Faculty & Instructors

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
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
Visual Arts Professor Amy Friend exhibits in Provence, France.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017 | By dvivian

AMY FRIEND, INCONNUS FAMILIERS / Familiar Strangers

“Amy Friend est une photographe canadienne. «Dare alla luce» («apporter à la lumière») est un travail où l’artiste mêle vieux clichés familiaux et photos glanées au hasard de ses promenades. Une fois perforées et rétro-éclairées, la lumière révèle une seconde fois le cliché. Grâce à ce procédé, Amy peut donner une seconde vie à ses photographies. Des notions telles que l’histoire intime, la mémoire, la présence et l’absence traversent tout son travail.”
from www.liberation.fr/photographie/2017/08/21/amy-friend-inconnus-familiers_1590958

Amy Friend is a Canadian photographer. In “Dare alla luce” (bringing to light), she collects old family portraits and photos gathered in her walks. Once perforated and backlighted, the light reveals the images a second time. Through this process Amy gives a second life to her photographs. Notions of privacy, memory, presence and absence cross-pollinate her work.
[translation by C. Parayre]

for more information and to see her work:

www.liberation.fr/photographie/2017/08/21/amy-friend-inconnus-familiers_1590958

https://www.facebook.com/recitsphotographiques/

Récits Photographiques
August 24 > September 30, 2017
Abbaye De Silvacane, La Roque D’Antheron
Les Terrasses Du Chateau, Lauris
Provence, France

Assistant Professor Amy Friend holds a BFA honours Degree and BEd from York University and an MFA from the University of Windsor. She has received grants from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. In 2015 Amy was awarded the Clarke Thompson Award for Sessional Teaching at Brock University.

For more information about her creative and research work see her faculty profile.

Tags: Amy Friend, exhibition, photography
Categories: Announcements, Department/Centre News, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News
Brock University welcomes Dr. Rachel Rensink-Hoff!

Tuesday, July 04, 2017 | By dvivian

Brock University welcomes Dr. Rachel Rensink-Hoff to the Department of Music at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts.

Dr. Rachel Rensink-Hoff is the newly appointed Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music Education at Brock University. She has also been named Artistic Director of the Niagara-based Avanti Chamber Singers.

Former conductor of the McMaster University Choir and founder of the McMaster Women’s Choir, Dr. Rensink-Hoff completed her Doctorate and Master of Music degree at Western University, pursuing additional studies at the Eastman School of Music Conducting Institute, the Voice Care Network of St. John’s University, Minnesota, and the University of Toronto. She has engaged in master-classes under conductors Helmuth Rilling, Joseph Flummerfelt, Anton Armstrong, Dale Warland and the late Sir David Willcocks.

Vice-President of Programming for Choral Canada, Rachel Rensink-Hoff is the 2014 winner of the prestigious Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting awarded by the Ontario Arts Council. In 2015, her McMaster Women’s Choir was awarded first prize in the National Choral Competition for Amateur Choirs of the CBC and Choral Canada. That same year she was nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award at McMaster University.

She publishes regularly in the Choral Journal of the American Choral Directors’ Association as well as in Choral Canada’s Anacrusis and The Canadian Music Educator. Rachel works frequently as guest conductor, adjudicator, conference presenter and workshop clinician. Current engagements include a session on Canadian and American women choral composers at the 2017 national conference of the American Choral Directors’ Association in Minneapolis, Minnesota and a presentation on Canadian choral music at the 2017 World Symposium on Choral Music in Barcelona, Spain. She also looks forward to serving as guest conductor of this year’s 2017 Nova Scotia Provincial Youth Choir.

Tags: choir, choral, Dr. Rachel Rensink-Hoff
Categories: Announcements, Department/Centre News, Faculty & Instructors, News
Singing to National Success!

Monday, June 26, 2017 | By dvivian

Dr. Brian Power is seen here (wearing a red bow tie, centre-right) singing with Pax Christi Chorale at the Christmas concert for 2016.

Dr. Brian Power, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Professor in the Department of Music and tenor in the Pax Christi Chorale (Toronto) sung to national success when the Pax CC Chamber Choir won first place in the chamber choir category of the 2017 CBC Choral Competition, announced Sunday.

Says Dr. Power, “Some of Canada’s finest choirs participated in this event. The competition was stiff and the rules were strict, so we’re feeling quite satisfied with the result.”

The biannual National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs is ‎a project of Choral Canada in partnership with the CBC and the Canada Council. A treasured Canadian choral tradition, the National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs inspires choirs to strive for excellence, provides visibility for amateur choirs of all ages, and encourages the creation and performance of Canadian works. The Competition is open to all Canadian amateur choirs and attracts diverse participants from coast to coast. The finalists and winners are selected by a national jury of esteemed Canadian choral conductors. Each choir that enters the Competition must perform an original Canadian piece and prizes are given for the Best Performance of a Canadian Work and the Best Performance of a Canadian Contemporary Work. Cash prizes are awarded for the top performances in each category. The national jury may also award special accolades to outstanding choirs. Seventy choirs from across the country participated in the 2017 competition.

Pax Christi Chorale is known for presenting dramatic choral masterpieces, performing with passion, conviction and heart. Past Artistic Director Stephanie Martin’s imaginative programming engages audiences with dramatic story-telling through oratorio and rarely-heard masterworks. Since its inception in 1987, the choir has grown to over 100 singers, and has performed ambitious works including the North American première of Parry’s 1888 oratorio Judith and Elgar’s masterpiece The Kingdom at Koerner Hall, Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ, and Britten’s Saint Nicolas. The Pax Chamber Choir also participated in R. Murray Schafer’s monumental 1000-performer extravaganza Apocalypsis at the 2015 Luminato Festival. Martin’s final concert, capping 20 years at the helm of Pax Christi, took place in April, 2017: the Canadian première of Elgar’s The Apostles. Stephanie Martin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Music of the Faculty of Arts at York University.

The intense recording project by the Pax Christi Chorale was prepared by Stephanie Martin over a period of many months and submitted to the jury in March, 2017. The winning entry featured “How sweet the moonlight sleeps” (text from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice), a new work by emerging Toronto-based composer Jared Tomlinson. Recordings made by the Pax Christi Chorale for the 2017 competition can be heard on their Soundcloud channel. Winners were announced on CBC Radio 2’s Choral Concert on June 25th, 2017. Choral Concert, hosted by Katherine Duncan, presents great choral music from the Renaissance to the present day, sung by the top choirs from Canada and around the world.

BRAVO! To Dr. Brian Power and the Pax Christi Chorale!

prepared with material supplied by Choral Canada, Pax Christi Chorale and CBC Radio 2.

Tags: Brian Power, CBC Choral Competition, Choral Canada, Pax Christi Chorale
Categories: Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News
Brock University shines brightly at the 2017 St. Catharines Arts Awards

Saturday, June 17, 2017 | By dvivian

2017 Arts Awards Recipients photographed following the evening presentations.

The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing arts celebrates the nominees and award winners of the 2017 St. Catharines Arts Awards.

The evening of June 03, 2017 brought the arts and culture community together for the presentation of the awards in a special ceremony at the Cairns Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre. This is an annual celebration of the arts of St. Catharines, a night to say thank you, to honour excellence and to reflect on the many achievements of local artists and cultural
workers. All of this year’s Arts Awards nominees are helping to build a dynamic, inclusive arts community in our city that will thrive for years to come.

The Rodman Hall Art Centre of Brock University was nominated for the Arts in Education Award, sponsored by the Pen Centre. This award celebrates an individual, collective or organization that has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to engaging St. Catharines residents through arts education activities.

The team at Rodman Hall Art Centre

Serving Niagara since 1960, Rodman Hall Art Centre was designated a national exhibition centre for the Niagara region in 1975. The Gallery has received seven Ontario Association of Art Gallery awards and two St. Catharines Standard Readers Choice awards since 2010. The talented staff at Rodman Hall Art Centre, led by Acting Director and Curator Marcie Bronson, connect our community with contemporary art through a year-round program of thought-provoking exhibits, special events and art classes for all ages. They are the leading centre for visual arts education and creative expression in St. Catharines. Rodman Hall’s arts education programs promote art making as a healthy activity that cultivates and enhances an appreciation for the arts. Their programs and community partnerships have inspired creativity in thousands of children and adults and helped to develop the talent and skills of Niagara residents. Congratulations, Rodman Hall Art Centre!

Kasia Dupuis

Also nominated for the Arts in Education Award was Kasia Dupuis. Kasia is an educator, artist, mother, wife and arts advocate who blends art, creativity and education. Kasia studied Arts and Culture at Brock University and successfully completed her diploma in Primary Education at the University of Edinburgh. She has led adult workshops and community projects including Art Night events at local schools. Kasia has been spreading her love of art with this community since 2011, when she opened the 4Cats St. Catharines Studio. She has been a part of Culture Days, offers educational workshops with the DSBN and happily organizes birthdays, scouting, and guiding group art activities. 4Cats remains a hive of creativity under her leadership where she encourages all students to “love what you do and make good art.” Congratulations, Kasia!

Sponsored by the St. Catharines Downtown Association, the Making A Difference Award celebrates a St. Catharines arts entrepreneur, arts administrator, arts organization, arts animator or volunteer in the arts whose leadership and innovation have significantly contributed to the growth and development of arts and culture in St. Catharines. The 2017 award was presented to Marcie Bronson, curator of the Rodman Hall Art Centre of Brock University.

Marcie Bronson

Marcie has played a central role in the transformation of Rodman Hall Art Centre into the nationally recognized institution of excellence that residents of St. Catharines now enjoy. Her curatorial accomplishments — both exhibitions and publications — are outlined in her curriculum vitae, but what cannot be captured on paper is the esteem with which she is regarded in the arts community and beyond. She has steadfastly promoted local artists throughout her curatorial career – half of her exhibitions have been by local artists. She has fought tirelessly for the future of Rodman Hall with her nuanced understanding of how it affects community on many levels and her commitment is evident not only through Rodman Hall but also at Brock University with students and faculty. The excitement expressed by students when Bronson attends and shares her appreciation of their work is important to their growth as young artists. She is a remarkable mentor and highly respected by students and staff alike. Congratulations, Marcie!

Also nominated for the Making A Difference Award was Gregory Betts, Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature.

Gregory Betts

The poet and author has been publishing cutting edge literature for 18 years and has released seven books and 18 chapbooks from the best avant-garde presses across North America. Not only is he a successful author, Betts is a genuine activist for the literary community in St. Catharines. Since arriving in 2006 to teach at Brock University, Betts has organized events that have brought hundreds of the best authors from around the world to St. Catharines. Gregory has been a tireless advocate for literature and has helped to foster and create a robust literary community in the city, working as an artist, volunteer, and organizer of all things cultural. His work has culminated in the establishment of a new literary festival of which Betts is artistic director. The Festival of Readers is a three-day literary extravaganza that brought over 40 authors to the city in October 2016 and attracted over 400 people. With this festival, not only has he built a stage for the best literature in the country, but he has insisted that the focus of that stage be for developing and encouraging readers in the city of St. Catharines.

Gregory was awarded the Jury’s Pick Award, presented at the Jury’s discretion to an individual, collective or organization nominated but not receiving an award in any other category. This individual, collective or organization must have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the arts in St. Catharines, and cannot have received an Arts Award in the past. It is the Jury’s choice to determine, on a yearly basis, whether or not the Jury’s Pick Award will be presented. Congratulations, Gregory!

Danielle Wilson

Professor Danielle Wilson of the Department of Dramatic Arts was nominated for the Established Artist Award sponsored by Meridian Credit Union. This award is presented to a professional St. Catharines artist in any discipline who has received recognition for excellence in their art practice in St. Catharines and beyond.

Danielle holds an MFA in performance and a graduate Voice Teaching Diploma, both from York University. She is a full-time faculty member in the Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) teaching voice and performance. Danielle is an actor who has worked across Canada with such companies as Repercussion Theatre, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Magnus Theatre, Tarragon Theatre and The Georgian Theatre Festival. She is co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Stolen Theatre Collective, collaborating on the company’s shows The Diaries of Adam and Eve and The Nona which toured to the London Fringe Festival. Danielle directed The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter and recently, she co-created and performed in the original production of The Ash Mouth Man which was re-mounted for the In the Soil Arts Festival in April. For the DART, she has directed Blood Relations by Sharon Pollock, Lion in the Streets by Judith Thompson, codirected Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare with her colleague Gyllian Raby and directed Good night Desdemona (Good morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie MacDonald. Congratulations, Danielle!

Gordon Cleland

Also nominated for the Established Artist Award was Gordon Cleland. Principal cellist of the Niagara Symphony, Gordon has performed across North America. He has appeared as soloist with the Niagara Symphony (Schumann Concerto in A minor and Vivaldi Double Concerto in G minor with Gisela Depkat), for the Debut Series in Montreal, and with Mercredi Musique (Boccherini Bb Major). He has extensive experience as a chamber musician, has broadcast frequently for CBC FM Radio and has performed on
TV5, the international French television network. Gordon teaches cello at Brock University and is an instructor with Suzuki Niagara and the Niagara Youth Orchestra. He has been a featured performer for the Concertino Program of Jeunesses musicales, whose artists are carefully chosen for their pedagogical skills and their ability to communicate with young people. His strong interest in contemporary and Canadian music is reflected in the repertoire he performs. Congratulations, Gordon!

Twitches and Itches Theatre

Twitches and Itches Theatre shared the Emerging Artists Award with comedian David Green. For this award two emerging St. Catharines artists working in any discipline are recognized, celebrating current accomplishments and future potential. The award is sponsored by the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University.

Colin Bruce Anthes and Tom DiMartino founded Twitches and Itches Theatre in 2009. The company includes alumni of Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts. In September of 2014, Twitches and Itches began a new initiative called Open Creation Labs (a series of workshops guided by Anthes) that became a way to introduce St. Catharines theatre artists to accessible, yet challenging devising methods. From The Creation Labs emerged a core ensemble that began creating two shows: Once (2015) and Time, Again (2016). Both pieces premiered at St. Catharines’ In the Soil Festival to glowing praise and large audiences. In 2015, Twitches and Itches led a 24-hour play creation as part of the Culture Days celebration, and hosted a free vocal workshop in 2016. Twitches and Itches has just completed its most recent show, The Bacchae and will premiere an original piece, September Songs, this fall. Congratulations, Twitches and Itches!

Jo Pacinda

Other nominees for the Emerging Artist Award include Jo Pacinda and Lauren Regier. Jo has a degree in Dramatic Arts with a Concentration in Production and Design from the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University. Recent credits include Costume Design Assistant for The Fighting Days, Poor and Falling: A Wake with Essential Collective Theatre (ECT). Jo has served as Wardrobe Assistant on ECT’s The Drawer Boy, Yellow Door Theatre’s The Little Prince and The Foster Festival’s Halfway to the North Pole. Jo designs custom costumes and clothing for select individuals and regularly works or volunteers as a designer and assistant designer for many local theatre companies, demonstrating her commitment to her artistic practice and to local St. Catharines arts. Congratulations, Jo!

Lauren Regier

Lauren Regier graduated from Brock University’s Visual Arts program in 2014. Interested in the dynamic relationship between nature and machines, she investigates this subject though photography, video, performance and installation art. She participated in the annual STRUTT Wearable Art Show in 2011 and 2013. In 2012, she participated in a two-week social justice trip in Peru volunteering in a children’s art class . Her experience was later channeled into a performance piece at St. Catharines’ Market Square in the show, Time and Space. In 2015, Lauren was hired by Rodman Hall to provide gallery assistance on weekends, she currently assists with exhibition and historical tours for visitors and groups. Lauren has exhibited her work at various venues throughout St. Catharines including Mahtay Café and Market Square and has been featured in both the Brock News and The Sound. Congratulations, Lauren!

First presented in 2005, The St. Catharines Arts Awards recognize and celebrate excellence in all areas of artistic creation. The Arts Awards seek to increase the visibility of St. Catharines’ artists and cultural industries, honour cultural leaders and their achievements, and cultivate financial and volunteer support for the arts sector. Arts Award recipients demonstrate St. Catharines’ breadth of talent and commitment to the arts. Since 2005, fifty-one awards have been given to artists, businesses, individuals and organizations to recognize their contributions to the cultural vitality of our community. The City of St. Catharines produces the Arts Awards, which are supported by the St. Catharines Arts & Culture Advisory Committee and produced by staff from the Parks, Recreation and Culture Services department.

The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts congratulates all the faculty, staff, students and alumni recognized for their profound contribution to arts and culture in St. Catharines!

Information about the awards, the nominees and the award winners was gleaned from these sources:

City of St. Catharines Arts Awards

“St. Catharines arts community in the spotlight: Awards handed out at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.“ Niagara This Week – St. Catharines: WhatsOn June 06, 2017 by Melinda Cheevers,

“Rodman Hall curator wins St. Catharines Arts Award.” The Brock News. June 12, 2017 by Danny Custodio

Tags: Arts Awards, St. Catharines Arts Awards
Categories: Alumni, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News
Brock alumni, faculty and staff among St. Catharines Arts Awards nominees

Monday, May 01, 2017 | By Nikki Prudden

(Source: The Brock News, Monday, May 01, 2017 | by Alison Innes)

Several members of the Brock community are being recognized for their impact on the local arts scene.

Brock alumni, staff and faculty have earned a number of nominations for this year’s St. Catharines Arts Awards, which recognize outstanding contributions to the arts in the Garden City.

Visual artist Lauren Regier (BA ’14), costume designer Jo Pacinda (BA ’13) and the Twitches & Itches Theatre group, run mainly by alumni, are among those in the running for the 2017 Emerging Artist award.

Gordon Cleland, a professor with Brock’s Department of Music and principal cellist with the Niagara Symphony, and Brock dramatic arts professor Danielle Wilson, co-founder and co-artistic director of Stolen Theatre Collective, have both been nominated for the Established Artist Award.

Earning a nomination in the Making a Difference category is Gregory Betts, a poet and professor with the Department of English Language and Literature, and Marcie Bronson, Acting Director and Curator at Rodman Hall Art Centre.

Rodman Hall itself has also been nominated in the Arts in Education category.

Seeing that high level of recognition bestowed upon members of the Brock community creates a sense of pride in anyone affiliated with the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), said MIWSFPA Director David Vivian.

The accomplishments of alumni help to reaffirm the work that staff and faculty of the arts school are doing to support the arts in Niagara, he said.

Regier, a graduate from Brock’s Department of Visual Arts, feels participation in the local arts scene is key.

“Some of the best people and institutions in St. Catharines have positioned themselves to be generously receptive of new ideas, artwork and dialogue,” she said.

“When it comes to contributing to the arts community post-graduation, it’s our willingness to attend talks and shows by people we don’t know, or to introduce and guide newcomers — that truly makes one an accessible and valued member of the cultural community.”

Regier is being recognized for her work, which explores the relationship between nature and machines through photography, video, performance and installation art.

Pacinda, a Brock theatre graduate and aspiring costume designer who works with a number of theatre companies in Niagara, has always dreamed of not just starting but building her theatre career in the region.

“This nomination means I’m headed on the right path with that,” she said.

Her recent work includes company costumer and design assistant for Essential Collective Theatre and wardrobe assistant for Theatre Project, Foster Festival and Twitches & Itches.

Pacinda said her Brock experience has helped to to get involved and give back to the local arts community.

“The overall support the school has for its current students, alumni and staff is really fantastic,” she said. “It’s with all this support that alumni are able to contribute and help build the St. Catharines art scene.”

The Arts Awards were first presented in 2005 to celebrate artists and supporters in St. Catharines, while also cultivating support for the arts sector.

Awards are given out in five categories: Arts in Education, Emerging Artist, Established Artist, Making a Difference and Patron of the Arts.

This year’s recipients will be announced during an evening of performances on Monday, June 5 at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.

A full list of nominees and more information on their work and contributions is available online.

Tickets for the awards ceremony and arts celebration are available at the centre box office by calling 1-855-515-0722.

Tags: Arts in Education award, Danielle Wilson, david vivian, Emerging Artist award, Established Artist Award, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, Gordon Cleland, Jo Pacinda, Lauren Regier, Making a Difference award, Marcie Bronson, Rodman Hall Art Centre, St. Catharines Arts Awards, Stolen Theatre Collective, Twitches & Itches Theatre
Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News
Brock prof earns prestigious fellowship

Wednesday, April 26, 2017 | By Nikki Prudden

(Source: The Brock News, Wednesday, April 26, 2017 | by Alison Innes. Photo caption: “Visual Arts associate professor Keri Cronin. Photo: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals”)

The animal advocacy movement has a rich visual history, and for her ongoing contributions to the movement, Brock University art historian Keri Cronin has been made a Fellow with the prestigious Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

The Visual Arts associate professor is particularly interested in the ways those working for animal advocacy in previous eras used images in campaigns.

“It’s really important to think about the relationships that exist between images and animal ethics because representations of animals shape how we think about them, how we treat them,” says Cronin, who is also a Faculty Affiliate in Brock’s Social Justice and Equity Studies graduate program and a founding member of the Social Justice Research Institute. “Images can have real-world consequences for actual flesh-and-blood animals.”

“My work asks people to consider what happens if we think about these images as part of the larger cultural narrative about how we treat animals, how we decide what counts as ‘cruel’ or ‘humane’ treatments and how those ideas shift over time.”

Cronin’s research has lead her to archives across North America and the U.K. in search of material such as leaflets and handbills, which often have not been catalogued or preserved in the same way as material on other topics.

The Visual Arts professor has published several books on visual culture and activism and has recently curated an exhibit, “Be Kind: The Visual History of Humane Education” for The Animal Museum.

She has also launched a new multimedia project with Jo-Anne McArther of We Animals called Unbound: Women on the Front Lines of Animal Advocacy.

Cronin’s forthcoming book, Do Not Refuse to Look at These Pictures: Visual Culture and Animal Advocacy 1870-1914, is due out this year and she hopes it sparks conversation and awareness about the visual culture of early animal advocacy.

The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, now comprised of more 100 international scholars, draws together academics from the humanities and sciences, including subjects as diverse as philosophy, theology, law, biology, history, social sciences, literature and politics.

Membership is by invitation only and only a small portion of those nominated are eventually selected. The lengthy and painstaking selection process recognizes those have made outstanding contributions to the field of animal ethics.

Cronin is the second Brock professor to join the Centre; Sociology professor Lauren Corman is an Associate Fellow in recognition of her interdisciplinary work on animal rights, posthumanism, feminist, critical race, labour, and environmental theories and practices.

Tags: animal advocacy, art history, keri cronin, Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, Social Justice and Equity Studies, Social Justice Research Institute, visual arts
Categories: Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News
Brock, SUNY art show set to open in Buffalo’s Silo City

Thursday, April 20, 2017 | By Nikki Prudden

(Source: The Brock News, Thursday, April 20, 2017 | by Maryanne Firth. Photo caption: “Buffalo’s Silo City will play host to a joint art exhibition including the work of students and faculty from Brock University and the State University of New York at Buffalo. (Photo: Derek Knight)”)

Brock University and the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo have joined forces to showcase artists on both sides of the border while also highlighting a landmark area on the Buffalo River.

After two years of planning, Post-Industrial Ephemera: Soundings, Gestures, and Poetics will open Saturday, April 22 at Buffalo’s Silo City — an industrial space filled with repurposed grain elevators and other structures built in the first half of the 20th century.

Several silos will play host to the free art exhibition until Saturday, April 29.

The exhibition’s opening reception will run from 2 to 5 p.m. and includes, in addition to the artwork of both Brock and SUNY students and faculty, performances by the Harmonia Chamber Singers, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Lauren Regier, Continuous Monument, Catherine Parayre and Jim Watkins.

Parayre, event co-curator and an associate professor in Brock’s Studies in Arts and Culture as well as Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, said the event developed from like minds coming together through networking opportunities at Brock’s Rodman Hall Art Centre.

It was co-curator Reinhard Reitzenstein, an associate professor of sculpture at SUNY-Buffalo, that introduced Parayre to Silo City, the inspiration for the showcase.

“Everyone is mesmerized because the structures there are stunning,” Parayre said of the area that is filled with buildings worn by weather and time.

The event, she said, is to encourage people to “reflect on the notion of dispersal.”

“Silos are built to maintain large networks of commodity exchange for human and animal sustenance. Here, however, the workers are gone; the buildings are exposed to inclement weather; the projects we bring with us will disappear, be dispersed or displaced.”

Silo City, she said, invites visitors to “become more perceptive to the transience of human endeavours.”

The exhibition is an opportunity to reflect on the aging structures, their history and nature’s efforts to reclaim the partially vacant space, she said.

Participating artists come from various disciplines including sculpture, arts, comparative literature, English studies, visual arts, studies in arts and culture, and French studies.

The showcase features an array of installations, neon signs, readings, paintings, prints, videos and sculptures.

Brock provided funding for the project through a longstanding research agreement in place between the two institutions, in addition to funding provided through Brock’s Dean of Humanities office.

“We’re very grateful for Brock’s support,” Parayre said.

Parking for the event is available onsite and guests are advised to dress warmly as temperatures within the silos remain brisk.

More information on participating artists and performance schedules for the opening reception is available online.

A one-day symposium held to relive the exhibition is scheduled to take place in September at Rodman Hall Art Centre in St. Catharines.

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Tags: Brock University, Buffalo, Buffalo River, Catherine Parayre, Derek Knight, exhibition, Lauren Regier, Post-Industrial Ephemera: Soundings Gestures and Poetics, Rodman Hall Art Centre, Silo-City, St. Catharines, State University of New York, SUNY
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