Articles from:March 2016

• Le Corbusier and the Dynamics of Space, Colour and Design: Art and the Rehabilitation of the Unité d’Habitation

  Wednesday, March 16, 2016 | By Brock University

  

  (Source: alliance-francaise.ca)

  Alliance française de Toronto invites you to the lecture of Professor Derek Knight, dedicated to Le Corbusier’s work. On Wednesday, March 16, at 7 pm in the Spadina Theatre. Free entrance.

  Le Corbusier worked particularly in the town planning and the design. He is known to be the inventor of the “Unité d’habitation” (house unit), concept on which he began to work in the 1920s, expression of a theoretical reflection on the collective accommodation. His conception envisages in the same building every community facilities necessities in life: day nursery, laundry, swimming pool, school, businesses, library, places of meeting.

  Derek Knight is an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at Brock University. He teaches 20th century European and North American art history, Contemporary Art and theory, and contributes to the MA program in Studies in Comparative Literatures and Arts. He is Director of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, in St Catherine.

  The lecture will be held in English.

  Tags: Derek Knight, Le Corbusier, visual arts
  Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

• Brock prof gets funding for project profiling women animal rights activists

  Monday, March 07, 2016 | By Brock University

  

  (Source: The Brock News, Monday, March 7, 2016 | by Cathy Majtenyi)

  While researching the history of animal rights, Brock visual arts professor Keri Cronin realized that women did much of the advocacy work in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

  She also noticed that, quite often, there was little information about these women. For example, it was common for a woman’s first name to be omitted from the record, with only her married name – Mrs. Smith, for example – being listed.

  That got Cronin and her friend, award-winning photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, thinking.

  “What we’ve noticed again and again is that it’s always women on the ground, raising the money, holding the bake sales, protesting, and it’s usually men at the head of the organizations,” says Cronin. “This is true today and obviously in the 19th century, too.”

  “We thought, ‘all these women are doing amazing work and they’re not getting credit, they’re not being celebrated.’ We want to change that.”

  So Cronin and McArthur created The Unbound Project: Women on the Front Lines of Animal Advocacy, to “recognize and celebrate women at the forefront of animal advocacy, in both a contemporary and historical context.”

  To help make it happen, the UK-based cosmetics company Lush recently granted the pair $20,000 from the company’s North American Charitable Giving Program. Cronin and McArthur have also received funding from the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, the Culture & Animals Foundation, and A Well-Fed World.

  To put together the multi-media and book project, Cronin and McArthur are travelling around the world interviewing, photographing and filming some 200 women in a wide range of professions and walks of life.

  We want to talk about how people in all kinds of careers are making a difference and that activism doesn’t just take one form.

  British primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, with a long history of conducting pioneering chimpanzee research in Tanzania, is among the higher-profile women being featured.

  But Cronin and McArthur’s main focus is on “local grassroots women, unsung heroes who make the world a kinder, gentler place for animals,” says Cronin.

  “When people think of activism, they imagine a certain thing: they imagine someone out there protesting or chaining themselves to a fence,” says Cronin. “We actually want to change a bit of that story. We want to talk about how people in all kinds of careers are making a difference and that activism doesn’t just take one form.”

  Unbound has its roots in a long-term project, We Animals, that McArthur created to expose animal abuses around the world. As she did this, McArthur came across women working passionately and unceasingly to end such cruelty.

  “Sharing stories of inspiration and change not only gets people excited about taking part but gives them hope, something to hold onto, whereas my work on the brutal treatment of animals and factory farming can leave someone with a sense of paralysis,” says McArthur.

  “This project about women is going to do the opposite: it’s going to say, ‘here’s the problem, here are the wonderful people working on this problem, here’s how you can do this kind of thing as well.’”

  The duo is into the second year of their project, having already traveled to several continents and connecting with networks in North America and abroad.

  Tags: animal rights, keri cronin, research, women
  Categories: Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News

• Director of the MIWSFPA to deliver lecture at Alliance Française

  Monday, March 07, 2016 | By Brock University

  

  Associate Professor of Art History & Studio and Director of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Derek Knight will be delivering a lecture on the work of Le Corbusier at the Alliance française de Toronto. For more information on this lecture click HERE.

  Wednesday, March 16
  7:00 pm
  Spadina Theatre
  24 spadina road
  M5R 2S7 Toronto, ON
  Canada

  Tags: Alliance Française, Derek Knight
  Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

• MIWSFPA awarded for its architecture

  Saturday, March 05, 2016 | By Brock University

  (Source: The Brock News, Wednesday, March 9, 2016 | by Erica Bajer)

  Brock University students and staff aren’t the only ones who love the look and feel of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

  Niagara Region recognized the school with an Adaptive Re-Use Award during the 2015 Niagara Community Design Awards on Friday.

  The MIWSFPA was completed in 2015, a $45.5-million redevelopment of the former Canada Hair Cloth Building, an iconic structure in downtown St. Catharines which has been transformed and expanded to include a 35,000-square-foot addition.

  “It is arguably one of the most beautifully designed buildings that captures the heritage of what it once was,” said St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik. “It’s the juxtaposition between the modern and the heritage combined in one footprint.”

  The facility is the result of nearly a decade of hard work and commitment from hundreds of people.

  “The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts is a legacy project and demonstrates the transformative capacity of imaginative approaches to architecture in the service of post-secondary education,” said MIWSFPA director Derek Knight. “Such commitment is a demonstration of the value the University places in conserving both the fabric of a magisterial 19th-century industrial structure and repurposing it as part of the revitalization of our core city.”

  The building wouldn’t have been possible without a $26.1-million investment from the Government of Ontario, and numerous corporate and private donors.

  Designed by the renowned Toronto firm Diamond Schmitt Architects and built by Bird Construction, the project was a joint venture with the City of St. Catharines to create a multi-use arts complex to connect the talent of Brock students with the needs of the community. The result is a 95,000-square-foot education facility showcasing the history of the original space combined with modern architecture and learning technology.

  University President Jack Lightstone said the MIWSFPA has been a huge hit with students and faculty.

  “This amazing downtown school happened because committed and generous people made it happen. As a result, we have all witnessed a dramatic change in our downtown core that is like very few transitions we will ever again see in our lifetimes,” Lightstone said.

  “For Brock, it provides another purpose-built facility serving the very specialized needs of the University and for Niagara, it is a landmark of what a university and a city government can achieve in close working partnership.”

  The Region said the project was noted for its integration with the community from its name to the linkages with the nearby performing arts centre, as well as creating a new landmark within the city and blending heritage elements with new construction.

  The school is named for the late Marilyn I. Walker, a fabric artist, Brock supporter and St. Catharines arts advocate.

  “The award reflects the vision of Marilyn I. Walker, Jack Lightstone and Dr. Rosemary Hale,” Sendzik said. “It acts as a catalysit for where we are going as a community.”
  He said the blend of old and new celebrates St. Catharines manufacturing history and its future as an arts and culture hub.

  “Brock University has made an extraordinary commitment to the next generations of students; not only is this important for sustaining our own community but for the vitality and interest this will generate beyond the Niagara Region,” Knight said.

  Tags: 15 artists' common, Adaptive Re-Use Award, architecture, award, canada hair cloth building, miwsfpa, Niagara Community Design Awards
  Categories: In the Media, News

• Brock Professor is the new theatre critic for the Toronto Star

  Thursday, March 03, 2016 | By Brock University

  

  (Source: The Brock News, Thursday, March 3, 2016 | by Erica Bajer)

  Professor Karen Fricker has spent the last three years training Brock University students to critique theatre.

  She will soon be practising what she teaches after landing the role of theatre critic for the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest, most-read newspaper.

  The Brock University Dramatic Arts assistant professor isn’t new to the theatre beat – her resume includes 25 years of experience for outlets including The Guardian and Variety. She was also the founding editor-in-chief of Irish Theatre Magazine, a publication that operated from 1998-2014.

  At the Star, Fricker will be reviewing major show openings in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Areas as well as writing feature articles.

  “It just feels like an un-dreamed-of privilege to get to have a platform like this at this point in my career,” she says. “Toronto is a really exciting and mature theatre market.”

  The theatre scene in the GTHA is rich with plenty of interesting things happening – from major musicals to performance art to original Canadian plays in storefront theatres.

  Fricker can’t wait to see them all and share her observations and critiques with Canadians.

  And, she’s looking forward to sharing her excitement with students, whose critiques are published  on Brock’s DARTcritics.com blog. She started the blog in 2013 to offer students an avenue to be published and edited.

  She plans to make sure her students benefit from the work she’s doing for the Star.

  “Students will gain a strong sense of connection and understanding of how professional arts criticism works,” she says.
  “They will have the opportunity to see their professor go through the same exercises they do and maybe even give her some feedback.”

  Fricker says she’s grateful to be working at Brock both because it’s an exciting time in the arts with the opening of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts and because it’s a university that encourages professors to pursue their creative interests.

  “Being a creator, being an artist, has equal standing to being a scholar and producing peer-reviewed research,” she says.

  Fricker says the Star opportunity fits her creative and research interests of questioning arts criticism in the digital age.

  “I consider this a part of my research,” she says. “It’s a time of extraordinary possibility and growth for criticism.”

  DARTcritics.com is a response to that research interest and the question of how to turn an earnest blog into trusted criticism. The site has grown from a space for outstanding reviews by third-year students as part of their coursework to include reviews and features by students and recent graduates who are paid for their work. Fricker hopes that the site will continue to blossom into a year-round source of quality arts criticism in Niagara.

  Fricker’s role with the Star was announced Thursday. She’s looking forward to reviewing her first production for the paper this month.

  Tags: Karen Fricker, The Brock News, Toronto Star
  Categories: Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News