Akasya Crosier, ArtIndustria+, Casey Ridings, Catherine Parayre, Cody Schriever, Continuous Monument, Derek Knight, Gayle Young, Harmonia Chamber SIngers, Jean Zhu, Jim Watkins, Josh Dawson, Lauren Regier, Lucas Veraldi, Paul Savoie, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Shawn Serfas, Silo-City, Sophia Yung
Categories: Alumni, Events, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News
Brock’s Three Minute Thesis winner Kaitlyn Kerridge, and award winners Shasha Hu and Jonathan Brower all spoke at the Graduate Student Awards and Donor Recognition Celebration on Thursday, May 10.
(adapted from: The Brock News Monday, May 14, 2018 | by Lauryn Carrick)
It wasn’t until he started at Brock University that Jonathan Brower was able to marry his passions: theatre, LGBTQ2 studies and spirituality.
During the Graduate Student Awards and Donor Recognition Celebration held on campus Thursday, May 10, the Master of Social Justice and Equity Studies student spoke about how the University and its donors have made a difference in his life.
An actor, playwright and producer, Brower told the more than 100 guests in attendance about how support from donors allows him to focus on his research and continue artistic pursuits, without having to worry about financial pressures.
“For research to truly be enriched, you need to be able to immerse yourself in it completely,” he said. “Support from donors allows me to focus my creative energy on academia, rather than having to worry about how my bills are being paid. Every layer of support I have received lifts me closer to success.”
Brower was the recipient of multiple awards at the celebration: a Bluma Appel Graduate Entrance Scholarship for Excellence in Social Sciences, the Scotiabank Graduate Award and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council CGS Master’s Scholarship.Hosted by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the awards event celebrated student success and thanked donors for their generous support of graduate students.
Brower came to Niagara from Calgary, where he co-founded and ran a queer theatre company and wrote and produced a play, oblivion, about the struggle to reconcile faith and sexuality. The production toured Canada over three years, visiting major cities including Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto, with a stop in St. Catharines last year.
Starting his master’s at Brock seemed a fitting next step for the student researcher, whose work explores “queer religious agency through narrative inquiry and applied theatre.”
“My own experience as a queer person in the Christian faith was marginalized, which led to the creation of oblivion,” Brower said. “This thesis project takes things a step further using collective theatre creation to bring the experiences of queer individuals from different faith backgrounds into conversation.”
In 2017-18 Brower was a teaching Assistant in the Department of Dramatic Arts for the courses DART 1F91 Introduction to Theatre and Performance (Dr. Jacqueline Taucar, Instructor) and DART 4F56 Advanced Studies in Theatre (Professor Gyllian Raby). He recently collaborated on WE WHO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT HIAWATHA ARE PROUD TO PRESENT HIAWATHA as part of the Rhizomes for the 2018 In The Soil Festival.
Advanced Studies in Theatre, DART 1F91, DART 4F56, development and alumni relations, dramatic arts, faculty of graduate studies, gyllian raby, Introduction to Theatre and Performance, Jacqueline Taucar, Jonathan Brower, LGBTQ2, Social Justice and Equity Studies, Student Awards and Donor Recognition Reception, Teaching Assistant
Categories: Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, In the Media, News
We are very excited to announce an exhibition by the students of the MIWSFPA in Innsbruck, Austria!
see photographs from the exhibition, below.
presented at …
13 June – 6 July 2018 (Opening 13 June 2018, 19:00)
Learning is process. Students in Visual Arts at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University, Canada put together a series of paintings to illustrate the process of abstraction at work in referencing urban, industrial, domestic, and natural landscapes. Students in Arts and Culture and French Studies continue the process of abstraction through the creation of written texts responding to their peers’ paintings.
Curators: Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas
With the generous support of the Canadian Studies Centre, University of Innsbruck
—
Lernen ist ein Prozess. Studierende der bildenden Kunst der Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts an der Brock University (Kanada) haben eine Reihe von Bildern zusammengestellt, um den Prozess des Abstrahierens zu illustrieren, der abläuft, wenn auf städtische, industrielle, häusliche und natürliche Landschaften Bezug genommen wird. Studierende der Fächer Kunst, Kultur und Französisch setzen diesen Prozess fort, indem sie Texte verfassen, die auf die Bilder ihrer KollegInnen
reagieren.
KuratorIn: Catherine Parayre und Shawn Serfas (Brock University)
Eröffnung: 13. Juni 2018, 19:00 Uhr
13. Juni – 6. Juli 2018
Bäckerei Innsbruck, Dreiheiligenstraße 21a, 6020 Innsbruck
Geographien als Prozess / Geographies of Process / Géographies en formation
Lernen ist ein Prozess. Studierende der bildenden Kunst der Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts an der Brock University (Kanada) haben ein Reihe von Bildern zusammengestellt, um den Prozess des Abstrahierens zu illustrieren, der abläuft, wenn auf städtische, industrielle, häusliche und natürliche Landschaften Bezug genommen wird. Studierende der Fächer Kunst, Kultur und Französisch setzen diesen Prozess fort, indem sie Texte verfassen, die auf die Bilder ihrer KollegInnen reagieren.
Learning is process. Students in Visual Arts at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University, Canada put together a series of paintings to illustrate the process of abstraction at work in referencing urban, industrial, domestic, and natural landscapes. Students in Arts and Culture and French Studies continue the process of abstraction through the creation of written texts responding to their peers’ paintings.
Tout apprentissage est un processus. Des étudiant.e.s en Arts visuels de l’Ecole des beaux-arts et arts du spectacle Marilyn I. Walker à l’Université Brock au Canada assemblent une série de peintures illustrant un processus d’abstraction faisant référence à des paysages urbains, industriels, domestiques et naturels. Poursuivant cet enchainement vers l’abstraction, des étudiant.e.s d’Arts et Culture et d’Etudes en français répondent aux œuvres de leurs collègues par la création de textes.
KuratorIn / Curators / Commissaires: Catherine Parayre / Shawn Serfas
Mit der Unterstützung des Zentrums für Kanadastudien der Universität Innsbruck
With the generous support of the Canadian Studies Centre, University of Innsbruck
Avec le généreux appui du Centre d’Etudes canadiennes de l’Université d’Innsbruck
KünstlerIn / Artists / Artistes
Gianna Aceto
Jessica Angelevski
Elizabeth Angotti
Denise Apostolatos
Teresa Badgley
Renz Baluyot
Chris Belanger
Marilyn Blanchette
Brandon Boudreau
Hannah Brown
Andrea Caruso
Maddy Cugini
Thomas Denton
Chelsea Dietrich
Amy Doan
Hannah Dobbie
Isabella Domaradski
Mariah Dubeau
Amandine Faivre
Alex Finlayson
Dailia Frigault
Jill Greer
Stefanie Gugliucciello
Kylie Haveron
Gail Higenell
Samantha Hilton
Aimee Hu
Syerra Jasmin
Gabriella Jones
Phuong Le
Laura Levesque
Brendan Long
Craig Maltais
Sarah Martin
Jim Maunder
Katie McGinness
Kaitlyn Michie
Avery Mikolic-O’Rourke
Andrey Mintchev
Jennie Montes
Victoria Morinello
Jaclyn Morse
Lauren Mucciarone
Michelle Nazari
Alona Nyforovska
Joseph Opara
Lillianna Pagliaro
Connor Playfair
Anna Podvalni
Jacob Primeau
Brittany Reitzel
Curt Richard
Jessie Richard
Cynthia Richards
Keira Robertson-Worden
Abby Rollo
Kourtney Spadoni
Samantha Stein
Sophia Strachan
Charlotte Tarr
Evan Weins
Zachary White
Amber Lee Williams
LISTEN to an interview (in German) by Sarah von Karger with Co-Curator Catherine Parayre for “KulturTon”, Freirad Radio, Innsbruck, Austria, 2 Juli 2018
(Source: Brock News, Monday, May 07, 2018 | by Alison Innes)
Visual Arts Professor Amy Friend’s piece “Vestiges” was unveiled at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre on Wednesday, May 2. The work, a photograph on fabric, was commissioned by the City of St. Catharines for its civic art collection and hangs in the lobby of the PAC. Friend is flanked by Kathleen Powell, Acting Supervisor of Cultural Services, left, and Olivia Hope, Culture Co-ordinator, right.
Below, Vestiges, 2018, by Amy Friend, in the Algoma Central Lobby of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.
(Source: The Brock News | Wednesday, April 25, 2018 by Alison Innes)
It’s a festival born out of love for the local community and the arts.
In the Soil, the three-day, multi-layered and multi-disciplinary festival in St. Catharines, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this weekend, and Brock has played an important role in its growth.
The festival started as an idea sparked at a Centre for the Arts performance in Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, where Annie Wilson (BA’03), Joe Lapinski (BA’99) and Sara Palmieri (BA ’03) wondered how they help showcase Niagara talent. Three more former Brock students came on board to found the festival in 2009: Deanna Jones (BA ’02), Natasha Pedros (BA ’04) and Jordy Yack.
They wanted to bring people together with local artists to create a shared experience and celebrate Niagara’s arts scene.
Brock’s support of In the Soil has been important from the start, says Wilson, who studied Theatre and English.
“To have the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts right in the downtown core is a dream come true and so is the opportunity to collaborate with so many incredible profs and friends over there,” says Wilson. “Brock University has supported In the Soil Arts Festival from day one and the ongoing investment in us has allowed us to grow it into what it is today.”
Suitcase in Point Theatre Company, a theatre group founded by graduates from Brock’s Dramatic Arts program, took over organizing the festival in 2012. The group worked to sharpen the festival’s interdisciplinary approach and now has a tradition of showcasing the latest work in theatre, literature, music, film, comedy and site-specific installations.
Many Brock students, staff, faculty, and grads are exhibiting and performing at this year’s festival in various venues around the downtown core, including:
Prior to the festival, the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts will be hosting a special event on the evening of April 27 for students from Stamford Collegiate.
The MIWSFPA is also a festival sponsor.
What: In the Soil Arts Festival
When: Friday, April 27 to Sunday, April 29
Where: Downtown St. Catharines
Tickets and event details: inthesoil.on.ca
The cast of Lac/Athabasca takes the stage from April 12 to 14 in the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre for the last Dramatic Arts production of the 2017-18 season.
For the final production of the regular 2017-18 season, Brock’s fourth-year Dramatic Arts students will tackle some hard-hitting Canadian issues.
The DART 4F56 ensemble will present Len Falkenstein’s award-winning play Lac/Athabasca in the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre. The production, inspired by the Lac-Mégantic train explosion of 2013, tells the dark truth of the forces behind the disaster.
Co-directed by Professor Gyllian Raby and student Mark Dickinson, the play premiered at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts on Thursday, April 12 and will continue nightly until Saturday, April 14.
Production poster designed by Michelle Mohammed. click to download a PDF copy.
Audiences follow the train filled with explosive fuel as it journeys across time and place, beginning with townsfolk sharing their experiences of the tragic event and lamenting for the lives lost. The crowd is taken to tour the magnificent Athabasca glacier and meets workers at the oil sand companies in Fort McMurray, witnessing Canada’s exploitation of its land and peoples from the 1800s to now. The beauty and terror of these encounters reveal a Canadian dream as twisted as the train tracks that stretch across it.
The DART 4F56 students unanimously picked the play not only because of its Canadian roots, but also because “it’s about something that matters,” says Raby. The production tells the story of the train explosion, but audiences can also “expect to see a First Nations story play out,” she says.
“We were fortunate enough to be advised by Adrienne Smoke of the Six Nations and William Constant, a Cree mentor, to make sure we were approaching the Indigenous story correctly.”
On a daily basis, Canadians are reading about the problem of oil and the exploitation of natural resources. Lac/Athabasca is a deeply Canadian play that provokes reflection on corporate greed, environmental policies and the future transportation of oil.
In addition to Dickinson, the 2017-18 Dramatic Arts fourth-year ensemble features cast members Mackenzie Kerr, Adrian Marchesano, Sarah Marks, Michelle Mohammed, Tarndeep Pannu, Naomi Richardson and Kaylyn Valdez-Scott. Set construction is by Helena Ciuciura, costume design by Samantha Mastrella, properties design by Rebecca Downing, sound design by Jillian Wardell, lighting design by Meryl Ochoa, and projections design and production management by Chelsea Wilson, assisted by guest instructor and Brock University Dramatic Arts alumnus, James McCoy. The production team also includes Allie Aubry as stage manager and Candice Burn as head of publicity.
Lac/Athabasca plays Friday, April 13 and Saturday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the MIWFSPA in downtown St. Catharines. Tickets are $5 (plus taxes and fees) from the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre box office at 905-688-0722 or online. Tickets will also be available at the door. Limited parking is available onsite.
see the preview article by Mike Balsom on YourTV Niagara/Cogeco
Visual Arts Professor Donna Szoke will be awarded with the Faculty of Humanities Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity at the HRI Spring Symposium on Tuesday, April 17. Szoke’s work with animals includes her current piece, Midst, which uses video projectors and fog machines to create animations of large animals on a wall of fog.
(Source: The Brock News, Monday, April 09, 2018 by Alison Innes)
The Elephant in the Room will be the topic of discussion next week at the annual Humanities Research Institute (HRI) Spring Symposium on Tuesday, April 17.
This year’s theme, “The Elephant in the Room: Making Space for Animals in Our Research and Teaching” explores the use and depictions of animals in history, literature, art and society. Faculty members from the Faculties of Humanities and Social Science will share their work on critical animal studies and human-animal studies.
Symposium organizer Associate Professor Keri Cronin hopes this year’s topic will bring together researchers from across the University to start important interdisciplinary conversations and make the work already being done more visible.
“Brock is, in my opinion, the place to be for animal studies,” says Cronin. “But because those of us researching and teaching these topics are so spread out and scattered across campus, it’s hard to get a sense of just how deep this research runs.”
These HRI events are essential to maintaining the Faculty of Humanities’ sense of community, says Michael Carter, Associate Dean of Humanities and Director of the Humanities Research Institute.
“The symposia provide wonderful opportunities for interaction and mutual support of our diverse research and creative agenda,” he says.
The HRI was created to encourage the development of research programs and initiatives within the Faculty, as well as to generate public awareness of the diversity of humanities research by faculty and graduate students.
This year, Visual Arts Associate Professor Donna Szoke will be awarded the 2017 Faculty of Humanities Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity at the symposium. Szoke’s artistic work includes media art, interactive animation, installation and printmaking.
Szoke’s multidisciplinary work has included creating a free smartphone app, “Invisible Histories,” which maps nuclear waste at the Niagara Falls, N.Y. Storage Site, where more than 270,000 mice used in radioactive experiments have been buried.
More recent work by Szoke has included “Bold as Love,” a site-specific response piece at Rodman Hall Art Centre, and “Knitting Cigarettes,” an ongoing performance art piece of public knitting.
The 2017 HRI Spring Colloquium will be held at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts on Tuesday, April 17. The full schedule is available online.
What: HRI Spring Symposium, “The Elephant in the Room: Making Space for Animals in Our Research and Teaching”
Where: Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
When: Tuesday, April 17, 1 to 4:30 p.m.
Limited parking available on site. Members of the Brock University community and guests are welcome to park on a first-come first-served basis. City parking lots are available nearby.
See www.stcatharines.ca/en/livein/ParkingLotsGarages.asp
award, Brock University, Carol Merriam, Department of Visual Arts, Donna Szoke, Faculty of Visual Arts, HRI Spring Symposium, keri cronin, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Michael Carter, miwsfpa, The Brock News, visual arts
Categories: Events, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News
The opening reception for the first instalment of the honours exhibitions on Friday, March 23 drew a large crowd to the Rodman Hall Art Centre. Photo: Danny Custodio.
Graduating students from the Honours Studio course (VISA 4F06) have been busy all semester creating their pieces for the two-part Brock University Department of Visual Arts Honours Exhibition. Students were mentored by Rodman Hall Art Centre gallery staff and Visual Arts Professors Donna Szoke, Shawn Serfas, Derek Knight, and Donna Akrey.
The first instalment of the honours exhibition: Just Resting My Eyes is currently on display at the Rodman Hall Art Centre (109 St. Paul Crescent). The current exhibition features work from students: Denise Apostolatos, Victoria Morinello, Jill Newman, Jacob Primeau, and Aaron Thompson.
These honours exhibitions are vital to students’ education in the Brock Visual Arts program because “the nature, purpose and intended outcome of Honours Studio is that once the students graduate from the art program, they become practicing artists. Art making, as a practice of research-creation, is inherently experiential learning” says Szoke.
The collaboration with the professional team of the Rodman Hall Art Centre is a essential learning experience for Brock Visual Arts students. Akrey says the Rodman Hall staff’s “consultation with each student teaches them the importance of the entire process of art making and exhibiting, and the importance of their individual work in a collaborative event.” Serfas adds that the importance of having Rodman Hall embedded into the Bachelor of Arts program is that “it gives our students a distinctive experiential learning opportunity.”
Knight says that the audience can expect to see “broad cultural themes with emphasis on the impact of mass media, environmental or social issues” throughout the work created by these honours students in this two-part exhibit.
The second instalment, Turnin’ This Car Around, is set to be exhibited from Saturday, April 14 to Sunday, April 29, with the opening reception on Friday, April 13 from 7 to 9 p.m. This upcoming exhibit will feature pieces by Rachel Dove, Lauren Mucciarone, Victoria Reid, Brittany Thomas-Clapp, and Lorraine Zandvliet.
For more information about Rodman Hall Art Centre and their programs see brocku.ca/rodman-hall
see the article by John Law in the St.Catharines Standard: Brock’s top art students gather for one last show
see the video report by Stephen Parr for YourTV Niagara
Brock University, Brock University Visual Arts Honours Exhibition, Department of Visual Arts, Derek Knight, Donna Akrey, Donna Szoke, Honours Exhibition, just resting my eyes, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, rodman hall, Rodman Hall Art Centre, Shawn Serfas, VISA 4F06, visual arts
Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News
This is a busy week for exhibitions under Brock’s Department of Visual Arts (VISA).
From April 2 to 6, students in the VISA department are presenting three exhibitions: CORE, SITE-SEER, and (un)hidden.
Now open in the Rodman Hall Art Centre is the exhibit CORE. VISA students will have their smaller works in Rodman Hall’s Flex Space, which will be imagined as a larger site and a centre from where the work branches out to the other destinations in the show. CORE is open to view at Rodman Hall from now until April 13. Gallery hours can be found on their website and admission is by donation, but free for members and students.
When visiting Rodman Hall be sure to see the Brock University Department of Visual Arts Honours Exhibition: just resting my eyes, on display until April 8.
The second exhibit, SITE-SEER, is an extension of the first. SITE-SEER is a one-night exhibition being held Wednesday, April 4 from 4 to 9 p.m., where the downtown area of St. Catharines will serve as gallery space. Students from Donna Akrey’s Advanced Art Practices course are taking their creations from the CORE exhibit and dispersing them throughout downtown St. Catharines in hopes that their pieces will lure locals into seeing sites in a new way.
Participating artists for both CORE and SITE-SEER include: Hani Ahmed, Jess Angelevski, Teresa Badgley, Jessica Bradley, Tom Denton, Isabella Domaradzki, Kylie Haveron, Emma Hutchison-Hounsell, Laura Levesque, Avery Mikolic-O’Rourke, Amanda Misale, Anna Podvalni, Victoria Reid, Kourtney Spadoni and Desiree Veino.
Maps with more information about the artworks, their locations and times will be available at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts on Wednesday night when SITE-SEER is held.
Change, a contemporary exploration of Hidden Mother photography. One of many polaroid emulsion lifts featured in the upcoming show (un)hidden by Amber Lee Williams.
A third show, (un)hidden by Brock Visual Arts student Amber Lee Williams, opens in the Visual Arts Exhibition Space of the MIWSFPA on Thursday, April 5 with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Williams is both a student and a mother of two, who gave birth to her second child while preparing for this exhibit. She is now in the process of installing her show while carrying her two-month-old baby in a sling.
In the (un)hidden exhibit, Williams presents photographs, sculptures and installations investigating motherhood, relationships within the family and loss. (un)hidden will be open at the MIWSFPA until Saturday, April 28. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.
(un)hidden, Amber Lee Williams, Amy Friend, Brock University, CORE, downtown St. Catharines, exhibition, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, miwsfpa, photography, Rodman Hall Art Centre, SITE-SEER, The Brock News, VISA, VISA 3M90, VISA Honours Exhibition, visual arts
Categories: Current Students, Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News
Image: Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals.
The Humanities Research Institute will be hosting its Spring Symposium on Tuesday, April 17, 12:30 to 4:30 pm at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts room 406. The public is welcome to attend! No registration required.
This year’s theme, “The Elephant in the Room: Making Space for Animals in Our Research and Teaching,” explores the use and depictions of animals in history, literature, art, and society. Faculty members from the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Social Science will share their work on various aspects of animal studies, including critical animal studies and human-animal studies.
Opening remarks: Michael Carter, Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, Faculty of Humanities
Session I: 1:00 p.m.
Chair: Keri Cronin (Visual Arts)
Coffee/tea break: 2:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Session II: 2:45 p.m.
Chair: Keri Cronin (Visual Arts)
Presentation of Faculty of Humanities Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity to Professor Donna Szoke
Donna Szoke (Visual Arts), “Invisible Animals”
Closing remarks: Carol Merriam, Dean, Faculty of Humanities
Limited parking available on site. Members of the Brock University community and guests are welcome to park on a first-come first-served basis. City parking lots are available nearby.
See www.stcatharines.ca/en/livein/ParkingLotsGarages.asp