Brock Press

Issue date: 1/29/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Chao Sun

Media Credit: Chao Sun

In partnership with the City of St. Catharines, Brock University has initiated a project to bring a performing arts centre to the city's downtown core.
The proposed Niagara Centre for the Arts stems from Brock's need to expand and possibly relocate its School of Fine and Performing Arts, as well as the city's desire for a new cultural attraction as part of its downtown revitalization project.
The development started in 1999 with a Performing Arts Centre Feasibility study, followed by a Community Needs Assessment in 2001. The project sat dormant until April 2005 when, due to an increasingly apparent need, the performing arts centre was established as a priority for the city. From there, the Community Needs Assessment was updated in 2006. By Nov. 13, 2007 Brock and the City of St. Catharines had established their partnership and released a Request for Proposal to commission a consultant team.
Brock's need for the Niagara Centre for the Arts branches from the Centre for the Arts and School of Fine and Performing Arts' current situation on campus. Over the past eight years, the Studio Theatre has been lost to the dramatic arts department, the David S. Howes Theatre has become a primary lecture hall, and the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre has become inadequate for the volume of performances and events.
The project means a potential move off campus for the departments of dramatic arts, visual arts, music and studies in arts and culture. Issues and strategies for implementing this move are in consideration.
Additionally, the Niagara Centre for the Arts would give students some much-needed space.
"At Brock, the arts students have little space for faculty and students to interact," said Sharilyn Ingram, director of the School of Fine and Performing Arts and member of the Project Management Team for the proposed performing arts centre. "They are defined in their individual departments. With the performing arts centre, these old fashioned silos are breaking down to create a home where various forms will allow students and faculty to explore and stretch their boundaries."
The Niagara Centre for the Arts would provide an enriched pedagogical environment to connect students to the community, street life, and acting professionals. This is the biggest benefit of the centre, according to Ingram. It provides the opportunity for students, faculty and community to become part of a professional artistic space, and the profile that comes with it. For the audience and broader citizenry of the Niagara Region, it means an increase in quality and quantity of access to the arts.
However, what is really important to the success of the project is to not just be about Brock, but its surrounding community.
"I believe that art and artists function best when connected to a context of social reality," said Ingram. "This is where Brock and St. Catharines can come together."
St. Catharines' profits would lie in the renewed economic vitality the performing arts centre has to offer, as well as attention to its already established arts communities such as the Niagara Artists Centre (NAC) and Rodman Hall. While the NAC would gain from the cultural precinct surrounding the centre, Rodman Hall is looking to receive professional arts storage space for their city collections in the new building.
As of Jan. 14, 2008 a consultant team led by Levitt Goodman Architects has been approved by City Council. Their purpose is to compose a Program, Site and Facility Management Feasibility Study for a Cultural and Academic Development in downtown St. Catharines. This study is to guide an Artistic Program Plan that will make suggestions towards site development, a business plan and economic considerations.
The budget for this study was allocated at $250,000, comprised of $75,000 from Brock University, $75,000 from St. Catharines' Cultural Services budget and $100,000 from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.
The Canada Hair Cloth Company building has been approached as a potential venue but nothing has been determined yet, although the project is likely to accommodate an already existing space. Last summer a small architectural contract was induced to determine the potential adaptive reuse and purposeful space the building has to offer.
Ingram identifies Jack Lightstone, president of Brock, as a key figure in his enthusiastic fostering of the project. She also accredits much of the progress to Rosemary Hale, Dean of Humanities at Brock, whose persistence over her past eight years at Brock has kept the dream of a performing arts centre alive.
Additionally, Ingram establishes three more goals of the performing arts centre: "For students, to truly enrich the nature of educational experience at Brock; to make the public more aware of the creativity, professionalism, energy, and commitment of Brock faculty and staff; and beyond Brock, to give access and help the public gain from the arts in a way not previously possible."
The anticipated project start date has been set for the first quarter of 2008.

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