Beginning in 2011 the academic programs of the Marilyn I. Walker School have celebrated the legacy of Marilyn, her gift and her vision by programming the Walker Cultural Leaders (WCL) Series. The ongoing development and refinement of the WCL program facilitates invitations to recognized cultural leaders, top researchers, visiting artists, scholars, professionals, theatre companies, producing and presenting organizations, associations, and others to contribute to the intellectual and creative life of the School and the Niagara region.
Our guests will engage in professional activities such as public lectures, performances, exhibitions, workshops, laboratories, and demonstrations, and will participate in other pedagogical and creative activities including guest teaching, the professional mentoring of faculty and staff, critiques of student work, and community engagement activities.
In addition to generally intensifying the creative, scholarly and teaching cultures of the School, special emphasis is put on developing knowledge and familiarity of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts as an incubator in the arts and culture sector of Niagara, exploring potential intersections of the School and the surrounding community/region, and promoting inter‐ and trans‐disciplinarity within the School and beyond.
2023-24 Walker Cultural Leader Series Events
Trauma-informed inquiry, facilitation & the visitor experience: Jackie Armstrong presents the 21st C. museum
An artist’s talk presented by the Centre for Studies in Arts & Culture and the Walker Cultural Leaders program
Monday, Feb. 12, 2024 from 6-9 pm
MWS 156 (ground floor)
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts
15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines
Free event, open to the public
To participate online via zoom,
please register here:
https://brocku-ca-dart.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMuce6tqj4oHtOTmU5f-aioRPuZVpaYSZWg
There is no requirement to register if you will be attending in person.
An onsite artist talk with the students of STAC 3P42 Methods and Principles of Curating, open to the public. Our guest will be joining us online from New York. The talk will be recorded.
Alternately entitled “Trauma-informed inquiry, facilitation, and experiences in museums: Centering humanity and healing our nervous systems,” Jackie Armstrong will reveal why trauma-awareness is a critical responsibility, sharing what we risk by not being trauma-informed and how we all can benefit from trauma-informed values and principles. Jackie will focus specifically on why museums, galleries, and/or other arts and cultural organizations should be integrating trauma-informed principles into all the ways they work, making it part of their culture.
Topics will include what trauma is and the impacts it has, trauma-informed practices and values, the 4 Rs of Trauma-informed practice, supporting the nervous system through Context, Connection, and Choice, and cultivating multilayered safety and trust. This talk will emphasize trauma-informed practices as a framework, lens and way of being that incorporates healing centered practices. Jackie asks what changes when we slow down and are guided by compassion, curiosity, and love, when we meet people where they are and when we realize that every interaction is an opportunity for connection. What do we make space for when we integrate trauma-informed practices into our work, into our lives, into society?
Concepts such as emotional self-regulation, co-regulation attunement and relationality will be explored, as well as outlining a how-to and/or the elements that go into trauma-informed facilitation, inquiry and program design. Examples will be given throughout to help contextualize key ideas and concepts.
Jackie will also be engaging with the students of STAC 3P41 Approaches to Curatorial Practice on Jan. 22 and Mar. 25, 2024.
Jackie Armstrong is the Associate Educator, Visitor Research and Experience, Museum of Modern Art (New York).
Geoff Farnsworth: Plan and Accident
An artist’s talk presented by the Centre for Studies in Arts & Culture and Walker Cultural Leader Series
Geoff Farnsworth: Plan and Accident
Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024 from 3-5 pm
MWS 416 (fourth floor painting studio)
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts
15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines
Free event, open to the public.
To participate online via zoom,
please register here:
https://brocku-ca-dart.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsf-usrz0oEt06rb5yOp9NIuJJgq7Nx4Ws
An onsite and online artist talk with demonstration for the students of STAC 3P97 Publishing: Creative Elements and Editorial Process, open to the public.
Geoff Farnsworth’s paintings explore a relationship between figurative and abstraction in order to meld unconscious probing and stylistic innovation with a meditative figural base. They are collections of shape, colour, texture, and energy, while also building a compelling image. Working with people and objects from his personal world, the artist focuses on maintaining a balance between plan and accident, known and unknown, restraint and exuberance. His figures look out as much into mindscape as landscape.
The artist talk will be followed by a demonstration on how to create fun blurred effects on paper.
Image: Lan “Florence” Lee
Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture and Walker Cultural Leader Series present
Lan ‘Florence’ Yee: Sharper Tools for Unripe Fruit
Online artist talk, STAC 2P93 — Critical Practice in the Fine & Performing Arts
Thursday, Nov. 2 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Spanning media from textiles to signage, Lan “Florence” Yee’s interdisciplinary practice uses text and labour-intensive creation. Inspired by the socio-political and personal history of Cantonese displacement, Lan explores what Desmond Wong calls “the intersection of filiality and arrival.”
The public was invited to view the livestream artist talk at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts in the Art and Val Fleming Smart Presentation Classroom
MWS 156, MIWSFPA. Please check back soon to view the video recording of the presentation.
About Lan “Florence” Lee
Spanning media from textiles to signage, Lan “Florence” Yee’s interdisciplinary practice uses text and labour-intensive creation. Inspired by the socio-political and personal history of Cantonese displacement, Lan explores what Desmond Wong calls “the intersection of filiality and arrival.” They collect text in underappreciated places and ferment it until it is too suspicious to ignore. Their works use an ironic and humorous tone to recognize the limits of their own structure, and to sustain a necessary uncertainty.
Lan “Florence” Yee is a visual artist and serial collaborator based in Tkaronto/Toronto and Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal. Lan’s work has been exhibited at the Darling Foundry (2022), the Toronto Museum of Contemporary Art (2021), the Art Gallery of Ontario (2020), the Textile Museum of Canada (2020), and the Gardiner Museum (2019), among others. Along with Arezu Salamzadeh, they co-founded the Chinatown Biennial in 2020.
Photo credit: Sharona Jacobs
Dr. Susan Rogers
The Department of Music highlights their 2023-24 Walker Cultural Leaders Series by featuring the fascinating work of Dr. Susan Rogers, an educator, accomplished sound engineer and record producer.
Neuroaesthetics of Music Perception lecture
Presented by Dr. Susan Rogers
Monday, Oct. 23 from 10 to 11 a.m.
Brock University, Plaza 600F
Free event, all Brock University students, faculty and staff are welcome
Registration encouraged through ExperienceBU.
Music and Neuroscience presented by Dr. Susan Rogers
Monday, October 23, 2023, 4:30 to 6 p.m.
FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, Recital Hall
Open to all MIW students and faculty
The Music of Listening, followed by book signing
Tuesday, October 24, 2023 , 7 to 9:30 p.m.
Presented by Dr. Susan Rogers
FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, Partridge Hall
Pay-What-You-Can (suggested $20).
Reserve tickets here.
This Walker Cultural Leaders Series featuring Dr. Susan Rogers is presented in partnership with the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Brock University, and FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.
About Dr. Susan Rogers
Dr. Rogers, professor in the Production and Engineering Department at Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA), joins us for a series of talks on the art of music-making and the science of listening to music. Music cognition forms the basis of her recent book This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You (co-authored with Ogi Ogas), which examines why individuals are attracted to the types of music they listen to. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Rogers worked as a sound engineer and record producer for musicians such as Prince, David Byrne, and Barenaked Ladies.
Department of Visual Arts present
Walker Cultural Leaders Series 2023-24:
Trudi Lynn Smith
Artist talk featuring Walker Cultural Leader Trudi Lynn Smith
Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023 at 6 p.m.
MWS 251, MIWSFPA
Register via Eventbrite.
Garden Harvest with Trudi Lynn Smith
Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023 at 10 a.m.
Brock Community Gardens (main campus)
Artist workshop with Trudi Lynn Smith – Photodynamic Gardening: A hands-on workshop in plant-based photography
2023-24 Walker Cultural Leader Series
Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023 from 3 to 6 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 22, 2023 from 2 to 5 p.m.
MWS 151, MIWSFPA
Register for Garden Harvest and artist workshop via Eventbrite.
About Dr. Trudi Lynn Smith
Smith has a PhD in studio art and anthropology and specializes in research-creation.
Her research and art practices embrace expressions of belonging, impermanence and
change in communities of art, archives, ecology and collections. She focuses on
collaborative practices in art making, with humans and with the more than human world.
Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture presents
Geoff Farnsworth: Blurs and Vagueness – An exhibition of small paintings
Sept. 26 to Oct. 22, 2023
Opening reception – Sept. 26, 2023 from noon to 2 p.m.
Museum in the Hallway/Boîte-en-valise
(2nd floor by the Theatre entrance)
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts
15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines
In partnership with 13th Street Gallery’s exhibition of larger paintings by Geoff Farnsworth running Sept. 23 to Oct. 21, 2023.
Demonstrating a spirit for process, experimentation, and colour exploration, Geoff Farnsworth’s small-sized paintings offer a meditative reflection between figurative and abstraction.
Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture presents
Small Walker Press Book Launch: Books and Archives
Tuesday, Sept. 26 from 12 to 2 p.m.
In conjunction with exhibition opening of Geoff Farnsworth: Blurs and Vagueness
Location: Museum in the Hallway (2nd floor by the Theatre entrance, MIWSFPA)
Four book designers publish their reflection on Books and Archives:
Annette le Fort / Brandon Labelle, Touch and Tender Readings. Books As Archives, a sensory experience at the local library.
Seth Weiner, Bernhard Cella, Handmade, an illustrated catalogue of books that do not exist.