The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts now has an official address: 15 Artists' Common.

The Brock University Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts has an official address.

The address for the Canada Hair Cloth Company was originally 198 St. Paul St., which goes back more than a century to when the main entrance was on the north side of the building and the old Welland Canal was to the south.

But with the main entrance to the soon-to-be-open MIWSFPA now on the south side of the renovated and expanded building, Brock University requested the address change.

The City of St. Catharines agreed to grant the campus the address of 15 Artists’ Common, referring to the small laneway that comes off of Ice Dogs Way near McGuire Street.

“The provision of a name for the short street on which the MIWSFPA is located indicates the special nature of what is happening on that road, and in that space,” said Carol Merriam, Interim Dean, Faculty of Humanities. “The name reflects some important aspects of what this building is and what happens there.”

The ‘Common’ label derives from the Latin word communis, meaning something shared or held by a community together.

“This sharing of the work of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts was one of the goals in moving the School to a downtown location,” Merriam said. “The word common also indicates a meeting place, where the community comes together – again, something that Brock is striving to create here.”

The number 15 in the address commemorates both the year the building opened, and the original $15 million gift to Brock University from Marilyn I. Walker, which made possible moving the arts school to its new downtown home.