As winter descends, don’t despair! Here to lift our spirits with their creative flair are fine arts students, professors and alumni. Read on and make a date to catch their films, exhibits and performances.
Film is not dead!
York film students and alumni are making a strong showing at Film Is Dead! Long Live Film!, a special event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT). Graduate student Franci Duran’s film, The First Thing Ever Filmed, will receive its world premiere screening at Cinemathéque Ontario tomorrow at 6:30pm. The screenings will be shown at the Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas St. West, Toronto. Alumna Lina Rodriguez (BFA ’05) is one of the featured performers at the after party at Supermarket in Kensington Market on Nov. 29, and alumna Tracy German (MFA ’06) presents a film-based installation, Impeded Streams and Staines II – Isis’ Altar, with sculptor Marta Cela at Trinity Square Video. 401 Richmond St. West, Suite 376, Toronto, opening Nov. 23 and running to Dec. 20.
No fall from grace
Visual Arts graduate student Carla Garnet is the curator of Falling from Grace, an exhibition combining video and text by artist Sharon Switzer, opening Thursday with a public reception from 6 to 8 pm at the McMaster 
Museum of Art in Hamilton. The exhibition catalogue includes an essay by Garnet. The show runs to Jan. 20.
Piano étude
Music Professor Christina Petrowska Quilico (left) is performing an étude by Michel-Georges Bregent from her two-CD set of Bregent works on the Centrediscs label for Centredisc’s 25th anniversary celebration. The event takes place Saturday at the Canadian Music Centre in Toronto. Other performers will include classical guitarist William Beauvais and other luminaries of the Canadian music scene.
Wordy exhibit
Text at TYPE, a text-based exhibition curated by visual arts Professor Barbara Balfour, will be on view until Nov. 25 in the gallery space at TYPE, an independent bookstore located at 883 Queen St. West, Toronto. The show features works by Balfour as well as visual arts Professor Yam Lau, adjunct faculty member Bill Burns and other artists. For information, call 416-366-8973.
Lau’s animation Room
Visual arts Professor Yam Lau has been awarded a Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council – one of Ontario’s most prestigious visual arts awards – for his recent work in computer-generated animation. One of his works, Room, can be viewed at the Toronto Free Gallery, 660 Queen St. East, until next weekend. There will be a closing reception on Saturday, Nov. 25, from 2 to 5pm.
Poetic License in Jakarta
Theatre Professor Erika Batdorf (right) is currently in Indonesia as a participant in the 7th International Women Playwrights Conference in Jakarta and Bali. Batdorf will perform her solo work, Poetic License, one of only 10 performances and two from North America on the program, and will also give a workshop at the conference.