Articles from:November 2021

  • BIPOC theatre leaders to discuss new industry approaches at Brock event

    Wednesday, November 10, 2021 | By

    Theatre leaders participating in the upcoming Brock discussion panel include (top row, from left) Haui, Carmen Alatorre, (centre, from left) Shanna Miller, Samantha McCue, Wladimiro A. Woyno R., (bottom row, from left) Giselle Clarke-Trenaman and Kat Chin.

    Theatre leaders participating in the upcoming Brock discussion panel include (top row, from left) Haui, Carmen Alatorre, (centre, from left) Shanna Miller, Samantha McCue, Wladimiro A. Woyno R., (bottom row, from left) Giselle Clarke-Trenaman and Kat Chin.

    Originally published in The Brock News Wednesday, | NOVEMBER 10, 2021 | by 

    Prominent Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) Canadian theatre production and design professionals will come together to discuss recent experiences in their fields and new strategies in production at an upcoming Brock University digital panel.

    This is the second event presented by the Department of Dramatic Arts (DART)  in a new series as part of the 2021-22 Walker Cultural Leader Series (WCL Series), “Transformation and Adaptation in Theatre Pedagogy and Training.” The series is organized by DART Professors Karen Fricker and David Vivian with longtime instructor Carolyn Mackenzie.

    “Industry Panel with BIPOC Canadian Theatre Artists” will take place Monday, Nov. 15 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Zoom. The Brock and wider community are invited to attend and asked to register ahead of time on the Zoom registration page.

    Moderating the panel is Giselle Clarke-Trenaman, Production Co-ordinator at Presentation House Theatre in North Vancouver and creator of Black History Matters, an educational program addressing gaps in Black history in elementary schools.

    Panelists include Haui, a mixed media director and designer working in theatre, opera and film; Samantha McCue, an Anishinaabekwe and Ned’u’ten theatre professional based in Ottawa; Carmen Alatorre, a Latinx artist and theatre designer based in Vancouver; Kat Chin, a Toronto-based stage manager who has worked across Canada, off-Broadway and at the Palace of Versailles; Shanna Miller, the Technical Director at Young Peoples Theatre; and Wladimiro A. Woyno R., a live performance designer and Assistant Professor of Theatre Production and Design at School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University.

    The panel will cover a range of topics, from how to bring more BIPOC artists to the theatre industry and cultivate new audiences, to the use of technology and how the pandemic has affected the performing arts industry.

    “We’ve invited these important artists from diverse fields of Canadian theatre design and production to share their journeys of the past 20 months and to encourage our students with the vision and passion that informs their professional practice,” said Vivian.

    “Whether through the lens of anti-racism, decolonization, accessibility or the drive for professional and economic sustainability, this evening promises a vivid invitation to join progressive voices for change in live performance and theatre production in Canada.”

    The third and final event in the DART WCL series is a daylong Casting and Audition workshop on Sunday, Nov. 28 for DART students, staff and faculty. This closing event will be led by Kimberley Rampersad, actor, choreographer, director and Associate Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival; and Marcel Stewart, actor, writer, director and arts educator.

    To learn more, please visit the WCL Series website.

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    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised, Walker Cultural Leader Series

  • Concepts of land and ownership in Canada at centre of upcoming Brock panel discussion

    Thursday, November 04, 2021 | By

    Adrian Blackwell and David Fortin

    Image caption: Artist and educator Adrian Blackwell (left) and architect David Fortin (right) will be co-moderating an upcoming online roundtable discussion about land ownership in Canada.

    WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2021 | by 

    An upcoming Brock University panel discussion will bring together distinguished Indigenous and other artists, designers and architects to reimagine Canadian cities towards a more inclusive future.

    Presented by the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC) and Department of Visual Arts (VISA), “Rethinking Property in c\a\n\a\d\a” will be hosted as a Zoom webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 10 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. and is open to the Brock and wider community.

    The online event will be co-moderated by artist and educator Adrian Blackwell, Associate Professor, School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, whose art practice spans photography, video, sculpture, urban theory and design; and David Fortin (Métis Nation of Ontario), a LEED-accredited professional and registered architect. Fortin is also a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) Indigenous Task Force that seeks ways to foster and promote Indigenous design in Canada.

    The discussion will bring together a diverse group of panelists, including artist Bonnie Devine (Genaabaajing First Nation), Founding Chair of the Indigenous Visual Culture program at OCAD University and winner of the 2021 Governor General Award in Visual and Media Arts; landscape architect Tiffany Kaewen Dang, a territorial scholar from Treaty 6 Territory in Edmonton, Alta.; and Luugigyoo Patrick Reid Stewart (Nisga’a, B.C.), the first Indigenous president of an architectural association in Canada and the first Indigenous person in B.C. to own and operate an architectural firm.

    Rethinking Property in c\a\n\a\d\a is the first of four events in a series called Fictive Architecture presented by STAC. The series is funded through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant, with matching funds from the Office of the Vice-President, Research at Brock University.

    Catherine Parayre, Associate Professor and Director of STAC’s Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture, said these events will provide a creative and intellectual environment for all participants to express and debate views, sharing experiences that touch on personal perspectives or matters of social urgency.

    “This series is part of the activities of the Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture, whose vision is predicated on the fact that researchers and creators, no matter their discipline, share a passion and drive for their subject in which creativity is often at the root of their unique vision or forms of inquiry.”

    The series is also connected to STAC’s Small Walker Press (SWP), a small innovative publishing house that produces two companion books each year as part of the Walker Cultural Leader Series. Blackwell is one of the artists (along with Landon Mackenzie) who will contribute to the 2022 SWP publications informed by the roundtable discussion.

    Derek Knight, Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture and co-editor for the Small Walker Press, said this timely panel promises to be informative, far-reaching and will posit new, inclusive ways of re-imagining the land, concepts of ownership and shelter in Canada.

    “Blackwell is committed to thinking about new ways of interacting with our built environs, especially at this critical time in which decolonialization brings into focus the pressing need to resolve the challenge of unceded territories and respect the role of First Peoples as integral to how we re-envision Canada in the future,” Knight said.

    The webinar is free to attend, although registration is required through the Zoom event web page.

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    Categories: Announcements, Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised

  • Brock welcomes new Associate Dean to MIWSFPA

    Tuesday, November 02, 2021 | By

    Linda Carreiro

    Image caption: Linda Carreiro, Associate Dean, Fine and Performing Arts, has taken the helm at the Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA). She is pictured at the MIWSFPA in front of Marilyn Walker’s work Tree of Learning, a nine-foot-tall quilt that incorporates uncommon fabrics and techniques from textile and fibre art to depict a dream about studying the arts.

    Originally published in The Brock News | MONDAY, NOVEMBER 01, 2021 | by 

    A new leader has taken the helm at Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA).

    The Faculty of Humanities welcomed Linda Carreiro to the new position of Associate Dean of Fine and Performing Arts on Monday, Nov. 1.

    She joins Brock from the Ontario College of Art and Design University, where she was the Associate Dean in the Faculty of Art.

    “I’m really excited to work with people from across the arts and to work in a more interdisciplinary way with colleagues from across the Faculty of Humanities and across campus,” says Carreiro. She is looking forward to exploring new projects and trajectories, both for the MIWSFPA and for her own research.

    Arts are important to any campus and community, says Carreiro, who believes this is particularly true at Brock.

    “With the MIWSFPA situated downtown, it’s an integral part of the community and a vibrant part of the arts community,” she says. “People are really eager to support creativity and the arts because they know the significance of it to culture and society.”

    Carreiro, who also previously worked at the University of Calgary, is ready to take on the challenges and leverage the opportunities that come with this new role, all while finding ways to bring the work being done at MIWSFPA into the community.

    “I look forward to working with the other Associate Deans across campus to provide a stronger presence for the arts school,” says Carreiro. “It’s important to find more ways to bridge between the main campus and the MIWSFPA, as well as between the MIWSFPA and the Niagara community.”

    Carreiro, of Indigenous and settler descent, is also interested in working on equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives, having worked on various curriculum decolonization initiatives in the past.

    “I definitely want to connect with Indigenous and other communities and try to make an impact in the right way,” she says. “For instance, through prioritized hiring initiatives, as it’s so important for students to see diverse faces reflected in the people who are teaching and working with them.”

    Carreiro’s own creative work explores traces of the physical body in printed text.

    “Almost of all my work now is text based,” she says. “By overtly evidencing the way in which I make printed words, I try to counter the ways in which we think about text.”

    Her work challenges the idea of written text as authoritative when it’s clean, crisp and readable, and instead brings attention to its messiness, instability and subjective associations.

    “People can start to see the materials, such as shadows and surrounding paper, as part of the meaning of the word,” Carreiro says.

    Additionally, her work on what she terms ‘choreogrammatics’ explores what happens to our understanding of texts when we are forced to move while reading, and how such movement starts to open different meanings from words.

    “I’m very pleased to welcome Dr. Linda Carreiro to the newly created role of Associate Dean of Fine and Performing Arts,” says Carol Merriam, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. “Dr. Carreiro’s work will build on the legacy of the MIWSFPA. Her experience and expertise will serve colleagues and students in the school, as well as the arts community in Niagara, very well indeed.”

    The creation of the new Associate Dean role replaces the previous Director position at the arts school. The new position encompasses more student-facing experiences while giving the arts greater visibility within the University.

    “The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts has been well served by some committed and hard-working Directors since its opening, and they have done excellent work,” says Merriam. “The position of Associate Dean of Fine and Performing Arts is a development of that Director role into a more visible leadership position.”

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    Categories: Announcements, Department/Centre News, News, Uncategorised