51³Ô¹Ï

Dr. Stephen Anthony Welch (1942 – 2021), a noted art historian, scholar and academic leader, had a long and distinguished career at the 51³Ô¹Ï, beginning in 1971 as a lecturer with the Department of History in Art (now the Department of Art History & Visual Studies) and progressing to full professor in 1980. Dr. Welch also served as Associate Dean (1982-1985) before becoming the longest-serving Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts for a remarkable 13 years (1985-1998). As author Ian MacPherson noted in his history of UVic, Reaching Outward and Upward, “Under the leadership of the Dean of Fine Arts, Anthony Welch, the faculty enjoyed remarkable success. Each of its schools — Visual Arts, Theatre, Music, Writing and History in Art — flourished; each possessed faculty members with international accomplishments and excellent reputations as teachers.” Dr. Welch also contributed to the creation of the Fine Arts Studios for Integrated Media Lab for all Fine Arts students, which has been successfully integrated into Fine Arts students’ academic programs since 1992.

Dr. Welch was a remarkable scholar who was equally at home studying architecture, epigraphy and the arts of the Islamic book. His areas of specialism encompassed Iranian painting, Mughal painting in India, Islamic calligraphy and Sultanate architecture in medieval India. He was the author of several books, including Shah ‘Abbas and the Arts of Isfahan, Artists for the Shah: Late Sixteenth Century Painting at the Imperial Court of Iran and, with Stuart Carey Welch, Arts of the Islamic Book: The Collection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan. He was also a visiting professor at the universities of Minnesota, Washington and Chicago.

Throughout his career Dr. Welch remained committed to teaching, particularly enjoying the supervision of graduate students—many of whom went on to have successful careers as teachers or curators of Islamic art in North America, Europe and Asia. He later worked as the first executive director of the Office of International Affairs, was on the board of directors for UVic’s Innovation and Development Corporation and was Vice President of the board of the McPherson Foundation.

The Dr. Stephen Anthony Welch Art History Scholarship is a living permanent legacy to the loving memory of the donor’s husband, and the profound positive impact he had on her life and the life of others. From the donor: “I am blessed with having lived with such a person of immense joy, curiosity, integrity, moral clarity and sparking sense of humour. The scholarship endowment closely aligns with Dr. Welch’s and my values in life, of making contribution to widen and deepen our understanding of the world for the curious, the young and the engaged through learning about things behind and beyond our safe reality.”

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from…

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

(from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets)