Oak Bay High student lands scholarship to study visual arts at UVic
Published 5:45 am Friday, May 15, 2026
Emerging Oak Bay artist Sady Reiter is one step closer to realizing her dreams.
The Grade 12 student Oak Bay High student was officially selected May 12 as this year’s winner of the Oak Bay Community Artists Society (OBCAS) scholarship.
From funds raised during its Bowker Creek Brush Up events, the award annually goes to one Oak Bay High student hoping to study art after graduation.
“We’re passionate about art,” said the OBCAS president Flo-Elle Watson. “A lot of the artists that have received the scholarship end up working for the arts in Oak Bay.”
This comes after Reiter’s art teacher Corey Wright recommended she be given the award.
“She asked how I would feel about earning the scholarship, and I just felt so elated,” said Reiter. “It’s a great feeling to have.”
Reiter will be studying visual arts at the University of Victoria next year, with a focus on ceramics. She explained the scholarship will help pay for materials – on top of the thousands of dollars needed to cover tuition – over the course of her degree.
“They do supply some things, but if I want specifics, then I would have to go and buy that myself,” she said. “Art supplies are very expensive.”
Watson noted that she was happy to hear that Reiter had chosen to study at UVic.
“It’s a great program,” she said. “There are other programs – Emily Carr and different places – but you’ve chosen the right one.”
Reiter was also accepted at Emily Carr University, but she turned down that offer to stay near her friends.
“But I do think I will be doing a transfer program, so two years UVic and then two years Emily Carr,” she said.
Once on the mainland, Reiter has big plans, including her own studio apartment to make and sell her work.
Watson explained she’s hopeful that, after graduating from university, Reiter will one day bring her love of art back home, as other scholarship winners have done in years past.
“Art in Oak Bay is amazing because there’s so many opportunities,” she said, adding three previous scholarship winners have served on the district’s Arts Alive committee.
Reiter will be selling her work at the Oak Bay Brush Up in August – just one of the many arts events that make the community a happening place for creators.
“There’s so much beautiful art around the school, murals throughout the school and just in the community,” she said. “There’s so many structures and things that really show the importance of art in Oak Bay.”
