Articles tagged with: marilyn i. walker school of fine and performing arts

• Colour Constructs at Rodman Hall/Constructions en couleurs à Rodman Hall

  Monday, November 20, 2017 | By dtemprile

  

  Pictured is a view of the exhibition Material Girls at Rodman Hall Art Centre. (source: RHAC)

  In fall 2017, Rodman Hall invites visitors to experience the exhibition Material Girls, which brings together Canadian and international female artists from across artistic disciplines and cultural backgrounds. Giving particular attention to the colourfulness and jubilance of this exhibition, in Colour Constructs, students in Visual Arts, Studies in Arts and Culture, and French Studies explore the materiality of colours in their own diverse ways. Student works are complemented by graffiti art by Niagara-based artist Mat Vizbulis, a classroom guest during the semester. Curators Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas. /

  A l’automne 2017, Rodman Hall invite ses visiteurs à découvrir l’exposition Material Girls, qui regroupe des artistes femmes du Canada et d’ailleurs, dont les pratiques artistiques et l’environnement culturel diffèrent. En s’inspirant des couleurs et de la gaieté de cette exposition, des étudiants-e-s en Arts visuels, Arts et cultures et Etudes en français explorent dans Constructions en couleurs la matérialité des coloris par le biais d’approches variées. Les graffitis de l’artiste Mat Vizbulis, établi dans la région du Niagara, complètent les oeuvres des étudiant-e-s. Commissaires: Catherine Parayre et Shawn Serfas.

  Article from the Brock News: Bilingual exhibition to shed light on Material Girls
  TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017 | by Darien Temprile

  A new Rodman Hall exhibition aims to help visitors experience Material Girls in a new way.

  

  Geo, a piece created by third-year Visual Arts student Lilliana Pagliaro, will be featured in the Colour Constructs/Constructions en couleurs exhibition opening at Rodman Hall Thursday, Nov. 30.

  Colour Constructs/Constructions en couleurs, opening at the downtown St. Catharines art centre Thursday, Nov. 30, features works by students in Brock’s Visual Arts (VISA), Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC) and French Studies (FREN) programs.

  The exhibition, curated by Brock Professors Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas, initiates a sophisticated dialogue with Material Girls, an ongoing exhibition that opened at Rodman Hall Sept. 14.

  Material Girls is a large-scale group exhibition of work by Canadian and international emerging, mid-career and senior female artists from different artistic disciplines and cultures. Curated by a team from the Dunlop Art Gallery, a unit of the Regina Public Library, it explores material process and notions of excess as they relate to the feminized body, gendered space and capitalist desire.

  For Colour Constructs, students reacted to words, colours and visuals directly related to Material Girls.

  STAC students contributed nine texts based on words and expressions found in the curatorial statement of Material Girls; FREN students provided eight written fragments in French, describing colours from Material Girls; and VISA students, in their own paintings, reference the vividness of artwork presented in Material Girls.

  In addition to the work of students, the exhibition will include a new large commission by local graffiti artist Mat Vizbulis, who describes his work as ‘genre graffuturism.’

  “As the images unfold in layers, we understand that it is truly something unexplainable,” he said. “We are then daring to define things.”

  Earlier this year, Vizbulis led Brock students in experiential learning about graffiti and its role in both high art and popular culture.

  The opening reception of Colour Constructs/Constructions en couleurs takes place Thursday, Nov. 30 at 5 p.m. at Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Cres. The exhibition will continue until March 4.

  Material Girls continues at Rodman Hall until Dec. 30.

  Admission to Rodman Hall Art Centre is free, although donations are accepted. For more information in French or English, visit ExperienceBU.

  UPDATE:

  French student Amandine Faivre, right,
  speaks about her poetry with French Professor Renee-Claude Breitenstein at the opening of Colour Constructs Thursday, Nov. 30. Curated by Professors Catherine Parayre and Shawn Serfas, the exhibition is a collaboration by students in Studies in Arts and Culture, Visual Arts and French Studies. Student artwork is complemented by work by local graffiti artist Mat Vizbulis, who worked with STAC and VISA students over the course of the semester. Colour Constructs is on at Rodman Hall Art Centre until March 4.
  Exhibition: Thursday Nov. 30, 2017 – Sunday Mar. 4, 2018

  Opening Reception: Thursday Nov. 30, 2017 at 5:00pm

  GALLERY HOURS:
  Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday: 10 am to 5 pm
  Thursday: 10 am to 9 pm
  Saturday & Sunday: 12 pm to 5 pm
  Closed Mondays, statutory and University holidays

  Free community event however donations accepted (suggested $5).

  Tags: 15 Artists’ Common, Arts, Brock University, Catherine Parayre, Exhibit, Exhibition, french, French studies, marilyn i. walker school of fine and performing arts, material girls, MIWSFPA, Rodman Hall, Rodman Hall Art Centre, Shawn Serfas, stac, visa
  Categories: Current Students, Events, Exhibitions

• Work of Visual Arts prof featured on Diana Krall tour

  Friday, November 03, 2017 | By dtemprile

  

  The artwork of Brock Fine Arts Assistant Professor Amy Friend is being featured on the international tour of renowned Canadian musician Diana Krall.

  (Source: The Brock News, Thursday, November 2, 2017 | By: Maryanne Firth)

  When the e-mail popped into Amy Friend’s inbox, she was certain it couldn’t be real.

  But a feeling inside prompted the Brock Fine Arts assistant professor to respond to the inquiry, which asked about her artwork and whether she’d consider collaborating with renowned Canadian musician Diana Krall.

  It was soon after that Friend found herself on the phone with the Grammy Award winner discussing possibilities for her upcoming tour.

  Friend’s experimental photography has since helped Krall to set the scene on stage, acting as her backdrop as she captivates crowds in venues across North America and Europe.

  

  Brock University Fine Arts Assistant Professor Amy Friend.

  Friend’s work has been featured on the jazz singer’s international tour since June and the partnership is expected to continue through to the summer.

  The project, which includes art pieces from three different bodies of work, has been “particularly fulfilling,” Friend said.

  She has enjoyed the challenge of working with Krall to find pieces that fit the mood and message of individual songs, while also complementing the title of the tour and Krall’s most recent album, Turn Up the Quiet.

  “It’s about trying to respect your own work, while also seeing how you can accommodate a vision that will fit within the repertoire they’re working with,” she said.

  Friend is currently working to select new pieces for Krall’s Canadian tour dates, including a Nov. 24 show at Massey Hall in Toronto that she plans to attend.

  “I’m looking forward to seeing her perform and to seeing my work filling the stage in a concert hall where I have heard musicians like Johnny Cash, Tom Waits and Nick Cave perform,” she said.

  Krall’s latest repertoire will include a cover of Bob Dylan’s Simple Twist of Fate, which Friend is particularly excited to find a piece to accompany.

  “Much of my work revolves around ideas of memory, impermanence, history and time,” said Friend, who has worked at Brock for the past decade. “I am less concerned with capturing a ‘concrete’ reality. Instead, I aim to use photography as a medium that offers the possibility of exploring the relationship between what is visible and non-visible.”

  Work featured on the tour includes hand-manipulated photographs, pieces featuring floating handkerchiefs once belonging to Friend’s grandparents, and artwork inspired by snippets of film from her childhood.

  Over the past few months, Friend and Krall have shared many inspiring conversations about family, creativity and women in the arts.

  “She has been so great to work with, you could almost forget her status in the music world,” Friend said.

  Krall often emphasized the need to respect Friend’s work and always checks in with the artist to ensure she’s pleased with the end results of each tour stop.

  Friend called it “refreshing” to be able to engage with other artists.

  “It exposes you to experiences that have commonalities and, at times, interesting variances,” she said. “It’s also wonderful to see how my work found a place to exist far beyond my initial intentions.”

  The team responsible for the on-stage initiative also included Judy Jacob, a video and visual content director, and Paul Normandale, a lighting designer, who Friend said “took the project to the next level.”

  In addition to her work with the tour, Friend has been busy over the past year with international exhibitions in Spain, Korea, Poland, Portugal and France. She has shows coming up in Boston and Italy and plans to release a new book in the near future.

  

  The artwork of Brock Fine Arts Assistant Professor Amy Friend is being featured on the international tour of renowned Canadian musician Diana Krall.

  Tags: Amy Friend, Brock University, canadian musician, diana krall, marilyn i. walker school of fine and performing arts, MIWSFPA, Visual Arts
  Categories: Announcements, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News

• Speaker provides chilling reminder of Canadian slave history

  Sunday, October 29, 2017 | By dtemprile

  

  Charmaine Nelson, far right, spoke on Colonial Print Culture and the Limits of Enslaved Resistance on Oct. 19 as part of the Walker Cultural Leader Series. She is pictured here with Department of Visual Arts Professors and event organizers, pictured from left, Keri Cronin, Linda Steer and Amy Friend.

  (Source: The Brock News, Thursday, October 26, 2017 | by: Alison Innes)

  Charmaine Nelson worked to paint a picture for the audience, one that detailed the experiences of Canadian slaves and the horrors they endured throughout history.

  The renowned scholar, known for her groundbreaking contributions in the fields of black Canadian studies, visual culture of slavery, and race and representation, delivered the first 2017-18 public lecture of Brock’s Walker Cultural Leader Series on Oct. 19.

  Her address drew more than 150 people who gathered at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines to listen to her presentation, Colonial Print Culture and the Limits of Enslaved Resistance: Examining the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Century Fugitive Slave Archive in Canada and Jamaica.

  A professor of Art History at McGill University, Nelson has published seven books and held a number of prestigious research chairs across North America. She is currently the William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies at Harvard University for 2017-18.

  As the first and currently only black professor within the discipline of Art History at a Canadian university, Nelson, through her website, is an advocate for the field of Black Canadian Studies.

  Her latest research, which she shared in her talk, attempts to understand the black experience in Canada by examining fugitive slave advertisements for details about the process of creolization in slave minority (temperate) and slave majority (tropical) locations in the British Empire.

  Nelson explained how she reconceptualizes fugitive slave ads — once produced by slave owners seeking to recapture their runaways — as portraits of enslaved people. The ads can provide information on a group of people who often leave no record of their own, she said.

  These portraits, however, are imperfect, since the subject is an unwilling participant and the depiction is written by the white slave owner. In addition, only slaves considered sufficiently valuable were pursued through advertising.

  Fugitive slave ads provided detailed racialized descriptions of enslaved people, including complexion, hairstyle, clothing, language, accents and bodily marks. In some cases, the ads offered rewards for the recapture of a fugitive slave, encouraging white participation in the criminalization of fugitive slaves.

  While the ads provide a portrait of enslaved people, they are also a lop-sided truth, Nelson explained. Some owners maligned fugitives with sweeping generalizations about their character, while others detailed specific crimes the enslaved person was alleged to have committed. Such descriptions helped associate blackness with slavery and criminality.

  Nelson draws on a variety of archival sources in her research to flesh out these portraits, tracing fugitive slave stories through estate ledgers, bills of sale, poll tax records and workhouse and jail ledgers.

  Nelson’s talk also explored the link between print and slave culture. Printed newspaper ads in the 18th and 19th century permitted white slave owners to assert their ownership over long distances.

  Although printers facilitated slavery by asserting rights of white people to own slaves, the abolitionist movement eventually used the same fugitive slave ads, with their references to injuries, scars and branding, to show the horror of slavery.

  As Nelson pointed out, many Canadians are unaware of Canada’s history of enslaving black and indigenous peoples.

  “Slavery is not a black history,” she explained, “but a multi-racial, transatlantic history. Who were the slave owners, the ships’ captains, the printers, the jailers?”

  The narrative of the Underground Railway, which Canadians eagerly embrace, spanned a period of about only 30 years, Nelson explained. She went on to challenge listeners to consider why the preceding two centuries of slavery in Canada have been erased from history.

  In concluding her talk, Nelson encouraged the audience to change the lens through which they see history. The opportunities in the field of Canadian slavery history are immense, she said, while directing her words to students. Since so few people are studying the black Canadian experience, there are many contributions to be made.

  The talk is part of the 2017-18 Walker Cultural Leaders Series, organized by Professors Keri Cronin, Linda Steer and Amy Friend the Department of Visual Arts and funded by the generous legacy of Marilyn I. Walker.

  The author, Alison Innes, has assembled her live tweets about the lecture at Storify.

  Tags: Amy Friend, Dr. Charmaine A. Nelson, Dr. Charmaine Nelson, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, Kari Cronin, Lecture, Linda Steer, marilyn i. walker school of fine and performing arts, MIWSFPA, walker cultural leader series, WCL series
  Categories: News

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

  Sunday, September 18, 2016 | By Brock University

  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.

  Tags: future students, marilyn i. walker school of fine and performing arts, MIWSFPA, Ontario Universities' Fair, OUF
  Categories: Events, Future Students, News

• Beginning of Term VISA Orientation

  Friday, August 12, 2016 | By Brock University

  At the start of each academic year the Visual Arts Department holds an orientation and meet & greet event. This year the event will be held in the Lobby of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts on Wednesday, September 7th from 3 to 5:30 pm.

  All VISA and STAC students are encouraged to attend.

  The orientation session for the first-year VISA/STAC students is just down the hall from the Lobby in Room 151 and begins at 3 pm. After the orientation the first-year students will move to the lobby and join the other students, staff and faculty for food, refreshments, music, mingling and more!

  Come and join the fun and get to know your faculty and fellow students. We look forward to meeting you. The new term is just around the corner!

  Tags: marilyn i. walker school of fine and performing arts, orientation
  Categories: Events

• Remnants: Visa 2f05 sculpture exhibition

  Tuesday, July 05, 2016 | By Brock University

  REMNANTS: Exhibit presented by the Department of Visual Arts
  July 7 – September 16, 2016

  Opening Reception: July 7, Noon – 3 pm
  Free food & refreshments

  The students of the summer sculpture course have delved into the site-specific exhibition, REMNANTS, creating works inspired by the traces of history that remain in the refurbished building.

  Over a century ago in the heart of downtown St. Catharines, the Canada Hair Cloth Co. functioned as a beneficial part of the community by bringing jobs and growth throughout the Niagara Region. Today it is known as the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, an extension of Brock University.

  Originally, the factory was built in 1888 and was founded by the McSloy brothers who saw the potential for industrial growth within their community. They worked hard towards building a company that centralized around trading and selling their products from Halifax to Vancouver. In the traditional style of the New England Mills, the Canada Hair Cloth Co. was built with the intention of allowing as much natural sunlight into the factory as possible. With its open concept and large windows, the building was easily illuminated before the era of electricity. Eventually, the McSloy brothers purchased a generator to provide electricity, which was powered by the Millrace.

  At the time the factory was built, horses, railways, and ships were the common means of transportation and all three were critical to the early success of the company. Waterpower played an essential role in regards to the growth of the factory as it was the primary source of energy to run the machinery. The canal flowed behind the buildings and the fast-flowing water produced power for the mills. Horses were used for providing raw material for the actual haircloth itself as the hair was gathered from their tails. The fabric produced was used in a vast variety of things ranging from the railway seats to the interfacing of fine suits. During this time, the majority of industrialized manufacturing was produced around this part of town, especially close to the Welland Canal. This enabled goods to be easily shipped and sold to other markets from around Canada.

  In the fall of 2015, the Canada Hair Cloth Co. was reopened as the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts and welcomed the students of Brock University to work and create within a building that already embodies so much creativity. Keeping in mind the artistic process, materials and tools that went into the many things produced by the company, the summer sculpture class has worked hard in collaborating an exhibition to pay tribute to what was and still is a lively building full of artistic innovation.

  We welcome you to come and join us in celebrating the birth and continual growth of this beautiful building.

  REMNANTS will be held in the Learning Commons, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, 15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines.

  Free community event

  Limited paid parking onsite

  Tags: canada hair cloth building, Exhibition, exhibitions, learning commons, marilyn i. walker school of fine and performing arts, remnants
  Categories: Events, Exhibitions

• Brock instructor’s work one of Time’s top 10 magazine covers of the year

  Thursday, December 10, 2015 | By Brock University

  

  (Source: The Brock News, Thursday, December 10, 2015 | by Erica Bajer)

  Time Magazine has recognized the photographic work of Brock University visual arts instructor Amy Friend. A photograph created by Friend for the cover of The California Sunday Magazine’s April 5 edition is one of Time’s Top 10 covers of the year.

  “Our selection of the top 10 covers of 2015 displays an exquisite use of photography,” writes Kira Pollack in Time’s online article announcing the best covers. “With this unranked selection, we’ve witnessed that the cover still holds the power to be iconic and, at the very least, move and delight us.”

  Other covers on the list include the Vanity Fair image of Caitlyn Jenner shot by famous photographer Annie Leibovitz, New York Magazine’s issue featuring black and white images of 35 women who claim to be victims of Bill Cosby and a Harper’s Bazaar photo of singer Rihanna in the mouth of a shark.

  Friend said she is thrilled her work is included in a collection of so many amazing images.

  “It gives a boost to the aspects I really believe in regarding photography and its ability to reach a certain and specific sentiment with people,” she said. “When you are struck by an image, it remains with you.”

  As a fine arts photographer, Friend works with light.

  In her photographic series Dare alla Luce, she uses light to re-make vintage photographs.

  “We loved the work of Canadian artist Amy Friend, specifically her series Dare alla Luce, in which she manipulates archival photographs with a needle and then projects light through the images,” said the magazine’s creative director Leo Jung.

  More and more, artists are being approached to work with mainstream media.

  The California Sunday Magazine cover is inspired by that series and shows the silhouette of a woman with spots of light shining through, giving it a poignant quality. John von Pamer took the picture of the woman and Friend applied her technique on it and then re-photographed it. It goes with the story Death, Re-Designed.

  “The resulting image has an otherworldly, ethereal quality – a perfect metaphor for this story,” said Jacqueline Bates, photography director.

  Friend said it’s not unusual for artists to work in editorial realms.

  “More and more, artists are being approached to work with mainstream media,” she said, noting that’s opening even more doors for her students at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

  “There’s fertile ground between the fine arts stream and with editorial based work,” she said.

  Friend said Brock visual arts students are exposed to both digital and analogue photography thanks to the MIWSFPA’s brand new darkroom.

  “It’s what really sets us apart from many other universities, which are mainly concentrating on digital,” she said.

  As a photographer, she knows the value of a well-rounded education in the art form.

  “Every time a student develops a photo in the darkroom, it’s a completely magical experience,” she said.

  In her photography, Friend said she concentrates on elements of history, time, memory and impermanence.

  “Despite photography’s traditional connection with the real, I am less concerned with capturing a ‘concrete’ reality, and instead aim to use and explore photography as a medium yet focus on what lies beyond its immediate visual representations,” she said.

  In much of her work, Friend uses found images and vintage pictures.

  Dare Alla Luce has been published in book form by photolucida.org and one of the images featured hangs in the new FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines.

  Friend’s recent work will be on display at Rodman Hall from Jan. 29-May 1 in a show called Assorted Boxes of Ordinary Life, curated by Marcie Bronson.

  An opening reception will be held Jan. 28 at 7 p.m.

  Tags: 15 Artists’ Common, Art is in the City, downtown St. Catharines, imagining the city, marilyn i. walker school of fine and performing arts, performance series, walker cultural leader series
  Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

• Art is in the City

  Thursday, September 03, 2015 | By Brock University

  MEDIA 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

  – 30 –

  Tags: 15 Artists’ Common, Art is in the City, downtown St. Catharines, imagining the city, marilyn i. walker school of fine and performing arts, performance series, walker cultural leader series
  Categories: Alumni, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, Media Releases, News