Articles by author: dvivian

• Music presents the Brock University Choirs: WINTERSONG

  Friday, November 17, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  The Viva Voce Choral Series features Brock’s student choral ensembles (men’s, women’s and mixed choruses).

  Under the direction of newly-appointed conductor Rachel Rensink-Hoff, these excellent choirs perform multiple concerts throughout the academic year. They have also engaged in community outreach, collaborated with choirs in Canada and the U.S., and produced CD recordings of works by Niagara composers.

  Viva Voce! Choral Series: Brock University Choirs

  conducted by Rachel Rensink-Hoff, featuring a Canada 150 Performance composed by Stephanie Martin

  Saturday, December 2, 2017
  Time: 7:30 p.m.

  Location: Cairns Recital Hall, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre

  Tickets: $15* adults; $10* seniors & students; $5* eyeGo program. *No CCIF applied; other applicable fees and taxes are extra.

  Available from the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre Box Office: 905.688.0722 or Long Distance Toll Free: 1.855.515.0722; online: firstontariopac.ca

  This is a special Canada 150 event.

  Tags: department of music
  Categories: Announcements, Events, News

• Music presents the Brock University String Orchestra: OPENINGS

  Tuesday, November 14, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  For the first time in the Department of Music’s history, we are proud to present our newest ensemble. Under the direction of George Cleland, the String Orchestra combines university students and community members in the performance of standard masterworks and lesser-known gems of the string repertoire.

  Brock University String Orchestra

  George Cleland – Conductor

  Wednesday November 29, 2017
  Time: 7:30 p.m.

  The Brock String Orchestra’s first concert of its inaugural season will feature repertoire from English Masters and other seasonal favourites:

  St Paul’s Suite by Gustav Holst
  Chaconne in G Minor by Henry Purcell
  An English Suite by C. Hubert H. Parry
  Concerto Opus 6 number 8, Fatto per la Notte di Natale, (the Christmas Concerto)by Arcangelo Corelli
  Theme Song for String Orchestra by Mark Zuckerman

  Location: Cairns Recital Hall, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, 250 St. Paul St., St. Catharines

  Tickets: $12*; $5* child (14 and under); $5* eyeGo program. Free admission to current Brock students with valid student ID card. *No CCIF applied; other applicable fees and taxes are extra. † Applicable fees and taxes are extra.

  Available from the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre Box Office: 905.688.0722 or Long Distance Toll Free: 1.855.515.0722; online: firstontariopac.ca

  Tags: department of music
  Categories: Announcements, Events, News

• Viva Voce! First concert of the 2017-18 season

  Friday, November 10, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  Pictured above: Rachel Rensink-Hoff, newly appointed Artistic Director of the Avanti Chamber Singers.

  On Saturday Nov. 18 at 7:30 pm at the St. Thomas Anglican Church (103 Ontario St, St. Catharines), the Avanti Chamber Singers present their first concert of the 2017-18 season as part of our Viva Voce! Choral Series: Semper Avanti | Ever Forward. This will be the first performance by the Avanti Chamber Singers with Rachel Rensink-Hoff as the Artistic Director.

  The Avanti Chambers Singers are a Niagara community-based mixed chamber choir.  They perform mainstream choral literature, both accompanied and a cappella. For the November 18th concert the repertoire includes Kyrie-Gloria pairings by Palestrina, Mozart & Corlis,  Selections from Dove’s Passing of the Year,  and works by Mendelssohn, Esenvalds & Dolly Parton!

  Rensink-Hoff is the Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music Education at Brock University, and the newly appointed Artistic Director of the Avanti Chamber Singers.

  Tickets may be purchased from Thorold Music (289 Glendale Ave.) and Booksmart (Scott/Vine Plaza, 350 Scott St.), or by members of the Avanti Chamber Singers. Additionally, tickets will be sold at the door the night of the concert.

  Visit our ExperienceBU page and avantichambersingers.com for further information.

  Tags: Avanti Chamber Singers, Dr. Rachel Rensink-Hoff
  Categories: Events, Faculty & Instructors, News

• HOT TALKS 2017-2018: Professor Derek Knight speaks at Rodman Hall, November 09

  Sunday, November 05, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  Geoffrey Farmer, “A Way Out of the Mirror”, 2017, Canada Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale. Image courtesy of Derek Knight.

  HOT TALKS

  Artist Talks and Gallery Conversations at the Rodman Hall Art Centre
  Admission by donation ($5 suggested); Members and Students Free
  Sponsored by Partridge Wealth Management/RBC Dominion Securities Inc., St. Catharines

  November 09: Professor Derek Knight,
  Department of Visual Arts, Brock University

  “Art Confidential: Trends and Obsession(s) in Recent Art”

  Thursday, November 9, 7 pm
  2017 saw the confluence of the Whitney Biennial, Münster Sculpture Project, Kassel’s Documenta 14, and the Venice Biennale. Derek Knight, Associate Professor, Visual Arts, Brock University discusses the pros and emerging cons of the international blockbuster exhibition as well as his top picks, from Pierre Huyghe to Phyllida Barlow to Geoffrey Farmer.

  Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St Paul Crescent, St Catharines, ON L2S 1M3

  Tags: Derek Knight, Hot Talks, rodman hall, Rodman Hall Art Centre
  Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News

• Bernhard Cella, Walker Cultural Leader visits Brock University

  Monday, October 30, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  Image by Bernhard Cella

  Walker Cultural Leader Series –  Lecture/Performance and Book-Making Workshop:

  The Walker Cultural Leader series brings leading artists, performers, practitioners and academics to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University. Engaging, lively and erudite, these sessions celebrate professional achievement, artistic endeavour and the indelible role of culture in our society. Please join us.

  The Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC) is invites you to attend and participate in the events and activities organized with artist and book maker Bernhard Cella during our Walker Cultural Leader Series in early November. Focusing on the making of art books and innovative forms of publishing, these events are free.

  A visual artist working in Vienna, Austria, Bernhard Cella is the founder of Salon für Kunstbuch, installed in the 21. Haus / Belvedere, and of the no-isbn project. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and at the University of Fine Art Hamburg. A book maker, Cella published an expanded edition of his No ISBN. On Self-Publishing in 2017.

  This education program is generously founded by Marilyn I. Walker.

  Lecture/Performance:

  Wednesday, November 1, 2017
  Time: 6:00 p.m.

  Artist, curator and art book maker, Bernhard Cella (House 21/ Belvedere and Salon für Kunstbuch, Vienna, Austria) demonstrates and performs contemporary book making.

  Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Crescent, St. Catharines, ON
  Open to the public.

  For more info, visit: experiencebu.brocku.ca/event/65852

  

  image by Bernhard Cella

  workshop:

  Medium/Media: All media that can be captured on paper. A book making workshop with Bernhard Cella.

  Friday, November 3, 2017
  Time: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

  The objective of this workshop is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the medium “book” as a production process, and for individual participants to produce their own small publication or part of a larger one. This workshop focuses on the current status of the printed (analogue) book and associated questions. Participants will design and develop their own publications, from the initial idea through to the finished product.

  During recent years the development of desktop publishing and digital printing has promoted a significant resurgence of micro editions of artistic publication projects. In contrast to industrial manufacture, micro editions facilitate a high degree of interaction between production and conception so that technical processes may influence decisions on content.
  Referring to current examples and historical models, we will analyze various approaches and forms of production for our project. These include analyzing pictorial language, formats and varieties of paper, text production, typography and typesetting techniques. In small groups, we will discuss concepts and prepare mock-ups for various book projects – prototypes that allow a different way of thinking about the space that is a book.

  Location: Niagara Arts Centre, 354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, ON L2R 3N2
  Limited spaces available. Sign up by contacting Catherine Parayre – email: cparayre@brocku.ca

  For more info, visit: experiencebu.brocku.ca/event/65852

   

  Tags: Bernhard Cella, book making, kunsthalle Wien
  Categories: News, Uncategorised, Walker Cultural Leader Series

• Exhibition: Permanent Vacation

  Sunday, October 29, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  This exhibition will showcase a select group of recent Brock University Alumni: Katie Mazi, Jenn Judson, Matt Caldwell, Alex Muresan, Jessica Wright and Ben Mosher. As these emerging artists expand ideas and develop new work, they continue to recognize the value of the St. Catharines arts community and the impact it has on their practice. It was here at Brock University that their first investigations began and it was at Rodman Hall (2014/2015 & 2015/2016) that their first professional group exhibitions came to fruition. These artists will exhibit new and exciting work they have been producing as they navigate and emerge into the art communities locally and beyond the region. The exhibition will be curated by Asta McCann Brock alumni (Studies in Arts and Culture).

  Additionally, Alumni music students: Grace Snippe, Annie Slade, and Kurt Dunn will be performing for the night of the reception.

  Exhibition: Saturday, November 4, 2017 to Friday, December 1, 2017

  regular visiting hours for the Exhibition Space are Tuesday through Saturday from 1-5 p.m
  for additional times see: gallery webpage    gallery facebook page

  Opening Reception: Friday, November 10, 2017, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m.

  Location: Visa Gallery, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University

  A free community event.

  Tags: alumni, exhibition, Permanent Vacation
  Categories: Alumni, Events, News

• PANTALONE’S PALACE, DART’S First Mainstage for 2017-18, opens October 27!

  Wednesday, October 25, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  Pantalone’s Palace

  Love and power collide in this fun-filled, fast paced physical comedy.

  Written and Directed by Mike Griffin

  Set & Costume Design by: Kelly Wolf
  Lighting Design by Chris Malkowski
  Sound Design by: James McCoy
  Mask Maker: Gina Bastone
  Assistant Direction by: Helena Ciuciura

  Hardworking Columbina just wants to enjoy the majestic Wooers’ Woods in peace after a long day’s work, but the greedy business tycoon Pantalone is scheming. When Columbina discovers his plot to build the biggest casino in the world, she knows she must take action. Armed with her wits and her lovesick friends, she aims to set things right in this fun-filled, fast paced, physical comedy that explores the meeting of contemporary life and classical Commedia dell’Arte.

  When: October 27 – November 4, 2017
  FRIDAY, OCT. 27 & SATURDAY, OCT. 28 at 7:30 pm
  SUNDAY, OCT. 29 at 2:00 pm
  FRIDAY, NOV. 3 at 11:30 am & 7:30 pm
  SATURDAY, NOV. 4 at 7:30 pm

  The Department invites teachers and educators to bring their students to see this exciting new production of Commedia dell’arte.
  Read the Special Invitation to learn more.

  See the article in the Brock News.

  See the teaser video.

  Marilyn I. Walker Theatre at the
  Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
  Limited paid parking onsite

  Purchase tickets at the FirstOntario PAC Box Office
  905.688.0722 or online firstontariopac.ca
  Tickets: $18 Adults|$15 Seniors/Students| $5 eyeGo | $12 Groups
  *Applicable fees and taxes are extra

  Tags: commedia dell'arte, dramatic arts, mainstage, Pantalone's Palace
  Categories: Events, News

• Donna Szoke’s work featured in New Media Caucus.

  Tuesday, October 24, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Visual Arts, Donna Szoke’s work is discussed in the on-line journal New Media Caucus in an article by Lisa Moren, Professor of Visual Art and Graduate Program Director of Intermedia + Digital Art, MFA Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County [UMBC]. Her interactive video installation and all watched over by machines of loving grace is a humorous intervention in the dystopian reality of contemporary dataveillance and societies of control.

  Image courtesy of Tim Nohe.

  Tags: dataveillance, digitial, Donna Szoke, intermedia
  Categories: Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News

• Brock co-led research to study police training in mental illness

  Monday, October 02, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  Dr. Natalie Alvarez, an associate professor in the Department of Dramatic Arts

  (Source: The Brock News, Wednesday, September 13, 2017 | by Cathy Majtenyi)

  It’s the heat of the moment. A person in mental health distress is waving a knife in the air, yelling or screaming or perhaps even silent. A police officer is on the scene.

  What happens next?

  It’s a question that undoubtedly will come up in Toronto police Constable James Forcillo’s appeal trial, which started Monday. Forcillo was convicted of attempted murder for the 2013 shooting of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim on a Toronto streetcar.

  It’s also a question that Brock University researchers Natalie Alvarez and Yasmine Kandil are exploring in their research on how to use theatre to train police officers.

  

  Dr. Yasmine Kandil

  Alvarez, an associate professor in the Department of Dramatic Arts, along with Yasmine Kandil, an assistant professor in Dramatic Arts, are co-leading a study that will create and evaluate the effectiveness of a type of scenario-based police training grounded in problem-based training methods the team refers to as ‘forum scenarios.’

  In forum scenarios, a scene is played out for an audience. The scene is then performed again, but an audience member can step in to intervene by making different choices, creating a different outcome and changing the way a particular issue is viewed or dealt with. It’s a form of teaching and learning that promotes the principles of procedural justice.

  Theatre educators Alvarez and Kandil of Brock’s Department of Dramatic Arts, and Wilfred Laurier forensic psychologist Jennifer Lavoie, alongside their cross-Canada team with specializations in mental illness and de-escalation training, are partnering with the Durham Regional Police and collaborators from the Ontario Police College.

  The federal government’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council has awarded the team a $310,960 grant to carry out the four-year study.

  “Experiential learning through forum methods is much more effective in integrating knowledge, being able to apply that knowledge and retain it long term,” says Alvarez. The study builds on Alvarez’s upcoming book that examines the use of immersive simulations in a variety of training and educational contexts.

  Experts involved in the scenarios aim to teach police officers how to recognize behavioural characteristics of various mental illnesses that may present barriers to communication in high-stakes encounters, the impacts and consequences that certain actions will have on the person in crisis, and how to de-escalate volatile situations.

  “We want to recreate situations where the officer perceives a situation where there’s an imminent threat, they’re under extreme stress, and they have to make refined, ethical judgments in that moment of stress,” says Alvarez.

  The team will also address mental health stigmas and misconceptions.

  For Alvarez, the research is not just academic.

  “My oldest sister suffers from schizophrenia and she’s become an advocate for the rights of people living with mental illness,” says Alvarez, adding that her sister frequently gives talks to RCMP officers on the subject.

  Tags: dramatic arts, miwsfpa, natalie alvarez, Police Training, SSHRC, Yasmine Kandil
  Categories: Announcements, Department/Centre News, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, Media Releases, News

• Material Girls opens at Rodman Hall

  Thursday, September 21, 2017 | By dvivian

  

  Soheila Esfahani is one of 25 artists featured in Material Girls, an exhibition that opened Sept. 14 at Rodman Hall. She is pictured with her work, Cultured Pallets: Persian.

  (originally published in The Brock News on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 by Alison Innes)

  Women have claimed the spotlight at Rodman Hall this fall with a new large-scale exhibition.

  Material Girls — all about women taking up space — brings together work by 25 Canadian and international artists from across all artistic disciplines and cultural backgrounds. The exhibition, which opened Sept. 14, explores how material processes and ideas of excess relate to the feminized body and gendered space.

  “At Rodman Hall, we strive to be an agent of social change, presenting exhibitions that have resonance within our community, while engaging with dialogues beyond it,” says Rodman Hall Curator Marcie Bronson. “Among the issues our curatorial team took into consideration when planning to present Material Girls is the reality that our community is ranked one of the worst places in Canada to be a woman.”

  Niagara is considered one of the worst places in the country for women to live. A 2016 review by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives ranked St. Catharines 19 out of Canada’s largest 25 metropolitan areas in terms of women’s education, health, personal security, economic security and positions of leadership.

  Women who are working in Niagara are earning 75 per cent of what men make for the same work. Out of all the communities surveyed, Niagara has the lowest level of full-time female employment, despite women being more likely than men to have completed higher education. Women are also underrepresented in leadership roles in government and business.

  “It is our hope that this exhibition and related programming will spark not only dialogue, but more importantly, action to affect the positive and lasting change that is necessary to close the gender gap and reach our city’s vision of being dynamic, innovative, sustainable and livable,” Bronson explains.

  Hosting the exhibition in Rodman’s historic domestic space is particularly meaningful.

  “The show Material Girls has inserted itself into the house, and has re-imagined this domestic space in a way that pulls the focus towards women,” explains Gallery Assistant Lauren Regier. “This is especially significant as there is little known about the Merritt women — Mary Benson Merritt and Maud Hudson Merritt — both of whom seem to have resided in the house longer than their respective husbands.”

  Rodman Hall has partnered with YWCA Niagara to present an outreach program that invites girls in Grades 10 to 12 to explore visual arts materials within the themes of taking up space and the feminized body. Participants in Power Girl Material Girl will create a collaborative installation that will be on view at Rodman Hall beginning Nov. 17 and wrapping up alongside the full Material Girls exhibition Dec. 30.

  The exhibition, for which tours are available Saturdays at 2 p.m., is curated by Blair Fornwald, Jennifer Matotek and Wendy Peart of the Dunlop Art Gallery, a unit of the Regina Public Library.

  Tags: Lauren Regier, Marcie Bronson, Material Girls, Rodman Hall Art Centre, visual arts
  Categories: Alumni, Department/Centre News, In the Media, News