorial fellowship, graduate student scholarship, field school programs, conferences, and artist residencies.

The first Rubinoff Doctoral Fellow, Munazzah Akhtar, was appointed in 2016, followed by a second fellow, Anna O’Meara, in 2020. Through this fellowship, UVic doctoral students receive unparalleled opportunities – from dedicated funding for research to international networking – while delving into the complexities of modern art history. Notably, the endowment also supports annual travel for the Rubinoff PhD scholar and select UVic Fine Arts students to attend the JRSP’s scholarly forum on Hornby Island. This early linkage between UVic and the Sculpture Park helped integrate academic inquiry with Rubinoff’s mission, as UVic became “one of the institutional mainstays of [JRSP’s] unfolding, permanent educational program…exploring the future of art as a source of knowledge”

The Jeffrey Rubinoff Nexus for Art as a Source of Knowledge Graduate Student Scholarship supports 2-4 students from each of the five Fine Arts departments. This award is distributed annually and has supported 28 students as of 2025. Students engage with Rubinoff’s work in-situ during field schools at the sculpture park throughout the academic year. During these programs, students undertake an array of artistic practices, including building maquettes for their own future sculptures, composing music, writing poetry, and creating visual artworks.

The Jeffrey Rubinoff Nexus for Art as a Source of Knowledge Legacy Professorship is held by Dr. Allan Antliff. In this role, he teaches a course on modern sculpture which includes a JRSP field school. Professor Antliff also organizes a biannual conference devoted to the legacy of Jeffrey Rubinoff, held at the University of Victoria.

September 2025 will be the inaugural JRSP-UVic Artist-Scholar Residency – a program that recruits an artist or scholar to research on-site at the JRSP and visit UVic for 2-6 weeks in the fall.