Alumni

• BIPOC Speaker Series explores anti-racist stage management practices in theatre

  Thursday, February 18, 2021 | By gminaker

  

  Picture above: Narda E. Alcorn is the next speaker in the 2020-21 BIPOC Speaker Series presented by Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts and Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

  Originally published in The Brock News on WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2021 | by Gillian Minaker

  Celebrated Professor and stage manager Narda E. Alcorn from Yale School of Drama will discuss anti-racist stage management practices during a virtual talk on Tuesday, Feb. 23.

  Alcorn will lead the next instalment of the 2020-21 BIPOC Speaker Series, conversations in which Black, Indigenous and People of Colour theatre leaders address issues of interest to the theatre community. The series is presented by Brock’s Department of Dramatic Arts and Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts and supported by the Faculty of Humanities.

  The Feb. 23 event takes place on Zoom from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and is open to the Brock and theatre community as well as the general public.

  Alcorn, who has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway, regionally and internationally, will share her evolving anti-racist stage management practice, placing it in the context of her career, experience and point of view. She will offer ideas and steps that others can take to cultivate anti-racist practice and pedagogy.

  In 2019, Alcorn was appointed Chair of the Stage Management Department at Yale School of Drama. She co-authored Stage Management Theory as a Guide to Practice: Cultivating a Creative Approach with Lisa Porter.

  To register for the free event, please visit Brock University Tickets.

  Tags: dart, DART/MIWSFPA BIPOC Speaker Series, Department of Dramatic Arts, humanities, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, miwsfpa, Narda E. Alcorn
  Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised

• Art kits allow VISA students to hone skills at home

  Friday, February 05, 2021 | By gminaker

  

  Caption: The VISA Art Stores at Brock University has been providing access to course materials to students for more than 37 years.

  Half the battle in creating a beautiful piece of art is finding a spark of creativity and having the skills to bring it to life. The other half, however, is having access to the right materials and equipment to turn that vision into reality.

  Aspiring artists and scholars studying Visual Arts (VISA) at Brock University have continued to hone their skills despite the pandemic thanks not only to dedication to their disciplines, but also to staff and faculty who have made it possible.

  Studio Art instructors at Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) have been challenged to reimagine drawing, painting, sound and video courses to suit an online setting. That has also meant ensuring students have access to the materials and equipment necessary to continue their studies.

  The results have been overwhelmingly positive, resulting in experiences that might not have been encountered by students in a pre-pandemic semester.

  The extensive efforts of the VISA faculty have been supported by two key players: Max Holten-Andersen, Instructor, Media Resource Co-ordinator, and co-ordinator of the VISA Equipment Kiosk, and Arnold McBay, Instructor and VISA Department Facilities Technician, who manages the VISA Art Stores.

  Central to the course work of Visual Arts students, the VISA Art Stores have provided Brock students access to art materials related to drawing, painting and sculpture courses since the mid-1980s. The Equipment Kiosk, established in 2015 after the move to the current MIWSFPA downtown campus, provides students with access to digital and analogue photography, sound and video equipment.

  Both outlets are usually staffed by student assistants during the day and evening, six days a week. Students visit for their materials and equipment needs, as well as for advice and mentorship from the managers, who are also both VISA instructors.

  With the switch to online course delivery, McBay and Holten-Andersen were met with the challenge of facilitating materials and equipment support for students in a manner that met provincial and Brock pandemic protocols, and without the students being on site.

  Fourth-year student Rea Kelly knows first-hand how important access to creative tools are for her degree.

  “Having the VISA Art Stores at the MIWSFPA has become a necessity for my four years at Brock as a Studio Art major,” she says. “I cannot count the number of times myself or my peers have run out of paint or drawing materials mid-class and have had to run to the art store for materials. I can’t imagine the school without it.”

  Answering the call for a solution, McBay developed kits in consultation with faculty that include all of the art supplies and materials students require to complete their course work and develop their art practice.

  The kits are available for convenient curbside pick up for local students and are shipped to those outside of the Niagara region. For students wishing to remain in their hometowns while continuing their educational experience, the kits have been essential.

  Similarly, Holten-Andersen, aware of the necessity of audiovisual equipment for supporting photography, sound and video courses, has added to the initiative.

  McBay and Holten-Andersen have established a central distribution point in the MWS151 Foundation Studio at the MIWSFPA. The room is large enough to allow for required physical distancing and is staffed by one student monitor during weekdays.

  Access to the room is limited to one student at a time using all pandemic protocols including required personal protective equipment. As a result, students can safely visit the distribution centre and access art materials and digital equipment, all in one place.

  “Despite the limitations of not being able to access the usual range of materials available in the VISA Art Stores and Equipment Kiosk, students have been able to meet all their project objectives through the distribution of materials kits at the pickup centre,” McBay says.

  Students have had to get creative with the supplies they have available to them.

  “These are real-life challenges that artists might face in their career, and circumstances students would not usually encounter in an academic experience prior to the pandemic,” McBay says.

  For audiovisual equipment, students are able to submit online equipment requests that are fulfilled within 24 hours, using MWS151 as the pickup hub where items get loaned out and returned. This method has shifted the equipment consultations from an in-person approach to a remote approach via email, phone or video conferencing.

  “At times, consultations are extremely necessary as I am able to provide expertise on what is the most suitable equipment for a production; and most importantly, what accessories are needed to properly support a production,” Holten-Andersen says.

  Although students have gained new experiences from the current circumstances, the two instructors look forward to resuming their previous mode of operation once it is safe to do so as per University and public health protocols.

  While the new system is working, Holten-Andersen says conversations had during in-person occurrences of the past are simply irreplaceable and certainly missed.

  “It is a precious moment to notice the realization in a student’s eye as they tap on the creative opportunities that professional equipment can grant,” he says.

  McBay echoes this sentiment.

  “We very much look forward to when the VISA spaces come back to life with the vigour, curiosity and vibrance students bring into our campus.”

  Tags: Arnold McBay, Department of Visual Arts, humanities, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, max holten-andersen, miwsfpa, VISA, VISA Art Stores
  Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, In the Media, News, Uncategorised

• Art residency “A River Rises” now on view

  Friday, January 15, 2021 | By gminaker

  

  Caption: Brown Homestead (Photo by Shawn Serfas)

  STAC’s Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture presents “A River Rises,” a collective investigation of a creative-writing piece, resulting in the creation of photography work, a recorded performance, an inverted sculpture, an experimental book, and more fiction writing. The project also documents the Brown Homestead, in close proximity of Short Hills Provincial Park and the oldest building in St. Catharines.

  View A River Rises here.

  To learn more about the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, please visit the STAC website.

  Tags: Catherine Parayre, centre for studies in arts and culture, Derek Knight, humanities, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, miwsfpa, Nicholas Hauck, Shawn Serfas, stac, STAC Research Centre
  Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, News, Uncategorised

• Jan. 18, 2021: Walker Cultural Leaders Series features artists Jamelie Hassan & Ron Benner

  Thursday, January 14, 2021 | By gminaker

  

  The Walker Cultural Leader Series continues in 2021, beginning with an engaging talk from artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner on Monday, Jan. 18. The series continues in a virtual format for the 2021 season.

  Monday, Jan. 18, 2021 at 7 p.m.

  View the presentation premiere and join in the chat on the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts YouTube channel.

  Jamelie Hassan, born in London, Ontario, of Arabic background, is a visual artist and long-time member of CARFAC who is also active as a lecturer, writer, and independent curator. She has organized both national and international programs including Orientalism and Ephemera, a national touring exhibition, originally presented at Art Metropole, Toronto and most recently Dar’a/Full Circle for Artcite Inc. Windsor, ON. She was one of the founders of two artist-run centres in London, Ontario: the Forest City Gallery (1973-present) and the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990). Her work is represented in numerous public collections in Canada and internationally, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Morris & Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC ; and the Library of Alexandria ,Alexandria, Egypt. Other recent projects and group exhibitions where her works have been featured include, Here: Contemporary Canadian Art, curated by Swapnaa Tamhane, Aga Khan Museum (2017); Toronto: Tributes + Tributaries, 1971 -1989, curated by Wanda Nanibush, Art Gallery of Ontario (2016 – 2017); In Order to Join: the Political in a Historical Moment, organized by Museum Abteilberg in Monchengladbach, Germany (2013-14) and Mumbai, India (2015). Receipient of numerous awards, in  2001 she received the Govenor General’s Award in Visual Arts and in 2018 an honorary doctorate from OCAD University, Toronto. For more information visit: www.jameliehassan.ca 

  Ron Benner is an internationally recognized, London, Ontario – based artist whose longstanding practice investigates the history and political economy of food cultures. Benner originally studied agriculture engineering at the University of Guelph 1969/70. Finding himself ethically opposed to industrial agriculture and bioengineering, he began to travel and research the politics of food. In 1995, he began working with Rural Advancement Foundation International, Ottawa (RAFI). In 2000 he was awarded the Canada Council Studio in Paris. In 2005 he participated in Art, Geography and Invisibility at an international geography symposium in Olot, Catalonia, the University of Barcelona, Spain. In 2010 he was appointed Adjunct Research Professor in the Visual Arts Department, Western University, London, ON. Ron Benner’s mixed media installation works, including commissions of  photographic-garden installations, have been shown in solo and group exhibitions at Museum London, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Western University, London, Ontario, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario and many other galleries, museums and cultural institutions in Canada and internationally. His work is included in numerous public collections both in Canada and internationally including the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. He has recently been appointed artist in residence in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, 2020-2023.
  For more information, please visit: www.ronbenner.ca

  For more information on upcoming Walker Cultural Leader Series events, please visit the webpage.

  Tags: Department of Visual Arts, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, miwsfpa, VISA, visual arts, Walker Cultural Leaders
  Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, News, Uncategorised, Walker Cultural Leader Series

• Department of Music Virtual Ensembles – The Show Zooms On

  Thursday, January 14, 2021 | By gminaker

  

  Brock Music ensembles have gone virtual for the 2020-21 performance season! The Department of Music Virtual Ensembles present a virtual concert series The Show Zooms On featuring:

  The University Wind Ensemble, Zoltan Kalman, Conductor
  The Choral Ensemble, Rachel Rensink-Hoff, Conductor
  The University String Orchestra, George Cleland, Conductor
  The University Jazz Ensemble, Zoltan Kalman, Conductor

  The first virtual performance premieres Friday, Jan. 15, 2021 with the Wind Ensemble:

  January 15, 2021 – 7 p.m.
  Wind Ensemble, Zoltan Kalman, Director
  View the YouTube Premiere

  View the Wind Ensemble January 15 program here.

  For the 2020-21 season, the performances will be broadcasted virtually on the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts YouTube channel. Please visit our Concerts page for more information.

  Tags: department of music, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, miwsfpa, university wind ensemble
  Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, News

• BIPOC Speaker Series welcomes Tanisha Taitt

  Monday, January 11, 2021 | By gminaker

  

  The DART/MIWSFPA 2020-21 BIPOC Speaker Series presents:

  CONSCIOUSNESS IN COLOUR: INTERCULTURAL SCENE STUDY FOR CONTEMPORARY CLASSROOMS WITH TANISHA TAITT

  Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021
  7 to 8:30 p.m.
  Via Zoom
  To register and receive Zoom details, please RSVP via ExperienceBU: experiencebu.brocku.ca/event/172561

  Tanisha Taitt is Artistic Director of Cahoots Theatre and a director/actor/playwright, musical artist, accidental essayist, and audiobook director with Penguin Random House Canada. In this talk she will focus on her work as a theatre and anti-racism educator.

  Supported by the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation at Brock University in partnership with Niagara Community Foundations.

  2020-21 BIPOC Speaker Series
  Conversations in which Black, Indigenous, and people of colour theatre leaders address issues of interest to the theatre community, and beyond. For more information and upcoming speaker announcements, please visit the BIPOC Speaker Series webpage.

  Tags: dart, DART/MIWSFPA BIPOC Speaker Series, Department of Dramatic Arts, humanities, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, miwsfpa, Tanisha Taitt
  Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, Media Releases, News

• STAC’s journal ti< listed on Mir@bel

  Monday, December 21, 2020 | By dvivian

  

  STAC’s online, free-access journal ti< A JOURNAL OF TEXT-AND-IMAGE CRITICISM/CREATION – UN JOURNAL DE CRITIQUE/CREATION TEXTE-ET-IMAGE publishes creative work by students, their instructors, as well as by artists and writers whose work combines literature and the visual arts.

  All languages are welcome, including endangered languages. No translation is needed.

  ti< has recently been included in the Mir@bel database, an initiative by top higher-education institutions in France and Europe, such as Sciences Po and ENA.

  To submit work, please consult the website of the journal: https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/ti/index

  Tags: centre for studies in arts and culture, journal, Mir@bel, stac, ti<
  Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised

• Brock Mitacs award winner takes a closer look at online conspiracy theories

  Saturday, December 12, 2020 | By gminaker

  

  Originally published in The Brock News FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020 | by Gillian Minaker

  The images we encounter in everyday life have always had an important role to play in our lives. Now, as many daily activities have moved online, these images have the ability to reach a global audience thanks to digital technology.

  But how has this online shift affected the visual culture of conspiracy theories, and what are the implications for society during a pandemic?

  Brock University fourth-year student Ian Ball is examining these questions as part of his research on visual culture and online conspiracy theories. Ball is pursuing a double major in the History of Art and Visual Culture and Dramatic Arts and is a recipient of a Mitacs Research Training Award which he received in the summer.

  Guiding the research project is Linda Steer, Associate Professor in Visual Arts at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

  In his research, Ball has been collecting and analyzing visual images associated with online conspiracy theories. His interest in the subject stems from his area of study, a deep interest in folklore as well as being a fan of the science fiction genre.

  Through the examination and analysis of the images used in relation to conspiracy theories on popular social networking sites, including Facebook and Reddit, Ball has discovered some of the effects these images have on viewers and the emotional responses produced.

  According to Ball, this is especially timely given the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting uncertainty people have been experiencing.

  “A world event that is disrupting the status quo, a lack of control socially, politically, intellectually or in our personal lives, all have the potential to make us feel uncertain,” says Ball. “Research has shown that these factors might play a significant role in conspiratorial beliefs.”

  Ball had originally considered writing an essay on this topic, but Steer suggested a blog because of the accessibility it offers readers.

  “It has been great to supervise Ian’s fascinating and timely research project,” Steer says. “In a world that feels unstable, where we are isolated and looking to social media for answers, images have a lot of power.”

  Ball’s research has uncovered themes relating conspiracy theories to collective experiences of fear, society’s want for protection, and the instinctual desire for control. His project is adding to the discourse on the visual culture of conspiratorial beliefs, a research area that Steer says is fairly new and still developing.

  “It is important that we understand how visual images create meaning: how and why they become attached to certain ideas and how those ideas circulate,” she says.

  Graduating in 2021, Ball plans to use this research project as a foundation for his master’s thesis, looking at the relationships between folklore, visual culture, social messaging, critical thinking and misinformation.

  Visit Ball’s research blog to learn more about the outcomes of his work.

   

  Tags: Department of Visual Arts, History of Arts and Culture, humanities, Ian Ball, Linda Steer, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Mitacs Research Training Award, miwsfpa, VISA
  Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, In the Media, News, Uncategorised

• Music@Noon concert series goes virtual

  Monday, November 16, 2020 | By gminaker

  

  Former Music students Gavino Oresta (left) and Eric Godfree perform their recitals during a previous Music@Noon Series event. This year, the concert series will be held online in accordance with public health guidelines.

  The RBC Foundation Music@Noon Series returns Tuesday, Nov. 17, albeit with a new format.

  The anticipated concert series will be held virtually this season, with Brock Music students recording solos from their own homes.

  In the past, performances have taken place live on the stage of the Recital Hall at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (PAC), adjacent to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA). This year, the PAC and Brock’s Department of Music changed the format in accordance with public health guidelines.

  Self-recorded performances from the solo recital students will be streamed Tuesday through the MIWSFPA and PAC YouTube channels and Facebook pages, marking the first online presentation of the 2020-21 concert series.

  Generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation, the free concert series takes place most Tuesdays at noon throughout the academic year. The recitals are open to the public and feature Brock’s performance faculty and special guests, as well as talented students and alumni.

  For full event details, please visit the Music concert listings page.

  Tags: department of music, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, humanities, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, music@noon
  Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised

• Bright future for Brock grad at leading Canadian arts festival

  Wednesday, November 04, 2020 | By gminaker

  

  Photo caption: Brock Graduate Dian Marie Bridge (BA ’99) appointed Associate Artistic Director of Luminato Festival Toronto.

  It’s no secret that 2020 was an incredibly challenging year for the arts, but for Dian Marie Bridge (BA ’99), there’s reason to celebrate.

  In September, Luminato Festival Toronto announced the appointment of Bridge as its new Associate Artistic Director.

  Based in Toronto, Bridge is an award-winning theatre creator and producer. A driving force in the local arts scene, Bridge graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Major in Theatre from Brock University in 1999.

  Her excitement for the future is electric.

  “Luminato offers unparalleled arts programming for the city, and beyond,” said Bridge. “This festival is a major cultural draw, and it is so exciting to open the door for a lot of artists.”

  In her new role, Bridge will be drawing on personal and professional experiences in theatre and the performing arts gained over the past 30 years. Along the way, she has met many artists, joined important arts committees (including Toronto Arts Council) and worked on numerous grant applications. Bridge has been closely following current trends in theatre and critically examining how the arts community is moving forward. She has been living this reality, too.

  Bridge is ready to put what she has learned into play, especially given the global pandemic and its traumatic effects on the arts industry.

  “There is a shift happening – a real desire for community,” she said. “We want to be more than just spectators. We want to experience this thing together. People have done a virtual shift.”

  Bridge said Luminato was somewhat lucky in terms of timing of the first shut down announcement early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

  “It came at a time when we were able to shift planning, yet still ensure artist’s contracts were honoured,” she said. “We were able to pivot with digital programming at the right time.”

  Bridge’s time at Brock University had a profound impact on her career path and helped her articulate her creative voice. While pursuing her theatre degree, she did a third-year exchange program at the University of Minnesota. There, she worked on her first professional production at the illustrious Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.

  It was a memorable year her as she lived and learned in the heart of a robust arts scene and attended some 40 productions. The exchange program shaped her artistic self and widened her perspective on theatre and performance, she said.

  During her time in Minneapolis, Bridge was taught directing by Lou Bellamy, Founder and then-Artistic Director of Penumbra Theatre. Located in the neighbouring twin city of Saint Paul, Penumbra Theatre continues to create timely and high-quality productions through the lens of the African American experience. At the time of Bridge’s exchange, Penumbra premiered works of American playwright August Wilson, and Wilson himself gave a private master class for her third-year directing course. Her introduction to Black American theatre was through watching three of Wilson’s professional productions.

  Bridge was one of four racialized students in the Theatre department during her time at Brock, but often the only one in certain classes.

  Reflecting on how different the political climate was then she said as a young person in the 1990s, “it was all so new.”

  “We did not have the language around racial injustices,” she said. “This was right after Rodney King’s trial. There was understanding that things were not fair, but the critical thinking around how racial injustice works, and how to fight it, was still new to me.”

  Now, students have much more understanding of racial issues and are more politically activated, said Bridge.

  “We can challenge hierarchy and authority and understand the limitations of other’s education.”

  When the creative job market falls on hard times, as happened during COVID, she said it’s easy for decision makers to go with obvious choices.

  “This leads to trouble in terms of representation. Now we are demanding better from the people who contract artists, challenging our own bias, and putting in the work to get more diversity in theatre spaces,” she said.

  At Luminato, Bridge will lead the Artists in Residence program, offering artists an opportunity to envision and actualize their work on a larger scale. She’s motivated to highlight creative work that has developed in the margins.

  “The Artist in Residence program is currently only focused on established and senior artists, as there is a lack of support for this group of professionals,” she said. “There is a lot of focus on supporting emerging artists, but for racialized folks, once you go beyond emerging, the opportunity for work becomes thin in terms of the companies you can work for, or the projects that you choose to work on.”

  To the next generation of students, creators, artists and theatre-makers, Bridge said collaboration is key.

  “Create art collectives, meet the dancers, meet the actors, meet the mathematicians. We are all living in the same world, yet our experiences are so different. Art is often born out of the issues of the time. What does this say about us?”

  Tags: dart, Department of Dramatic Arts, Dian Bridge, humanities, Luminato Festival Toronto, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, miwsfpa
  Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised