In the Media

  • STAC’s journal ti< listed on Mir@bel

    STAC’s online, free-access journal ti< A JOURNAL OF TEXT-AND-IMAGE CRITICISM/CREATION – UN JOURNAL DE CRITIQUE/CREATION TEXTE-ET-IMAGE publishes creative work by students, their instructors, as well as by artists and writers whose work combines literature and the visual arts.

    All languages are welcome, including endangered languages. No translation is needed.

    ti< has recently been included in the Mir@bel database, an initiative by top higher-education institutions in France and Europe, such as Sciences Po and ENA.

    To submit work, please consult the website of the journal: https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/ti/index

    Tags: , , ,
    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised

  • Interiors, a new online exhibit from the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, now on view virtually

    (Image: Trieste 2, Derek J.J. Knight.)

    As part of its 2020-2021 programming, the Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture opens a virtual space on the theme of interiors, interiority, and confinement, the role they play in collective life and/or how they may be contested. The exhibit seeks to explore the shifting boundaries of intimacy and domesticity in a dynamic virtual space, presenting multi-disciplinary content and critical engagement.

    Interiors features the work of various artists, authors and musicians, and invites viewers to participate in creative activities.

    Curatorial Team: Alexandra Fraser, Marcie Bronson, Derek Knight, Catherine Parayre, Nicholas Hauck

    https://exhibits.library.brocku.ca/s/interiors/page/welcome

    Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture / Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture

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

  • Welcome to the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture: Orientation for 2020!

    (a screen shot from the welcome by STAC Major student, Maya Meyerman. Watch the video below.)


    Brock University is launching the first-ever Virtual Welcome Week.
    During this year of the pandemic the Orientation activities are all online.
    Watch the welcome below and visit the official Orientation page for all the details!


    The Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC)

    STAC Major student, Maya Meyerman has prepared this welcome message for you:

    Dr. Catherine Parayre, Director of the Centre, will be holding office hours on September 8th from 2-3 pm on Lifesize.
    Drop-in and say hi! (click here)

    Additional Office hours will be:

    • Tuesday 15 September, 3-4 pm
    • Wednesday 7 October, 2-3 pm
    • Tuesday 17 November, 3-4 pm
    • Wednesday 2 December, 1-2 pm

    Interiors, a curated virtual platform has been launched!  Interiors is the home of various creative projects by Affiliates of STAC’s Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture, also with student exhibitions. Check out our Outreach Activities: participate and be published on the site!

    ti< is an online journal (ISSN 1929-4336) that publishes creative work combining text and image. It is primarily interested in creative work by students, their instructors, as well as by artists and writers whose work combines literature and the visual arts. All languages are welcome, including endangered languages. No translation is needed. Next issue: March 2021. Submissions accepted until 15 February 2020. Please send to cparayre@brocku.ca https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/ti

    Check out the Advising Letter for more news about exciting opportunities at the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture!

    STAC Majors: more info and regular updates are available on Sakai on the tab titled… ‘STAC Majors’.  Add this tab to your Sakai courses.


    The Department of Dramatic Arts, Music, Visual Arts, and the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture are all part of the Faculty of Humanities.

    The Associate Dean, Dr. Neta Gordon, Professor of English, welcomes you to Brock University! She’s prepared an 11 minute video to introduce to you to the Faculty of Humanities:


    Michael Gicante is your Academic Advisor for studies at the MIWSFPA.
    He prepared this video for the April open House:


    Koreen McCullough is the Experiential Education Coordinator for the Faculty of Humanities.
    Watch her 3 minute presentation about Experiential Education opportunities at Brock University:


    The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts

    Located at 15 Artists’ Common in downtown St. Catharines, the MIWSFPA is home to four academic programs. We are right next door to the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre on the main street of St. Catharines, St. Paul.

    Each program at the MIWSFPA is offering a special welcome to their students.  For example, if you are a beginning your studies as a major in Dramatic Arts, check out what that Department has scheduled for you and plan to join in the fun.  You are also welcome to join the activities of each program at the School even if you are only taking one course or beginning a minor program.  The activities and welcome messages from each program are listed below.

    Professor David Vivian, of the Department of Dramatic Arts (he teaches design and production for theatre), is the Director of the School:

    David will be hosting office hours on September 8, 2020, from 12-3:00 pm,on Teams.
    Drop in and say hi! (click here)


    We all wish you a very successful year at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

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

  • The Small Walker Press announces its third title for 2020: Videopoetry/ Vidéopoésie, by Daniel H. Dugas and Valerie LeBlanc

    Dugas, Daniel H. and Valerie LeBlanc.
    Videopoetry/Vidéopoésie.

    St. Catharines, ON: Small Walker Press, 2020.
    414 pages, with illustrations, sound and videos
    Graphic design by Daniel H. Degas and Valerie LeBlanc
    ISBN 978-1-9990860-6-0
    Online, free access
    https://dr.library.brocku.ca/handle/10464/14790

    The Small Walker Press announces its third title for 2020: Videopoetry/Vidéopoésie, by Daniel H. Dugas and Valerie LeBlanc, a volume that combines text, images, and dynamic media into an immersive experience.

    Canadian digital artist and videopoet Valerie LeBlanc and Canadian poet, musician, and videopoet Daniel H. Dugas have been working together since 1990.

    Daniel H. Dugas was born in Montréal, QC. Poet, videographer, essayist and musician, Dugas has exhibited and participated in exhibitions, festivals and literary events in Canada and internationally. His ninth book of poetry, L’esprit du temps/The Spirit of the Time, won the 2016 Antonine-Maillet-Acadie Vie award and the 2018 Éloizes: Artiste de l’année en littérature. daniel.basicbruegel.com | Videos distributed through: vtape.org

    Pluridisciplinary artist and writer, Valerie LeBlanc was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has worked and presented throughout Canada and internationally. LeBlanc’s first video, Homecoming, was collected and screened by the National Gallery of Canada. She is the creator of the MediaPackBoard (MPB), a portable screening / performance device. valerie.basicbruegel.com | Videos distributed through: vtape.org

    “Their specific uniqueness within the videopoetry world also lies in the musicality of speaking two languages. LeBlanc’s first language is English and her second French; and Dugas’ is French with English second.” (Sarah Tremlett).

    Professor Derek Knight of the Department of Visual Arts remarks about this latest addition to the collection of the Small Walker Press: “The sheer volume and complexity of Videopoetry/Vidéopoésie at 400 plus pages was daunting enough, but with a keen eye, a facility for both French and English, and an unbounded curiosity for the imaginative nature of Daniel H. Dugas and Valerie LeBlanc’s poetry and time-based work, Catherine’s efforts have resulted in a worthy digital publication.”

    Tags: , , , , ,
    Categories: Announcements, In the Media, News, Uncategorised

  • Industrial Niagara, a new exhibition at Rodman Hall Arts Centre, on view March 7

    (image: Shawn Serfas)

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This exhibition is unavailable for viewing until further notice. It is closed as part of Brock University’s ongoing efforts to protect the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and the community in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Please check here again.

    Industrial Niagara
    March 7-22, 2020, Rodman Hall Art Centre, Brock University
    Saturday, March 14, 2-4 p.m. Speaker Series

    Industrial Niagara, an exhibition, brings together key works by members of the Research Centre, Studies in Arts and Culture, Brock University.

    Visual artists Candace Couse, Catherine Parayre, Shawn Serfas, Donna Szőke, and ARTIndustria share their insights by responding to the natural environs and the features that distinguish the presence, loss or history of industry in Niagara’s landscape. A combination of hinterland, cataract and escarpment, waterways and canals, hydro-electric generators and high tension wires, manufacturing facilities, factories, subdivisions and farmland, this is the first of a series of reflections or aesthetic interpretations on the meaning of locale (genius loci).

    download poster

    Curated by Derek J.J. Knight, with a speaker series programmed by Catherine Parayre, on Saturday, March 14.

    Visit the Industrial Niagara Virtual Gallery.

    See the video produced by YourTV Niagara, on March 16, 2020.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The below event has been cancelled as part of Brock University’s ongoing efforts to protect the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and the community in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

    Rodman Hall Art Centre will host a cultural event on Saturday, March 14, 2-4 p.m. featuring readings by award-winning authors Natalee Caple and Adam Dickinson as well as short reflections by Niagara residents on their observations, research or experience, from the impact of the Welland Canal to the generation of hydro-electric power: Clark Bernat, Derek Knight, Reinhard Reitzenstein, David Sharron, Penelope Stewart, and David Vivian.

    Open to members of the public this event is organized as part of the Research Centre’s outreach and to encourage future partnerships in an ongoing series of thematic projects.

    download the program for Industrial Niagara

    The Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture acknowledges the support of Brock University: Centre for Studies in Arts and Cultures, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Studies in Comparative Literature and Arts, Dean’s Office in Humanities, Research Services, and Rodman Hall Art Centre.

    New research centre fosters interdisciplinary approach to arts and culture
    [brocknews, alison innes. MONDAY, MARCH 02, 2020]

    The Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture (RCIACC) establishes a network of researchers and creators across Faculties at Brock and beyond the University. The research centre is part of the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC).

    “STAC has an established reputation as an interdisciplinary academic centre and it was therefore logical to home an interdisciplinary research centre in the unit,” says Associate Professor Catherine Parayre, who led the initiative with Associate Professor Derek Knight and is the Centre’s new director.

    The Centre will engage with a broad range of creative expression, including visual arts, dramatic arts, music, creative writing and translation, book and graphic design, cultural heritage, and photography.The Centre includes faculty from Arts and Culture, Visual Arts, Dramatic Arts, Music, Curatorial Studies, French Studies, English Literature, Digital Humanities, and Education.

    The centre will be doing outreach at Rodman Hall Art Centre through exhibitions and talks and in collaboration with the Willow Arts Community.

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Categories: Announcements, Events, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised

  • Bernhard Cella shortlisted for LA MENTION SPÉCIALE DU JURY for Queer Publishing: A Family Tree

    The Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC) is pleased to announce that Queer Publishing: A Family Tree designed and published by Bernhard Cella, has been shortlisted for LA MENTION SPÉCIALE DU JURY of the Paris Photo Aperture Foundation and to be awarded in November. This is a significant recognition of Cella’s important contribution to scholarship in this field. Founder of The Salon für Kunstbuch in Vienna, Austria, Cella is the book designer of the Small Walker Press (SWP), a project of the Centre and generously funded by the legacy of Marilyn I. Walker. Cella was the Centre’s Walker Cultural Leader for 2017-18.

    “In the twenty years since Horacio Fernández first wrote Fotografía Pública (MNCARS, 1999), the first landmark book to position the scholarship of books and magazines as a topic of critical importance to the photographic medium, “book about books” has become a genre of publishing unto itself. Each year, the PhotoBook Awards jury sees at least one well-researched, richly illustrated publication that presents some new facet of photobibliophilia—often using the filter of a particular region or city or even a particular thematic niche. This year, however, the jury noted a rise in the number of books about books that exceeded expectation in terms of design, like Printed Photography in Venezuela; or ventured into new territory, telling the story of a single notable magazine, like Camera Austria International: Laboratory for Photography and Theory. Each of these volumes, in its own way, adds additional detail and texture to the evolving connoisseurship and scholarship dedicated to the photobook.” (from https://programme.parisphoto.com/programme-2019/le-prix-du-livre-photographique-paris-photo-aperture-foundation/la-mention-speciale-du-jury.htm, 19/10/18)

    With the co-editors of the Small Walker Press, Professors Parayre and Derek Knight of Brock University, and accompanied by David Vivian, Director of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Cella presented the first two volumes of the SWP at Belvedere 21, Vienna on June 19, 2019. The books were published under the theme of environmental degradation and include Inland, by Associate Professor of Visual Arts Shawn Serfas (Brock University) with creative writing by Atlanta-based New York Times journalist Richard Fausset and an essay by Associate Professor of Visual Arts Derek Knight, and The Quarry, by Associate Professor Adam Dickinson (Brock University) and artist Lorène Bourgeois (Toronto).  The books are available for purchase from the Centre.

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Categories: Announcements, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News, Uncategorised

  • Post-Industrial Ephemera: Soundings, Gestures and Poetics exhibition catalogue published

    CATHERINE PARAYRE, BROCK UNIVERSITY /
    REINHARD REITZENSTEIN, SUNY-BUFFALO, CURATORS

    The exhibition Post-Industrial Ephemera: Soundings, Gestures and Poetics took place in 2017 at Silo-City, Buffalo, NY as a joint project funded by the Agreement for Scholarly Exchange and Collaboration between the State University of New York at Buffalo and Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.

    The exhibition catalogue is now available for download.

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Categories: Alumni, Events, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News

  • Brock, SUNY art show set to open in Buffalo’s Silo City

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Categories: Announcements, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News

  • Brock radio series airing in Austria to highlight Canadian culture

    (Source: The Brock News, Thursday, April 13, 2017 | by )

    A Brock Radio-produced series is hitting the airwaves overseas and receiving rave reviews for its efforts to highlight Canada’s rich culture.

    Catherine Parayre, Associate Professor in Studies in Arts and Culture as well as Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, has partnered with the University of Innsbruck and the Canadian Embassy in Austria to create “Kanada: Nouvelles littéraires and more.”

    The seven-part radio series is one of a number of initiatives launched in 2017 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Centre of Canadian Studies at Innsbruck.

    The show began April 4 and will run biweekly until June 20 on Innsbruck radio station Freirad.

    Each hour-long instalment features interviews in English, French and German, as well as a wealth of Canadian music between segments.

    “It’s all about Canadian culture, but it’s also about diversity and being able to use resources in different languages,” said Parayre, who is producing the series.

    Since the initial episode aired, Parayre has received a wealth of positive feedback and has been invited to speak about Canadian culture and about Brock on other international platforms.

    The project was born through a research agreement between Brock and the University of Innsbruck, which houses the oldest centre of Canadian studies in Europe.

    The centre promotes research in any discipline that has a connection to Canada.

    “You don’t have to be focused on literature or culture, you can be focused on biochemistry — as long as there is Canadian content,” Parayre said.

    That ideal is reflected in the radio show, which covers a broad range of topics in some way related to Canada.

    Some of the many guests featured throughout the series include Konstanze Zwintz, University of Innsbruck astrophysicist, Mark Bailey, Canadian Ambassador to Vienna, Herménegilde Chiasson, Acadian author and former Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, and Phil Cormeau, Acadian filmmaker. The shows also feature a variety of Canadian authors, musicians and artists.

    Brock English Language and Literature Associate Professor Adam Dickinson and Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures Instructor Paul Savoie will also be featured on the show, in addition to Tabitha Lewis from Brock’s MakerSpace.

    “It’s not just about getting people to know Canada — Canada in Austria is known,” Parayre said. “It’s about bringing together cultures, expressions and languages and sharing knowledge.”

    The project was made possible with the assistance of Brock Radio, which has provided Parayre use of its professional equipment and the expertise of Brock Radio Director Deborah Cartmer to produce each session.

    “Preparing this series has been a great experience in solidarity and intercultural and linguistic exchanges,” Parayre said. “Freirad is interested in continuing its co-operation with Brock Radio, which is very interesting for us. Scientists, professors and students at the University of Innsbruck regularly use Freirad as a platform for the dissemination of knowledge and for teaching.”

    The Canadian Embassy and the University of Innsbruck will archive the radio series and will use segments for promotional purposes. The series will also be archived at Brock Radio with some segments broadcast locally.

    “Kanada: Nouvelles littéraires and more” can be streamed online and airs live on Freirad from 11 a.m. to noon Eastern Standard Time.

    The first episode is available online.

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Categories: Announcements, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News

  • Rodman Hall Art Centre wins at OAAG awards

    (Source: The Brock News, Thursday, November 6, 2014. Photo: Installation view – Jimmy Limit – “Recent Advancements”)

    Brock University’s Rodman Hall Art Centre was recognized with two prestigious prizes this week at the 37th annual Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) Awards, presented at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto Nov. 5.

    Twenty-eight public art galleries in 19 cities across Ontario were nominated for awards.

    Communities represented in the visual art nominations this year included Barrie, Cambridge, Chatham-Kent, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener, Kleinburg, London, Mississauga, Oakville, Oshawa, Ottawa, Owen Sound, St. Catharines, Sarnia, Toronto, Waterloo, Whitby, and Windsor.

    The OAAG Awards are annual, province-wide, juried art gallery awards of artistic merit and excellence.

    They recognize the new exhibitions, publications, programs and community partnerships that have been commissioned by and produced by Ontario’s public art galleries over the previous year.

    Jimmy Limit: Recent Advancements, curated by Marcie Bronson, was recognized as Exhibition of the Year, Monographic.

    In her acceptance speech, Bronson noted that this exhibition was St. Catharines-based Limit’s first public art gallery showing.

    The award citation noted the curator and artist as well as the Rodman Hall installation team, including Danny Custodio, Matthew Tegel and Jesse Harris.

    Inspired by commercial photography practices and the design of industrial supply catalogues and weekly flyers, Jimmy Limit builds and photographs simple constructions of hardware store goods and fruits.

    Selecting his varied subjects for their aesthetic interest rather than function, he engages them from a strictly formal standpoint.

    Through photographs and installations, Limit engages layers of reflection on past and present photography traditions to explore the relationship between an object and its image in a consideration of how desire is created and sold.

    The exhibition catalogue Milutin Gubash – co-published by Rodman Hall Art Centre, Carleton University Art Gallery, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Southern Alberta Art Gallery and Musée d’art de Joliette – received an Honourable Mention in the category of Art Publication of the Year.

    Serbian-born artist Milutin Gubash has developed a diverse practice focused on the investigation of his own personal, social and cultural identity.

    This first monograph examines the overlap of history, humour and authenticity found in his multifaceted practice.

    Often cast as the lead alongside his family and friends, Gubash employs narrative to blur the boundaries between real, lived lives and the people who we wish we were.

    Produced to accompany a multi-venue 10-year survey of Gubash’s work, the publication includes original essays and complete photographic documentation. Milutin Gubash lives and works in Montreal.

    Stuart Reid, director/curator of Rodman Hall Art Centre, said the awards are important recognition from peers.

    “They mean a great deal to our institution,” he said. ” We are very proud of the excellent program of contemporary art exhibitions that Rodman Hall produces for the Brock community and the people of Niagara.”

    Tags: , , , ,
    Categories: Announcements, In the Media, News