See this introduction to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University in St. Catharines ON, with scenes from the events of the official opening of the new facility on September 18, 2015.
Articles tagged with: Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
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Informal Open House at the MIWSFPA Nov. 28
The nationally ranked Brock Badgers men’s and women’s basketball teams will make history Saturday, Nov. 28 when they play the first-ever Brock basketball games at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines.
On this occasion, the adjacent Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts will be opening its doors to visitors between 4 – 7 pm. Plan to visit the school for a quick tour before or after you catch the games beginning at 5:00 and 7:00 pm.
Tickets for the doubleheader will go on sale Nov. 12 through Ticketmaster, though a pre-sale is now available using the promotional code Badgers. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for youths, students and seniors with premium courtside VIP seats also available. In addition, there are 1,000 tickets set aside for Brock University students, who get free admission to home games with their student fees.
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St. Catharines celebrates opening of ‘transformative’ downtown arts school
Brock University ambassadors provided a tour of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts following the grand opening proceedings.
(Source: Niagara This Week, September 21, 2015 | By Mike Zettel)
ST. CATHARINES – There was excitement in the air Friday in front of the former Canada Hair Cloth building as hundreds gathered under and around a large tent to celebrate a new purpose for the 19th century textile factory.
The culmination of a work begun more than eight years ago, Brock University and the City of St. Catharines officially opened the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. The building, which, skillfully designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects, incorporates much of the former factory, including its brick, wooden and steel beams and large windows, while adding state-of-the-art elements.
It houses the dramatic arts, music, and visual arts departments, as well as the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture. In all, 50 full-time faculty members, part-time instructors and staff will join about 500 students in the $45.5-million facility.
Brock president Jack Lightstone traced the path leading to last week’s opening, saying it began with a vision by former chancellor Ray Moriyama and former dean of humanities Rosemary Hale, who say the potential for the old industrial site located right in the heart of the downtown.
The school complements the soon opening FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, with students going back and forth between the two adjacent facilities.
Lightstone said the decision to move downtown was made at Brock under the condition the university would not be making a standalone building but rather one that works within a new vision for the downtown as a hub of arts, culture, entertainment and digital media.
“Right from the very beginning it was conceived we would use each other’s buildings in a symbiotic and dynamic way,” he said.
The beginnings of the project were also accompanied by an inevitable skepticism, Lightstone said, noting he was reminded all too often of the many failed plans for revitalizing the downtown.
Those voices were largely silenced, though, he said, by the generous and “transformative” gift by Norris and Marilyn I. Walker of $15 million to establish the school.
“When they made that commitment, everyone knew we had no choice but to make it happen,” he said, calling it a “catalytic moment.”
MPP Jim Bradley, who Lightstone referred to as the minister of Niagara and Brock, said the school has added to a new feeling of optimism for downtown St. Catharines.
“Today it stands as a testament to our manufacturing past and as an example of our economic renewal and creative spirit in our community,” he said.
Mayor Walter Sendzik noted there were many who made the vision for the school a reality, and he singled out the previous council under former Mayor Brian McMullan for ensuring the building, which had to be expropriated, was available for Brock.
However, he said three people, Lightstone, Hale and Walker, were crucial to its success.
“Take one of those involved out of the equation, and I don’t think we’re standing here today,” he said.
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GRAND OPENING: The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at 15 Artists’ Common, Downtown St. Catharines
The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts and the Department of Dramatic Arts celebrated the grand opening of the new facility on Friday, September 18th, 2015. Hundreds of people from the community were on hand to share the milestone. Below, we’ve collected some videos and news items from that event:
Read the article in the Brock News, complete with short video tours.
See this short report by TVCOGECO Niagara on the occasion of the Grand Opening Ceremony:
See the report “Brock celebrates new school in heart of the city” in the St. Catharines Standard, featuring two short videos about the school and Marilyn I. Walker:
Listen to the report about the new MIWSFPA facility’s grand opening from the The Brock News podcast Episode 1, one in a series of podcasts being produced at the University, showcasing interesting people, research and news. The segment on the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts can be found at cue 1:40 – 3:54. We’ve provided a clip here.
Brock University ambassadors provided a tour of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts following the grand opening proceedings.
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Downtown parking for MIWSFPA opening ceremony
(Source: The Brock News, Thursday, September 17, 2015 | by Kevin Cavanagh. Photo: A parking map for the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts grand opening.)
Guests attending the opening of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts — which starts at 3 pm on Friday, Sept. 18 — should allow a minimum 15 minutes to find parking in downtown St. Catharines and walk to the school.
Please note there is no parking at the Walker School campus, due to the temporary structure installed for the opening ceremony.
However, there are numerous downtown sites that have hourly parking and are a short walk from the MIWSFPA.
Use this legend for the accompanying map:
- Garden Park / Carlisle Street Garage — 71 Carlisle Street
- Garden Park Lot — 11 Garden Park
- St. Paul Street parking lot
- Ontario Street Parking Garage — 8 Ontario Street
- Market Square Lot — 50 Church Street, accessible from King or James Streets
- Central Library Lot — accessible from King or Carlisle Streets
On the map, pedestrian access from St. Paul Street to the Walker School is designated by blue lines.
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Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts Alumni Homecoming
Event date: September 18, 2015, 5 pm – 11 pm
***PLEASE SEE THIS NEWS UPDATE ABOUT PARKING ON SEPTEMBER 18TH***
Alumni of the Arts and Culture, Dramatic Arts, Music and Visual Arts programs and our friends and guests from the Niagara Region and GTA are cordially invited to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Alumni Homecoming and Grand Opening!
Please join us for an evening of captivating artwork, exciting performances and beautiful music. Grab a glass of wine, take yourself on a tour of the incredible new MIWSFPA facility and spend some time reconnecting with classmates, professors and friends from the Departments of Dramatic Arts, Music, and Visual Arts, and our Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture.
Official opening ceremonies begin at 3:00; Open house begins at 5:00 pm; VISA Art Gallery Alumni exhibition opens at 5:00 pm; VISA Alumni Dinner, 6:30 – 8 pm at Gord’s Place, 84 James Street; MUSI programming across the evening in multiple venues at 15 Artists’ Common; Cabaret in the DART Theatre at 7:30 pm.
Affiliated events also include:
Tale of a Town St. Catharines
Addressing the Voidand
Confluence Field Trip #1, a fifteen minute walk from Rodman Hall to MWSFPA along the Merritt Trail and McGuire St.. for more information see: confluencefieldtrips.ca
Hope to see you there!
See the Facebook event by clicking here.
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE to reserve a seat at the VISA Alumni dinner!
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE for the DART theatre CABARET!
For more information about the Homecoming Weekend program at Brock University, to register for events and to learn about shuttle bus service to the region be sure to visit
https://brocku.ca/alumni/celebrate-homecoming-2
***Please note this event will take place at our new address at 15 Artists’ Common, also known as the former Canada Haircloth Building, in downtown St. Catharines. ***not at 500 Glenridge Avenue ***Here is a link to a Google street view from June, when our address was known to be IceDogs Way, and here is a Google map for directions to the facilities.
Please see the Brock University Campus Map here: https://brocku.ca/blogs/campus-map/miwsfpa/
We are adjacent to the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre and the Meridian Centre.
***PLEASE SEE THIS NEWS UPDATE ABOUT PARKING ON SEPTEMBER 18TH***
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Hear ye! Hear ye! the excellent program for our event on September 18th!VISA Painting Studio
location: MW 416
4:00-9:00 pm
Open house Exhibition
and
Musical performances in the VISA Painting Studio by:
Brock Jazz Band
Carly Manley
Danny Lamb Trio
Grace Notes String Ensemble
Brock Beatles BandVISA Drawing Studio
location: MW 406
4:00 – 9:00 pm
Open house Exhibition
and
Musical performances in the VISA Drawing Studio by:
Sabrina Xin Liu, piano
Leanne Vida, piano/vocal
Andrea Nolan, piano/vocal
Neva Tesolin, piano/vocal
Leland, piano/vocal
Melissa-Marie Shriner, piano/vocal
H. Campbell, piano/vocalVISA Gallery
First floor at the Main Entrance, 15 Artists’ Common
MW 159
5:00-7:00 pm
Opening Reception for the Alumni exhibition
and
Musical performances in the VISA Gallery by:
Grace Snippe, cello
Brody Smith, guitar
Allison Scholtens, violin
Tyler Merza, guitarClassical Recital in the MUSI Vocal Studio
location: MW 104
6:00 – 9:00 pm
Christina Lerose, piano
Leanne Vida, soprano
Jorgo Kalo, piano
Victoria Hoshowsky, soprano
Negin Rezaei Asl, piano
Caroline Nicole Corkum, soprano and Alexandre Soulodre, piano
Serena Atallah, piano
Erika Versluis, soprano and Tyler Versluis, piano
Sabrina Xin Liu, piano
Leanne Vida, soprano and Jorgo Kalo, pianoDART Theatre Cabaret!
Location: DART Theatre
MW 262
7:30 pm – 11:00 pm
Hosted by Cass Van Wyck and Rox Chwaluk
Guests are welcome to come and go.
In order of performance:Arms Up Comedy: Caitlin English, Jacqueline Costa, Eric Frank, Chris Boyle
Attic Window Theatre, In Real Life: Collin Glavac, Colin B. Anthes, Eduardo DiMartino, Nicola Franco, Hayley Rose Malouin
Piano and Vocal: Lee Stewart
Brock Improv Alumni: Richard Varty, Rox Chwaluk, Brandon Pachan, Alana Perri.
Piano and Vocal: Melissa-Marie Shriner and Grace Snippe
One Four One Collective, Stuck in Horse- Send Help! : Evan Mulrooney and Kevin Chew
Piano and Vocal: Neva Tesolin
MOVE! : Alex Kazam, Adrien Hurst, Jerry Prom, Mitchell Peebles, Caleb Fast, Mikey Henley
Music by Alejandro Del Pino
The Labour of Forrest Nympho: A Drag Birthing: Geoffrey Heaney
Piano and Vocal: Andrea Nolan
Empty Box Theatre, Waiting for Alonzo: Hayley Rose Malouin, Victoria Cutler, Sean Rintoul
Piano and Vocal: Holly Campbell
Garden City Improv: Collin Glavac, Ross Mosher, Jamie Roboz, David Bernard, Hayley Malouin, Jonas McLean
Guitar and Vocal: Aaron Berger
Open Mic!
FOX TRAIL: Iain Lidstone, Marcus Schwan, Brent Cairns, Adam Wood, Alannah Garrett
~the end~Special events not to be missed!:
New Work in Progress: Addressing the Void
by Maggie Hunter and performed by Abby Rollo, Gemma Bordonaro and Jacqui Noel. (DART)
location: Studio D MW 256.
6:00 pm, 6:30 pm and 7:00 pmSpecial Installation of Tale of a Town St. Catharines. Listening Booths by FIXT POINT and Suitcase in Point Theatre Company.
Various locations in the MIWSFPA.Confluence Field Trip #1, a fifteen minute walk from Rodman Hall to the MIWSFPA along the Merritt Trail and McGuire St.
Artist: Elizabeth Chitty. Participants are invited to participate in this self-guided tour of a section of the Twelve Mile Creek valley. For more information see: http://confluencefieldtrips.ca/ -
Imagining the City (part of the Walker Cultural Leaders Program, 2015/16)
The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts presents Imagining the City, part of the Walker Cultural Leaders Program, 2015/16.
In September, Brock University opened the doors to its new downtown campus dedicated to the arts, the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA). To celebrate this new location and the bond between the Brock and downtown arts communities, the departments in the MIWSFPA (Dramatic Arts, Music, and Visual Arts), the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, and Rodman Hall Art Centre present Imagining the City, part of the Walker Cultural Leaders Program. This festival will run throughout the 2015-16 academic year, and consists of performances, exhibitions, concerts, and conferences, all themed around ideas of the urban, and the relationship between the City and the University.
Imagining the City will bring the Brock, downtown, and greater Niagara communities face-to-face with leading arts professionals and educators, with events happening at the MIWSFPA, Rodman Hall (109 St. Paul Crescent), and venues within the developing creative arts hub of St. Paul Street in St. Catharines. Highlights will include 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 Field Trips, 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 staged adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s play Major Barbara, entitled Major Predictions, Barbara (February); a concert by the Department of Music’s Wind Ensemble in St. Catharines’ Market Square (March) and much, much more.
Stay connected on social media by following @miwsfpa and #itc on Twitter and Instagram.
Want to keep track of our events? Click the link to download our Imagining the City Calendar of Events in pdf format.
Jump to Dates:
- September 2015
- October 2015
- November 2015
- December 2015
- January 2016
- February 2016
- March 2016
- April 2016
Event hosting legend:
D: Department of Dramatic Arts; M: Department of Music; V: Department of Visual Arts; S: Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture; RH: Rodman Hall
Events
September 2015
D: Exhibition: DART@PQ2015
September 2015 – April 2016
Opening: Alumni Homecoming and Grand Opening, September 18, 2015
Location: DART Theatre Lobby, 2nd Level, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, 15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines
Exhibit of DART’s participation in the Canadian PQ2015 (Prague Quadrennial) exhibit Elevations, including parts of national collective project Totem. Theme: MUSIC. WEATHER. POLITICS. Also including: Fault Lines: digital exhibit of Brock students’ work.V: Confluence Field Trips – Walking Project
Walking Project: Tuesday, September 8 – Sunday, November 15, 2015
Location: Downtown locations
Exhibition: Thursday, January 7 – Friday, January 29, 2016
Opening Reception: Friday, January 8, 2016, 7-9 p.m.
Location: Art Gallery , 15 Artists’ Common
See confluencefieldtrips.ca for more information and how to participate.
The site of the MIWSFPA is rich with cycles of wilderness, settlement, industry, abandonment and reclamation. Confluence Field Trips is a website, walking project, and exhibition. It is about time and the places below the new school and performing arts centre. It is walking, seeing, listening and contributing if you choose. The artist invites the school community and public to claim space, see and be seen, hear and be heard.V: Shifting Practices, Department of Visual Arts Alumni Exhibition, Curated by Emma German
Thursday, September 10 – Saturday, October 10, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, September 18, 2015, 5 – 11 p.m.
Location: Art Gallery, 15 Artists’ Common
Timed with the unveiling of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Shifting Practices follows the work of six alumni from the Department of Visual Arts. Upon graduating from the Visual Arts Honours program, these artists have established their careers through exhibitions, artist residencies, graduate degrees, and national awards. This exhibition explores how their individual practices have evolved, from the time when the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts was first imagined, until its realization. Artists: Sarah Beattie, Candace Couse, Alicia Kuntze, Ben Mosher, Carrie Perreault, Bruce Thompson.M: citySounds
Friday, September 11, 2015, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Location: Raceway behind the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, 15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines
Percussionist Devon Fornelli will converse in real time with the city soundscape using traditional instruments and found materials.M: Pop Up Performances
September 11, 14, 15, 16, 2015, 12 – 1 p.m.
Location: Various Downtown Locations
Musical Performances by Colin Maier, Oboe (and other instruments), and Alexander Sevastian, Accordion.RH: Hot Talk: Sarindar Dhaliwal
Thursday, September 17, 2015, 7 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres., St. CatharinesD: City Treaty
Saturday, September 19, 2015, 5 – 9 p.m.
Sunday, September 20, 2015, 12:30 – 9:30 p.m.
Location: In and around the DART Theatre and lobby, 15 Artists’ Common, Other Downtown Locations
Saturday: 5 p.m. Opening Ceremony
5:30 p.m. Dance, Drumming & Vendor Fair
6:30 p.m. Historical Talk with Rick Hill
7 p.m. City Treaty Presentation
Sunday: 12:30 p.m. Perpetual Peace Project Concert
2 p.m. City Treaty Presentation
3 p.m. Workshops
5 p.m. Closing Ceremony
5:30 p.m. Celebration at Rise Above, 120 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines
Featuring a stage adaptation of Marvin Francis’ epic long poem City Treaty, art by multi-disciplinary artist Shelly Niro, a historical talk with Rick Hill, workshops, dance demonstrations, music, food and more. The event wishes to honour the land the new theatre is built upon and open its doors to all peoples.To register for workshops and/or performances, please visit: http://discover.brocku.ca/city-treaty
RH: Hot Talk: Maggie Groat
Saturday, September 26, 2015, 2 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres., St. CatharinesRH: Hot Talk: Derek Knight
Wednesday, September 30, 2015, 12 p.m.
Location: Mahtay Café, 241 St. Paul Street, St. CatharinesOctober 2015
M & V: Cello and Drawing Performance
Friday, October 9, 2015, 7 p.m.
Location: Visual Arts Painting Studio (Rm. MW416), Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, 15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines
Cellist Gordon Cleland will perform in our new Visual Arts studio surrounded by students and professional artists, who will be creating works of art. Cleland is principal cellist with the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, and an instructor in the Department of Music.
Free community event, limited seating.RH: Donna Szőke: Cloud, Curated by Stuart Reid
Saturday, October 10, 2015 – Sunday, January 17, 2016
Opening Reception: Sunday, October 25, 2015, 3 – 5 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres., St. Catharines
Cloud is an assemblage of limited-edition prints and objects that explores relational meaning. Donna Szőke has created a collection of works that convey messages that are sometimes absurd, often humorous, never singular, but existing in relation to other parts of the whole. The materials chosen for the prints usually have an association with the text or message. For Decoy, the artist made a series of 3D-printed, trompe l’oeil Tim Horton’s doughnuts. The relationship between the doughnut and the hole, the original and the copy, the single and the baker’s dozen, may be confounding or irrational, but serves to point out how ideas are ephemeral structures. The artist writes: “Absurdity, irrationality, immanence, failure and anachronism are the unifying themes of Cloud… Ideas arise and are fleeting. They form, peak and disappear in sets of relationships to other ideas. Insights echo across instances of ideas.”V: Donna Szőke: Satellite, Curated by Stuart Reid
Monday, October 19 – Saturday, November 28, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, October 23, 2015, 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Art Gallery, 15 Artists’ Common
Satellite is the collected media art works by Donna Szoke, from 2011 to present. It is literally a satellite show of the exhibition Cloud, installed at Rodman Hall Art Centre. While Cloud coalesces print, sculpture and multiples into one body of work, Satellite presents digital drawings, single channel video and media art works that speak to the ethereal regions of digital art practice. These digital artworks investigate the invisible, elided and mysterious.RH: Hot Talk: Julia Haimburger
Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 12 p.m.
Location: Mahtay Café, 241 St. Paul Street, St. CatharinesRH: Hot Talk: Bill Burns
Sunday, October 25, 2015, 2 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres., St. CatharinesRH: Bill Burns: Hans Ulrich Obrist Hear Us, Curated by Stuart Reid in collaboration with Jennifer Matotek, Director/Curator, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan
Sunday, October 25, 2015 – Sunday, January 3, 2016
Opening Reception: Sunday, October 25, 2015, 3 – 5 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres., St. Catharines
This survey exhibition of recent work by Bill Burns deals with longing, particularly longing for success, for assistance, for recognition, for a different type of world. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Burns makes overt pleas to art world celebrities, critiquing the politics of power that support them. The artist creates small-scale models of the world’s great museums with rooftop signs spelling out his request to curatorial luminaries. The pleas take the form of a litany: “priez pour nous”, “protect us”, “délivrez-nous”, “hear us.” Burns has met and worked with many of the curators he references through his expansive career in conceptual art in São Paulo, Toronto, London, and New York. In another nod to his powerful peers, the artist has created a series of small bobble-head likenesses that directly address notions of commodification within the contemporary art ecology.November 2015
S: Harvest Time by Renée Baillargeon
Saturday, November 7, 2015, 8 p.m.
Location: Studio A (MW 251), 15 Artists’ Common
The Centre for Studies in Arts & Culture will present dramatic readings of 4 short plays by 4 established local playwrights touching on “Harvest Time” in St. Catharines. Directed by STAC instructor Renée Baillargeon, each play will be preceded by a photo collage from STAC student Alex Craddock, scored against music by STAC Alumni Jon Link. The dramatic readings feature Brock students Mark Dickinson, Naomi Richardson, Alex Li Tomulescu, Michael Fusillo, Naomi Mitchel and Keegan Cahill.D: Engaging Possibilities/Joining The Fires
November 17-19, 12-5 p.m.
Location: Studio A (MW 251), 15 Artists’ Common
Presentation of transdisciplinary workshops including the Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) community and DART scenography students.
Workshops will be in the afternoons. Workshops open to participants ONLY. Contact David at dvivian@brocku.ca for more information.RH: HOT TALK! Donna Szőke in conversation with Emily Rosamond
Thursday, November 12, 2015, 7 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres., St. Catharines
In conjunction with her solo exhibition Cloud, Brock University Visual Arts professor Donna Szőke discusses her work with visiting artist-researcher Emily Rosamond, Commonwealth Scholar in Art at Goldsmiths, University of London UK.
HOT TALKS! are generously supported by Partridge Wealth Management RBC Dominion Securities Inc., St. CatharinesM: Guitar Extravaganza
Saturday, November 21, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
Location: Cairns Recital Hall, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, 250 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines
Brock University students, alumni and faculty perform with regional guitarists, guitar teachers and composers, and special guests in an evening of solo and small ensemble performances. The grand finale will be “The Mighty Niagara Guitar Orchestra” performing the North American premiere of The Journey, composed by Brock University guitar instructor Timothy Phelan.
The Guitar Extravaganza is a free community event, with donations gratefully accepted on behalf of Pathstone Mental Health.S: Her Voice in Black: Black Female Narrative in Lyric Theatre by Carla Chambers
Sunday, November 29, 2015, 3 p.m.
Location: DART Theatre, 15 Artists’ Common
Directed by Virginia Reh, and featuring accompanist Brahm Goldhamer, Her Voice in Black explores some of opera’s black female characters. The concert is 45 minutes and consists of selections from operatic repertoire exploring intersections between the social and personal meanings of identity and representation in art. With art direction by visual artist Bob Chaylt Jeffreys, the set list includes musical selections from Giuseppe Verdi, George Gershwin, Scott Joplin, and new work by American composer Nkeiru Okoye.
Back to topDecember 2015
V: ART BLOCK
Tuesday, December 1 – Friday, December 18, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, December 11, 2015, 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Art Gallery, 15 Artists’ Common
Celebrating our new school in downtown St. Catharines, ‘ART BLOCK’ is hosted by the Brock Art Collective, and showcases the works of over 45 Brock students on 6×6 inch wood panels in a variety of media. Pieces will be available for purchase starting at $40. Treat yourself, or find a holiday gift at this free community event!M: Christmas Carolling
Saturday, December 12, 2015, 1- 3 p.m.
Simultaneous Locations: St. Catharines Public Library Atrium & FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre Lobby
Join us in spreading some holiday cheer! Enjoy a festive treat of traditional Christmas carols performed by members of the Brock University Choirs and Avanti Chamber Singers, under the direction of Dr. Harris Loewen.
Free community event!S: The Exquisite Vine
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Location: The Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce Education Centre, 1 St. Paul Street.
The Exquisite Vine is a collaborative mentorship Art project between downtown St. Catharines’ creative professionals, and fine and performing arts students. This exhibition is a public event to showcase the artistic concepts and designs the students are developing into final works of art.
Free community event!January 2016
V: Elizabeth Chitty: Confluence Field Trips Exhibition
Thursday, January 7 – Friday, January 29
Opening Reception: Friday, January 8, 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Art Gallery, 15 Artists’ Common
This installation is part of the artist’s project which includes a website, walking project, and performance, in which the public was invited to CLAIM SPACE | SEE AND BE SEEN | HEAR AND BE HEARD through walking in Canal Valley. The “confluence” of the title is that of Dick’s Creek and Twelve Mile Creek. The project was predicated by the opening of two arts buildings in St. Catharines that overlook Canal Valley, marking a new phase in a site rich with cycles of wilderness, industry, abandonment, and reclamation.RH: Shawn Serfas: Inland, Curated by Stuart Reid
Saturday, January 9 – Sunday, March 20
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 28, 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Crescent.
Swirling, thrusting marks traverse complex surfaces in this new body of large-scale abstract paintings called the Inland Series by Shawn Serfas. The artist explores the toxic potential of oily black as it infuses the ground, almost extinguishing the incendiary bars of hot red and yellow that burn like a furnace in the bottom quadrant of several of the paintings. Manipulating the liquidity of paint, the artist creates wet layers and crackling surfaces that illustrate the alchemic properties of the material. Serfas addresses environmental issues in these works, the uneasy pollution of materials seeping into the unspoiled cells of pure colour. This world is in dramatic flux, churning and changing; each painting evidence of an arrested state of human-made unbalance.RH: Jim Verburg, Curated by Marcie Bronson**Postponed
Saturday, January 16 – Sunday, May 1
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Crescent.
This event has been postponed until 2017.RH: Visual Appropriations and Rewritings, Curated by Catherine Parayre & Shawn Serfas
Friday, January 29 – Sunday, February 21
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 28, 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Crescent.
Students in the Brock University courses “Intermediate Painting” and “Interpretive and Critical Writing in the Arts” reflect creatively on well-known artists’ writings and offer a visual and textual panorama of reinterpreted views. The exhibition will then travel to the University of Innsbruck, Austria in June, 2016 on the invitation of the Zentrum für Kanadastudien.RH: Amy Friend, Assorted Boxes of Ordinary Life, Curated by Marcie Bronson
Friday, January 29 – Sunday, May 1
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 28, 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Crescent.
Inspired by a small found archive of personal photographs, documents, and objects, Amy Friend presents a new body of photo-based work that considers how identity comprises both fact and fiction. Composing images by overlaying fragments of the archive with anonymous secondhand photographs and her own original photographs, she infers narratives from the minimal details the remnants provide. Ambiguous and morphing, these composite images at once explore and confuse the history they reference, and Friend uses this to reflect on how we understand and interpret the people around us. So little can say so much, and even greater is the unexplored mystery of the spaces in between what is known.D: Drama in Education & Applied Theatre Symposium on Active Citizenship
Friday, January 29, 7 – 8:30 p.m. Keynote by Kathleen Gould Lundy, with a response by Jonothan Neelands
Location: Dramatic Arts Theatre, 15 Artists’ Common
A symposium on the role of Drama in Education and Applied Theatre in exploring concepts of citizenship, community and care as they relate to living with others in structured and unstructured spaces. The Keynote Address (“Pedagogy of Time and Place”) and Response on January 29 are open to the public, and admission is free.S: PANEL DISCUSSION: “Reinventing the Downtown through the Arts”
Friday, January 29, 2 – 4 p.m.
Location: Lecture Praxis Room, Rm. MW156, 15 Artists’ Common
A public panel discussion to present successful examples of urban regeneration through cultural activities. The participating panelists represent a variety of sectors within the arts community. Studies in Arts and Culture faculty member Sharilyn Ingram will moderate this illuminating public talk.PLEASE NOTE: This event was originally scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m., but has been moved to 2 p.m.
Free community event.February 2016
S: Black History Film Festival
Friday, February 5 & 26 at 6 pm
Saturday, February 6 & 27 at 1pm
Location: Lecture Praxis Room, Rm. MW156, 15 Artists’ Common
Discover cinematic narratives by filmmakers and authors from the African Diaspora. Films to be shown include Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing”, Biyi Bandele’s “Half of a Yellow Sun”, and Sherry Hormann’s “Desert Flower”, among others.
This event will also feature guest speaker and Brock faculty member, Dr. Tamari Kitossa.PLEASE NOTE: This event was originally scheduled to take place on 4 Mondays in February, but has been rescheduled to the first and last Fridays and Saturdays in February. Plan to join us on these dates!
Free community event.
V: Forever After: Painting And The Eye That Touches, Co-Curated by Cory Dixon and Joshua Gale
Tuesday, February 2 – Saturday, March 5
Opening Reception: Friday, February 5, 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Art Gallery, 15 Artists’ Common
Forever After: Painting and The Eye That Touches is a curated rebuttal to the MOMA’s recent survey of contemporary painting. Despite being highly criticized, Laura Hoptman’s exhibition Forever Now started a critical conversation with poignant and important aesthetic questions about how the act of reading and creating paintings has radically changed in a world where the internet is almost seamlessly integrated in daily life. Assembling artists from Canada and New York in this new exhibition, Forever After: Painting and the Eye That Touches is an alternative proposition on what great painting can be in light of the radical changes in our relationship to history, images and the craft of constructing and viewing paintings.
Participating Artists: Emily Davis Adams (USA), Dana James (USA), Daniel John (USA), Zachari Logan (Canada), Shawn Serfas (Canada)D: POOR by Essential Collective Theatre, co-presented by FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre with production assistance by DART
February 18 – 28: Tuesdays – Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets: Available at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre
Location: Robertson Theatre, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, 250 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines
A new one-woman play by Vancouver playwright Suzanne Ristic, this darkly comic piece was first produced in 2014 at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Essential Collective Theatre’s production will be performed by DART part-time faculty member and ECT Artistic Director Monica Dufault, and is directed by Karen Wood.
The play centres on an ultra rich Canadian woman, Shelly Cormorant, who pretends to be homeless in order to better understand the plight of the 99%. A contemporary Marie Antoinette in her ignorance, Shelly unwittingly offends everyone she meets in her attempt to empathize with the “poor”, all the while taking advice from a vision of Scarlett O’Hara.D: Major Predictions, Barbara
Tuesday, February 23, 7:30 p.m.
Location: DART Theatre, 15 Artists’ Common
Workshop and reading of a new play by David Fancy, written in response to George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara, directed by Lezley Wade. Major Predictions, Barbara features a cast of DART students and current and past members of the Shaw Festival ensemble. It takes place in our contemporary world of “killer code,” TED talks, and predictive surveillance; Fancy’s text is intercut with passages from Shaw’s original text.M: Music Ed Plus Jazz Ensemble
Friday, February 26, 3 p.m.
Location: FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre lobby, 250 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines
Please join us to hear some great jazz favourites performed by Brock’s music majors in the beautiful lobby of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.
Music Ed Plus gives music majors at Brock University practical experience in a variety of music settings. This unique experiential program includes practical learning opportunities through professionally-coached ensembles and community volunteer placements, as well as workshops and lectures by experts in diverse musical careers. Participation in the program gives students a strong edge in their preparation for their future musical endeavours.
Free community event!RH: Hot Talk: Amy Friend
Thursday, February 25, 7 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres., St. Catharines
March 2016
M: Music Ed Plus Vocal and Woodwind Chamber Ensembles
Friday, March 4 & 11, 3 p.m.
Location: FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre lobby, 250 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines
Please join us to hear some great classical favourites performed by Brock’s music majors in the beautiful lobby of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.
Music Ed Plus gives music majors at Brock University practical experience in a variety of music settings. This unique experiential program includes practical learning opportunities through professionally-coached ensembles and community volunteer placements, as well as workshops and lectures by experts in diverse musical careers. Participation in the program gives students a strong edge in their preparation for their future musical endeavours.
Free community event!V: A Field Guide to Nowhere, Curated by Amy Friend
Tuesday, March 8 – Saturday, April 9
Opening Reception: Friday, March 18, 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Art Gallery, 15 Artists’ Common
A unique international perspective provided by artists Susan Dobson (Canada), Marja Pirila (Finland), Byron Wolfe and Mary Ellen Bartely (United States), this exhibition explores photography’s uncanny ability to transport the viewer beyond the bounds of their physical locale.
Free community event!RH: Hot Talk: Shawn Serfas
Thursday, March 10, 7 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres., St. CatharinesM: Brock University Wind Ensemble in Market Square
Friday, March 18, 12 noon – 1 p.m.
Location: Market Square, 91 King Street, St. Catharines
The University Wind Ensemble will delight the lunchtime crowd with great music. Brock students are joined by talented community volunteers in this rousing ensemble. There may even be a chance for an audience member to conduct the band.V & RH: #trynottocryinpublic – Brock University Department of Visual Arts Honours Exhibition, Curated by Marcie Bronson and Stuart Reid
Saturday, March 26 – Sunday, April 10
Opening Reception: Friday, April 1, 7 -9 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres., St. Catharines
Presented in two chapters, this exhibition displays the work of selected graduating Brock University Visual Arts students. Occupying Rodman Hall’s third floor studios during the academic year, students in the Honours Studio course are mentored by gallery staff and professors Shawn Serfas and Donna Szőke, and learn to develop a focused body of work from concept to public exhibition.
Such exhibits from the Department of Visual Arts are a key part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts’ mandate to build connections between the community and the breadth of talent and creativity at Brock UniversityApril 2016
V: Back and Forth, Brazil/Canada Exhibition
Thursday, April 14 – Saturday, May 28
Opening Reception: Friday, April 22, 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Art Gallery, 15 Artists’ Common
This group exhibition includes work by two Brazilian artists, Jefferson Kielwagen and Nilton Santo Tirotti, and two Canadian artists – Duncan MacDonald and Ehryn Torrell. The exhibition explores compassionate conceptualism, public engagement, gifting, listening, neo-sincerity, and conceptual mapping.D: Engaging Possibilities/Joining The Fires
Tuesday workshops, April 12 – May 10, 12 – 5 p.m., May 17, 9 am – 5 p.m.
Location: Location: Studio A (MW 251), 15 Artists’ Common
Workshops for Community Members who use Alternative, Augmented Communication (AAC) and Open Studio on May 17.
Presentation of transdisciplinary workshops including the Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) community and DART scenography students.
Workshops will be in the afternoons (exact timing TBA). Workshops open to students and the DART community; possible final public outcome (TBA).V & RH: #trynottocryinpublic – Brock University Department of Visual Arts Honours Exhibition, Curated by Marcie Bronson and Stuart Reid
Saturday, April 16 – Sunday, May 1
Opening Reception: Friday, April 15, 2016, 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres., St. Catharines
Presented in two chapters, this exhibition displays the work of selected graduating Brock University Visual Arts students. Occupying Rodman Hall’s third floor studios during the academic year, students in the Honours Studio course are mentored by gallery staff and professors Shawn Serfas and Donna Szőke, and learn to develop a focused body of work from concept to public exhibition.
Such exhibits from the Department of Visual Arts are a key part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts’ mandate to build connections between the community and the breadth of talent and creativity at Brock University.S: The Exquisite Vine
Friday, April 29
Location: Rm. MW 406, 15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines
The Exquisite Vine is a collaborative mentorship art project between downtown St. Catharines’ creative professionals, and fine and performing arts students. This exhibition is a public event to showcase the multidisciplinary works of art, inspired by the growing creative community based downtown. Disciplines include painting, sculpture, installation, and new media. Find out more information at theexquisitevine.ca.Free community event!
RH: Hot Talk: Jim Verburg **Postponed
Thursday, April 7
Location: Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Crescent.
This event has been postponed until 2017. -
Art is in the City
MEDIA RELEASE
R00125
2 September 2015
Brock University — Communications & Public AffairsArt 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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With construction finished, Brock’s new downtown arts school gets ready to educate
(Source: The Brock News, Monday, June 1, 2015. Photo: Music student Grace Snippe performs during a media tour of the Marilyn I. Walker School for the Fine and Performing Arts on Friday. A videographer from CHCH in Hamilton zooms in.)
On 15 May 2015, after more than two years of construction, a major project in downtown St. Catharines was granted formal occupancy by the city’s building department.
At that moment, the new home of Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts officially stopped being a building project and began life as a dynamic educational facility.
The keys were handed over, and the University became responsible for everything from security guards to providing Wi-Fi, switching on the lights and cleaning the restrooms.
Brock University President Jack Lightstone calls the MIWSFPA a landmark development for Brock and Niagara.
“For Brock, it provides another purpose-built facility serving the very specialized needs of the school, like the Cairns Complex has done for science and health science,” he said. “For Niagara, it is a landmark in what a university and a city government can achieve in a close working partnership to bring new life and a new economic base to St. Catharines’ downtown core.”
The five-storey school is partly new construction and partly restored heritage buildings, including a 19th-century textile mill. But it’s all state-of-the-art, from the new 235-seat performing arts theatre to its digital media studios, photo darkrooms, instrumental music rooms and any other number of specialized facilities needed to support the development of students within numerous genres of dramatic arts, music and visual arts.
The project was designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects, who have been the visionaries behind entertainment complexes in cities from Toronto and Montreal to St. Petersburg, Russia.
“The adaptive re-use of this fine heritage structure is bringing to life innovations in dramatic arts education that demonstrate the value of preserving this building in the revitalization of St. Catharines,” said Michael Leckman, principal, Diamond Schmitt Architects.
The inaugural wave of 500 students won’t arrive for another three months, but from now until September the Walker School will bustle with activity.
Just furnishing an empty 93,700-square-foot complex will take weeks, and once the moving trucks have stopped unloading, faculty and staff members relocating from the Walker School’s current home on the main Brock campus will scramble to get settled and organized for a September they will always remember.
The ambitious $45.5-million project was made possible by a $26.2-million investment from the Ontario government as well as a $15-million transformational gift from local textile artist and philanthropist Marilyn I. Walker.
Walker, who recently got her first tour of the completed project, said she was extremely pleased with the final result.
“It’s a challenge to your imagination to comprehend what all could be done within this building when it comes to educating students,” she said. “It’s not what the physical building means so much as the opportunities it will provide … the possibilities for using these state-of-the art facilities for the benefit of the community.”
Official opening ceremonies are being planned for mid-September, during Brock’s Homecoming Weekend, and University officials are also working on plans for public tours of the landmark facility, probably sometime in the fall.
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Almost ready for the big move!
University architect and project manager Scott Roper leading the tour outside of the Learning Commons of the new facility of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in downtown St.Catharines.
The four programs of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts — Dramatic Arts, Music, Studies in Arts and Culture, and Visual Arts — are counting down to the big move to the new facility at 198 St. Paul in downtown St. Catharines. The trucks start rolling at the end of this month. To say we are excited would be an understatement!
On May 29, 2015 we invited student and media to join us for a tour of the new facilities. Take a look at these reports from CHCH Television, Cogeco “The Source”, the St. Catharines Standard, and the Brock News.
We also invite you to have a look at the following slide show of photos taken by the Chair of Dramatic Arts, David Vivian:
For more information please contact Marie Balsom.
Hear ye! Hear ye! the excellent program for our event on September 18th!
MEDIA RELEASE
