Current Students

Imagined Urban Gardens opens at Rodman Hall Art Centre

Friday, January 31, 2020 | By dvivian

Imagined Urban Gardens: Student Exhibition
Jan. 30 – March 1, 2020

download the poster

Rodman Hall Art Centre
109 St. Paul Crescent, St. Catharines, ON

Responding to the explorations of urban architecture and its materials in Teresa Carlesimo and Michael DiRisio: more light than heat (on exhibition at the Rodman Hall Art Centre), Imagined Urban Gardens also reflects on today’s global warming and how we could live in the future.

We dream of green spaces and pleasantly warm cities.
Students in Visual Arts and Studies in Arts and Culture envision in text and image what could be in a livable world.

See the YourTV Niagara video spotlight about this exhibition, featuring interviews with the artists and curators.

Read the article by Bart Gazzola in The Sound STC.

Tags: Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, Imagined Urban Gardens, RHAC, Rodman Hall, Visual Arts
Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised
Creative Book Covers!

Friday, November 22, 2019 | By dvivian

Book design plays an important role in making its content attractive. Participants of a recent Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture workshop conducted by artist Candace Couse show their creations of unique book covers in the display window of The Write Bookshop, 285 St. Paul’s Street, until 2 December 2019.

Tags: book, Couse, covers, workshop
Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, News, Uncategorised
New art exhibition the product of student collaboration

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 | By Brock University

Quality Family Time (and Space), a piece by Brock alumna Emily Andrews (BA ’11), is part of the new Erasures exhibit that will run from April 2 to 27 in the VISA Art Gallery and Student Exhibition Space at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. An opening reception is set for Thursday, April 4 from 5 to 8 p.m.

(From The Brock News, March 27, 2019 | By: Jaquelyn Bezaire)

While they’re known for correcting errors, erasures are signs of progress and an expanding imagination.

Students in Brock’s Visual Arts (VISA) and Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC) programs will explore this theme in a new collaborative art exhibit on view from Tuesday, April 2 to Saturday, April 27.

The exhibit, Erasures, will be open to the public in the VISA Art Gallery and Student Exhibition Space at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) in downtown St. Catharines.

An opening reception will be held in the gallery on Thursday, April 4, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Led by Shawn Serfas, Associate Professor of Visual Arts, and Catherine Parayre, Director of the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, students enrolled in VISA 4P03/4P04 and STAC 3P01 worked together to create a show that features paintings and text that thematize different types of erasures.

The work ranges from the exploration of scenes lacking important elements, simplified adaptations of existing artworks and abstracted forms of figurative objects.

Short written statements commenting on well-known recent artworks accompany the paintings to provide further context.

Serfas and Parayre frequently bring students from different backgrounds together to collaborate on creative endeavours.

“It has been an enriching learning experience, for both the students and the instructors,” Parayre said of working with the students on Erasures.

The exhibition evokes transformations and process, an important theme in both Serfas’ senior studio courses and Parayre’s Media Transformations in the Creative Arts course.

Whether in visual expressions or in texts, Parayre added, erasures are invitations to scrutinize, read and interpret, which is exactly what the public is encouraged to do at the upcoming exhibition.

Erasures runs from April 2 to 27 in the VISA Art Gallery and Student Exhibition Space at the MIWSFPA in downtown St. Catharines. The gallery is open to the public Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m.

Tags: Catherine Parayre, Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, Department of Visual Arts, Erasures, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, MIWSFPA, Shawn Serfas
Categories: Current Students, Events, News
Community voices expressed through Brock art exhibitions

Friday, December 07, 2018 | By Brock University

Curt Richard, a student in VISA 3M90, surveys the exhibition that he and 52 other students have completed over the course of the semester. Manifestos in a Room is a collaboration between students in French, Visual Arts, and Studies in Art and Culture. It will be on display at Rodman Hall Art Centre until Dec. 30.

(From The Brock News, Friday, Dec. 7, 2018 | By: Alison Innes)

Two Brock art exhibitions now on display are working to celebrate and amplify community voices.

Manifestos in a Room and Sauti za Afrika/African Voices/Voix Africaines were each created to engage with Northern Oracle, an exhibition by Heather Hart currently being featured at Rodman Hall Art Centre.

Through the exhibition, which includes an indoor rooftop installation, Hart asks visitors what they want to say to the world and advises them to shout it from the rooftop.

Reflecting on Northern Oracle, 53 students in Visual Arts, Studies in Arts and Culture, and French came together to create their own statements, whether poetic, absurd or political. The expressions — in both English and French — were used to create Manifestos in a Room, on display in Rodman Hall’s Studio Gallery.

Students worked throughout the fall semester to bring the exhibition, curated by Associate Professor Catherine Parayre and instructor Donna Akrey, to life.

Jean Ntakirutimana, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, demonstrates the talking drum used to send messages over long distances in Cameroon. With careful training, a person could use the different tones produced by the drum to send messages. The drum is just one of the items on display in Sauti za Afrika/ African Voices/ Voix Africaines, an exhibition celebrating voices of Niagara’s African diaspora community.

“It really helps to collaborate in one’s art practice,” said Akrey, whose art students were involved in the project.

“We also did an assembly line production to create some of the work, which was fun and rewarding. I was impressed with how the 3M90 students embraced this project and made sense of it for the viewing public.”

For the participating French students, the exhibition was a “great opportunity to practice writing constraints for fun,” said Parayre. “Students produced facetious manifestos, writing eloquently on a light-hearted topic. It allowed all of us to put our creative forces together and share a common space.”

The exhibition includes a visual component as well as a three-minute audio track created by the students.

Over at Brock’s main campus, the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (MLLC) is hosting Sauti za Afrika/African Voices/Voix Africaines, an exhibition meant to amplify the voices of the African diaspora in Niagara. Featuring 12 different languages, the exhibition combines modern writing with ancient traditions of communication.

The display features instruments and figurines used for communication, such as a conch shell, similar to the one used to call for revolution in Haiti, and miniature replicas of Burundi drums used by royalty to communicate with their people.

Also included is an intricately carved cow horn used to call people to come and hear the chief speak in certain regions of Africa, said Department Chair and Associate Professor Jean Ntakirutimana.

Ntakirutimana worked with members of Niagara’s African diaspora and Sofifran (Solidarité des femmes et familles immigrantes francophones du Niagara) to collect people’s hopes, dreams and concerns to include in the display. Members have also loaned their personal objects for the exhibition.

The display is a precursor to an event by the same name coming up in February. Co-hosted by Sofifran, MLLC and Studies in Arts and Culture, the event will be held at Rodman Hall and will also engage with Northern Oracle.

Sauti za Afrika/African Voices/Voix Africaines is a part of the Museum in the Hallway project, curated by Parayre. Located in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (Mackenzie Chown A-block), the project features rotating monthly displays.

Both African Voices and Manifestos in A Room will be on display until the end of December. Northern Oracle will be at Rodman Hall until March 3.

Tags: Catherine Parayre, Department of Visual Arts, Humanities, Jean Ntakirutimana, modern languages literatures and cultures, Rodman Hall Art Centre, studies in arts and culture
Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News
Public French-language tour to be held at Rodman Hall

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 | By Brock University

Associate Professor Peter Vietgen and teacher candidates from Brock University’s Faculty of Education explore the Northern Oracle exhibition by Heather Hart at Rodman Hall Art Centre.

(From The Brock News, Wednesday November 14)

A public tour will lead French-speaking art enthusiasts through the exhibitions of Rodman Hall Art Centre on Saturday, Nov. 17.

Catherine Parayre, Associate Professor in Brock’s Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and Director of the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, will lead the French-language tour and related discussion while moving through the historic St. Catharines building.

The event, Maisons de l’art: Conversations en français et visite des expositions, begins at 2 p.m.

Current Rodman Hall exhibitions include Up Close and In Motion: Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, curated by Emma German, and Northern Oracle by artist Heather Hart.

Northern Oracle features a rooftop installation rising from the gallery floor and mixed media drawings. The work considers ideas of Black history, access to home ownership and the significance of having a place to call home. Gallery visitors are invited to interact with the installation by accessing the rooftop and its floor-level attic space.

Tags: Humanities, Literatures and Cultures, Modern Languages, Rodman Hall Art Centre, studies in arts and culture
Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News
Orientation activities planned for first-year STAC Students

Tuesday, August 28, 2018 | By Brock University

As a new student in the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, you are invited to The New Student Welcome and Academic Orientation as your official welcome to Brock University on September 4! The orientation begins at 8 a.m. in the Ian Beddis Gym, where you’ll hear from President Gervan Fearon and enjoy an inspirational keynote to begin your day and kick-start your term. Afterwards, you are welcome to connect with your faculty and upper year student mentors to receive important information about academic supports and resources. Then, go check out the vendor and welcome fair, take a campus tour and to locate your classes, and get an orientation to the Brock Library. * Don’t forget to register for this orientation at Experience BU.

You are invited to then attend the Faculty of Humanities orientation session, beginning at 10:00 a.m. in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre on Brock’s main campus.

FIRST-YEAR MIWSFPA MIXER AND LUNCH
OPEN TO STUDENTS IN ALL DEPARTMENTS AT THE MIWSFPA

SEPTEMBER 4

12 TO 1:30 P.M.

MIWSFPA LOBBY

DOWNTOWN ST. CATHARINES

15 ARTISTS’ COMMON

There will also be a special orientation planned for STAC students specifically, taking place that same day:

STAC ORIENTATION

Sept. 4: 2 to 6 p.m.
Marilyn I Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Room 334
15 Artists’ Common

Tags: Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, FIRST YEAR STUDENTS, ORIENTATION, STAC
Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Events, News
Students exhibit at Die Bäckerei in Innsbruck, Austria UPDATED

Wednesday, May 09, 2018 | By dvivian
We are very excited to announce an exhibition by the students of the MIWSFPA in Innsbruck, Austria!

see photographs from the exhibition, below.

Geographies of Process

presented at …

Die Baeckerei

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
—

Geographien als Prozess

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
Tags: arts and culture, Austria, Catherine Parayre, Die Baeckerei, Exhibition, French Studies, Geographien als Prozess, Geographies of Process, Innsbruck, Shawn Serfas, Visual Arts
Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News, STAC Courses
New for 2018: the Marilyn I. Walker Textile Art Award

Monday, May 07, 2018 | By dvivian

Beginning in 2018 the Executive of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts will be awarding the Marilyn I. Walker Textile Art Award.

This award will be made to an undergraduate student who is graduating from the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), Brock University; who is awarded, by vote of the Executive Committee of the MIWSPFA, the top prize for a piece of textile art produced and submitted by said student.

As the award must be granted to a student for the purposes of his or her continuing education and or development, students must also submit an expression of their intention to continue this education and or development.

For the purposes of this award, textile art is defined as a work of art that utilizes any and all forms of textiles, either natural or man-made, and in any form of original artistic expression.

For the purposes of this award, continuing education or development is defined as any form of post graduate education and development which the student may wish to pursue whether at a college, university, by way of apprenticeship at a technical institute or at a research facility.

For more information about Marilyn I. Walker see: brocku.ca/miwsfpa/marilyn-i-walker

We thank Marilyn I. Walker and her estate for the legacy of her generosity.

See the article about the first recipient of the new award, Victoria Reid (Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Studio Art, with First-Class Standing, 2018).

Tags: award, Marilyn I. Walker, Marilyn I. Walker Textile Art Award, textile art
Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Future Students, News
Expressions of Today / Expressions d’aujourd’hui

Saturday, February 17, 2018 | By dvivian

Art by Mat Vizbulis.

Students in Studies in Arts and Culture as well as in French Studies at Brock University explore contemporary expressions in art and literature and create unusual stories mixing narrative and art-making. Their starting point is a graffiti artwork by artist Mat Vizbulis.

Des étudiants en Etudes en français et en Studies in Arts and Culture à l’Université Brock explorent des expressions contemporaines dans l’art et la littérature, et construisent des histoires inhabituelles mélangeant narration et création d’art. Leur point de départ est un graffiti de l’artiste Mat Vizbulis.

Exhibition: Saturday Mar. 3 to Friday Mar. 16 / samedi 3 mars à vendredi 16 mars

Gallery hours: Wednesday 10-5, Thursday 12-9, Friday 12-9, and Saturday 12-5 / mercredi 10-5, jeudi 12-9, vendredi 12-9, et samedi 12-5

Opening Reception: Thursday Mar. 8 from 6-8 pm / jeudi 8 mars 6h-8h en soirée

Location: Niagara Artists Centre (NAC)

354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, ON

This is free community event!

Tags: French Studies, graffiti, Mat Vizbulis, NAC, Niagara Artists Centre, studies in arts and culture
Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors
Colour Constructs at Rodman Hall/Constructions en couleurs à Rodman Hall

Monday, November 20, 2017 | By dtemprile

Pictured is a view of the exhibition Material Girls at Rodman Hall Art Centre. (source: RHAC)

In fall 2017, Rodman Hall invites visitors to experience the exhibition Material Girls, which brings together Canadian and international female artists from across artistic disciplines and cultural backgrounds. Giving particular attention to the colourfulness and jubilance of this exhibition, in Colour Constructs, students in Visual Arts, Studies in Arts and Culture, and French Studies explore the materiality of colours in their own diverse ways. Student works are complemented by graffiti art by Niagara-based artist Mat Vizbulis, a classroom guest during the semester. Curators Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas. /

A l’automne 2017, Rodman Hall invite ses visiteurs à découvrir l’exposition Material Girls, qui regroupe des artistes femmes du Canada et d’ailleurs, dont les pratiques artistiques et l’environnement culturel diffèrent. En s’inspirant des couleurs et de la gaieté de cette exposition, des étudiants-e-s en Arts visuels, Arts et cultures et Etudes en français explorent dans Constructions en couleurs la matérialité des coloris par le biais d’approches variées. Les graffitis de l’artiste Mat Vizbulis, établi dans la région du Niagara, complètent les oeuvres des étudiant-e-s. Commissaires: Catherine Parayre et Shawn Serfas.

Article from the Brock News: Bilingual exhibition to shed light on Material Girls
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017 | by Darien Temprile

A new Rodman Hall exhibition aims to help visitors experience Material Girls in a new way.

Geo, a piece created by third-year Visual Arts student Lilliana Pagliaro, will be featured in the Colour Constructs/Constructions en couleurs exhibition opening at Rodman Hall Thursday, Nov. 30.

Colour Constructs/Constructions en couleurs, opening at the downtown St. Catharines art centre Thursday, Nov. 30, features works by students in Brock’s Visual Arts (VISA), Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC) and French Studies (FREN) programs.

The exhibition, curated by Brock Professors Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas, initiates a sophisticated dialogue with Material Girls, an ongoing exhibition that opened at Rodman Hall Sept. 14.

Material Girls is a large-scale group exhibition of work by Canadian and international emerging, mid-career and senior female artists from different artistic disciplines and cultures. Curated by a team from the Dunlop Art Gallery, a unit of the Regina Public Library, it explores material process and notions of excess as they relate to the feminized body, gendered space and capitalist desire.

For Colour Constructs, students reacted to words, colours and visuals directly related to Material Girls.

STAC students contributed nine texts based on words and expressions found in the curatorial statement of Material Girls; FREN students provided eight written fragments in French, describing colours from Material Girls; and VISA students, in their own paintings, reference the vividness of artwork presented in Material Girls.

In addition to the work of students, the exhibition will include a new large commission by local graffiti artist Mat Vizbulis, who describes his work as ‘genre graffuturism.’

“As the images unfold in layers, we understand that it is truly something unexplainable,” he said. “We are then daring to define things.”

Earlier this year, Vizbulis led Brock students in experiential learning about graffiti and its role in both high art and popular culture.

The opening reception of Colour Constructs/Constructions en couleurs takes place Thursday, Nov. 30 at 5 p.m. at Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres. The exhibition will continue until March 4.

Material Girls continues at Rodman Hall until Dec. 30.

Admission to Rodman Hall Art Centre is free, although donations are accepted. For more information in French or English, visit ExperienceBU.

UPDATE:

French student Amandine Faivre, right,
speaks about her poetry with French Professor Renee-Claude Breitenstein at the opening of Colour Constructs Thursday, Nov. 30. Curated by Professors Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas, the exhibition is a collaboration by students in Studies in Arts and Culture, Visual Arts and French Studies. Student artwork is complemented by work by local graffiti artist Mat Vizbulis, who worked with STAC and VISA students over the course of the semester. Colour Constructs is on at Rodman Hall Art Centre until March 4.
Exhibition: Thursday Nov. 30, 2017 – Sunday Mar. 4, 2018

Opening Reception: Thursday Nov. 30, 2017 at 5:00pm

GALLERY HOURS:
Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday: 10 am to 5 pm
Thursday: 10 am to 9 pm
Saturday & Sunday: 12 pm to 5 pm
Closed Mondays, statutory and University holidays

Free community event however donations accepted (suggested $5).

Tags: Brock University, Catherine Parayre, downtown St. Catharines, Exhibition, French, French Studies, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Material Girls, MIWSFPA, Rodman Hall, Rodman Hall Art Centre, Shawn Serfas, STAC, visa, Visual Arts
Categories: Current Students, Events