Associate Professor Duncan MacDonald’s recent group exhibition in Cambridge, Ontario entitled ‘5 over 4’ has recently been reviewed in Canadian Art’s 30th year edition. The exhibition featured artworks by artists working with sound in a variety of mediums. Artists included: Eleanor King, Christof Migone, Marla Hlady, Duncan MacDonald and Ursula Nistrup.
For more info click HERE.
The Niagara Symphony Orchestra on the stage of the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre of the Centre for the Arts at Brock University. Pictured below are Elizabeth Pereira, Virginia Reh and Evan Mulrooney.
Many Canadian orchestras have brought Classical Kids’ Beethoven Lives Upstairs program to their stages over the years, but the Niagara Symphony has brought a fresh new approach to this classic event. Brock Dramatic Arts student Elizabeth Pereira and alumnus Evan Mulrooney will play the roles of Christoph and the Uncle respectively, in performance with the Niagara Symphony (led by music director Bradley Thachuk) in April 2015. They earned the roles through competitive auditions at the school, and will be directed by Brock Professor of Drama Virginia Reh.
It’s part of a many-faceted partnership between the NSA and the university. The Niagara Symphony is Orchestra in Residence at Brock University, NSO concert notes are prepared by Brock Music Department faculty member Dr. Brian E. Power, the NSO participates in the Community Arts Partnership with the Brock Department of Music, Brock Music Ed Plus ensembles are featured in as part of Spotlight On!, Music Ed Plus students mentor and volunteer at Summer Music Camp, Brock faculty members coach, and adjudicate practice auditions, for students in The Academy @ SMC, NSO musicians Laura Thomas, Brent Adams, Gordon Cleland, Steve Fralick, Zoltan Kalman, Vera Alexeeva and Patricia Dydnansky are on faculty with the Brock Department of Music, and the NSO offers special PSSTnso (post secondary student ticket) pricing for university students.
from the article posted September 17 in the Orchestra News, Weekly Newsletter
at http://orchestrascanada.org/2014/09/17/new-partnership-for-the-niagara-symphony/
New facilities for the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
In February 2011, Diamond & Schmitt Architects of Toronto were chosen to design the new teaching and learning facilities for the faculty, staff, and students of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in the heart of the historic centre of St. Catharines.
Rehabilitating the former Canada Hair Cloth building for multi-purpose use by the departments of Dramatic Arts, Music, Visual Arts and the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, these new facilities will provide state-of-the-art production and workshop support, music practice facilities, art studios, lecture and seminar rooms as well as a versatile stand-alone 235-seat theatre for drama students.
The City of St. Catharines is developing an adjacent Performing Arts Centre (PAC) for which Diamond & Schmitt will also serve as lead architect. Comprising a 775-seat Concert Hall, a 300-seat Recital Hall, a 187-seat Film Theatre and a 210-seat Community Dance Theatre, these facilities will greatly enhance the already strong theatrical and musical offerings in the City of St. Catharines. Under a unique joint agreement with the City of St. Catharines, the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts will have use of the Recital Hall and the Film Theatre in support of its academic programs.
We invite you to follow the project’s progress and look forward to moving into our new facilities in May 2015.
Please consider attending one of our Open Houses in October or March, or consult the programs comprising the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts for further information.
Support the School with your donations
The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts will be moving to new purpose-designed facilities located in downtown St. Catharines’ historical Canada Hair Cloth building in May 2015. Designed by the prestigious Toronto-based firm Diamond & Schmitt Architects, the project provides state-of-the-art studio, digital lab, performance, recital, practice, lecture, design and workshop spaces for students in the departments of Dramatic Arts, Music, Visual Arts and our Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture.
Students and faculty can benefit in a myriad of different ways from the generosity of our donors, including donations made in support of our new downtown school, endowed scholarships, sponsorships of lectures series or programs, and gifts of special equipment, musical instruments or works of art. Donations in support of Brock University and its educational mission are always greatly appreciated.
Should you wish to help support us we have identified three funding priorities:
For more information regarding how to donate, please click here.
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.
This educational program is generously funded by Marilyn I. Walker.
Brett Polegato is a renowned Canadian baritone, celebrated for his musical artistry and rich, nuanced voice.
For Niagara-born Polegato this is a homecoming…on two counts! Growing up in Niagara Falls, as a teenager he studied with Brock University voice instructor Deborah Linton, before going on to the University of Toronto for his undergraduate degree. In ‘coming home’ to Niagara, he will not only perform An Evening of Song for the public, but will also coach a private masterclass for Linton’s students, as well as a second masterclass for invited performers from the region.
Sept. 25
Sept. 26
905.688.5550 x3257 or visit Arts.BrockU.caSept. 27
CONTACT: Prof. Karin Di Bella, Music, kdibella@brocku.ca
Brett Polegato’s artistic sensibility has earned him the highest praise from audiences and critics: The New York Times has praised him for his “burnished, well-focused voice,” which he uses with “considerable intelligence and nuance.” He appears regularly on the world’s most distinguished stages, including those of Lincoln Center; La Scala; the Opéra National de Paris; Lyric Opera of Chicago; Houston Grand Opera; the Teatro Real; Roy Thomson Hall; the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. He has collaborated with conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Andris Nelsons; Bernard Haitink; Seiji Ozawa; Jeffrey Tate; Marc Minkowski; and Martyn Brabbins. Polegato can be heard as soloist in the Grammy Awards’ Best Classical Recording of 2003 – Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony (Telarc)with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Robert Spano. His official biography can be found at brettpolegato.com/bio.html
Janet Werner is an acclaimed Canadian painter with an international reputation who teaches at Concordia University.
Werner will develop a project for senior Visual Arts students based on the portrait. From the works submitted she will select works to be exhibited in the upcoming exhibition From likeness to fiction: the portrait inside out. During her visit, Werner will give a public presentation entitled Painting the Imaginary Portrait.
Mar. 5
Click here to view on the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Event site
Apr. 1 – 26
Click here to view on the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Event Site
May 24 –June 6
CONTACT: Prof. Shawn Serfas, Visual Arts, sserfas@brocku.ca
Born in Winnipeg, Janet Werner lives and works in Montreal where she teaches in the Department of Studio Arts at Concordia University. She holds an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. As a participant in Oh, Canada staged at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2012-13, Werner’s presence and the impact of her portraits signaled her as one of our leading painters. “In Werner’s current practice […] an argument erupts between beauty and the grotesque and the figure itself becomes the site of contest.” (“Janet Werner: Earthling,” Parisian Laundry, 2012) Werner has shown widely in Canada at public and private galleries as well as artist-run centres. Selected solo shows include the SBC Gallery, Montreal; Art Gallery of Windsor; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Ottawa Art Gallery; and the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg. Internationally, her work has been featured in solo presentations in Cape Town and Cologne. Her work can be found in the collections of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Musée du Québec, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Owens Art Gallery, Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Mendel Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery and numerous corporate collections. Her biography can be found at parisianlaundry.com/en/artists/janetwerner/bio/
(Source: The Brock News, Tuesday, March 25, 2014)
The Walker Cultural Leader Series caps another successful year March 28 with a performance from Ensemble Vivant.
The group consists of pianist, founder and artistic director Catherine Wilson, as well as Sybil Shanahan (cello), Don Thompson (acoustic bass, vibraphone), Erica Beston (violin) and Norman Hathaway (violin, viola).
Championing a unique genre-diverse repertoire in their concerts and recordings since the group first came on the scene in the late 1980s, Ensemble Vivant has received critical acclaim for its work in the classical piano-trio literature, as well as for its forays into the worlds of ragtime, jazz and tango.
It has recorded for such labels as Fanfare, Pro Arte, Doremi, SPY and Opening Day/Universal and Opening Day Entertainment Group, and its recordings are heard on classical radio around the world.
The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre.
Tickets (not including GST) are free for Marilyn I. Walker School for Performing Arts students, $15.04 for adults, $10 for seniors and students, and $5 for the eyeGo high school program.
Tickets are available at the Centre for the Arts box office (905-688-5550 x3257) or online.
For more information, contact Matthew Royal.
Professor Jill Dolan began the two day symposium with her public lecture: “Moving the Body Politic: How Feminism and Theatre Inspire Social Re-imaginings.”
Listening to theatre companies, they’ve never needed theatre critics more. Listening to them after a bad review, they’ve also never resented them more. This strange dance of mutual need has been going on since the first time someone recited dialogue on stage, and someone in the next day’s paper wrote “it doth sucked, verily.” But what of that relationship today? Do critics matter? Can anyone with a blog call themselves a theatre critic? Are critics there to serve theatre companies or readers? (John Law)
See the complete article by media journalist John Law in the Niagara Falls Review about his recent participation in the two-day colloquium ‘The Changing Face of Theatre Criticism in the Digital Age‘ organized by Professor Karen Fricker of the Department of Dramatic Arts on the occasion of the special visit by Jill Dolan, Annan Professor in English, Professor of Theater in the Lewis Center for the Arts, Director, Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, at Princeton University, noted theatre blogger (thefeministspectator.com) and a Walker Cultural Leader for 2013-14. Special guests J. Kelly Nestruck of The Globe and Mail and Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Star joined local guests and luminaries including cultural leaders like Jackie Maxwell, artistic director of the Shaw Festival, and Steve Solski, director of the St. Catharines Centre for the Performing Arts.
The two day program began with the Friday morning public lecture, “Moving the Body Politic: How Feminism and Theatre Inspire Social Re-imaginings” by Professor Jill Dolan. The lecture was presented in association with the Department of Dramatic Arts and the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies.
For a complete list of participants and more information please see the Brock News Article, the Department of Dramatic Arts and the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts web pages.
The event was marked by remarkable and rich participation by members of the Niagara region and our international guests. Photos of the event may be viewed at the Facebook page of the Department of Dramatic Arts and tweeted commentary may be viewed at dartcritics.com.
The stimulating exchange of ideas and opinions in this “blossoming” cultural scene of Niagara (Professor Karen Fricker) were live-streamed at BrockVideoCentre’s DART channel, and are now available (unedited) for viewing.
(Source: The Brock News, Tuesday, February 11, 2014)
The construction of Brock University’s new arts school in downtown St. Catharines has passed the midway point, as workers have kept the major project moving along despite this winter’s harsh weather.
Three senior University officials appeared before St Catharines City Council on Monday Feb 10 with an update on the $45-million project that will house the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.
And their news was good.
“We’re on time, and we’re on budget,” said Brian Hutchings, Vice-President of Finance and Administration, who joined President Jack Lightstone and Humanities Dean Douglas Kneale for the council presentation. Hutchings said the Walker School is still scheduled to be open for September 2015.
Lightstone, who first proposed the idea of twin downtown arts projects when he appeared in the same council chamber seven years ago, said the urban-centre location lets the University play a role in helping local communities. The University and City worked together to find a site for the Brock project in an industrial heritage building, the former Canada Hair Cloth plant.
“Brock University is proud to be a partner and supporter of St Catharines, and indeed of Niagara,” said Lightstone. “For years Brock has publicly stated that one of our top priorities is to help strengthen our host communities intellectually, socially, culturally and economically.”
Kneale said creating a new centre of learning in the shell of an old industrial site is a “perfect metaphor” that will help future generations become part of Canada’s billion-dollar cultural sector.
“We are taking a 19th-century textile factory and turning it into a state-of-the-art facility for more than 500 students,” said Kneale. “Opportunities like this happen but once in a lifetime.”
As part of the presentation, city councillors viewed a video presentation on the project done by Tracy van Oosten, a Brock graduate of visual arts and film studies.
At the worksite, the full footprint of the Walker School is now visible. The main structure for the project’s new construction – mainly, the new dramatic arts theatre – is up, and now workers will largely focus on the complex interior work in all of the buildings, the most time-consuming being the renovation and repurposing of the older structures.
The University and City arts projects were the initial catalysts of a massive downtown renewal initiative, which now also includes the Meridian Centre, a 4,500-seat ice rink and spectator facility expected to be completed this autumn.
(Source: The St. Catharines Standard, Tuesday, February 11, 2014 | By Marlene Bergsma)
Construction on both the city’s Performing Arts Centre and Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts is on time and on budget – but the recent cold snap has forced the city’s contractor to rent ground-thawing equipment.
Brock president Jack Lightstone told St. Catharines councillors it’s been seven years since he first made a presentation to council suggesting a partnership to revitalize downtown, and he said Brock continues to be “proud to be a partner and supporter of St. Catharines and Niagara.”
With an anticipated enrolment of 500 students plus faculty and staff, and the city’s construction of an adjacent performing arts centre, the Walker school of art “will truly revitalize the downtown core of the city,” Lightstone said.
Brock’s VP of finance and administration, Brian Hutchings, said construction and renovations on Brock’s part of the project are “50% done, and we are on time and on budget.”
Showing pictures to council, Hutchings said the university is preserving much of the character of the former Canada Hair Cloth building, by showcasing wooden pillars, exposed masonry and existing windows.
Douglas Kneale, Brock’s Dean of Humanities, said turning the former factory building into classrooms and rehearsal studios “is the perfect metaphor for St. Catharines’ industrial past and post-industrial future.”
Quoting English Romantic poet William Blake, Kneale said the project is turning “dark Satanic mills” into engines of education and creativity. Kneale also described the state-of-the-art music practice rooms that will offer acoustic isolation with sound-blocking walls, ceilings and windows, and the perfect humidity for singers’ voices and musical instruments.
Meanwhile a significant part of the foundation has been poured for the city’s performing arts centre project. An aerial shot of the site, taken recently, shows the elevator shaft on the left, next to the crane, and a dark hole in the centre of the frame, which will provide the stairway access to Brock’s school of arts, said St. Patrick’s Coun. Mark Elliott. On the bottom left is bare earth which will be the site of Partridge Hall, the centre’s biggest venue with 775 seats, which will boast sophisticated and invisible acoustical panels which can be automatically adjusted for the type of concert or event.
Parks and recreation director Rick Lane said the city’s project is also on time and on budget, although the cold weather which has frozen the ground has posed some problems for Bird Construction, which has been using heaters to thaw the earth so they can continue with necessary excavation.
Mayor Brian McMullan thanked Lightstone for the “vision and passion” he has brought to the project, and said it was “one of the reasons it succeeded and it will truly be a transformative project.”
Lightstone also showed a video showcasing Brock’s arts programs.
15 artists' common, downtown revitalization, miwsfpa
Categories: In the Media, News
(Source: The Brock News, Monday, February 10, 2014)
An upcoming series of community discussions at Brock University later this month will debate the question: is everyone a critic?
Media professionals, theatre experts, scholars and students will assemble in Sankey Chamber at Brock Feb. 21 and Feb. 22 to take part in the colloquium, The Changing Face of Theatre Criticism in the Digital Age, hosted by the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.
“The rise of blogging and Twitter, combined with the decline of print journalism, is raising important questions about what counts as legitimate, professional criticism,” says Karen Fricker, event co-ordinator and a professor of dramatic arts. “Our discussions will focus on the current critical scene in Niagara, as well as imagining possible futures for the arts in our community.”
Panel members include two of Toronto’s most influential theatre critics: J. Kelly Nestruck of The Globe and Mail and Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Star. Others include local figures like Jackie Maxwell, artistic director of the Shaw Festival, and Steve Solski, director of the St. Catharines Centre for the Performing Arts.
The colloquium will also feature international critics: Jill Dolan, Princeton University professor and noted theatre blogger (thefeministspectator.com); Maddy Costa, a London, England blogger and journalist; and Andy Horwitz, founder of New York arts blog culturebot.net
Dolan is visiting Brock as part of the Walker Cultural Leaders series. While here, she will deliver a public lecture, “Moving the Body Politic: How Feminism and Theatre Inspire Social Re-imaginings.” Her lecture, co-sponsored by the Department of Dramatic Arts and Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies at Brock, takes place Friday, Feb. 21, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, also in Sankey Chamber.
All of these events are free and open to the public.
Funding for these events is provided by the Walker Cultural Leaders Series, the Brock Humanities Research Institute and the SSHRC Institutional Grant scheme, and the St. Catharines Performing Arts Centre.
All events will be live-streamed. [Click on “live video”]
—
All events take place in Sankey Chamber at Brock University
* 2 – 2:30 p.m.: Welcome
Presentation by Brock dramatic arts students from the third-year class, Studies in Praxis – Theatre Criticism
* 2:30 – 4 p.m.: Panel discussion “Critics and the arts in Niagara”
* 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.: Panel discussion “Embedded criticism: a new way forward, or criticism-as-PR?”
* 10 – 10:30 a.m.: Welcome
Presentation by Brock dramatic arts students from the third-year class, Studies in Praxis – Theatre Criticism
* 10:30 a.m. – 12 noon: Panel discussion “Bloggers, critics, and cultural legitimation”
* 12:15 – 1 p.m.: Colloquium wrap-up
Brock University
Media Release
St. Catharines, ON
January 28, 2014
The Department of Dramatic Arts’ mainstage production of Jehanne of the Witches is beset with twists and turns, black magic, illusion, sexuality, and the use – and abuse – of power!
Students of Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts present Jehanne of the Witches, a Canadian play that probes into the nature of magic, truth and illusion. Performances will be held at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Brock University on February 13, 14 and 15, 2014.
Jehanne of the Witches, written by award-winning Canadian playwright Sally Clark, recounts Joan of Arc’s story with historical accuracy, and explores modern, feminist ideals, as well as Christianity and Paganism. Using historical facts, Clark weaves a story exploring the strange relationship that existed between Joan of Arc and her comrade-in-arms, Gilles de Rais – the notorious Bluebeard. In this production, Gilles de Rais is in his own personal purgatory where he is condemned to endlessly relive the events of his life from his first contact with Jehanne to his own death.
Directed by Virginia Reh, with scenography by David Vivian, and lighting by Cameron More, this second mainstage production of the Department of Dramatics Arts’ 2013-14 Season showcases the talents of students in the undergraduate program: Katie Coseni, Mallory Muehmer, Rachel Romanoski, Hayley Malouin, Elizabeth Smith, Nikki Morrison, Erik Bell, Derek Ewert, Josh Berard, and Lewis Whiteley.
“Sally Clark’s unique and unorthodox look at the Joan of Arc legend has called to me for a very long time,” states Reh. “This multi-layered play questions the very nature of history: how and by whom it is relayed and manipulated. It deals in power, mystery, a yearning to believe and the very nature of theatre itself. Layers behind layers are torn away in a search for the elusive “truth.” Who is a saint? and who is a monster?”
This play contains sexual themes and occasional strong language.
Performances for Jehanne of the Witches will be held in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Brock University on February 13, 14, and 15, 2014 at 7:30 p.m., with a matinée performance on February 14 at 1 p.m. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and students, $12 for groups, and $5 for the eyeGo high school ticket program. Available from the Centre for the Arts Box Office: 905-688-5550 x3257 or visit: http://arts.brocku.ca/ For more information about this production and the Department of Dramatic Arts visit: brocku.ca/miwsfpa/dramaticarts.
Productions from the Department of Dramatic Arts are an integral part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts’ mandate to build connections between the community and the breadth of talent and creativity at Brock University.
If you wish to experience the legend of Joan of Arc through the media of classic film and live choral performance, then you won’t want to miss Chorus Niagara’s CN CINEMA – The Passion of Joan of Arc, taking place on February 28 and March 1 at 7:30 p.m., held at St. Thomas Anglican Church in St. Catharines. Tickets can be purchased through the Centre for the Arts Box Office (purchase information is listed above).
Media call: Thursday, February 6, 2014 at 6 p.m., held in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Brock University
For interviews please contact:
Marie Balsom, Communications
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
T: 905.688.5550, x4765| E: mbalsom@brocku.ca | W: brocku.ca/finearts
dramatic arts, jehanne of the witches, media release, plays
Categories: Media Releases