Colleagues,
I am pleased to inform the York community that Professor Brandon Vickerd has been appointed as dean, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design for a five-year term starting July 1, 2025 following a search internal to the York community.
Professor Vickerd is full professor in the Department of Visual Art & Art History (VAAH), School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), where he has been a faculty member since 2004. An experienced graduate supervisor with a record of excellence in research and artistic practice, Professor Vickerd has served twice as Chair of the Department of Visual Art & Art History and has been Chair of AMPD Faculty Council in 2024-25. In 2024, he was awarded the AMPD Research Award for his achievements in research-creation.
With extensive administrative experience in AMPD, Professor Vickerd has served on and chaired Recruitment & Retention and Tenure & Promotion Committees in VAAH, the VAAH Executive Committee, the LL Odette Sculptor in Residence Committee, policy and planning committees and student awards committees, among others. He was a key participant in expansion of the MFA program in studio practice and in the development of the PhD in studio practice at York University, one of the very first in English-speaking Canada. Working with units across the University, Professor Vickerd proposed and helped to implement the first AMPD-specific course at York’s Las Nubes campus in Costa Rica, where he has recently been teaching. He has successfully secured ongoing external funding for the Digital Sculpture Laboratory of York University and worked to advance decolonization, equity, diversity and inclusion in scholarship and practice, supporting communities of practice rooted in equality and respect.
A recipient of numerous grants and awards from municipal, provincial and national arts councils and governments, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and other institutions, Professor Vickerd is well-known for his sculpture practice, which is primarily site-specific and located in the public realm. With dozens of solo and group exhibitions and public art commissions to his name, Professor Vickerd’s work has been reviewed in art and news media, and he has presented his research at conferences, festivals and seminars across North America. Since 2015, he has secured over $2,750,000 in external funding to support research projects in the field of public art. Recent and current projects include Seeing Animals, commissioned by the City of Surrey, B.C.; A State of Rest, commissioned by the City of Ottawa, Ont.; The Heights, commissioned by the City of Toronto and the Duke Heights BIA; Alouette, commissioned by Passages Insolites (Quebec City); and Float, commissioned by the Regional Municipality of Halifax, N.S.
I am grateful to the search committee for their dedication and clear focus on the best outcome for the school. I also extend well wishes and sincere thanks to Dr. Sarah Bay-Cheng for her exceptional leadership of AMPD over the past six years.
Sincerely,
Rhonda Lenton
President & Vice-Chancellor