Current Students

  • Fall Visa Art Stores & Equipment Kiosk Announcement.

    Tuesday, September 08, 2020 | By

    We are happy to announce Visa student access to the services of the Visa Art Stores & Equipment Kiosk for the coming semester has been approved by Brock Administration. Students will access these services on-line and will be able to pick up their materials orders or loan requests in person in the MWS151 Foundation Studio. Please enter the MIWSFPA via the main lobby entrance (east end), bring a mask and have your Brock ID with you. This service will commence Monday, September 14.

    How to file your orders/loans:

    Kiosk loan requests are done by visiting this link:
    https://brocku.ca/miwsfpa/visual-arts/programs/visual-arts-facilities/equipment-request-form/

    Art Stores materials requests are done by emailing the Visa Art Stores at: VisaArtStores@brocku.ca
    Important note re. Art Stores orders: Art Stores orders are only available to students who have studio fee funds remaining on account from previous years. As first year students (ie. Visa 1p93, 1p95, 1p96 etc.) do not have funds remaining on account they are not able to order materials.

    Once you’ve filed your request it will be processed and you will be emailed when it is ready for pickup in MWS151. Loan/order pickups are available on the following days in MWS151:

    Mondays: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
    Tuesdays: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
    Wednesdays: 9:00 am to 1:00 & 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm
    Thursdays: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

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

  • Welcome to Visual Arts: Orientation for 2020!

    Monday, September 07, 2020 | By

    (a screen shot from the welcome by Professor Shawn Serfas. 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 Department of Visual Arts (VISA)

    Welcome new VISA students to our asynchronous orientation video! It’s always nice to put a name to face, so we took some time to prepare this video, so that you can get acquainted with some of the awesome people in the Department of Visual Arts. We look forward to meeting you in person in the near future. Stay safe, VISA.

    Professor Shawn Serfas, Chair of the Department will be holding office hours on September 8th from 2-3 pm on Teams.
    Drop-in and say hi! (click here)

    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.

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

  • Humanities podcast features Visa Art History Associate Professor Linda Steer.

    Friday, August 21, 2020 | By

    The sixth episode of Foreword, a new podcast from the Faculty of Humanities, explores the complexities of drug photography with Linda Steer, Associate Professor of Visual Arts.

    Steer discusses her research on the complicated connections between empathy and photography in art and documentary photographs of drug use from the 1970s to present. Her research encourages people to engage more empathetically with issues of drug users and drug use. She has examined the work of drug photographers Chris Arnade and Tony Fouhse through the lens of entangled empathy, which encourages being responsive and responsible to others in a way that promotes agency and positive change.

    Episodes are released every Wednesday on Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Podbean. Transcripts are being made available on the Faculty of Humanities website.

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

  • Assistant Professor in Visual Arts (Digital Media and Design): Candidate Research Presentations

    Saturday, May 16, 2020 | By

    The Brock and wider community are warmly welcomed to attend the online presentations by the short list of candidates for this position.

    Each will give an hour-long presentation and engage in discussion about their current research interests and focus upon their contributions.

    GUSTAVO CERQUERA BENJUMEA

    WEDNESDAY, MAY 20TH, 2020
    Research Presentation 1:00pm (1:00 – 2:20pm)
    stream.lifesizecloud.com/extension/3327547/cf3bdaf1-eac4-4aa9-8116-3fdc308ebef8

    Gustavo Cerquera Benjumea is a Colombian Canadian Toronto-based digital media artist, animator, music video director, and teacher. He specializes in computer animation, video installation, and drawing. His work explores psychedelia, plant biology, and Latin American histories. His work has exhibited internationally including at: Slamdance Film Festival, Glas Animation Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Art Spin Toronto, the Niagara Artist Centre, Summerworks Festival, Nuit Blanche Toronto, among others. He has directed music videos for Lido Pimienta and Chancha Via Circuito. He is the current programming chair at the Toronto Animated Image Society. Gustavo teaches at OCADU and Brock University.

    TROY DAVID OUELLETTE

    THURSDAY, MAY 21ST, 2020
    Research Presentation 1:00pm (1:00 – 2:20pm)
    stream.lifesizecloud.com/extension/3327527/6fd67857-4515-484b-9d04-9ea9ea756a71

    Troy David Ouellette is an artist/researcher specializing in Assemblage Theory. He received his PhD, in Visual Arts, from York University in 2014 and his M.F.A. from the University of Windsor in 2007. He has taught Design, Sculpture and undergraduate courses, at various universities and colleges, in Southern Ontario. From 1999 until 2005 he was the Sculpture Facilitator at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Ouellette is a founding member of the London Ontario Media Arts Association (LOMAA) and the sound art collective Audio Lodge. His work has been included in several solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Australia and  the United States. He resides in Hamilton, Ontario.

    GWEN MACGREGOR

    FRIDAY, MAY 22ND, 2020
    Research Presentation 1:00pm (1:00 – 2:20pm)
    stream.lifesizecloud.com/extension/3326867/e156311e-7437-4e53-a009-eada0c2fcfff

    Gwen MacGregor is a visual artist and geographer working across the disciplines of installation, video, photography, and geographic scholarship. She has artworks in collections such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, Oakville Galleries and the Royal Bank Collection. Recent exhibitions include The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario and Phoenix Projects Athens, Greece. She has exhibited extensively internationally and has also participated in numerous international art residencies including the International Studio Curatorial Program in New York. She is a Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Award holder and is represented by MKG127 in Toronto. MacGregor is a PhD Candidate in Geography at The University of Toronto. Her dissertation explores the constructions and contestations of nationhood in contemporary art practices presented at art biennales.

    Please share and post this poster in your community.

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

  • MIWSFPA Offers Unique Visual Arts course during COVID-19 pandemic

    Friday, April 03, 2020 | By

    image: Fischli & Weiss: Equilibres / Quiet Afternoon, 1984.

    In response to COVID-19, and the suspension of all face-to-face classes, the Department of Visual arts is busy reinventing one of their very popular Spring and Summer session courses, VISA 2F05 Introduction to Sculpture.

    Instructor/artist Donna Akrey will launch the new original online course in sculpture beginning the week of May 04, 2020.

    Donna remarks,“This is hard but a great opportunity to think about how to deliver content this way and to still get students to think and problem solve. I am hopeful about it all.”

    VISA 2F05 – Introduction to Sculpture

    Do you have a laptop, phone, computer and consistent use of the internet?

    Do you have a table?

    Do you have everyday objects like scissors, tape, paper, recycling material?

    Are you up for the challenge of working solo and thinking sculpturally?

    Are you interested in problem-solving, ingenuity, DIY, working with what you have and collaboration? Come and experiment with us!

    For more information about VISA 2F05 Introduction to Sculpture please see the Academic Calendar and the Registration Guide.

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    Categories: Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, News, Uncategorised

  • New for 2020: Advanced Art Practices presents their capstone exhibition online.

    Thursday, April 02, 2020 | By

    NOTHING HAPPENS
    UNTIL SOMETHING MOVES
    Launch: Wednesday April 8 at 7pm
    visa3m90.wordpress.com

    Join the students of VISA 3M90 Advanced Art Practices for the launch of their final exhibition on Wednesday, April 8 at 7 pm.

    This year-end presentation features new work from a multi-disciplinary course where cross-pollination is key. During the academic year the students investigate artistic research and creation from the perspective of project oriented, independent production.  They have been mentored by instructor Donna Akrey in the development of artistic practices emphasizing concept through to realization processes.

    In this Spring of COVID-19 the students will show their work online: physically distant, but not socially.

    The featured artists include:

    download the poster

    KENDRA BOSSE
    TERI LYNN DITZEL
    PERI GOODMAN
    I.J.IROGBENACHI
    GABRIELLA JONES
    UGO MADUKA
    LAUREN MARCO
    JESS MCCLELLAND
    AMA OKAFOR
    SOPHIA STRACHAN
    CHARLOTTE TARR

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Events, Exhibitions, Faculty & Instructors, News

  • CrissCross, a new student exhibition at the MIWSFPA

    Wednesday, March 04, 2020 | By

    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.

    CrissCross, a new student exhibition at the MIWSFPA

    March 5 – 28
    opening reception: March 12th, 5 p.m.
    (This is also the reception for the Artist Talk by the Walker Cultural Leader, Landon Mackenzie.)

    VISA Gallery and Student Exhibition Space, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts, 15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines, L2R 0B5.

    The gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
    An exhibition by students from the Studies in Arts and Culture and Visual Arts programs. Our hybrid assemblages celebrate incongruity and unfettered associations. Whether abstract or figurative, paintings, or texts, they are intended to trigger reactions, prompt comparisons, and challenge the usual. Beyond the immediate effect of surprise, they provoke, their apparent disparateness nevertheless generates, on closer view, a semblance of overall coherence.

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Events, Exhibitions, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, Media Releases, Uncategorised

  • Sacred Spaces: a student exhibition about mental health, at the MIWSFPA

    Saturday, February 01, 2020 | By

    Sacred Spaces:Student Exhibition

    Feb. 6 to 29, 2020
    Opening reception: Feb. 12, 2020 — 5 to 8 p.m.

    VISA Art Gallery and Student Exhibition Space, MIWSFPA
    15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines

    The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.

    With a focus on mental health, an exhibition about understanding emotional vulnerability and self-reflection, while unpacking the human need for comfort. Featuring Visual Arts students Kaitlyn Roberts and Chardon Trimble-Kirk.

    see the review in The Sound by Bart Gazzola.

    Sacred Spaces – Artist Statement
    Kaitlyn Roberts and Chardon Trimble-Kirk

    Mental illnesses often destroy from the inside out. It is a sickness that is hidden through the action of covering oneself from the world, in fear of discovery. Doctors will prescribe medication in an attempt to cure mental illness; medication that comes with dizziness, fatigue, loss of appetite, bruising, sexual dysfunction, and countless other side effects. All of which to shut out the voices from inside one’s mind. Voices that proclaim that you are not good enough, you do not deserve to be happy, you do not deserve to eat. I would much rather stay in bed. If I stay in bed, the medication isn’t necessary. The demons and monsters can be let out and no one will ever know.

    When living with mental illness, it is living a double life. One must hide behind a mask, only finding true relief in the intimate space of the bedroom, amongst the comfort of bedding. Only within these spaces is one truly allowed to express the realities of mental illnesses, whilst finding safety in the sacred spaces of the bed.

    Each work represents the safety and intimacy found within these spaces, whilst offering a juxtaposition between the covering and uncovering realities of the illnesses. The uncovering comes from personal texts written across these spaces, as well as the exposure of the body, and curiously the covering of the eyes in each figurative work. The text which is a direct thought, and nude figures which are an indirect representation of vulnerability, invite viewers into the sacred spaces of one’s true thoughts. The vague figures and various text will resonate with viewers, bringing awareness to mental illness, its prevalence, and its resonance within many.

    The works aim to de-stigmatize some of the most serious and misunderstood mental illnesses, all within the sacred spaces of our beds.

    download poster

    Kaitlyn Roberts is currently in her fourth and final year at Brock University, achieving an Honours Bachelor of Arts with a major in Studio Art. Her artistic education birthed an attraction to explore autoethnography. Roberts’ studio practice, specifically, surveys the complexity of mental illness translated through visual art while highlighting how it affects both the artist and the viewer.

    Roberts is currently using her practice to investigate the relationship between the mind and the body, through the artistic process of ‘mapping’. This includes research into the connections between mental illnesses and the physical sicknesses that follow, including trauma.

    Roberts has shown her work in juried shows around Ontario including, St. Catharines City Hall’s Transformations, Niagara Artist Centre’s Fortune Favours, and the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington’s The VAC 39th Annual Juried Show where she was the only student, and youngest person to be accepted. Roberts has also shown her work in exhibitions including; Niagara Artist Centre’s Small Feats, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine, and Performing Arts’ Art Block: BAC
    on the Block, as well as many exhibitions hosted by Mahtay Café.

    Roberts will be showing her thesis work titled, Dear Euodia, in April 2020 at Rodman Hall in St. Catharines, Ontario alongside co-artists Chardon Trimble-Kirk, Brianne Casey, Rachel McCartney, Zach White, Kira Pretty, Curt Richard, and Jess McClelland. Opening reception is Friday, April 3rd at 7 pm.

    Roberts is planning on pursuing a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts once she graduates from Brock University.

    Chardon Trimble-Kirk is a Canadian painter based in St. Catharines. Through the use of figuration and pattern making, themes of femininity and gender roles are explored within her work. In addition to this, Trimble-Kirk is interested in the themes of sexuality, vulnerability, repetition and mental health, and their intersections within femininity. Thematic and aesthetic contrasts are often included within the work, allowing viewers to interpret the work individually while also thinking critically about the concepts presented.

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Events, Exhibitions, In the Media, Media Releases, News, Uncategorised

  • Imagined Urban Gardens opens at Rodman Hall Art Centre

    Saturday, February 01, 2020 | By

    Imagined Urban Gardens: Student Exhibition
    Jan. 30 – March 1, 2020

    download the poster

    Rodman Hall Art Centre
    109 St. Paul Crescent, St. Catharines, ON

    Responding to the explorations of urban architecture and its materials in Teresa Carlesimo and Michael DiRisio: more light than heat (on exhibition at the Rodman Hall Art Centre), Imagined Urban Gardens also reflects on today’s global warming and how we could live in the future.

    We dream of green spaces and pleasantly warm cities.
    Students in Visual Arts and Studies in Arts and Culture envision in text and image what could be in a livable world.

    See the YourTV Niagara video spotlight about this exhibition, featuring interviews with the artists and curators.

    Read the article by Bart Gazzola in The Sound STC.

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Exhibitions, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News, Uncategorised

  • 300 MINUTES: A One Night Exhibition on Nov. 27th!

    Thursday, November 21, 2019 | By

    300 MINUTES is a public show brought to you by the VISA 3M90: Advanced Art Practice students. The collection of self-directed works by 3rd/4th year students are comprised of paintings, sculpting, drawings, installation work, performative work, sound and video displays. As viewers we value your thoughts, questions and opinions about the works, therefore open critique forms will be provided at each work site to capture your input which is greatly appreciated.

    300 MINUTES, the time length of the exhibition, is being held during the ‘new moon’ lunar phase. This phase, the first of its many phases, depicts the moon positioned between the sun and moon at the 12:00 o’clock beginning station. This lunar anecdote relates to the students and their first public exhibition which will provide inspiration as they move through their artistic phases like the hands of a lunar clock.

    The exhibition is a mid-year event for the class, which will lead the students towards their final show at the Marilyn I. Walker Gallery in April. Hope to see you there as well.

    DATE: November 27, 2019
    TIME: 4:00PM – 9:00PM
    WHERE: Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts building
    15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines

    COST: Free

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Exhibitions, Faculty & Instructors, News

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