Brandon University has announced in a media release that when BU celebrates some outstanding women students for International Women’s Day, each of those being highlighted will also receive an art memento created by a previous honoree.
“We are so excited to unveil a new tradition this year, one that builds on existing traditions in a meaningful way while also highlighting BU talent,” said Morganna Malyon, a member of BU’s Status of Women Review Committee, which organizes and presents the annual awards as part of Women’s Week and International Women’s Day.
(Image – bookmarks – Brandon University)
“Each year, we present selected students with a gift card for a local bookstore along with a list of women authors curated by the committee,” she said, noting that the gift cards were initially a pandemic pivot that has now become its own tradition. “This year, we’re adding a custom bookmark, printed with specially commissioned art to reflect the theme of the event: Embracing Equity.”
Chosen to produce the art was BU alumna Nikki Brasseur, who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours degree last year and is pursuing graduate studies in Winnipeg. Last year, she was recognized as an outstanding woman student herself. For this year’s honorees, she created a continuous-line drawing of a group of silhouettes, with 3D watercolour paper flowers placed overtop that appear to be in bloom.
(Image – Nikki Brasseur – Brandon University)
“Equity involves a collective embrace of the community, and the individuals there-in; that each person has worth and is deserving of fair and just opportunity. When this embrace is realized, the community flourishes,” Brasseur said. “That is why I utilized a continuous line drawing to reference equity that has been embraced, and the flowers to symbolize a flourishing community.”
Brasseur contrasts her approach to the images that were being used for the theme on the International Women’s Day website, which showed many people with their arms crossed, embracing themselves.
“A continuous line is symbolic of relationality,” she said. “If one person in the line falls, we all do. When we Embrace Equity, our community blossoms.”
This year’s awards event will see the community again coming together virtually – a format that was found to permit wider attendance by the women being highlighted, their friends and family, and other members of the BU community.
“We had always done an in-person ceremony before, but it was a real revelation when we switched to a virtual event over the past few years,” Malyon said. “Suddenly families from around the world were able to take part, and it was easier even for our students to attend, when otherwise they might have to commute some distance to campus or give up a shift at work.”
About 25 students are expected to be highlighted at the event, scheduled for Tuesday, March 7 at noon. It will be open to the public.
