Passing the Spark: Three Alumni Invest in Creativity at Vic U

^{Sheelagh Whittaker, left, and Adam Sol, right. The new Centre for Creativity supports cross-disciplinary student projects across arts and sciences.(Photo by Neil Gaikwad)}

By Leslie Shepherd

Creativity often begins with exposure — a poem published at age 12, a fine arts class that sparked a lifetime passion for art, a father’s handcrafted cabinets. For Sheelagh Whittaker Vic 7T0, Ed Truant Vic 9T1 and Susan Armitage Vic 6T4, early encounters with creativity helped shape not only their imaginations but also the paths their lives would take.

Now these three alumni have made generous gifts to Victoria University’s new Centre for Creativity to ensure that future students will have opportunities to explore, imagine and create.

The Centre for Creativity, which launched in May 2024, is a new initiative at Victoria University designed to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration. It hosts programming and events that bring together artists, thinkers and developers from different fields to share work, compare ideas and create together. It’s a space where students can engage with creativity not just as a skill, but as a way of thinking — expansive, experimental and essential.

“Students need time, resources and encouragement to develop creative projects just as they do in other fields,” said Professor Adam Sol, launch director for the centre.

“These gifts will help inspire them to dig deeper, go farther and pursue their creative work with ambition and confidence.”

Whittaker lived across the street in postwar Edmonton from June Fritch, the editor of the Alberta Poetry Yearbook, a woman who nourished her soul by encouraging her to write poetry, and her body by feeding her lunch while her mother was ill. Her poem The Joy of Creation was published when she was 12. That early recognition that creativity brings joy sparked a lifelong love of writing, thinking and creating for the woman who would become the first female CEO of a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed company.

Whittaker has made a donation to establish The Sheelagh Whittaker Centre for Creativity Undergraduate Fellowship Award, supporting students in any discipline who demonstrate creative promise.

She said she was motivated to make the donation after attending her 55th Vic reunion last spring (along with a friend celebrating her 75th reunion) and connecting with so many other Vic alumni. In addition, she has a granddaughter about to graduate from high school who she hopes will consider Vic U.

“I was thinking and feeling a lot about my days at Vic and pride in other Vic grads,” she said. “When I heard the whole notion of a Centre for Creativity, I was beguiled. It’s trite to say it’s thinking out of the box, but it is. You think you are a graphic artist, but what about graphic art set to music?”

She said she hoped the fellowship she has established will enable students to access the resources they need, from essential equipment to dedicated time for their work, while also providing the motivational lift that recognition brings.

“I just like supporting creativity,” she said. “We need joy and creativity brings joy.”

Ed Truant’s appreciation for creativity also began at home. His father, who immigrated to Canada as a teenager, taught himself custom cabinetmaking after a decade in carpentry. His brother Ray Truant Vic 8T8, a microbiologist and professor at McMaster University, is also an artist in many mediums.

Truant’s own career in finance, as the founder and CEO of Slingshot Capital, has shown him how creative thinking can unlock new opportunities and how important it is to foster that mindset in a world increasingly shaped by automation.

His gift will establish The Truant Centre for Creativity Undergraduate Fellowship Award. He said he hoped the fellowship would allow students to pursue their creative interests more fully—whether in the arts, sciences or social sciences—and help them push boundaries in their chosen fields.

“We rely too much on technology that allows us to replicate what we have created so far,” he said. “Pure creativity requires real intelligence versus artificial intelligence, which so far is a bit of wash, rinse and repeat. It’s important to keep fostering real creativity, which is how we will make real breakthroughs.”

Armitage discovered her creative interests during her time at Vic U in the 1960s, when she took a fine arts course focused on Renaissance art and architecture. That sparked a lifelong interest in visual culture that she still draws on when she travels.

Her gift has established The Murray and Susan Armitage Foundation Fund for the Centre for Creativity, honouring both her connection to Vic U and the memory of her late husband, Murray Armitage Vic 6T2, who shared her belief in the importance of education and the arts. The fund will support the centre’s leadership and programming, helping shape its vision and reach.

The Armitages are longtime donors to Vic U. In 2019, they created The Susan and Murray Armitage Scholarship, awarded to first-year students who achieve academic excellence.

“This will be a place for some young artists to get started and who knows what they will do?” Susan Armitage said of her gift to the Centre for Creativity. “It’s a great antidote to our troubled times. Whether it’s books or painting or sculpture, it takes you away from the everyday and into something you love.”

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2025 issue of Vic Visionaries.