Articles by author: Brock University

  • Brock welcomes more community partners to downtown project

    Artist's rendering of the Marilyn I. Walker School for the Fine and Performing Arts

    An artist’s rendering of the Marilyn I. Walker School for the Fine and Performing Arts showing the new theatre for the Department of Dramatic Arts.

    (Source: The Brock News)

    As Brock University prepares to select a contractor for its new arts school in central St. Catharines, community members are coming forward to financially back a project many people see as being a crucial bridge to future economic and cultural health.

    This summer, contractors will be invited to bid on the major job of renovating and expanding the old Canada Hair Cloth textile mill into the new home for Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. Work is to begin this fall.

    Besides relocating 500 students, faculty and staff into the downtown, the new school will also complement and share some facilities with a public Performing Arts Centre being built by the City of St. Catharines on an adjacent lot. Both projects are scheduled for completion in 2014.

    Brock’s school has a construction budget of $39.6 million. The Ontario government has given $26.1 million to the project, and the University is continuing efforts to raise more than $10-million to pay its share.

    Important supporters of the Brock project were revealed today when it was announced that three donors with strong ties to the community and Brock University are making gifts totaling more than a quarter-million dollars.

    Peter and Janet Partridge are giving $100,000 to the project. Art and Val Fleming have also committed $100,000. And the St. Catharines law firm of Lancaster Brooks & Welch is donating $75,000 to the new school.

    Peter Partridge, Vice President and Portfolio Manager with RBC Dominion Securities and a past member of Brock’s Board of Trustees, said their gift is a way of giving back to the community.

    “To have a cultural campus strategically positioned in the heart of the downtown is very important,” he said. “This is going to bring a whole new level of artistic experience not only to young performers but to an audience here in Niagara.”

    The Flemings are also eager to see the Walker School flourish.

    “We really believe in Brock,” said Val, a Brock graduate and past member of the Board of Trustees. “We especially want the Walker project to succeed. It’s a wonderful opportunity, and we believe the downtown will definitely be rejuvenated because of it.”

    At the offices of Lancaster Brooks Welch, senior partner Dave Edwards said the law firm believes the benefits of the new school will be more than economic.

    “This will change the culture of the city centre for the better by bringing students into the downtown during normal working hours,” said Edwards, a former member and chair of the Brock Board of Trustees. “It will provide an integration that’s entirely different compared to when they’re only downtown at nighttime.

    “It makes you think of Kingston, and how students there are often in the downtown during the day. This will help our restaurants, stores, coffee shops, and bring a new vibrancy to the downtown throughout the day.”

    Douglas Kneale, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Brock and a member of the committee overseeing the University’s downtown project, said the support is very heartening and much-needed.

    “The truth is, we really are all in this together, this strengthening of the community,” said Kneale. “And when you have partners like these marvelous people, it is this kind of support that helps make these dreams come true for everybody.”

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    Categories: In the Media, News

  • Graduates of the Department of Dramatic Arts are on the boards again and this time they are playing IN THE SOIL.

    clockmaker-poster-three-220w

    The Clockmaker by Stephen Massicotte

    April 27 @ 8:00pm and April 28 @ 2:00pm
    Sullivan Mahoney  Courthouse Theatre 101 King Street,  St Catharines

    Tickets: $10 at the door
    Festival pass: $25 through inthesoil.on.ca

    Nathan Tanner MacDonald – Director
    Geoffrey Heaney – Performer
    Dylan Mawson – Performer
    Michael Pearson – Performer
    Caitlin Popek – Performer
    Kate Hardy – Stage Manager
    Finn Archinuk – Designer

    Nathan Tanner Mac Donald – a resident of the St Catharines and recent graduate of the Department of Dramatic Arts – has brought together a company of DART students to present The Clockmaker by Stephen Massicotte.  A metaphysical rollercoaster, The Clockmaker may seem like little more than a love story set inside a murder-mystery-to-be, but it just might end up exposing the very truth of existence itself. The show will be performed April 27 @ 8:00pm and April 28 @ 2:00pm at the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre in downtown St Catharines.

    Nathan recently performed in the 2011 STRUTT wearable art show and this past summer he wrote and directed Circus, which played at Factory Theatre in the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival. Nathan’s company includes graduates and Geoffrey Heaney, Dylan Mawson, Michael Pearson, Caitlin Popek as Performers, current student Kate Hardy as Stage Manager and graduate Finn Archinuk as the Designer.

    In the Soil Arts Festival brings Niagara artists from a range of disciplines together to provide unique audience experiences. The festival nurtures the creation of new work, showcases talent, encourages innovation, offers learning opportunities for youth and provides intimate and uncommon platforms for audiences to experience work by contemporary performing and literary artists, musicians and media artists. In the Soil is Niagara’s homegrown arts festival and is working to make a Niagara that is self-determining and culturally distinct.

    for more information see the IN THE SOIL website.

    Break-a-leg, Nathan, Caitlin, Dylan, Finn, Geoffrey, Kate and Michael!

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    Categories: Alumni, Current Students, Events, News

  • Spring Course opportunity in Dance Education

    Looking for a unique course opportunity this Spring?

    Register for PEKN 2P06, running April 30th to June 1st , Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 to 13:30.  Registration opens for non-PEKN majors after April 5th.

    PEKN 2P06
    Dance Education
    Introduction to dance as an art form through making, performing and appreciating dance. Emphasis on the creative process, dance skills and vocabulary through exploration of dance concepts and observational skills.
    Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
    Restriction: open to BPhEd, BPhEd (Honours)/BEd (Intermediate/Senior), BPhEd (Honours)/BEd (Junior/Intermediate) until date specified in Registration guide. After that date available to BKin and BSc (Kin) majors until date specified in Registration guide. Students must have a minimum of 4.0 overall credits.
    Prerequisite(s): PEKN 1P90 and 1P93 or permission of the instructor.
    Note: students will be expected to pay the cost of a ticket to a dance performance on campus. Modes of instruction/evaluation will normally include vigorous physical activity.

    The foundation of this course is Laban’s Movement Principles coupled with Valerie Preston-Dunlop.  There will not be a critique based on a live performance in the spring session.  To view videos from past sessions of the course please go to the IRC and review the collection on reserve under PEKN 2P06.

    For more information contact Janet Westbury at jwestbury@brocku.ca

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, News, STAC Courses

  • Work to begin on Brock’s downtown arts school

    The new home of the Marilyn I Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

    After more than a year of planning and design, construction will soon begin at the future home of Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in a vacant factory in downtown St. Catharines.

    Following a tendering process, a contract has been awarded to JMX Environmental Inc. to conduct preliminary work this spring at the site of the former Canada Hair Cloth textile mill at 198 St. Paul Street.

    This “Early Works” phase involves clearing interior space and abatement of hazardous materials within the building. Work should begin in late March and take about three months to complete.

    Crews will remove some interior non-load-bearing walls and redundant services, and deal with hazardous materials that are common in older buildings. Asbestos floor and ceiling tiles will be removed, as will asbestos insulation on water pipes. Workers will also remove or seal surfaces containing lead-based or chromium-based paints. All environmental abatement work must pass inspections and meet regulatory requirements.

    The Walker School will put about 500 students, faculty and staff into the city’s downtown when the facility relocates from the main Brock campus in 2014. It is part of a collaboration that includes a new Performing Arts Centre being built on adjacent land by the City of St. Catharines.

    from University Marketing & Communications
    March 20, 2012

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    Categories: Announcements, News

  • Industrial Fabric2: Festival of the Arts

    Brock University
    Media Release
    St. Catharines, ON
    March 1, 2012

    Industrial Fabric2: Festival of the Arts
    Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
    March to April 2012

    The second Festival of the Arts showcasing the remarkable talents of students enrolled in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts will be held March to April 2012. Industrial Fabric2 signals that time of year when students who have been preparing individually and collectively will bring their in-class, independent or studio projects to fruition. In the spirit of openness and mutual generosity, we invite you to celebrate their achievements on stage, in studios and galleries, and at regional venues.

    As part of the culminating activities that signal the end of the academic year Industrial Fabric2 offers a dynamic range of creative events open to the University and community at large from theatre to musical performances to art exhibitions. Enjoy original student-written and performed plays produced as part of the Department of Dramatic Arts’ Gimme 3 or One Acts Festival, and a production written and produced by fourth-year students called Shadows of a Toymaker; a rich selection of concerts from the Department of Music including its Tuesday Music@Noon series, Student Recitals, the ENCORE! Professional Concert Series, the VIVA VOCE! Choral Series, and the University Wind Ensemble; exhibitions from the students of the Department of Visual Arts reflecting their achievements in photography, drawing, book making, and intermedia as well as the annual juried show, and a fourth-year honours exhibition hosted by Rodman Hall Art Centre. This year we are honoured by the participation of Donna Szoke, Visiting Artist, whose video installation and all watched over by machines of loving grace will be installed at CRAM Gallery.

    “Industrial Fabric2 represents the creative thread that binds students in common effort, to perfect and bring their creativity to audiences both large and small, on and off campus. It promises to deliver over the course of two months a rich plethora of collective and individual talent mentored under the guise of our tremendous faculty and staff. This continues to be a testimony to the strength of our academic programs – where else can one find such brilliant vitality and collaboration that manifests itself from year to year with such vision, energy and dedication?” states Derek Knight, Director of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

    The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, part of the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University, is comprised of the Departments of Dramatic Arts (DART), Music (MUSI), and Visual Arts (VISA), and the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (cSTAC).

    All are welcome.  Click here for a calendar of events.

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    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, Media Releases, News

  • Looking for a unique Spring/Summer course? sign-up for Introduction to Physical Theatre

    Theatre Beyond Words - object-based theatre and full-body mask

    Theatre Beyond Words – object-based theatre and full-body mask

    Looking for a unique Spring/Summer course? sign-up for a three week-long intensive Introduction to Physical Theatre taught by the resident theatre company of Brock University, Theatre Beyond Words, during the Spring session of 2012.

    DART 2F04: Physical Theatre – Education through Collective Creation
    Students will explore a wide range of physical theatre styles (mask, mime, pantomime, graphics, theatrical clown, and commedia dell’arte) by recreating a series of scenes from professional repertoire using masks, puppets, costumes and sets from international touring theatre ensemble and Brock Resident Theatre Company, Theatre Beyond Words. This is a 3-week intensive, full-credit course, running 6 hours per day, 5 days per week. There will be a final performance for invited friends, family and staff at the end of the 3 three weeks. As this is a practicum course, attendance at all classes is mandatory.

    More information about this full-credit course may be found here. Enrollment is limited to 20 students. Don’t delay!
    Applicants without previous theatre training at Brock University may enrol with permission of the instructor.

    for more information contact dramatic.arts@brocku.ca

     

     

    Here are some examples of the masks and object-based theatre used by Theatre Beyond Words:

    dart_2f04_composite_72

    And here’s a trailer for their current show on tour, created and performed by Brock students:

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Future Students, News, STAC Courses

  • Always loved the musical RENT!? Opening February 2nd for four performances only.

    rent-thAlways loved the musical RENT!?  Brock Musical Theatre’s finest performers presented a fun-filled show that opened February 2nd for four performances only.

    RENT showcased the performing and producing talents of students in the Department of Dramatic Arts and the entire University community. The show was directed by Jessi Robinson with musical direction by Krystyna MacKay and choreography by Sarah Waller.  Music was performed by local band Xprime.

    Brock Musical Theatre is a university club with 19 cast members, as well as numerous production and volunteer crew members from several academic programs. BMT has been presenting music theatre to the Brock University community since 2005, showcasing such popular shows as Jesus Christ SuperstarFootloose, and Urinetown. Brock Musical Theatre president Karyn Lorence thanks the Brock University Student Union for their support of this production and BMT.

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, News

  • A New Business Incubator for students by students

    Blueprint website

    Brock students’ union creates “Blueprint” for student success

    The Brock University Students’ Union (BUSU) today unveiled a new initiative to help student entrepreneurs turn their ideas into successful businesses.

    The BUSU Blueprint Business Incubator is a pilot project by BUSU designed to provide qualifying students with financial help and expertise in developing new enterprises.

    Applications are now being accepted for the program. All Brock students with exciting and unique business ideas are encouraged to apply.

    “As an incubator pilot program designed to further the growth of student entrepreneurs, I encourage all undergraduate students with a business idea to submit an application and witness their ideas develop and become successful,” says Daud Grewal, President of BUSU.

    “We are pleased to see our students’ union encourage and develop the entrepreneurial talents of our students,” says Jack Lightstone, President, Brock University. “We applaud efforts to incubate student-driven enterprises and turn innovative ideas into sustainable business opportunities within our region.”

    Students who submit their business proposals to the Blueprint initiative will have the opportunity to present their business ideas to, and have them critiqued and evaluated by, professional partners from Brock University, BUSU and the Niagara community.

    A team of experienced business experts will assess the applications. They will also work with students to help them present their ideas to the Blueprint Advisory Council. Successful applicants will receive business mentoring and up to $2,000 in funding.

    Blueprint is a pilot program tailored to undergraduate students at Brock. If a team of individuals wishes to submit an application, at least 50 per cent of a team must be undergraduate students studying at the University.

    To submit your ideas to BUSU’s Blueprint pilot program: www.busu.net/blueprint

    The deadline for submissions is end of day on Jan. 12, 2012.

    For more information on the BUSU Blueprint Business Incubator Pilot Program, please contact Arielle Stockdale, Research and Policy Manager (astockdale@busu.net)

    For information on becoming a partner of the BUSU Blueprint Business Incubator Pilot Program, contact Daud Grewal, President (president@busu.net)

    For media related inquiries, contact Chris Green, Manager, Marketing and Communications (cgreen@busu.net)

    The Brock University Students’ Union was established in 1970, and is a not-for-profit student organization, representing approximately 18,000 undergraduate students.

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    Categories: Current Students, News

  • Another reason to learn with us: Brock receives above-average marks in NSSE

    Brock University reports that the latest National Survey of Student Engagement results show senior-year undergraduates at the institution scored the university higher than both the Ontario and Canadian averages on benchmarks of active and collaborative learning, level of academic challenge, supportive campus environment, and student-faculty interaction. Brock students also exceeded provincial and national averages when asked “How would you evaluate your entire education experience at this institution?” and “If you could start over again, would you go to the same institution?” See more in the Brock News article.

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    Categories: Current Students, Future Students, News

  • General Brock’s October Soiree for 2011 a brilliant success!

    Students from the Department of Dramatic Arts along with their colleagues in the Departments of Music and Visual Arts entertained almost 350 guests and dignitaries in period costume at the General Brock’s October Soiree, held Saturday October 15, 2011.  More than $110,000 was raised, fifty percent of which after costs will accrue to scholarships in support of students in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

    Douglas Kneale, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, remarked “To judge from the comments of guests during the evening, it was universally acknowledged as the best Soiree yet, with a high degree of talent and professionalism in our re-enactors, emcee Derek Ewert, and all the singers and dancers.”

    See the Cogeco TV news item which includes on-camera interviews with several Brock spokespeople.

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    Categories: Events