Community Involvement

Kingston is a vibrant community with many opportunities for students to get involved. Apart from the choices offered by the Law Students' Society, there are many groups in the Queen's university community and the larger Kingston area. Students can participate in community or professional music, art, theatre, or volunteer their time with public welfare organizations. Interested students are encouraged to browse the following list, and get involved!

If you have any suggestions for organizations that should be added to our list, please click here.

• Art
• Athletics
• Music
• Student Radio
• Theatre
• Volunteer Activities and Organizations

Art

The Agnes Etherington Art Centre

The Art Centre is Canada's premier university art gallery. Its collection is remarkable for its breadth and quality, and some 15 exhibitions of historical and contemporary art are presented annually. With its historic Etherington House, eight galleries, Gallery Shop, and Art Rental & Sales Gallery, the Art Centre is a focus for the cultural life of Queen's University and the city of Kingston.

Admission is free with your student card.

http://www.aeac.ca/

The Kingston Arts Council

Engaging Kingston's diverse communities in a lifelong affair with the arts, the Kingston Arts Council is the best source for arts information in Kingston.

Offering up to the minute information on the arts and the arts community in Kingston, the Kingston Arts Council is a valuable resource for anyone looking to take the pulse of the outstanding arts community.

http://www.artskingston.com/

Athletics

Apart from the Golden Gaels recreational and varsity sports, Kingston offers the following:

Kingston Running Room

Group running and training is offered through the store. There is a Running Room Club that meets twice weekly. The Club leads runs throughout the Kingston City area, and in surrounding areas. Runners of all levels and abilities are welcome. Kingston Running Room

277 Princess Street
Kingston, ON k7l 1b4
Ph: (613) 547-3666
Fax: (613) 547-3444
E-mail: kingston@runningroom.com
Running Room Club: Wed: 6:00pm & Sun: 8:30am
http://www.runningroom.com/hm/inside.php?id=2324

Kingston Sport and Social Club (KSSC)

The Sport & Social Club offers adults a fun outlet through co-ed recreational sport leagues, outdoor adventure, tournaments, and social events.

http://kssc.ca/

Sport Kingston

Sport Kingston is an advocacy group for the Kingston sport community. It has two objects: to develop, maintain and promote quality community sport, and encourage and assist the development of sport tourism in the Kingston region. Sport Kingston is a volunteer-directed, not-for-profit organization. The Board of Directors is made up of people with expertise, passion and commitment to sport in our community. It maintains an up-to-date website where sport organizations actively post their competitions, conferences, workshops and news.

http://www.sportkingston.ca/home.asp

Tourism Kingston

Tourism Kingston maintains a resource database that lists local sport tourism businesses, including sailing charters, golf courses, kayak and canoe rentals, camping grounds, and fishing locations. They offer programs all year ‘round.

http://tourism.kingstoncanada.com/en/events/index.asp

 

Music

Queen's Student Opera Society

Queen's Student Opera Company is a student-run venture. They annually stage one mainstage and a multitude of smaller productions in the Kingston area. Their goal is to expand the reach of opera, music, theatre and art in general to the widest possible audience including both our student population as well as the Kingston and North-Eastern Ontario communities in general. Past mainstage productions include "Il barbiere di siviglia," by Rossini.

Website: http://www.myams.org/getinvolved/ams-clubs/365-queen%5C%27s_student_opera_company
General Contact: info@qsoc.org

St. George's Anglican Church

The Cathedral Choir is a mixed choir of men and women who sing at the 10:30 a.m. Sunday service, as well as at special cathedral services and diocesan ordinations. Highlights of year are the traditional Christmas season services: the candlelit Advent carol service and the service of Nine Lessons and Carols. The Cathedral Choir combines with the Evensong Singers to sing choral evensong on the Sunday closest to the feast day of St. George (April 23). On occasion, the choir participates in concerts and community interfaith services in which it partners with other church and community choirs.
The Evensong Singers (a choir of experienced choral musicians from the parish and from the community) sing full traditional choral evensong on several occasions throughout the year. Members of the Evensong Singers are on occasion invited to sing in concerts and special services.

Contact Sarah Pugh SPugh@stgeorgescathedral.on.ca
Website: http://www.stgeorgescathedral.on.ca/music.htm

School of Music

Music Ensembles

The Queen's School of Music offers any student the opportunity to participate in their ensembles. Non B.Mus. students may participate without registering or receiving academic credit, following a successful audition. Auditions are held in the fall, but interested students are encouraged to contact the director of the appropriate ensemble directly.

The ensembles offered include:

Choral Ensemble
Clarinet Choir
Collegium Musicum
Flute Choir
Jazz Choir
Jazz Ensemble
Polyhymnia
Symphony Orchestra
Wind Ensemble
Guitar Ensemble
Percussion Ensemble
Trumpet Ensemble

http://www.queensmusic.ca/music/?q=programs/courses-offered/ensemble-auditions

Melos Choral Ensemble

Founded in 1984 by Music Director David Cameron, Melos Choral Ensemble is a mixed-voice community choir of 40-50 members. The Choir is administered by the Kingston Melos Society, a non-profit organization with registered charitable status, and membership is by audition. Melos performs four concerts per year, which take place at city churches or at one of the two Kingston cathedrals. Rehearsals are on Wednesday evenings, from September to May, at MacCallum Hall, Chalmers United Church.

Melos's repertoire ranges widely over the choral music of six centuries (masses, madrigals, motets, anthems, part songs, and contemporary compositions). Performances include music sung a cappella, and music accompanied by piano, organ and various instrumental ensembles. Qualified singers sometimes have opportunities to perform solo parts.

For more information and to schedule an audition, or e-mail info@melos.ca.
http://www.melos.ca/

The Kingston Chamber Choir

Now entering its third full season, the Kingston Chamber Choir has already carved out a noted place in a thriving Kingston musical scene. As an auditioned ensemble of 20 experienced and talented voices selected from many other choirs in Kingston and beyond, the Choir performed as invited guest artists with the Kingston Symphony in its December 2005 Baroque Christmas event, with the Kingston brass ensemble Brasswerks in May 2005 and May 2006, as featured artists in the St. George's Cathedral concert series in 2005 and April 2006, and in David Rogers' "Star Bright" Broadway classics show at the Grand Theatre in December 2004. This is in addition to its own regular concert series.

Directed by Gordon Sinclair
Email: info@kingstonchamberchoir.ca
http://www.kingstonchamberchoir.ca/

Kingston Symphony Association

The Kingston Symphony Association exists to produce and promote professional quality programmes of instrumental and choral music for the education, enjoyment and enrichment of audiences in the Greater Kingston area. They are dedicated to the support, development and showcasing of Canadian artists and composers. The Kingston Symphony Association is the umbrella organization for five performing ensembles including the Kingston Symphony Orchestra, the Kingston Choral Society, the Kingston Youth Orchestra, the Kingston Youth Strings, and the Kingston Community Strings. They are dedicated to musical development in our community and through our ensembles we are able to present orchestral and choral concerts, and involve young people in our community in professional-level musical performances and training.

The Symphony also maintains links to other musical organizations in Kingston at http://www.kingstonsymphony.on.ca/about.html.

http://www.kingstonsymphony.on.ca/

Student Radio

CFRC - Student Radio

CFRC is the Queen's university radio station. Its mission statement is to provide innovative and alternative radio programming that enriches and challenges the academic and cultural life of the University and Kingston community and to provide members of the AMS, the CFRC Radio Club and the outlying community with the opportunity to participate and gain skills and experience in the collective operation of a radio station whose programming and practices are not constrained by demands for profit.

CFRC 101.9 FM: This is your signal.

CFRC has 150 volunteers: 70 % students, 30 % community members. Interested students are encouraged to pick an application form at CFRC, Lower Carruthers Hall (beside the Campus Bookstore). Recruitment occurs two or three times throughout the year and applications are always accepted. Volunteers are interviewed, and receive training. Potential show hosts are asked to submit a program proposal with their application. However, volunteers may help in a variety of areas including music dept, production, & promotions.

Joanne Williams, CFRC Business Manager
or Scott Stevens, Music Coordinator
Lower Carruthers Hall
Phone: 613-533-2121
Email: cfrcbusiness@ams.queensu.ca
www.cfrc.ca

Theatre

Kingston has a vibrant theatre community. Small student and community productions are frequent. Interested students are encouraged to visit the basement of Theological Hall on campus to find out more. There is a "call board" where open auditions, calls for crew, and notices re: upcoming productions are posted.
Other places to find out about local theatre opportunities:

Queen's University Drama Department

The Queen's University Department of Drama, established in 1947, is one of North America's oldest university programs devoted to the study of drama and theatre. In its fifty years of existence, it has educated and trained hundreds of Canadian and inter-national theatre artists, practitioners, and teachers. Their contributions to theatre and theatre education in Canada, the United States and around the world have been immense. Because of this, Queen's Drama has always integrated both the practical and theoretical approach to drama into a single program. The result is a creative interaction among the department's students and teachers. The faculty's diverse training, experience, and methods, plus our constant effort to achieve excellence within a balanced program, enables us to offer students a rich, varied experience and to foster their creative intelligence.

Past productions include "The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus," "Footfalls," and "The Mercy Seat." Interested students are encouraged to audition for productions throughout the year.

The Drama Department office is located in the basement of Theological Hall.
Office Hours: Monday - Friday 9 am to 4 pm
Telephone: (613) 533-2104
Fax: (613) 533-6268
Email: Lee Atkinson lee.atkinson@queensu.ca
http://www.queensu.ca/drama/

Theatre Kingston

Theatre Kingston is run by local and international theatre professionals with unique experience and training. Past productions include "The Anger in Ernest & Ernestine," "The Master Builder," "Every Day Above Ground," and "Candida."

Theatre Kingston also collaborates on The Barefoot Players, a not-for-profit program originally developed in by Theatre Kingston and the Queen's University Department of Drama to create young people's theatre production and outreach activities. The Barefoot Players are committed to bringing the magic of theatre to Kingston young audiences through performances and summer day-camps. The program reaches over 7000 children and families each year. For more information about the Barefoot Players, please visit their webpage at http://www.queensu.ca/drama/barefootplayers/bf2010/bfp2010.htm, or contact the Queen's University Department of Drama at 613-533-2104.

Phone: 613-544-2021
Email: threatrekingston@hotmail.com
http://www.theatrekingston.com/

Critical Stage Co.

The company is committed to new writing, or tackling established pieces in a new way, CSC's penetrating treatment explores many and varied themes, revealing undercurrents and facets of work otherwise disguised or denied. Their brand of "Surprisingly Stunning Theatre" has been taken across the UK, as well as abroad, and is now co-based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Email: nick@criticalstage.co.uk
http://www.criticalstage.co.uk/

Domino Theatre

Since its unusual beginning between feature films at the old Odeon Theatre, Domino has grown to a full seven-play winter season. Each season offers an appealing mix of drama, comedy and mystery from the Canadian and world stages.

Domino is truly a "community" theatre. People from all walks of life pool their skills to present productions of a consistently high caliber. As a member of the Eastern Ontario Drama League and Theatre Ontario, Domino is actively involved in the Ontario amateur theatre community and has acted as host to several annual festivals. Many Domino people and productions have been recognized for their excellence at the regional and provincial levels.

P.O. Box 884, Kingston, Ontario K7L 4X8 Phone: 549-2735
http://dominotheatre.com/

The Company of Lost Souls

Community-based company is a new collaboration of Kingston actors and directors, including alumni of many well-known local and national theatre groups. Contributing talents include veterans of the Renaissance Stage Company, Fishbowl Theatre, numerous Fringe festivals, Domino Theatre, Kingston Meistersingers, Second City, the Main Attraction Theatre Company, and many others.

Past productions include "Headset - A View From The Light Booth," by William Missouri Downs.

Email: lostsouls@cogeco.ca
http://home.cogeco.ca/~lostsouls/

The Rogue and Peasant Theatre Co.

The Rogue and Peasant Theatre Company (RPTC) was established in 1998 and operates as a not-for-profit charitable organization. They run a fall/winter main stage season focusing on the performance of Canadian plays, works from the classical canon and other contemporary works. The company produces a substantial portion of each season with the intent of being accessible to young audiences.

A new season will be announced soon.

Mark Ingram, Artistic Director Rogue & Peasant Theatre Company 290 Albert St.
Kingston, ON
K7L 3V6
http://www.roguetheatre.org/

Community Involvement, Volunteer Activities

Volunteer & Information Kingston

Volunteer & Information Kingston develops programs and services to foster and develop volunteerism, based on ongoing community consultation. They offer a database listing programs and organisations from across the region that are in need of volunteers. The database is updated daily and weekly, and there are always many placements open.

Interested students are encouraged to search the postings and contact the organisations directly.

Some of the organisations looking for volunteers include:

Reading and Parents Program with Kingston Literacy
City Hall Tour Guides
Rebound Coaches with the Youth Diversion Program
The Red Cross
The Arthritis Society
The Salvation Army
Ryandale Shelter for the Homeless
Girl Guides of Canada, Kingston Division

... And many more.

120 Clarence Street, Suite 273
Tel: 613-542-8512  
Fax: 613-542-8216
Email: info@volunteerkingston.ca
http://kingston.cioc.ca/