Nancy Holmes | University of British Columbia (original) (raw)
Papers by Nancy Holmes
Nancy Holmes, Associate Professor in Creative and Critical Studies discusses the community-engage... more Nancy Holmes, Associate Professor in Creative and Critical Studies discusses the community-engaged art projects that she has worked on including Border Free Bees, a project to raise awareness about the native bee population in the Okanagan.
John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" now appears on the ten-dollar bill, its place fi... more John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" now appears on the ten-dollar bill, its place firmly established within Canadian iconography. Yet the poem has been dismissed by both critics and poets as blithely Romantic and/or jingoistic, yet a close reading of the text reveals a deeper, conflicted significance. In the first two stanzas, McCrae uses conventional pastoral imagery to disrupt the familiar association between Christian ideals of redemption and renewal with nature, hauntingly capturing the uncertainty and fear that pervaded the collective consciousness of soldiers and civilians alike, both during and after World War I. However, in the last stanza, McCrae abandons his skillful representation of the war torn, spiritually diseased soul by applying an ideological gloss that reads like a recruiting poster. The critical silence surrounding the complexities of this poem have led to its reappropriation by the Canadian government as a symbol of the military and heroism rather t...
Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 2011
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Design and Nature: A Partnership
Public Art Dialogue, 2016
Ariel a Review of International English Literature, Apr 1, 1988
An ecofeminist reading of works by L.M. Montgomery, particularly Anne of Green Gables, Emily of N... more An ecofeminist reading of works by L.M. Montgomery, particularly Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon and The Blue Castle.
The Dark Side of Creativity, 2009
Shimshon Obadia is an Interdisciplinary Eco Artist leading the Daylighting the Classroom, a proje... more Shimshon Obadia is an Interdisciplinary Eco Artist leading the Daylighting the Classroom, a project in partnership with The University of British Columbia's SSHRC funded Eco Art Incubator research initiative and École K.L.O. Middle School in Kelowna, B.C.. This project’s mandate is to use eco art to re-envision education and the role of the natural world in school curricula. For the past two years, Obadia has been using eco-art to connect middle school students with their more-than-human community. The project is also designed to bring attention to the students’ now seven-year struggle to restore the often flooded concrete-covered wetland habitat that once ran through their school grounds. Initiated by students’ discovery of blue-listed Western Painted Turtle eggs in their long jump sand pits, this school’s community began to restore the species’ disappearing habitat. Originally challenged to raise 100,000bytheirschoolboardforthishabitat’srestoration,multiple“generations”ofstudentsremarkablyraised100,000 by their school board for this habitat’s restoration, multiple “generations” of students remarkably raised 100,000bytheirschoolboardforthishabitat’srestoration,multiple“generations”ofstudentsremarkablyraised86,000. Unfortunately, in an updated quote, these students recently discovered their project will now cost half a million dollars. Although dismayed and disappointed, through work on this issue, the students and teachers involved ended up creating a process of discovery- how the natural world is an educational resource gold mine. Now, nearly a decade later, the habitat re-naturalization is finally complete. Through eco art implementation in their education, these students have shown an aptitude for learning far beyond what is regularly observed of middle school students in a traditional classroom setting. This paper discusses the beginning of this eco-art-based research endeavour, these students’ inspiring passion for their environment, the role of eco art in the classroom and school curricula, and helping students negotiate the disappointments and obstacles of bureaucratic intransigence and even, some might say, of dismissal of children’s right to learn from and steward the natural world.
Studies in Canadian Literature (SLC/ELC), 2005
John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" now appears on the ten-dollar bill, its place firmly establish... more John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" now appears on the ten-dollar bill, its place firmly established within Canadian iconography. Yet the poem has been dismissed by both critics and poets as blithely Romantic and/or jingoistic, yet a close reading of the text reveals a deeper, conflicted significance. In the first two stanzas, McCrae uses conventional pastoral imagery to disrupt the familiar association between Christian ideals of redemption and renewal with nature, hauntingly capturing the uncertainty and fear that pervaded the collective consciousness of soldiers and civilians alike, both during and after World War I. However, in the last stanza, McCrae abandons his skillful representation of the war torn, spiritually diseased soul by applying an ideological gloss that reads like a recruiting poster. The critical silence surrounding the complexities of this poem have led to its reappropriation by the Canadian government as a symbol of the military and heroism rather than a rite of genuine war remembrance.
Nancy Holmes, Associate Professor in Creative and Critical Studies discusses the community-engage... more Nancy Holmes, Associate Professor in Creative and Critical Studies discusses the community-engaged art projects that she has worked on including Border Free Bees, a project to raise awareness about the native bee population in the Okanagan.
John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" now appears on the ten-dollar bill, its place fi... more John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" now appears on the ten-dollar bill, its place firmly established within Canadian iconography. Yet the poem has been dismissed by both critics and poets as blithely Romantic and/or jingoistic, yet a close reading of the text reveals a deeper, conflicted significance. In the first two stanzas, McCrae uses conventional pastoral imagery to disrupt the familiar association between Christian ideals of redemption and renewal with nature, hauntingly capturing the uncertainty and fear that pervaded the collective consciousness of soldiers and civilians alike, both during and after World War I. However, in the last stanza, McCrae abandons his skillful representation of the war torn, spiritually diseased soul by applying an ideological gloss that reads like a recruiting poster. The critical silence surrounding the complexities of this poem have led to its reappropriation by the Canadian government as a symbol of the military and heroism rather t...
Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 2011
Skip Navigation. ...
Design and Nature: A Partnership
Public Art Dialogue, 2016
Ariel a Review of International English Literature, Apr 1, 1988
An ecofeminist reading of works by L.M. Montgomery, particularly Anne of Green Gables, Emily of N... more An ecofeminist reading of works by L.M. Montgomery, particularly Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon and The Blue Castle.
The Dark Side of Creativity, 2009
Shimshon Obadia is an Interdisciplinary Eco Artist leading the Daylighting the Classroom, a proje... more Shimshon Obadia is an Interdisciplinary Eco Artist leading the Daylighting the Classroom, a project in partnership with The University of British Columbia's SSHRC funded Eco Art Incubator research initiative and École K.L.O. Middle School in Kelowna, B.C.. This project’s mandate is to use eco art to re-envision education and the role of the natural world in school curricula. For the past two years, Obadia has been using eco-art to connect middle school students with their more-than-human community. The project is also designed to bring attention to the students’ now seven-year struggle to restore the often flooded concrete-covered wetland habitat that once ran through their school grounds. Initiated by students’ discovery of blue-listed Western Painted Turtle eggs in their long jump sand pits, this school’s community began to restore the species’ disappearing habitat. Originally challenged to raise 100,000bytheirschoolboardforthishabitat’srestoration,multiple“generations”ofstudentsremarkablyraised100,000 by their school board for this habitat’s restoration, multiple “generations” of students remarkably raised 100,000bytheirschoolboardforthishabitat’srestoration,multiple“generations”ofstudentsremarkablyraised86,000. Unfortunately, in an updated quote, these students recently discovered their project will now cost half a million dollars. Although dismayed and disappointed, through work on this issue, the students and teachers involved ended up creating a process of discovery- how the natural world is an educational resource gold mine. Now, nearly a decade later, the habitat re-naturalization is finally complete. Through eco art implementation in their education, these students have shown an aptitude for learning far beyond what is regularly observed of middle school students in a traditional classroom setting. This paper discusses the beginning of this eco-art-based research endeavour, these students’ inspiring passion for their environment, the role of eco art in the classroom and school curricula, and helping students negotiate the disappointments and obstacles of bureaucratic intransigence and even, some might say, of dismissal of children’s right to learn from and steward the natural world.
Studies in Canadian Literature (SLC/ELC), 2005
John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" now appears on the ten-dollar bill, its place firmly establish... more John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" now appears on the ten-dollar bill, its place firmly established within Canadian iconography. Yet the poem has been dismissed by both critics and poets as blithely Romantic and/or jingoistic, yet a close reading of the text reveals a deeper, conflicted significance. In the first two stanzas, McCrae uses conventional pastoral imagery to disrupt the familiar association between Christian ideals of redemption and renewal with nature, hauntingly capturing the uncertainty and fear that pervaded the collective consciousness of soldiers and civilians alike, both during and after World War I. However, in the last stanza, McCrae abandons his skillful representation of the war torn, spiritually diseased soul by applying an ideological gloss that reads like a recruiting poster. The critical silence surrounding the complexities of this poem have led to its reappropriation by the Canadian government as a symbol of the military and heroism rather than a rite of genuine war remembrance.