In 2015 we opened a 95,000 sq. ft. purpose-built facility dedicated to fine and performing arts specializations. A sensitive and innovative adaptation of a late-19th century textile mill in the heart of St. Catharines we have provided our 500 students with state-of-the-art studios, digital labs, music practice spaces and a 235-seat theatre complex and teaching gallery. We moved 24 full-time faculty and 10 staff in June 2015 and have since tuned up our production spaces, whilst enjoying the interface with our downtown neighbours and colleagues in the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre. Adjacent to our project is the newly opened FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, which provides the community with excellent amenities, including a Concert Hall, Recital Hall, Community Dance Venue and Film Theatre. Along with the Meridian Centre these facilities are part of a cultural renascence that is envisioned to help revive the downtown core and sustain the already vibrant local arts community, from theatre to music to dance to visual arts. Both projects were designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects and lend a distinctive design ethos to St. Paul, the main street, and the Raceway separating the two projects, with its vernacular stilt architecture and post-industrial fabric. Brock University's commitment to restoring the former Canada Hair Cloth Building represents a major contribution to preserving our heritage. The aim of repurposing this late 19th-century five-storey brick structure, is to create a sustainable, purpose-built environment in which the arts can thrive and those who have dedicated their professional lives to studying and producing music, theatre and visual art, excel. Thanks to the efforts of so many both at the University and in the community at large, we have created one of Canada's finest post-secondary centres where dynamic student activity, creative research and community-based learning can be found day-in, day-out.

Taught courses in 19th and 20th century history of art and foundation studio