2017 Curators & Theme Announced!
2017 is a big year so we needed double the curatorial strength to make it happen! We are delighted to introduce anna sprague and Emily Lawrence as our 2017 Curatorial Team!
anna sprague is a performance artist, creative facilitator, and faculty member at NSCAD University. In tandem with a provocative use of sculptural materials, bizarre props, and outlandish costumes, her art practice explores collaborative performance, public intervention, and site-specific installation as a means of critically engaging with site and history. anna holds degrees in English Literature (Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB) and Fine Arts (Concordia University, Montreal QC) and has a love for lowercase letters and underwhelming coincidences.
Emily Lawrence is an artist, facilitator, and community organizer. She has curated and coordinated several projects on behalf of arts organizations including Eyelevel Gallery and the PEI Crafts Council. She is currently a member of Eyelevel Gallery’s Engagement Committee, and was a selected artist for the 2017/2018 NSCAD Community Studio Residency at the MacPhee Centre for Creative Learning in Dartmouth NS. Her experiential approach to creating immersive environments, sculpture, and production design hinges on humour, food, and the senses as conduits to the underlying feminist and cultural curiosities that fuels her work.
2017 Theme: VANISH
As a curatorial premise, the term Vanish alludes to both the ephemeral nature of the Nocturne experience and the shifting focus that occurs as new or forgotten memories are transposed over prevalent narratives and pasts. Vanish is not erasure or removal, but an act of distancing or blurring. Vanish is slow magic — a camera lens slowly adjusting its focus. In 2017, as we usher in a year punctuated with celebrations of significant moments in Canadian history, it is important to take time to reflect on the complex nature of cultural remembrance. As a means to creatively disrupt the dominant narratives that have come to define the city’s complex history, Vanish seeks to re-envision familiar public spaces throughout Halifax / Dartmouth as phantasmagoric alternative realities.
Read more about the theme here.