Dr. Karen Schultz receives a collection of paintings created by H'art Centre artists, including Laura Q, left, and Paul S, right, at the offices of the Queen's Family Health Team (QFHT) in downtown Kingston. (University Communications)
A collection of paintings by students from H’art Centre is bringing some welcome colour and creativity to the offices of the Queen's Family Health Team (QFHT) in downtown Kingston.
QFHT commissioned the H’art Centre artists and the participants painted a variety of works using the theme “Healthy Living and Active Lifestyles.”
The artists studied basic concepts about how to maintain and improve physical and mental health for several months before putting brush to canvas. The colourful paintings, displayed in the QFHT’s six patient waiting areas, reflect topics including nutrition, exercise, staying in touch with friends, reading, trying new things, enjoying the outdoors and getting your flu shot.
Dr. Karen Schultz, who worked with H’art Centre Executive Director Katherine Porter in facilitating the initiative, said the partnership is “one of those lovely win-win situations."
“The artists from H’art have had the experience of creatively displaying their ideas about how to live a healthy life,” she says. “For us at Queen’s Family Medicine, this is another way to get this message to our patients, and the art itself is so bright and cheerful that it can’t help but bring a smile to your face. The paintings are a joy.”
H'art Centre is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to providing people with disabilities and those facing barriers with opportunities to study, enjoy and produce works in the arts. For more information, visit hartschool.ca.
With final exams underway, the next items on many student to-do lists will be cleaning, packing and preparing to move.
To make this often-stressful process easier, Queen’s University, the AMS and the city offer several moving-related resources. On April 30 and May 1, MacGillivray-Brown Hall will host the annual Drop & Shop event. Students will be able to bring their unwanted items to the event during these two days, and purchase any items they may need.
“The Drop & Shop program is a great way for students to drop off unneeded household items, saving the hassle of moving them, while allowing others to pick up necessities at low cost,” says Nirali Patel, Student Life Centre Managing Director, “all while benefiting local charities.”
Drop & Shop will run both days from 8 am-7 pm in MacGillivray-Brown Hall. Students can donate their gently-used clothing, linens, books, sports equipment and unopened food and personal hygiene products. Faculty, staff and community members are welcome to buy items. Proceeds from the sale will support local youth charities.
Students will also be able to get rid of unneeded items by taking part in the city’s Giveaway Day this coming Saturday, April 16. Label the items as “free” and place them by the curb. At the end of the day, remaining items can be donated to charity, as the city will not collect unclaimed items left at the curb.
If you need packing supplies, moving boxes and tape are available for sale at the Student Life Centre in the JDUC. Students will also be able to purchase city garbage tags ($2 each) from the JDUC, City Hall, the AMS office or the DrugSmart pharmacy in the Queen’s Centre.
By Chris Moffatt Armes, Government Relations Analyst
Queen’s University announces naming of the Dan School of Drama and Music.
Aubrey Dan speaks after it was announced that he and his wife, Marla Dan, had donated $5 million to Queen's University. In honour of the donation, the university announced the naming of the Dan School of Drama and Music. (Photo by Bernard Clark)
Aubrey and Marla Dan stand in front of the donor wall at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts where it was announced that they had donated $5 million to Queen's University. (Photo by Bernard Clark)
Provost Alan Harrison announces the naming of the Dan School of Drama and Music in honour of Aubrey and Marla Dan and their donation of $5 million to the school. (Photo by Bernard Clark)
Queen's University announced the naming of the Dan School of Drama and Music, in honour of Aubrey and Marla Dan and their donation of $5 million to the school. From left: Ireneus Zuk, Interim Associate Director, Dan School of Drama and Music; Provost Alan Harrison; Marla and Aubrey Dan; and Craig Walker, Head of the Dan School of Drama and Music. (Photo by Bernard Clark)
Aubrey and Marla Dan joke around with Greg Wanless (Drama) and Tim Fort (Drama) following a special concert that featured a short performance involving Aubrey Dan along with a group of faculty, alumni and current students. (Photo by Bernard Clark)
To celebrate the naming of the Dan School of Drama and Music a special concert was held at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, followed by a reception in the lobby area that brought together members of the Queen's and Kingston communities. (Photo by Bernard Clark)
Aubrey Dan speaks with Craig Walker, Head of the Dan School of Drama and Music, during a special concert event that was held at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, marking the naming of the school. (Photo by Bernard Clark)
Queen’s University announced the naming of the Dan School of Drama and Music, in honour of Aubrey and Marla Dan and their donation of $5 million to the school Thursday.
“Queen’s is delighted to receive this remarkable gift from such a distinguished supporter of the performing arts in Canada,” says Daniel Woolf, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University. “On behalf of Queen’s, I would like to express our deepest gratitude to Aubrey and Marla Dan for their vision and generosity. This gift will help accelerate the momentum within the school and strengthen Queen’s position as a leading university for study in the performing arts.”
The donation will be endowed to allow investments in visiting professional instructors, scholarships and research. It also builds on the momentum within the Dan School of Drama and Music, following the opening of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts and the ongoing development of exciting new programs since the merger of the Department of Drama and School of Music last year.
The benefactors, Marla and Aubrey Dan, are Queen’s parents whose daughter is a graduate of the drama program. Mr. Dan is a highly-accomplished Canadian businessman and philanthropist, with a passion for the performing arts. He is also the founder of Dancap Productions Inc., a Tony Award-winning commercial theatre company with international and Broadway production and investment credits, including Jersey Boys, The Drowsy Chaperone, West Side Story and A Streetcar Named Desire.
“As the father of a Queen’s Drama graduate, I saw first-hand the value of the education my daughter received at Queen’s,” says Mr. Dan. “More importantly, I saw that there’s tremendous potential in the School of Drama and Music. It is my hope that this donation will allow the school to reach new levels and become the pre-eminent school for performance arts education in Canada.”
In celebration of the naming, a special concert was held at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts. Distinguished Queen’s Drama and Music alumni took the stage to perform works from South Pacific, Smash, and The Drowsy Chaperone.
“Our plan is to create the pre-eminent School of Drama and Music in Canada and one of the leading such schools in the world,” says Craig Walker, Head of the Dan School of Drama and Music. “Moreover, we hope to lay down new paths for scholarship in the field of music theatre. This generous donation by the Dan family will help enrich the learning and research environments for students in drama and music at Queen’s and help our students reach new heights.”
Alfred and Isabel Bader, two of the university’s most generous benefactors, donated Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo to Queen’s late last year.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo, 1658, oil on canvas, 107.4 x 87.0 cm, Gift of Alfred and Isabel Bader, 2015 (58-008) (Photo courtesy of Otto Naumann, Ltd.)
Madeleine Leisk spent last summer helping develop a new exhibition at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre as an Undergraduate Student Summer Research Fellow, a program run by University Research Services.
She didn’t know at the time that the exhibition, Singular Figures: Portraits and Character Studies in Northern Baroque Painting, would eventually feature a Rembrandt masterpiece that has been unavailable to scholars for much of its existence.
Alfred and Isabel Bader, two of the university’s most generous benefactors, donated Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo to Queen’s late last year. The Agnes will unveil the painting to the general public at its season launch event on April 29. The painting will be installed alongside the Agnes’s two smaller studies by the Dutch master in Singular Figures, which is co-curated by Stephanie Dickey, Queen’s Professor and Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art, and Jacquelyn N. Coutré, Bader Curator and Researcher of European Art at the Agnes, with contributions from Ms. Leisk.
“An image in a textbook cannot replace the impact of seeing a work of art in person,” says the fourth-year art history student. “Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo is a wonderful addition to the European collection at the Agnes and a great resource for European art history classes at Queen’s. The new Rembrandt will offer a unique learning opportunity for students from all faculties.”
Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo, signed and dated 1658, features the artist’s signature ruwe, or rough, style, showcasing the artistic brilliance associated with Rembrandt’s late work. The painting joins two other Rembrandt paintings in the Agnes’s collection, Head of an Old Man in a Cap (c. 1630) and Head of a Man in a Turban (c. 1661). In addition to the three Rembrandts, Alfred and Isabel Bader have donated more than 200 paintings to the Agnes over the past 50 years.
“Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo is truly the pinnacle of the Bader Collection, which includes many distinguished Dutch and Flemish works from the Baroque period,” says Jan Allen, Director of the Agnes. “We are excited to welcome visitors and give them the opportunity to discover the ways in which this new acquisition illuminates and contextualizes the other portraits in the collection that were painted by artists in Rembrandt’s circle.”
Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo is a wonderful addition to the European collection at the Agnes and a great resource for European art history classes at Queen’s. The new Rembrandt will offer a unique learning opportunity for students from all faculties.
— Madeleine Leisk (Artsci'16)
History student Jack Pirie has a strong desire to see the painting after taking “The Portrait,” an art history class taught by Dr. Dickey during the winter term. He believes that students across all disciplines – not just history – should be excited about the unveiling of the painting.
“This painting gives Queen’s students yet another reason to be proud of their university,” he says. “Thanks to the generosity of Alfred and Isabel Bader, we can all say that we are part of a community that is home to one the best university collections of Northern European art in North America.”
Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo can be seen for the first time during the spring/summer launch event at the Agnes on April 29. The members’ preview will take place from 5-6:30 pm followed by the public reception from 6:30-8 pm.
The 2016-17 season for the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts was announced Monday, including the Inaugural Bader and Overton International Violin Festival .
Director of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts Tricia Baldwin, right, and Kevin Tanner announce the 2016-17 season.
Queen’s Music’s Gisèle Dalbec Szczesniak (violin) and Michel Szczesniak (piano) offered a short performance at the season announcement.
The 2016-17 season for the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts was announced Monday, including the first Bader and Overton Canadian Violin Competition.
The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts announced a lineup for its 2016-17 season on Monday night that is clearly befitting Queen’s University’s 175th anniversary.
The season's highlights include the new multi-genre Bader and Overton International Violin Festival, featuring internationally acclaimed violinists such as Ashley MacIsaac, James Ehnes, Viktoria Mullova and Pinchas Zukerman, a new Human Rights Arts Festival featuring Measha Brueggergosman and a collaboration with Toronto International Film Festival and Human Rights Watch, and world premieres by Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Alison Mackay, John Burge, Craig Walker, and Marjan Mozetich.
Also, the Piano, Ensemble, Jazz and Global Salon Series will present a diversity of outstanding artists.
New this year is the Isabel Overton Bader Canadian Violin Competition that will award violinists between 18 and 29 years old with the Marion Overton Dick Memorial Prize, worth $20,000, and the opportunity to perform with the Kingston Symphony and a recital on the Isabel stage.
“Queen’s University is celebrating its 175th anniversary in 2016-17, and Canada its sesquicentennial. With this inspiration, we have created new festivals and a violin competition, attracted fantastic artists to the Isabel stage, and are supporting a number of Canadian world premieres,” says Tricia Baldwin, Director of the Isabel. “It has been thrilling to develop this season, and we’re excited to announce it to our audience and beyond.”
The season was announced with a short performance by Queen’s Music’s Gisèle Dalbec Szczesniak (violin) and Michel Szczesniak (piano), followed by a special screening of the feature film The Red Violin.
For complete details on the 2016‐17 season, visit theisabel.ca. Subscriptions for the 2016-17 season are now available. Call The Isabel’s box office at 613‐533‐2424 (Monday-Friday, 12:30‐4:30 pm).
Situated on the shores of Lake Ontario, the award‐winning Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts brings together exceptional arts spaces and programs with a captivating sense of place to create a dynamic venue for Queen’s students and the community. In addition to the Performance Hall, the other spaces in the 90,000 square foot venue include a studio theatre, a film screening room and a music rehearsal hall. Embracing the principles of interactivity and integration, the School of Drama and Music and the Department of Film and Media share teaching and performance spaces within the Isabel. The Isabel was designed by Oslo/New York-based firm Snøhetta and Ottawa’s N45, with acoustics and theatre design by ARUP and Theatre Projects Consultants. Anchored by a transformational gift to the Initiative Campaign from Drs. Alfred and Isabel Bader, the Isabel was inspired by the Bader’s love – of the arts, of Queen’s, and of each other – and is named in Isabel’s honour.
Benjamin Bolden, an associate professor in Queen’s University’s Faculty of Education, has won a national competition for choral music.
Ben Bolden of the Faculty of Education is the winner of the 2016 Competition for Choral Writing. (Supplied Photo)
Dr. Bolden’s composition Tread Softly, a setting of The Cloths of Heaven by poet W.B. Yeats, was recently selected by Choral Canada as the winner of 2016 Competition for Choral Writing.
As a result, the Tread Softly will be published by Cypress Choral Music, a co-sponsor of the competition, and be premiered by the 2016 National Youth Choir of Canada during Choral Canada’s Podium biennial choral conference and festival in Edmonton on Friday, May 20.
He also receives the $1,500 Dianne Loomer Award.
“Having the piece performed by the National Youth Choir is an immense privilege,” Dr. Bolden says. “To think that all these superb young musicians will be dedicating their energy, expertise, musicality and spirit to bring my music alive… it is such a gift that the music I imagine, and hope might work, and write down as black marks on a page, can actually see the light of day and become beautiful through their voices.”
Tread Softly is an a cappella choral work which Michael Zaugg, guest conductor for the 2016 National Youth Choir of Canada, says uses “a lush tonal language” to set the words by Yeats.
“The well-structured dynamic and melodic development brings the text to the forefront and engages the performer and listener alike,” Mr. Zaugg adds. “I look forward to presenting these soaring melodies and rich harmonies in concert with the National Youth Choir of Canada.”
Dr. Bolden says he was inspired to compose the piece by a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally-recognized expert on education in the arts, where he spoke about the importance of educating children in a way that allows them to be who they need to be, and of honouring their dreams.
“He closed the talk by reading the poem ‘The Cloths of Heaven’ by William Butler Yeats,” he says. “He was using the poem to remind policy makers, educators, and parents that, every day and everywhere, children lay their dreams at our feet. We need to tread softly.”
Dr. Bolden’s research interests include the learning and teaching of composing, creativity, community music, arts-based research, Web 2.0 technologies in education, teacher knowledge, and teachers’ professional learning. He is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre and his compositions have been performed by a variety of professional and amateur performing ensembles.
Founded in 1980, Choral Canada is the national voice of the Canadian choral community, representing and uniting a network of conductors, educators, composers, administrators, choral industry leaders, and more than 42,000 choral singers.
Indigenous artist Sonny Assu’s work, on display at the Union Gallery, challenges the settler-colonial lens in Canadian art.
Layers of history are on display at the Union Gallery – in a show featuring digital paintings that examine and question the ways Canada has been portrayed over time, largely through a settler-colonial lens.
In the artworks, celebrated Vancouver-based artist Sonny Assu overlays Indigenous iconography on paintings by artists such as Emily Carr, Edwin Holgate and Paul Kane, effectively conveying multiple histories at once.
Ellyn Walker and Jocelyn Purdie take in Sonny Assu's digital paintings at the Union Gallery.
“The works speak back to these canonized images of Canadian history,” says Ellyn Walker, a PhD student in the Cultural Studies Program who curated the show as part of her research. “These famous paintings, while intentional or not, didn’t properly or accurately acknowledge Indigenous presence on the land, such as in many of the sites that they portray, and Assu’s works challenge that.”
In all the works at the gallery, Assu placed formlines – shapes and images that are specific to the Pacific Northwest and found on Indigenous arts such as textiles and totem poles – in bold, neon colours on the paintings, in an effort to “speak back to their missing histories,” explains Walker.
Assu, who is Ligwilda’xa (We Wai Kai) of the Kwakwaka’wakw nations, graduated from Emily Carr University and has won numerous awards. His work has been accepted into the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Seattle Art Museum, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and in various other private and public collections across Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.
“I hope the show helps people become more interested in art history, and the multiplicity of history,” says Walker. “The exhibition asks us to look critically – and look again – at artwork made in Canada, meant to represent Canada, and how the places in which we live are in fact colonial sites.”
The exhibition, which runs until March 19, also includes a curators’ discussion at the gallery on the final day of the show. Walker, along with Carina Magazzeni, will discuss “curating as research” and the possibilities and limitations associated with this pedagogical method. She also hopes to discuss her theories on “curating as relationships,” and curating as a tool for negotiation.
Jocelyn Purdie, Director of the Union Gallery, says Walker’s show of Assu’s work is one of the ways the gallery provides experiential learning opportunities for students. Walker, as part of her work in cultural studies, is on a placement and mentorship with the gallery as their programming and research assistant.
More information on the Re-mixed: Reconfiguring the Imaginary exhibition is available at the Union Gallery website, on Facebook, and by email.
Series of events invites participants to critically explore self and world through experimental and experiential means.
Shalon Webber-Heffernan hopes that a series of performances and campus-wide events that she’s curated for her master’s thesis in cultural studies will help people think about pedagogy through a different lens – as an embodied experience.
“It’s possible to argue that any experience is an embodied experience – because our bodies are present for every experience we have,” says Ms. Webber-Heffernan. “But ‘embodiment’ and emotional knowledge are not really subjects that are truly integrated into the academic context of learning. In a way, my thesis really questions the processes of knowledge exchange that happen within institutional and neoliberal conditions, and then uses those conditions as a setting for exploring ideas of unlearning.”
Toronto-based artist Golboo Amani is part of the Performing Pedagogies events and will bring her School of Bartered Knowledge, a participatory practice in which she asks people to share with her any knowledge they have. Ms. Amani keeps a record of all the "bartered knowledge" she receives. [Photo courtesy of Golboo Amani]
Much of Ms. Webber-Heffernan’s research creation project centres around the notion of a “hidden” or “secret” curriculum – theories investigated by scholar and cultural critic Henry Giroux.
“He asks the question, what do we learn that we don’t realize we’re learning?” says Ms. Webber-Heffernan, who is studying under the supervision of Professor Clive Robertson, and working collaboratively with Professor Keren Zaiontz’s undergraduate class, Film 338: Contemporary Issues in Cultural Studies, and The School for Eventual Vacancy in Vancouver.
“My thesis creation project is about unlearning the dominant ideologies that we unquestioningly believe to be true, and using the experiential processes of performance art to corporeally examine ideas of critical race theory, post-colonial theory, gender, sexuality, aging, etc.”
For the series of events – called Performing Pedagogies – Ms. Webber-Heffernan has invited numerous local, national and international artists to take part in several performances, a “Distance Education” exhibition, a panel discussion, and an all-day workshop led by Saul Garcia-Lopez of La Pocha Nostra, an international performance art troupe based in the U.S. and Mexico.
“I am ecstatic about all the artists participating and their willingness to work with me on this project. And it is really exciting to have Saul of La Pocha Nostra here teaching their radical performance pedagogy through the workshop,” says Ms. Webber-Heffernan, who went to Tijuana last summer to take a workshop with the group.
“Their work blends hands-on exercises from various traditions such as shamanism, experimental theatre and dance, the Suzuki method. It is transformative work that challenges people to encounter ‘the other,’ embrace the differences we find amongst ourselves, and face fears. You leave with a deeper sense of understanding, of your self and each other.”
Cultural studies master's student Shalon Webber-Heffernan curated Performing Pedagogies as part of her thesis creation project.
With a background in dance and performance art, Ms. Webber-Heffernan says she’s always had a deep connection with the body and “embodied” experiences, and believes that being a socially engaged and ethical being stems from the awareness and knowledge that comes from those experiences.
“It’s all very pedagogical and capable of changing your perspective,” she says. “And that’s what I hope for these events – that they encourage people of all backgrounds and disciplines to think critically and perhaps examine hidden parts of themselves and society.”
Performing Pedagogies takes place March 14-21. It brings together many artists, including Kingston artist Andrew Rabyniuk, Toronto’s Golboo Amani, Basil AlZeri and Francisco-Fernando Granados, Saul Garcia-Lopez, and The School for Eventual Vacancy. The events take place at the Union Gallery, Stauffer Library Loggia, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre and the Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts.
An art installation examining the historical use of the word “ghetto” and how the weight and meaning of the word have changed over time is being hosted at the Queen’s Centre starting Tuesday, Feb. 23.
'GHETTO: A Retail Art Installation' will be on display at the Queen's Centre from Feb. 23 to March 14. (Photo by University of Dayton)
The Alma Mater Society (AMS) has partnered with ArtStreet at the University of Dayton to bring an art installation entitled “GHETTO: A Retail Art Installation” to Queen’s campus. The installation is a retail art experience that seeks to take the commercialized aspects surrounding the use of the term ‘ghetto’ and turn them into social, political and economic commentary.
The exhibit will be housed in the Fireplace Lounge on the second floor of the Queen’s Centre through to Monday, March 14.
A special opening night event at Common Ground Coffeehouse will offer a panel discussion featuring Rodney Veal and Brian LaDuca, two of the artistic producers for the original installation at the University of Dayton, and Alex Chung, the AMS Social Issues Commissioner. The panel will discuss the original ideas behind the installation, the importance of language and history, and the social climate at Dayton surrounding the use of the word ‘ghetto,’ as well as the parallels and contrasts it presents to Queen’s. A question and answer period will follow as well as a casual meet and greet with Mr. Veal and Mr. LaDuca afterwards. The event starts at 5:30 pm.
The Centre for Teaching and Learning wants the Queen’s community to delve into their creative process for a new exhibition that aims to highlight the artistic side of teaching and learning.
The creative expressions of teaching and learning exhibition, planned for October, will display and celebrate the creativity that is essential to the process of teaching and learning.
“Much of what we do at Queen’s to enhance teaching and learning takes a methodological approach, such as looking at course design or learning outcomes,” says Peter Wolf, Associate Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning) and Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning, who is spearheading the project along with a committee of dedicated volunteers. “This exhibition takes a different approach that hopes to engage students, staff and faculty in reflecting on the creative and sometimes artistic elements that contribute to learning.”
Submissions are invited from faculty, staff, students and alumni in two categories. The first is for existing artifacts, the products and processes of teaching and learning from current or past courses. This may include student projects, drawings, schematics, notes or other items. The second category is a call for proposals for new creative artworks, by individuals or groups, which need not be related to a specific course. These new works should be inspired by teaching and learning, and successful proposals will receive up to $750 to create the work.
A mind map created by a student as a tool for thinking through their project is an example of an existing artifact of teaching and learning.
“Transforming thought into art and artifact allows the knowledge culled from research and academic pursuits to incubate and emerge in a new form,” says Aynne Johnston, Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts Education, Co-coordinator of the Artist-in-Community Education program, and a member of the volunteer committee. “An artifact represents the end or the process of inquiry and has the ability to incite the curiosity of the public to learn, acquire and grasp connections between theory and possible application.”
Tricia Baldwin, Director of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts and another member of the exhibition’s volunteer committee, says the exhibition will highlight the importance of imagination in discovery and learning.
“Here at the Isabel we celebrate the creative journey of discovery through the arts, and this Creative Expressions of Teaching and Learning project will demonstrate the parallel process of discovery and learning through imagination,” says Ms. Baldwin. “This project will involve both creators and the Queen’s community in this creative fusion of imaginative pedagogy and art itself.”
The deadline for submissions of existing artifacts of teaching and learning is May 2 and the deadline for proposals for new works is March 18. Ownership and copyright for all works submitted will remain with the artists.