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

  • Remnants: Visa 2f05 sculpture exhibition

    Tuesday, July 05, 2016 | By

    remnantsREMNANTS: 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: , , , , ,
    Categories: Events, Exhibitions

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

    Thursday, December 10, 2015 | By

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

    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: , , , , , ,
    Categories: Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Art is in the City

    Thursday, September 03, 2015 | By

    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: , , , , , ,
    Categories: Alumni, Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Future Students, Media Releases, News

1 … 6 7 8