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 Leader (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.

Department of Dramatic Arts presents Ann-Marie MacDonald

Ann-Marie MacDonald is a leading interdisciplinary, queer feminist Canadian artist whose career as a stage actor, collaborative theatre maker, playwright and novelist spans four influential decades. MacDonald’s work includes the novels Fayne (2022), Fall on Your Knees (1997), and the plays Belle Moral: A Natural History (2008) and Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) (1988), among many others.

MacDonald’s residency began in January 2026 with a reading from her work-in-progress, Best Soldier, and an interview introducing questions about play development and the relationships among creativity, scholarship and pedagogy that MacDonald explores during her residency. In February, she led a workshop to advance students’ emerging play development skills, followed by a Theatre Pedagogy Salon for Department of Dramatic Arts faculty.

The Walker Cultural Leader residency concludes in June 2026 with the Mapping Ann-Marie MacDonald (MAMM) Symposium. MAMM is a collaboration of the Department of Digital Humanities and the principal investigator, Dr. Neta Gordon of the Department of English Language and Literature. This SSHRC-funded project will be featured in a digital exhibition at MIWSFPA.

Department of Music presents Shireen Abu-Khader

Department of Visual Arts presents Omar Badrin

Artist Talk with Omar Badrin

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026 from 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Studio C (MWS 251), Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
15 Artists’ Common, St. Catharines
Free admission, open to the public.

Omar Badrin is an interdisciplinary artist born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Badrin obtained his MFA at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, where he was awarded a graduate medal for his work in the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art Media and Design program. His practice is based on his personal history and examines identity formation through the lens of transracial adoption. Badrin’s practice explores racial and cultural dynamics and affective states of his own upbringing: being a visual minority who was born in Malaysia, adopted by a white parent and raised in the predominantly white province of Newfoundland. 

Badrin has been using the craft medium of crochet—which is very popular in Newfoundland—as a signifier for the province. Initially, the use of crochet symbolized a way of belonging to the province because of its rich tradition in the culture and in his own family. However, upon reflection and after accepting that he might not ever feel a sense of belonging, he began to embrace the feeling of otherness through the making of grotesque masks that now serve to reveal, rather than hide.

He will join the Department of Visual Arts to give a public lecture on his work and student studio visits.

Department of Dramatic Arts presents Nicole Joy-Fraser

Department of Visual Arts presents Wally Dion

Wally Dion is a Canadian artist and activist of Saulteaux ancestry living and working in upstate New York. Originally from Yellow Quill First Nation in Saskatchewan, he uses the tradition of the Star Blanket to create large translucent textile pieces. Dion’s work has been exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions across North America and internationally.

Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture presents jef chippewa

jef chippewa is a composer and New Music notation specialist who embraces experimental performance techniques. He is currently collaborating on an ambitious project with saxophonist Yves Charuest that explores the encounter between composed music and free improvisation.