March 16, 2023

The Final Mile Club: Brendan Fernandes on Getting Started

In the newest installment of the Final Mile Club podcast, multidisciplinary artist Brendan Fernandes shares practical tips on securing funding as an artist. Grounded in lived experience as a York University alumnus of AMPD’s Visual Arts BFA program, Fernandes talks about the importance of maximizing available resources, documenting the creative process, articulating the meaning of art in various forms, and creating opportunities for community, visibility, and recognition.  

Internationally recognized Canadian artist Brandon Fernandes fuses dance and visual arts to examine issues of cultural displacement, migration, labour, and queer subjectivity. Through a hybrid of artistic disciplines, Fernandes creates installation, video, sculpture, and dance that masterfully use art for advocacy.  He is inspiring the next generation of art-based changemakers as a teacher at Northwestern University. 

The Final Mile Club (FMC) prepares emerging artists, makers, performers, and designers for life after graduation. As a project by York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), FMC examines creatives’ unique challenges through conversations with prominent alumni and industry experts.

FMC is hosted by Dr. Sarah Bay-Cheng, Dean of AMPD and a Theatre & Performance Studies professor. Dr. Bay-Cheng’s research focuses on the intersections among theatre, performance, and media.

Listen to the new episode here.