Museum in the Hallway / Boîte-en-valise is a rotating exhibit of material culture in two display cases situated in the east alcove on the second floor between the theatre entrances of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. The program consists of five exhibits, including objects and evidence of course outcomes and workshops delivered by special guests (including a Walker Cultural Leader for 2022-23). “Boîte-en-valise” is an expression coined by avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp to refer to the aesthetic value of collecting and assembling.
The small thematic curated exhibitions will have a duration of 4-6 weeks up to 4 months duration. The onsite program will rotate to display cases of the James Gibson Library when possible and will be amplified and celebrated in related communication pieces and image galleries posted to the STAC website.
Touching Books: self-publishing
Museum in the Hallway / Boîte-en-valise
April 15 to September 2024
Opening reception – TBD
Hallway Gallery,
Second Floor East Alcove between Theatre Entrances
Following the introduction of a new course in 2024, STAC 3P97 Publishing: Creative Elements and Editorial Process, this exhibition is the first evidence of a creative inquiry and expression in small press publishing. Students will create mini books, material and digital. The reference volume is Touch, published by the SWP in 2023, which the students will creatively reformulate into new expressions of self-publishing.
Two artists – Brandon LaBelle and Annette le Fort – visit their local public library, check out a few books, keep these for a few days then return them. The text and black-and-white photographs included in Touch, and Tender Readings. Books As Archives document this trip to the library. They evoke a sensory experience – tactile, visual, and olfactive – and a meditative performance – walking through the stacks, touching book covers, turning the pages of a book.
In cooperation with the Small Walker Press, participants to this exhibition explore the act of reading in LaBelle and le Fort’s Touch, and Tender Readings. Books as Archives. Learning by doing, they transform their book, create handmade zines, and engage in creative writing. Like them, they focus on the sensory experience: their creative writing is based on their observations of Derek Knight’s video PLACES: A Flâneur’s Eye; under the guidance of artist Geoff Farnsworth, they draw the portrait of a reader; they cut, collage, and assemble their books manually.
The outcome is a shared experience and a collection of handmade books. Like LaBelle and le Fort’s publication, these books illustrate the pleasure of reading and how thoughts expand quickly beyond the task at hand.
Curators: Catherine Parayre and David Vivian
Recent exhibitions
Christy Mitchell, Honours Thesis exhibition
Nostalgia and the Desire for Authenticity
Museum in the Hallway / Boîte-en-valise
March 22 to April 13, 2024 *held over until April 20, 2024
Opening reception – Mar 22, 2024 from 5-7 pm
Hallway Gallery,
Second Floor East Alcove between Theatre Entrances
STAC graduand Christy Mitchell presents a creative and critical response to the problem of the ephemeral contemporary image. Found and original photographs that provoke an inquiry into our connections to the photographic medium will be presented in an installation by the Museum in the Hallway/ Boîte-en-valise at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts.
The multi-media component of the photographic exhibition will be in operation on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, from 4:30 to 7:30 pm.
Abstract Filters
SCLA 5P01 – Comparative Critical theory in Literature and the Arts responds to Les chemins de l’abstraction.
Museum in the Hallway / Boîte-en-valise
Jan. 15 to Mar. 16, 2024
Opening reception – Feb.2, 2024 from 5-7 pm
Hallway Gallery,
Second Floor East Alcove between Theatre Entrances
In response to the 2023 exhibition “Les chemins de l’abstraction / Pathways to Abstraction” at the Musée du Niel in the South of France, students in SCLA 5P01 – Comparative Critical theory in Literature and the Arts apply Viktor Shklovsky’s concept of “estrangement” to creative-writing pieces and photographic gestures.
In collaboration with the Musée du Niel, Giens, France (museeduniel.art) and with the support of the M.A. Program, Studies in Comparative Literatures and Arts.
museeduniel.com/fr/expositions
museeduniel.com/en/exhibitions
Derek Knight: PLACES, A Flâneur’s Eye
Museum in the Hallway / Boîte-en-valise
Oct. 27, 2023 to Jan.13, 2024
Opening reception – Oct. 27, 2023 from 5-7 pm
CLOSED for the holidays Dec. 21, 2023 through Jan.01, 2024
Hallway Gallery,
Second Floor East Alcove between Theatre Entrances
Media content on MIH/B-e-v digital displays is viewable during business hours. Not viewable Nov 11-12.
Also presented on single channel displays near MWS 147, in the ground floor main lobby and second floor theatre entrance hallway.
Following the official closing the screening of selected images continues on the monitor beside the Digital Media Lab at MWS 147, on the lower level.
Museums and galleries draw prestige from their architecture, geographic locale or historical significance, while compelling works of art, performances, and public expressions of creativity galvanize the diversity of art both within sanctioned institutional spaces and the ‘non-spaces’ that have the capacity to take on resonance.
Derek Knight: PLACES, A Flâneur’s Eye documents his museum visits over the last decade in North America and Europe.
Geoff Farnsworth: Blurs and Vagueness – An exhibition of small paintings
Museum in the Hallway / Boîte-en-valise
Sept. 26 to Oct. 22, 2023
Opening reception – Sept. 26, 2023 from noon to 2 p.m.
Hallway Gallery,
Second Floor East Alcove between Theatre Entrances
An Ontario Culture Days event.
In partnership with 13th Street Gallery’s exhibition of larger paintings by Geoff Farnsworth running Sept. 23 to Oct. 21, 2023.
Demonstrating a spirit for process, experimentation, and colour exploration, Geoff Farnsworth’s small-sized paintings offer a meditative reflection between figurative and abstraction. They are presented here with small drawings.
Rarely shown to the public, Farnsworth’s drawings form a significant part of his work. They often – although not always – represent a more tightly structured environment. When seen together, his paintings and drawings evoke a fluctuating world of everyday realities and the dreamy fantasies of our imagination.
Geoff Farnsworth studied with the Federation of Canadian Artists (Vancouver chapter), Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Capilano University (Graphic Design & Illustration Program), and the Art Students League of New York. After five years in New York City, Farnsworth relocated to Toronto. 4He currently lives and works in downtown St. Catharines. His paintings have been shown in New York City, Washington DC, Minneapolis, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Niagara Falls, Norway, Sweden, and Trinidad.
Curators: Catherine Parayre and David Vivian
Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture
The virtual catalogue for the exhibition is available here:
https://exhibits.library.brocku.ca/s/geoff-farnsworth-blurs-and-vagueness/page/virtual-catalogue
All work on display is available for purchase from the artist.
For a list of prices see the list of works.
Visit the artist’s website.
Upcoming exhibitions
Please visit us again to learn about fall 2024 programming.