News

  • Flip, Flip and print: Unfolding the World of Self-Publishing

    Friday, October 06, 2017 | By

    B Cella Kunsthalle Wien

    Image by Bernhard Cella

    Walker Cultural Leader Series Lecture/Performance:

    Artist, curator and art book maker, Bernhard Cella (House 21/ Belvedere and Salon für Kunstbuch, Vienna, Austria) demonstrates and performs contemporary book making.

    Wednesday, November 1, 2017
    Time: 6:00 p.m.

    Location: Rodman Hall, 109 St. Paul Crescent, St. Catharines, ON
    Open to the public.

    For more info, visit: experiencebu.brocku.ca/event/65852

    About the artist:
    A visual artist working in Vienna, Austria, Bernhard Cella is the founder of Salon für Kunstbuch, installed in the 21. Haus / Belvedere, and of the no-isbn project. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and at the University of Fine Art Hamburg. A book maker, Cella published an expanded edition of his No ISBN. On Self-Publishing in 2017.

    The Walker Cultural Leader series brings leading artists, performers, practitioners and academics to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University. Engaging, lively and erudite, these sessions celebrate professional achievement, artistic endeavour and the indelible role of culture in our society. Please join us.

    This education program is generously founded by Marilyn I. Walker.

    Listen to Professor Catherine Parayre interview Bernhard Cella.

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    Categories: Events, News

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

    Thursday, April 20, 2017 | By

    (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.

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

  • Brock radio series airing in Austria to highlight Canadian culture

    Thursday, April 13, 2017 | By

    (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.

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

  • Post-Industrial Ephemera: Soundings, Gestures and Poetics

    Monday, April 03, 2017 | By

    Photo credit: Derek Knight

    Post-Industrial Ephemera: Soundings, Gestures and Poetics
    Silo-City welcomes you to an exhibition featuring artists on both sides of the Niagara River

    April 22 – 29, 2017
    105 Silo-City Row, Buffalo, NY 14203, U.S.
    Opening Reception: Saturday, April 22 from 2 – 5 pm
    http://www.silo.city
    Click here for directions
    Free community event

    Buffalo, New York and St. Catharines, Ontario are neighboring cities separated by a river and a border, but they also nurture a strong sense of regional togetherness and cultural kinship. Colleagues in Sculpture, Arts, Comparative Literature, English Studies, Visual Arts, Studies in Arts and Culture, and French Studies at SUNY on the U.S. side and Brock University on the Canadian side will share a common space at Silo-City, Buffalo between April 22 – 29. Coming from different places and practices, we wish to foster interdisciplinarity.

    Together, we want to reflect on the notion of dispersal. A concrete monument, an overwhelming structure, Silo-City is also a crucible of ephemeralities – sounds dissipating as they echo up the walls, the wind blowing through hollow buildings, the decay of objects deposited in the empty halls, the temporary presence of others, productive resonances of creative experiences. Is Silo-City a memorial? 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, despite its imposing constructions, invites visitors to become more perceptive to the transience of human endeavours.

    We will plant colourful seedpods, install a neon sign in tribute to the Buffalo river that flows by Silo-City, crush words out of their discourse, scatter mourning songs for long gone lives, bring images, noise and stories from other places. We will capture the brilliance of a moment.

    A follow-up one-day symposium at Rodman Hall Art Centre, St. Catharines will document and revive the exhibition on September 16, 2017.

    The opening will include performances by Harmonia Chamber Singers, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Lauren Regier, Continuous Monument, Catherine Parayre and Jim Watkins 

    Curators: Catherine Parayre, Reinhard Reitzenstein

    Click here to download the performance program.

    For more images and information, please visit the exhibition website.

     

    Participating artists: 

     

    ArtIndustria+
    Untitled (neon sign)

    ArtIndustria+ was formed in 1995 by Derek Knight and Franc Petric, two Canadian artists who reside in the Niagara region. Motivated by the desire to work collaboratively, they have developed projects over the years with a focus on art, research and technology. Underlining their concerns with the dialectical relationship between ecology and industry, their conceptual models combine installation techniques and situational aesthetics to further examine the artist’s role in post-industrial society.

     

    Continuous Monument
    Silo Sessions at the American (noise/drone performance)

    Continuous Monument is an affiliation of interdisciplinary culture-makers working among design, text, architecture and sound fields. Born from the ashes of a contaminated political landscape, Continuous Monument gathers to spatialize sound and signal in temporary, site specific soundscape improvisations. Monument will perform at The American in Silo City as an acoustic inhabitation; live ghosts active in remnant industrial anatomy.

     

    Akasya Crosier
    Likeness (typeface study)

    Akasya Crosier is a multifaceted artist based in Western New York. She is currently a senior at UB studying Studio Art and Communication. In her artwork, she focuses on effective communication skills, idealized spaces, and bright imagery.

     

    Catherine Parayre (assisted by Josh Dawson, SUNY and Paul Savoie, Brock U)
    Ingrained Words (14 posters: assembled fragments from texts by 33 writers)

    Catherine works in Arts and Culture, and in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Brock University. She is particularly interested in contemporary Occitan literature, as well as the co-presence of literatures and visual arts. She includes her four languages in her creative work.

     

    Catherine Parayre and Jim Watkins
    The Silo-Minder (recording, reading)

    Jim Watkins lives in Silo-City and is our silo-minder/keeper. His passion for the arts and for Silo-City is central to our cross-border project.

     

    Lauren Regier
    Where I stand is fair and square (performance/grass seed & dirt)

    Lauren Regier is Honours graduate from Brock University’s Visual Arts program, and is an emerging artist based in the Niagara Region. Much of her work is inspired by the notion of functionality and relationships between the industrial world and the natural realm. Interested in the experiential nature of contemporary art, her practice includes photography, installation, performance, drawing and video.

     

    Reinhard Reitzenstein
    ArbreTreeBaum (vocal piece in 5 languages)

    Reitzenstein has held over 100 solo exhibitions and over 300 group exhibitions globally, and has completed over 25 public and private art commissions. His work is represented in more than 50 public and corporate collections internationally. Reitzenstein has been Director of the Sculpture Program at, SUNY, Buffalo since 2000. He is represented by the Olga Korper Gallery in Toronto.

     

    Casey Ridings
    Untitled Emotion (acrylic paint)

    Casey Ridings is currently a Graphic Design student at the University at Buffalo. She is intrigued by the geometric nature of organic patterns; through a spontaneous and intuitive process she creates intricate paintings and drawings inspired by the exploration of her experiences and emotions.

     

    Cody Schriever
    Vanity Case / Skeletons of Perception (painting/sculpture)

    Cody Schriever is a student in the University at Buffalo art department. His paintings and sculptures deal with human nature, and the structures of its self-perception. By combining various styles of painting and modes of expression he creates a complex narrative of the global condition.

     

    Shawn Serfas
    Alloyed (acrylic)

    Shawn is an Assistant Professor in the Visual Arts Department, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University. His research interests include contemporary painting, drawing and printmaking practices concerning relational abstraction, environmental aesthetics, religion, the landscape as well as issues bordering abstraction and representation.

     

    Lucas Veraldi
    2mp (inkjet prints)

    Lucas is an artist currently residing in Buffalo, NY. His practice examines the different methods of representation that exist within the realm of photography and explores the truth value that a photograph holds as a piece data that showcases life.

     

    Sophia Yung
    Voyage Voyage 

    Sophia Yung is a Chinese American graphic designer and artist from Brooklyn, NY. Her most recent work involves the analysis of Asian American culture shock, language barriers, mixed martial arts and the role of financial capital in the precarious 21st century.

     

    Jean Zhu
    bacteria (video)

    Jean Zhu is currently a Media Study student at the University at Buffalo. She is both a photographer and a filmmaker. Her experimental films and straightforward photographs of everyday objects and scenes are noted for their color combination, explicit composition and rich content.

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    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Federal board now led by Brock faculty member

    Thursday, January 12, 2017 | By

    (Source: The Brock News, Wednesday, January 11, 2017. Photo: Sharilyn J. Ingram, Assistant Professor in the Brock University’s Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture and former director of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, was recently appointed Chair of the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board.)

    The Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board is now being led by a Brock University faculty member.

    Sharilyn J. Ingram, Assistant Professor in the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture and former director of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, was recently appointed Chair of the federal board for a three-year term.

    The independent administrative tribunal, which reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage, determines whether cultural property is of outstanding significance and national importance.

    The board aims to protect and preserve significant examples of Canada’s artistic, historic and scientific heritage.

    Ingram’s appointment was announced Jan. 7 by Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly.

    Congratulations, Sharilyn!

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    Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Radio documentary by STAC prof goes national

    Friday, December 09, 2016 | By

    (Source: The Brock News, Friday, December 09, 2016)

    A Brock Radio program about francophone women in Niagara has been selected for national distribution, and will be heard next week on stations across Canada.

    CFBU 103.7 FM host Catherine Parayre — an associate professor in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, as well as in Studies in Arts and Culture  —  produced the 28-minute segment for the national broadcast celebrating Rendez-vous de la Francophonie, an annual celebration of Canada’s membership in the Francophonie, which promotes the French language and its cultural expressions. The 2017 celebration takes place March 6-27 in communities across Canada.

    Parayre’s documentary has already aired on CFBU, and can be heard online at www.cfbu.ca/listen.php

    The program introduces listeners to five francophone women in Niagara whom Parayre interviewed last autumn:

    • Lucie Huot speaks about the historic presence of francophones in Niagara.
    • Fété Ngira-Batware Kimpiobi and Nafée Faigou, both from the Association of Francophone Immigrant Women of Niagara (SOFIFRAN) speak about their immigration to Canada, what they have left in their native countries and what they like in Niagara.
    • Rachel Hélène Amran, an artist from Montréal, shares her efforts for a successful integration as a francophone artist.
    • Clamenç Prades relates her experiences since she first arrived from Austria.

    For a list of national stations carrying the broadcast next week, go to http://www.ncra.ca/rvf

    La Francophonie is an international organization representing countries and regions where French is the first or customary language and/or where a significant proportion of the population are Francophones and/or where there is a notable affiliation with French culture. Canada is one of its 57 member states.  The head of the organization is former Canadian Governor General, Michaëlle Jean.

    The project is funded by La Fondation canadienne pour le dialogue des cultures, and in partnership with the NCRA through Canadian Heritage.

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    Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Plan your future now! Ontario Universities’ Fair is September 23-25, 2016

    Sunday, September 18, 2016 | By

    Plan your future now! If you’re thinking about attending Brock University and any of the four programs of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, don’t miss the Ontario Universities’ Fair!

    The OUF is September 23-25, 2016, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and admission is free.

    You can talk personally with students, professors and senior university reps, get answers about programs, admission requirements, student life and much more. Don’t miss out on the largest educational fair in Canada!

    Check out the Facebook event page or go to the Ontario Universities’ Fair website.

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    Categories: Future Students, News

  • Visa and STAC students exhibit in Austria

    Tuesday, April 26, 2016 | By

    entwurf3-ausstellungStudents in the Brock University Intermediate Painting and Interpretive and Critical Writing in the Arts courses, under the tutelage of Professors Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas, have mounted an exhibition at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.

    Visual Appropriations and Rewritings
    June 1 – 30, 2016
    University of Innsbruck, Austria
    Click here for more information.

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    Categories: Events, News, STAC Courses

  • Art is in the City

    Thursday, September 03, 2015 | By

    itc-poster-cmMEDIA RELEASE
    R00125
    2 September 2015
    Brock University — Communications & Public Affairs

    Art is in the City

    As Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts opens a new era in its new urban setting, it is launching a performance series to celebrate the bond between the community and the new arts centre of excellence in downtown St. Catharines.

    The series Imagining the City – part of the Walker Cultural Leaders Program, 2015/16 – consists of performances, exhibitions, concerts and conferences, all themed around ideas of the urban, and the relationship between the City and the University.

    “Our goal is to invite the community to engage with us in a series of celebratory events, 40 or more, that run the course of the academic year,” said Derek Knight, MIWSFPA Director. “Formal or improvised, these activities will take place in our dynamic new building and in venues across the City, from the café to the concert hall, the theatre to the gallery, the outdoor environs to the street itself. What a wonderfully immersive way to bridge between our communities and to strengthen our ties.”

    Knight said events will build on the creativity and vision of faculty, students and the professional talents of many sister organizations and collaborators. “The idea that the city is a crucible for creative interaction and collective reflection, is a powerful concept and demonstration of the arts at their most compelling,” he said.

    The series will be dynamic and original and appeal to a variety of people, whether they are fans of theatre, musical performances, exhibitions or discussions.

    Imagining the City will bring Brock, the downtown and the greater Niagara community face-to-face with leading arts professionals and educators, with events occurring at the MIWSFPA, Rodman Hall, and venues within the developing creative arts hub of St. Paul Street.

    “At this crucial moment in the revival of our downtown the vitality of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts is manifest in programs such as the Walker Cultural Leader Series,” Knight said.

    The series will consist of more than 40 wide-ranging events, including:

    • performances of First Nations writer Marvin Francis’ epic poem City Treaty, adapted for the St. Catharines setting (September);
    • a Guitar Extravaganza concert featuring faculty, alumni and aficionados of the classical guitar in the local community (November);
    • Confluence, a walking project and virtual reconstruction by acclaimed artist Elizabeth Chitty offering the student community and public an opportunity to explore the environs beyond our new building (January);
    • a collaboration between the Shaw Festival and the Department of Dramatic Arts on a staged reading of George Bernard Shaw’s play Major Barbara, entitled Major Barbara/Major Predictions(February);
    • a concert by the Department of Music’s Wind Ensemble in St. Catharines’ Market Square (March).

    The full program can be found here. Stay connected on social media by following @miwsfpa and #itc.

    All events for Imagining the City are free, and open to the public (the only exception being Poor by Essential Collective Theatre, co-presented by FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre with production assistance by DART).

    For more information or to arrange interviews: Marie Balsom, Communications Coordinator, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University mbalsom@brocku.ca, 905.688.5550 x4765

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  • DART, MUSI and MARS present in Toronto at PLS (Poculi Ludique Societas) Festival of Medieval Theatre

    Wednesday, June 10, 2015 | By

    vsCOLLEAGUES, STUDENTS, FRIENDS & FAMILY, If you were in Toronto in early June you were fortunate to see a performance of:

    Visitatio Sepulchri
    (the Visit to the Sepulchre)

    A 12th-CENTURY EASTER MUSIC DRAMA
    acting version transcribed and translated
    by W. L. Smoldon from the ‘Fleury Playbook’

    A collaboration between:
    Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies,
    Department of Dramatic Arts, Department of Music

    Part of the PLS (Poculi Ludique Societas) Festival of Medieval Theatre.

    When: Saturday, June 6, 7 p.m.
    Sunday, June 7, 2:30 p.m.
    Where: Trinity College Chapel University of Toronto,  6 Hoskin Avenue

    Music Director: Dr. Brian Power, Department of Music
    Stage Director: Professor Virginia Reh, Department of Dramatic Arts

    img_1284cr_400px

    The company of Visitatio Sepulchri in the Trinity College Chapel. Photograph by Mrs. Chin Tso.

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

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