The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performance Arts, Faculty of Humanities, Brock University
The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts offers a unique post-secondary education for students committed to exploring the arts in their many practiced, established or experimental forms. The fine and performing arts represent a dynamic collection of individual or collective experiences that in their recorded or archived form symbolize what we understand to be expressions of living and vital culture –subjective, aesthetic, social or political by design or intent. Within each of our departments of Dramatic Arts, Music and Visual Arts, and the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, where a richness and quality of learning resides in either collaborative or individual work, one finds enthusiastic, dedicated professionals who are active in their profession, recognized scholars or recipients of major grants or teaching awards. Our pedagogical approaches are more often trans-disciplinary in nature and consistent with emerging scholarly or artistic trends that define cultural expression both within Canada’s vigorous artistic communities and those that we encounter abroad. In addition to Ontario our students originate from Canada’s many regions as well as from the United States, Central and South America, Europe and Asia.
What makes each of our faculty and staff special is their engagement in the intellectual as well as the practical pursuits of their art form. Whether painter, media artist, musician, director, actor, dramaturge or scenographer, art, music or theatre historian, to name a few, our faculty are dedicated to crystallizing the significance of the artistic process generated in the studio, the media lab, the music conservatory, on the stage or mediated in public spaces. From drawing the human figure to learning the dynamic tools of new media, honing perfect pitch on a musical instrument to projecting the human voice, to performing classics or the authoring of one’s own plays, these are just some of the elements of instrumentation that empower our students. Others include one-on-one musical instruction, theatre production, costume design and scenography, community outreach in the form of drama in education and society, and curating and arts administration. Equally, those faculty who study historical, iconographic or visual trends, high and low culture, offer unique perspectives using the interpretive tools of narrative, comparative or contextual analysis to aid in our understanding of the social or political dimension of the arts through history.
We believe we offer a unique educational experience in the Faculty of Humanities and with the proposed move to new facilities in the downtown core this can only strengthen the School’s well-established links to the community. We welcome the opportunity to work in closer liaison with the arts community and embrace the idea of forging new and creative relationships with the many cultural organizations or performers that will use the Performing Arts Centre (PAC). Brock University, an enthusiastic partner in the development of the downtown PAC and MIWSFPA relocation project, will transform the former Canada Hair Cloth building into a teaching and learning facility for the faculty, staff and students of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. The result of a unique joint agreement between the City of St. Catharines and the University, faculty and students will also have access to the Recital Hall, the Film Theatre and the Dance Theatre. These are the spaces where lectures, student and other performances, movement classes, music instruction, and choral rehearsals will occur on a regularly scheduled basis during the week.
For further information about our programs, please contact us:
brocku.ca/dramaticarts
brocku.ca/music
brocku.ca/artsandculture
brocku.ca/visualarts
brocku.ca/finearts
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts offers a unique post-secondary education for students committed to exploring the arts in their many practiced, established or experimental forms. The fine and performing arts represent a dynamic collection of individual or collective experiences that in their recorded or archived form symbolize what we understand to be expressions of living and vital culture –subjective, aesthetic, social or political by design or intent. Within each of our departments of Dramatic Arts, Music and Visual Arts, and the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture, where a richness and quality of learning resides in either collaborative or individual work, one finds enthusiastic, dedicated professionals who are active in their profession, recognized scholars or recipients of major grants or teaching awards. Our pedagogical approaches are more often trans-disciplinary in nature and consistent with emerging scholarly or artistic trends that define cultural expression both within Canada’s vigorous artistic communities and those that we encounter abroad. In addition to Ontario our students originate from Canada’s many regions as well as from the United States, Central and South America, Europe and Asia.
What makes each of our faculty and staff special is their engagement in the intellectual as well as the practical pursuits of their art form. Whether painter, media artist, musician, director, actor, dramaturge or scenographer, art, music or theatre historian, to name a few, our faculty are dedicated to crystallizing the significance of the artistic process generated in the studio, the media lab, the music conservatory, on the stage or mediated in public spaces. From drawing the human figure to learning the dynamic tools of new media, honing perfect pitch on a musical instrument to projecting the human voice, to performing classics or the authoring of one’s own plays, these are just some of the elements of instrumentation that empower our students. Others include one-on-one musical instruction, theatre production, costume design and scenography, community outreach in the form of drama in education and society, and curating and arts administration. Equally, those faculty who study historical, iconographic or visual trends, high and low culture, offer unique perspectives using the interpretive tools of narrative, comparative or contextual analysis to aid in our understanding of the social or political dimension of the arts through history.
We believe we offer a unique educational experience in the Faculty of Humanities and with the proposed move to new facilities in the downtown core this can only strengthen the School’s well-established links to the community. We welcome the opportunity to work in closer liaison with the arts community and embrace the idea of forging new and creative relationships with the many cultural organizations or performers that will use the Performing Arts Centre (PAC). Brock University, an enthusiastic partner in the development of the downtown PAC and MIWSFPA relocation project, will transform the former Canada Hair Cloth building into a teaching and learning facility for the faculty, staff and students of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. The result of a unique joint agreement between the City of St. Catharines and the University, faculty and students will also have access to the Recital Hall, the Film Theatre and the Dance Theatre. These are the spaces where lectures, student and other performances, movement classes, music instruction, and choral rehearsals will occur on a regularly scheduled basis during the week.
For further information about our programs, please contact us:
brocku.ca/dramaticarts
brocku.ca/music
brocku.ca/artsandculture
brocku.ca/visualarts
brocku.ca/finearts