Meet KPU: Ying-Yueh Chuang
From participating in national exhibits to receiving awards, Chuang brings her ceramics expertise to the KPU community
Ying-Yueh Chuang, a ceramic artist and instructor in the fine arts department, has been at KPU since 2014. (Submitted)
Ying-Yueh Chuang is a ceramic artist and instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She has been a fundamental part of the university’s fine arts department since 2014, motivating students with her expertise and passion for ceramics.
With a career spanning local, national, and international exhibitions, Chuang has made meaningful contributions to the field of fine arts, receiving several grants and awards that recognize her skills. In 2006, she won the Winifred Shantz National Emerging Artist Award for Ceramics. Her work has also been featured in many publications, including Art in America, Ceramic Review, and Ceramics Art and Perception.
Chuang was born in Taiwan and came to Canada in the early 1990s. She has earned a diploma of fine arts from Langara College, a bachelor of fine arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and a master’s degree in ceramics from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) University.
The following interview transcription has been edited for clarity.
When did you join the KPU community and why?
It was in 2014. Before 2012, I was teaching in Toronto. Then, there was this opportunity at Capilano University, and that’s what brought me to Vancouver to teach the fine arts program in ceramics. After one year, the fine art program was cut. The following year, we tried to bring back the program, but it wasn’t successful. So we were basically trying to graduate the students at the time because it was a two-year fine art program.
When I finished the second year, a full-time position at KPU for ceramics opened up. I was like, “Well, that was good timing.” In the previous year, there was actually a one-year position that opened up at KPU. But because I still wanted to continue to rescue the Capilano program, I got a part-time job at Langara. I was like, “I don’t think I can do three schools at the same time, but if another full-time position comes up in another year, I’ll consider it.” So that’s why I applied at that time, and luckily, I got accepted.
What’s your favourite story of your time at KPU?
When I’m teaching, I want to give as many skills and information to my students as possible. I want them to learn all of that because I think that foundation building is very important for them to have before they start to move up to the senior level. Many students in their course reviews mentioned, “This is ridiculous, there’s so much homework.” Everything is just too much for some of the students. Sometimes when you read that, you just feel a little bit discouraged.
So in 2019, I got the Dean of Arts Teaching Award, and that was actually really encouraging for me to receive because after getting a lot of complaints, you feel like, “Oh, what am I doing?” But some of the students really appreciate what they have learned and what I have taught them.
I also incorporate a lot of outside curriculum materials for them such as visiting galleries, participating in the local community for ceramics events, becoming a guild member, doing all kinds of other different things that we are not able to do at the school. There’s a lot of information that connects them to the community so hopefully they can actually survive as artists. Because of all of that, some students, even before they graduated, immediately got teaching opportunities at a lot of art centres. For me, this is good to know. It’s important for them to connect to the community.
What’s something you’d like to say to people new to KPU?
There’s a lot of unique programs such as fine arts. I’m aware that a lot of students come into university and don’t really have a clue what they want to do. So I think it’s best to try to explore all the different things, including fine arts. I always find that because it’s such a small environment and there are studio courses, students actually have to work in the studio to do their project, and they get to know each other really fast and make friends. They feel like, “Well, is this actually for me or not?”
So I encourage students who aren’t sure what they want to major in or do yet to take some fine art courses and see if it actually fits with them. This is such a small community, it’s not like sitting in lecture courses with 35 other students. In a lot of our studio courses, there are about 15, or sometimes, 20 students just because it’s very hands on. But that also means you have to spend a lot of time in the studio.
What are you working on right now?
I just had my sabbatical last year, and now I’m returning and only focusing on my teaching. One of my courses is level-four ceramics, which I haven’t taught since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and we shut down. We haven’t been able to do that course until last year, but an instructor who was replacing me taught it. So this year, it’s great for me to revisit that course and have the students work on the projects that I designed and see their results. I know that they have a lot of skillsets behind them right now, and to work on the project that I designed for them, it’s exciting for me to see what they are going to come out with.
What’s something you’d like people to know about you?
English is actually my third language. So my first language is Taiwanese and then Mandarin. We usually have a lot of students coming from Taiwan or China. So if their English is not as good or they don’t necessarily understand a lot of stuff during the class time, I usually offer to talk to them outside of the class in Mandarin, if that’s what they prefer. That way I can try to help them with things that they are confused about. I thought it would also be useful for students to actually have that help.
