The aim of the Visual Arts 2008 Gradute Student Conference Pedal Point . Pivot Point is to expose the secret passageways and road blocks one experiences in pursuing a professional career in the arts and in related professional and academic contexts. The pair of terms comprising the conference’s title describe the flexibility of the navigating subject, one with an ability to register and adapt to institutional parameters. These terms also imply a kind of “making do,” the means by which the subject pursues his or her own ends amid fluctuating trends in the art world, employing institutional resources in creative ways. For this year’s conference, we have invited former visual arts graduates from U.W.O. Craig Buckley, Olexander Wlasenko and Paola Poletto to speak about their past and present work.