In the Media

  • Public invited to explore Brock’s downtown arts school Saturday

    Thursday, August 18, 2022 | By

    A grey and red building sits against a clear, blue sky with green grass surrounding it. The building has white text on it on a red background reading ‘Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University.’ A street sign reading ‘Artists’ Common’ sits in the foreground.

    Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

    Originally published in The Brock News | TUESDAY, AUG. 18, 2022 | by

    The Niagara community will have the chance to explore Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) this weekend while learning about the building’s past and present.

    The downtown St. Catharines facility, which houses Brock’s Departments of Dramatic Arts, Music and Visual Arts as well as the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC), will host a series of guided tours as part of Doors Open St. Catharines on Saturday, Aug. 20. Tours will take place at 10 and 11:30 a.m., and 1 and 2:30 p.m., with no registration required.

    Adapted from the historic Canada Hair Cloth Building, the MIWSFPA is a state-of-the-art learning facility that acts as a creative cultural hub for St. Catharines and surrounding areas.

    As part of this weekend’s event, STAC will have a collection of publications on display by the Small Walker Press (SWP). SWP publishes collaborative work that brings together authors and artists from the Niagara region as well as from Canadian or international contexts.

    The works explore all disciplines and creative practices taught and researched at the MIWSFPA (arts and culture, visual arts, music and dramatic arts) as well as creative writing. For more information about the SWP and publications available at Doors Open St. Catharines, please visit the STAC website.

    A full list of places participating in Doors Open St. Catharines is available on the event’s website.

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

  • Spring and Summer learning at the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture

    Sunday, May 01, 2022 | By

    The Centre for Studies in Arts in Culture (STAC) is excited to welcome students for the Spring and Summer sessions of 2022.

    THE CULTURE OF NOISE: STAC 1P99

    Offered annually as a Spring/Summer course by STAC at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), STAC 1P99 explores the role of noise in music, art and social spaces. Students explore discursive issues concerning the value of sound studies. This is an online asynchronous course taught this year by Fan Wu, a sound poet who collaborates with Toronto musicians Prince Nifty, Vibrant Matter, and other sound artists.  Fan is based in Toronto and Kingston and is the cofounder of the Toronto Experimental Translation Collective.

    In May 2021 the course was taught by Ryan Bruce, ethnomusicologist, jazz historian and saxophonist. Learn more about the previous offering of the course and listen to some of the students’ projects. In previous years the course has also been taught by Marlie Centawer, a photographer, artist, writer, musician, and archivist now based in the UK.

    SPORTS IN ARTS AND CULTURE: STAC 3V91

    From paintings of the Olympiads in Antiquity, to the photography of today’s sports events, through to the history of popular street games in Canadian art, music, festivals and opening ceremonies at the games, aesthetic gymnastics and athletic performances. Sports has a long, rich cultural tradition.

    Learn about sports, arts and culture during the historic 2022 Canada Summer Games hosted at Brock University in Niagara. An Interdisciplinary approach to the representation of sports and sport events in the arts, the course has an emphasis on Canadian production. This is an online asynchronous course taught by Andrew Tye, a celebrated Niagara educator and creator of the course. The course runs from July through August.

    The courses can be found on the university timetable. For more information, please contact: stac@brocku.ca

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  • An Introduction to the Small Walker Press

    Saturday, March 26, 2022 | By


    Watch this brief introduction and learn more about small press publishing
    at the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture.

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  • Virtual Launch of ‘Savoirs littéraires et arts narratifs autochtones’: 8 December 2021, 7 pm

    Monday, December 06, 2021 | By

    Virtual Launch of ‘Savoirs littéraires et arts narratifs autochtones’ in Voix plurielles (UQAM/10th First Nations Book Fair, Quebec)

    To celebrate the publication of a series of articles on Indigenous narrative arts and literary practices in the 18.2 issue of Brock-based academic journal Voix plurielles, the Editors of ‘Savoirs littéraires et arts narratifs autochtones’ welcome their authors during a virtual Launch on 8 December 2021 at 7 pm. Sponsored by the University of Quebec in Montreal, this free event is part of the ‘Echo’ program at the 10th First Nations Book Fair in Wendake, Quebec. The event is in French.

    Registration is required: https://umontreal.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtf-qvrzIqGNyNLEdpBFCjyO0qDe9c21s4
    Veuillez vous inscrire avant la tenue de l’événement en cliquant sur le lien suivant : https://umontreal.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtf-qvrzIqGNyNLEdpBFCjyO0qDe9c21s4
    —
    Voix plurielles is the journal of l’Association des Professeur-e-s de Français des Universités et Collèges Canadiens. It includes articles, reports, articles of research in the literary arts, linguistics, matters cultural and pedagogical. The authors are, or become, members of l’Association des Professeur-e-s de Français des Universités et Collèges Canadiens. The journal is normally published the 1st of September and the 31st of May. Whenever possible, theamatic issues will alternate with issues of general interest.

    The journal is edited by Professor Catherine Parayre of the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture and the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures.

    Voix plurielles est la revue de l’Association des Professeur-e-s de Français des Universités et Collèges Canadiens. Elle publie des articles, des comptes-rendus et des notes de recherche de nature littéraire, linguistique, culturelle et pédagogique. Les auteurs publiés sont ou deviennent membres de l’Association des Professeur-e-s de Français des Universités et Collèges Canadiens. La revue est normalement publiée le 1er septembre et le 31 mai. Dans la mesure du possible, les numéros thématiques alternent avec les numéros d’intérêt général.
    —
    Voix plurielles 18.2 (2021) / https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/voixplurielles
    Editorial / Catherine Parayre

    DOSSIERS
    Savoirs littéraires et arts narratifs autochtones (Dir. Isabella Huberman, Joëlle Papillon et Isabelle St-Amand)
    -Savoirs littéraires et arts narratifs autochtones. Introduction / Isabella Huberman, Joëlle Papillon et Isabelle St-Amand
    -« Il ne faut pas penser que les choses changent toutes seules ». L’institutionnalisation de la littérature autochtone selon Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui /Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui et Joëlle Papillon
    -La blanchité sous la loupe des écrivains autochtones / Corrie Scott
    -L’engagement poétique et politique de Samian / Johanne Melançon
    -« I was the low girl on the totem pole » : Restituer Geniesh : An Indian Girlhood de Jane (Willis) Pachano à l’histoire des littératures autochtones au Québec / Marie-Eve Bradette
    -Performer la communauté, une génération après les pensionnats autochtones. Entretien in situ / Véronique Hébert et Isabelle St-Amand
    -Relations, positionnalités partagées et critiques anticoloniales : penser les collaborations dans le champ des littératures autochtones francophones / Élise Couture-Grondin et Isabella Huberman

    Exil et migration. Réflexions autour d’expériences et de vécus littéraires
    -Introduction / Domenico Cambria
    -Mobilité, liberté et mort dans l’œuvre de Jocelyne Saucier / Karine Beaudoin
    -La dimension spirituelle de l’exil dans L’angoisse d’Abraham de Rosie Pinhas-Delpuech / Fatma Zohra Bellal
    -S’exprimer dans la plume de l’Autre : exil identitaire, proclamation réfractaire ou brassage linguistique et culturel ? Le cas de Driss Chraïbi / Omar Benjelloun
    -Le récit à l’image de l’exil dans Travelers de Helon Habila / Ioana Danaila
    -Partir pour se trouver ou la quête identitaire de deux étudiantes chinoises en France dans les années 1920 / Jacqueline Estran
    -L’identité à l’épreuve de l’exclusion sociale dans le roman beur / Afaf Majit
    -Parler ou ne pas parler français, telle est la question. Le choix de la langue française dans le roman Une verrière sous le ciel (2018) de Lenka Horňáková-Civade / Isabelle Malmon
    -Voyage des enfants de la postcolonie vers l’ailleurs-paradis : récits de migration et imagination africaine de l’Occident dans Le ventre de l’Atlantique de Fatou Diome / Dacharly Mapangou
    -La problématique de l’exil dans la littérature caribéenne francophone / Line Menage
    -L’exil, entre terre et mer : le mouvement dans Les litanies de l’Île-aux-Chiens de Françoise Enguehard / Juliette Valcke

    VARIA
    -Axiomes de la pédagogie queer / Hasheem Hakeem

    CREATION
    -Identitat / En route vers le chaos / Roger Harvey

    PRIX DES MEILLEURES COMMUNICATIONS (APFUCC)
    -Entre scientifique et pittoresque : l’intervention du genre dans l’écriture hybride de Marie de Ujfalvy-Bourdon / Sarah Sudres
    -L’aporie de l’impossible communauté : Bataille, Barthes et Foucault / Justine Brisson

    PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRE (APFUCC) / COMPTE RENDU
    -Isabelle Boisclair, Pierre Luc Landry et Guillaume Poirier Girard. QuébecQueer. Le queer dans les productions littéraires, artistiques et médiatiques québécoises / Soundouss El Kettani

    COMPTES RENDUS
    -Laguerre, Djennie. Manman la mer, suivi de Rendez-vous lakay / Jean Mérin
    -Voyer-Léger, Catherine, dir. En cas d’incendie, prière de ne pas sauver ce livre / Catherine Parayre
    -Morin, Marie-Thé. Errances / Pauline Brise
    —

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  • Concepts of land and ownership in Canada at centre of upcoming Brock panel discussion

    Thursday, November 04, 2021 | By

    Image caption: Artist and educator Adrian Blackwell (left) and architect David Fortin (right) will be co-moderating an upcoming online roundtable discussion about land ownership in Canada.

    WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2021 | by 

    An upcoming Brock University panel discussion will bring together distinguished Indigenous and other artists, designers and architects to reimagine Canadian cities towards a more inclusive future.

    Presented by the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC) and Department of Visual Arts (VISA), “Rethinking Property in c\a\n\a\d\a” will be hosted as a Zoom webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 10 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. and is open to the Brock and wider community.

    The online event will be co-moderated by artist and educator Adrian Blackwell, Associate Professor, School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, whose art practice spans photography, video, sculpture, urban theory and design; and David Fortin (Métis Nation of Ontario), a LEED-accredited professional and registered architect. Fortin is also a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) Indigenous Task Force that seeks ways to foster and promote Indigenous design in Canada.

    The discussion will bring together a diverse group of panelists, including artist Bonnie Devine (Genaabaajing First Nation), Founding Chair of the Indigenous Visual Culture program at OCAD University and winner of the 2021 Governor General Award in Visual and Media Arts; landscape architect Tiffany Kaewen Dang, a territorial scholar from Treaty 6 Territory in Edmonton, Alta.; and Luugigyoo Patrick Reid Stewart (Nisga’a, B.C.), the first Indigenous president of an architectural association in Canada and the first Indigenous person in B.C. to own and operate an architectural firm.

    Rethinking Property in c\a\n\a\d\a is the first of four events in a series called Fictive Architecture presented by STAC. The series is funded through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant, with matching funds from the Office of the Vice-President, Research at Brock University.

    Catherine Parayre, Associate Professor and Director of STAC’s Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture, said these events will provide a creative and intellectual environment for all participants to express and debate views, sharing experiences that touch on personal perspectives or matters of social urgency.

    “This series is part of the activities of the Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture, whose vision is predicated on the fact that researchers and creators, no matter their discipline, share a passion and drive for their subject in which creativity is often at the root of their unique vision or forms of inquiry.”

    The series is also connected to STAC’s Small Walker Press (SWP), a small innovative publishing house that produces two companion books each year as part of the Walker Cultural Leader Series. Blackwell is one of the artists (along with Landon Mackenzie) who will contribute to the 2022 SWP publications informed by the roundtable discussion.

    Derek Knight, Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture and co-editor for the Small Walker Press, said this timely panel promises to be informative, far-reaching and will posit new, inclusive ways of re-imagining the land, concepts of ownership and shelter in Canada.

    “Blackwell is committed to thinking about new ways of interacting with our built environs, especially at this critical time in which decolonialization brings into focus the pressing need to resolve the challenge of unceded territories and respect the role of First Peoples as integral to how we re-envision Canada in the future,” Knight said.

    The webinar is free to attend, although registration is required through the Zoom event web page.

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  • PROJECT: Soundscape, on exhibit September 24

    Friday, September 24, 2021 | By

    IMAGE CREDIT: REINHARD REITZENSTEIN

    Music, Noise, and Soundscape: Gayle Young and Ryan Bruce in Conversation

    Created in 2021, Music, Noise, and Soundscape: Gayle Young and Ryan Bruce in Conversation is a virtual project of the Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture homed in the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC) at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University. It includes an interview, performances and demonstrations, as well as an outreach activity.

    Gayle Young is a composer and musician based in the Niagara region who creates her own instruments and performs music for them, often employing unusual tunings. She has also performed and recorded works by John Cage and Yoko Ono. Gayle composes works for voice and chamber instruments and creates electronic sound for film and visual art installation. Many of her compositions include environmental sounds recorded through tuned resonators that she invented to integrate harmony and soundscape.

    Gayle wrote The Sackbut Blues, the biography of pioneering electronic instrument inventor Hugh Le Caine (1914-1977), who invented several instruments for electronic music, including the Sackbut, an innovative touch-sensitive keyboard instrument first recorded in 1946. As editor of Musicworks Magazine for over two decades, she presented an inclusive gaze on the world of experimental music.

    Ryan Bruce is an ethnomusicologist, jazz historian and saxophonist. His research concentrates on the transition of jazz styles from the 1950s–1960s (bop and the jazz avant-garde) with investigations in jazz historiography, improvisation, musical analysis, and interdisciplinary comparisons to other avant-garde art forms. His work includes special focus on collaborating with performers to create digital resources for teaching jazz history, improvisation, and world music traditions.

    Ryan holds a PhD in Music from York University and has published articles on jazz criticism, musical analysis, and specific musicians for the current Grove Dictionary of American Music. He is also an active teacher and performer of jazz and free improvisation on saxophone. In 2021, Ryan is teaching STAC 2P93 Critical Practice in the Fine and Performing Arts.

    Experience the ‘Soundscape’ exhibition by visiting the Brock University Digital Scholarship Lab

    Please note the virtual exhibition is best viewed on a laptop or desktop computer. Headphones are recommended.

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  • Brock community members nominated for St. Catharines Arts Awards

    Friday, September 24, 2021 | By

    Image caption: Artists and Instructors from Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Andrew (Curtis) Tye (left) and Barbara Worthy (right) are among the nominees for the 2021 St. Catharines Arts Awards.

    Originally published in The Brock News WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021 | by 

    The City of St. Catharines is gearing up to celebrate the local arts scene and those who champion it — including members of the Brock community.

    Among the City’s recently released nominees for the 2021 St. Catharines Arts Awards are several individuals and one group who are connected to the University.

    Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) instructors Andrew (Curtis) Tye and Barbara Worthy were nominated for the Arts in Education Award and Making a Difference Award, respectively.

    Other Brock nominees include alumna and musician Kathryn Sinopoli (BA ’13, BEd ’13), who received the nod for the Emerging Artist Award, and social, economic and environmental justice organization OPIRG Brock and retired Visual Arts faculty member Jean Bridge, who were both nominated for the Making a Difference Award.

    Tye, who has been an Instructor with the Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) since 2013, is honoured to be nominated for the second year in a row in for the Arts in Education Award, which celebrates individuals and groups committed to engaging residents through arts education.

    “I have always believed learning through the arts is a collective endeavour — there is no single individual that makes that successful,” he said. “I am someone who helps facilitate group and collective success, and I believe in a common goal for learning.”

    Tye currently teaches DART 2P21 Drama in Education II and DART IP95 Creative Play for Education. Along with teaching and a successful career as a corporate public speaking and leadership coach, Tye also serves as a committee member for Brock’s Social Justice Research Institute.

    Worthy, a MIWSFPA Instructor famous for her energetic class warm-ups and always having her little white dog at her side, has taught in DART since 2006 and teaches at the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture. Currently, Worthy is teaching DART 3P92 Scriptwriting, to students in the Dramatic Arts, English and Creative Writing, Film and GAME programs. An experienced creative producer and writer, Worthy is also thrilled to be a part of the awards celebration.

    A former longtime producer for CBC Toronto and former actor with Shaw Festival, Worthy’s teaching philosophy is informed by her professional career in the arts and a strong belief in the importance of experiential learning.

    “What truly makes a difference to communities everywhere is the power of art, the power of drama and the power of the written word,” Worthy said. “Making a difference to me means providing students with access to the real world, specifically their local communities, where they can truly experience the arts for themselves.”

    The St. Catharines Arts Awards will be presented online Sunday, Nov. 21, livestreamed from the stage of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (PAC).

    “The city’s cultural and artistic community has exploded in recent years — there are so many diverse voices and visions out there,” said Kathleen Powell, the City’s Acting Supervisor of Cultural Services. “These nominees represent some of the best our community has to offer, world-class talents who call St. Catharines home and step up to build a community we can all be proud of.”

    For more information about the arts awards and how to view the celebration, visit the City of St. Catharines website.

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  • Much work to be done on live theatre’s road to recovery, says Brock prof

    Sunday, August 29, 2021 | By

    Editor’s note: The following article tells about the challenges, enthusiasm for, and success in relaunching the performing arts in the Niagara Region, now 18 months into the pandemic. Students of the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture may register for the course taught by Professor Fricker, DART 1P91 Introduction to Theatre and Performance, as part of their degree program.

    (above) Brock Dramatic Arts graduate Amanda McDonnell (BA ’15), who is part of the front of house team at the Shaw Festival, welcomed audiences back this summer.

    THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2021 | by 

    After 17 months, the live theatrical experience is slowly making its return — but not without challenges ahead, says Brock theatre expert Karen Fricker.

    “Amidst the adversity that live performing arts have been faced with through the pandemic, a wonderful thing has happened this summer: the return of live theatrical performance, because it has been able to be outside,” says the Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Officer in Dramatic Arts (DART), who is an expert in theatre criticism, theatre theory and contemporary theatre.

    The Shaw and Stratford Festivals, two of Ontario’s most celebrated repertory companies, have been staging performances outdoors under canopies (tents with no walls) with mandatory masks for audiences in addition to capacity limits in accordance with provincial guidance. Both festivals are taking audience, artist and staff safety seriously, with COVID-19 protocols in place, says Fricker, who is also a theatre critic for the Toronto Star, writing about performances in the city as well as the Shaw and Stratford Festivals each summer.

    Although these outdoor performances do not come close to hosting the usual number of spectators, Fricker says this is a “big step in the right direction.”

    “Artists are being paid and creativity is happening,” she says, adding that while “innovative digital work has been heroic during the pandemic, experiencing live performances in a shared space is a joyous return.”

    Brock’s Dramatic Arts Department engages with the Shaw Festival in numerous ways, including the annual DART/Shaw internship and course-based experiences with Shaw artists and arts workers. A number of DART students and graduates work at the festival in front of house, producing and administration, and creative capacities.

    Seeing some of those familiar faces at Shaw this summer has been a particular highlight, Fricker says.

    While outdoor performances are a step in the right direction, Fricker says there is still more work to do. There will be limited live, in-person programming in the performing arts sector this fall, mainly due to unclear guidance from the provincial government around reopening, she says.

    In the early summer, the performing arts industry lobbied the government to address live performances in the official stages of reopening. Now that the performing arts have been included, companies have been able to plan. However, “you can’t just lift a theatre production off in a few weeks; you need a runway,” Fricker says.

    Colleen Smith, Executive Director of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (PAC) adjacent to Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, says the team at the PAC has experienced these challenges first-hand.

    “Never did any of us whose lives revolve around bringing together artists and audiences believe that we would witness the end of the age-old adage, ‘the show must go on,’” she says. “In fact, the show stopped for months at a time. It’s been an unbelievable period of disruption, heartache and loss of purpose for so many artists and arts workers.”

    Smith says that “buoyed by our partners at the City of St. Catharines and Brock University, as well as the support from our Board of Directors, we have used the first half of 2021 to develop a three-year recovery strategy that will place the PAC firmly within our community as a centre for creative and artistic experiences and learning.”

    The PAC is planning a gradual return, starting with the annual Celebration of Nations gathering, which will be in a hybrid format in September.

    Among the local theatre organizations taking important steps to make innovative work and engage the public in Niagara safely is the young people’s theatre company Carousel Players, which is focusing on new play development in August and September.

    “We are experimenting with a range of forms, including clown, puppetry and mask,” says Artistic Director and Brock graduate Monica Dufault (MA ’11). “We want to offer new pieces that are dynamic and theatrically alive when we meet our audiences again.”

    The company will present an outdoor performance, The Giant Puppet Party, for Culture Days in October, a new digital play for ages 12 to 17 called Meet Chloe starting in November, and a school touring production of The Velveteen Rabbit for ages four to seven in March 2022.

    Suitcase in Point, another St. Catharines-based theatre company, recently announced the launch of a reimagined In the Soil Arts Festival running Friday, Aug. 27 to Saturday, Sept. 25. The festival includes opportunities to see live, original theatre, new music, comedy acts, installations and participatory workshops. All-inclusive festival passes are available for purchase online.

    DART graduate Deanna Jones (BA ’02), the Artistic Director of Suitcase in Point and In the Soil, says the limits of the last 17 months have been a “unique test on our arts organization and the arts community at large.”

    “We knew this 13th edition of our annual In the Soil Arts Festival would be different, and we were determined to find inspired ways to get off of our screens and offer artists and audiences safe ways to connect — in person.”

    During In the Soil, artists from Essential Collective Theatre will be set up on James and St. Paul Street interviewing community members about their pandemic experiences. Working on this initiative are DART graduates Jordine de Guzman (BA ’20), Kristina Ojaperv (BA ’19) and Ren Reid (BA ’20). The project will culminate in the Pandemic Stories Project, a new play to be read at St. Catharines’ Culture Days in early October.

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  • Celebrated Canadian artist Michael Snow’s contribution to Brock revisited in new documentary

    Thursday, August 19, 2021 | By

    A still image from the new documentary short Timed Images premiering Friday, Aug. 20 at the Mighty Niagara Film Fest. The film was produced and researched by Lesley Bell with video work and direction by Tracy Van Oosten.

    WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2021 | The Brock News | by 

    The legacy and impact of artwork created for Brock University in 1972 by internationally regarded Canadian artist Michael Snow has been captured on film and is being premiered Friday, Aug. 20 at a local film festival.

    Part of the Mighty Niagara Film Fest presented by Niagara Artists Centre (NAC), Timed Images is a new documentary that intimately explores two works of public art created by Snow when he was engaged by Brock University and architect Raymond Moriyama during the construction of Brock’s Mackenzie Chown Complex in 1972. Snow holds an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Brock University received in 1974.

    The short documentary is produced and researched by Lesley Bell, artist and retired support staff for the Department of Visual Arts (VISA) at Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), and directed by Brock graduate Tracy Van Oosten (BA ’10), artist, filmmaker and current VISA Instructor at the MIWSFPA.

    Bell, who managed Brock’s Fine Art Collection for 18 years, was drawn to Snow’s work and wanted to uncover the story behind his pieces and appreciate how they found their home in St. Catharines.

    Bell and Van Oosten, a filmmaker and artist who works with text, video and installations and explores moving images within immersive contexts, collaborated to create an artistic documentary that retraces Snow’s innovative art that delighted the University population in 1972.

    “In order to tell the story about these two artworks by Snow, I envisioned a video document. I had no understanding of the process,” Bell said. “With patience and skill, Tracy Van Oosten crafted the information that I found into an intelligent and visually stimulating artistic video work. This has been a satisfying collaboration.”

    Timed Images screens Friday, Aug. 20 at the RiverBrink Art Museum in Queenston, Niagara-on-the-Lake. Doors open at 8 p.m., with the screening scheduled to start at sunset. The documentary is part of an art-inspired program at NAC’s film fest called ‘An Ode to Escarpment School Films.

    For more information about Timed Images and to purchase tickets, visit the Mighty Niagara Film Fest website.

    This project is supported by David Vivian, the Director of the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, and Dean Carol Merriam of the Faculty of Humanities, through the Dean’s Discretionary Fund (2020). An installation for the public to view Timed Images at the MIWSFPA and online is currently in development.

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  • Small Walker Press launches publications exploring music, choreography

    Wednesday, May 05, 2021 | By

    Image caption: The Small Walker Press has announced two new spring publications: Arc, a choreographed poem and Improvising Places / Improvising Time.

    Originally published in The Brock News on TUESDAY, MAY 04, 2021 | by 

    The Small Walker Press (SWP) is announcing two new spring publications with an online book launch page.

    With in-person book launches still on hold due to public health restrictions, the innovative publishing house within Brock’s Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) opted for a virtual celebration.

    The online launch page features two new books: Arc, a choreographed poem written by Paul Savoie with accompanying choreography by Mélanie Mesager, and Improvising Places / Improvising Time with music notation by Devon Fornelli, creative writing by Thomas Ayouti and essays by Derek Knight and Matthew Royal. Graphic design for both publications was done by Bernhard Cella.

    The concept for the books, “music and choreography,” was outlined by Small Walker Press editors Catherine Parayre, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, and Derek Knight, Associate Professor of Visual Arts. The creative texts were inspired by these themes, drawing on inspiration from participating artists incorporating dance, music and creative writing.

    The book launch page features excerpts from the publications as well as notes from both SWP editors.

    To learn more about The Small Walker Press, please visit the website.

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