Nocturne Team

Staff Members

Melany Nugent-Noble

Executive Director

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Melany Nugent-Noble

Executive Director

Coming to Kjipuktuk/Halifax from the unceded territory of the syilx (Okanagan) people, Melany Nugent-Noble (she/her) is an arts administrator and interdisciplinary artist with a career spanning 20 years with various arts institutions, galleries, and in government. Melany is an advocate of the role that art plays in the community, as a catalyst for connection, in building community pride and in supporting health and cultural safety.

As a practicing artist her work is grounded in S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math), which informs her understanding of the relationship between making art, problem-solving, and creativity. In 2021, as part of the Nocturne Festival, she exhibited her work Invisible Threads are the Strongest Ties, a co-production between Nocturne and Eye-Level Gallery.

Melany holds an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Vancouver, 2015). She was the City of Kelowna’s inaugural Artist in Residence (2020), and a Fellow of the Art & Law Program (New York, 2018). Since 2017, she has served as the Assistant Director at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, and is the current President of CARFAC BC. In 2022, Melany was a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor's Arts and Music Awards. When not working, Melany is an avid hiker and camper, and you can find her enjoying the woods and nature.

Visit Melany's website: https://melanynugent-noble.com

[email protected]

Signy Holm

Programming Coordinator

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Signy Holm

Programming Coordinator

Signy Holm (she/her) is an artist and aspiring curator & educator. She recently moved to Kjipuktuk/Halifax to pursue a Masters of Art in Art Education at NSCAD University, and is passionate about community engagement through the arts.

Graduating from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2019 with distinction, Signy has worked with several artist-run centers and non-profit organizations, and was most recently the Visitor Engagement & Volunteer Coordinator at Contemporary Calgary.

Signy’s practice and research focuses on finding ways that social and participatory art can help us to engage with social and ecological issues within our communities, and is most recently interested in researching plastic pollution.

[email protected]

Board Members

Jenna Harvie

Chair

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Jenna Harvie

Chair

Jenna (she/her) joined the Nocturne board in early 2021 as the Communications Director after being an ardent attendee since the festival began in 2008. She grew up in Montreal and Ottawa, and she has called K’jipuktuk/Halifax home since 2007 after moving to study English and Creative Writing at the University of King’s College and then Computer Science at Dalhousie. Jenna currently spends her days writing and editing, and her evenings working on her own fiction (horror, sci fi, fantasy), editing for a charity publisher, freelancing, volunteering, and working on her own art practice (writing, painting, and photography). She brings over a decade of communications and management experience to the team and is both proud and excited to continue supporting the local arts community as Chair.

[email protected]

Matthew Kratz

Vice Chair

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Matthew Kratz

Vice Chair

Matthew Kratz is an experimental painter and photographer from Mohkinstsis, Treaty 7 Territory (Calgary) who likes to wade knee deep in online encyclopedic articles researching everything that interests him (usually nostalgia, science, and history). Matthew currently works in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) on his art practice exploring nostalgia or experimenting with media, and is keen to participate in the local arts community as a board member at Nocturne. In 2022, he received his MFA from NSCAD University where he held his MFA Thesis Exhibition, The Least Nostalgic, at the Anna Leonowens Gallery. Matthew has one published work, Hey, I See Fires, a collection of his painted recreations of unedited archival images from the Apollo missions to the Moon. Matthew is pursuing an MBA at Dalhousie University.

[email protected]

B Mosher

Programming Director

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B Mosher

Programming Director

B Mosher's work develops from an intuitive practice tracing the space between lighthearted inquisition and sharp stupidity. Their drawing and sculptural installation works offer playful contemplation of amateurism, coping, and humour. These works often undermine biases of triviality and weakness.

B retains delicate ways of making, celebrating growth and encouraging possibilities while employing a do-it-yourself ethic using near-at-hand materials. By continuously collecting immediate material, B can pull on curiosities and flubs as they tumble and condense into nimble, delicate solutions to problems of their own making.

They are a graduate of the Bachelor of Arts in Studio Arts at Brock University in 2015 and Masters of Fine Arts in Studio Arts at the University of Guelph in 2020. B Mosher is a non-binary artist and arts worker living and working in Kjipuktuk/Halifax.

[email protected]

Matthew Peters

Treasurer

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Matthew Peters

Treasurer

Matthew (he/him) joined the Nocturne board in 2022 after leaving Ottawa to return home to Halifax. He graduated from Carleton University in 2019 with a Master of Arts in Political Economy, after which he found himself doing what almost anyone in Ottawa ends up doing and started working various contracts for the Federal Government. He has worked in community outreach and consultation with Elections Canada as well as an Economist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. Previous to his time in Ottawa, he graduated from Mount Saint Vincent University in 2015 with a BBA and from Saint Mary's University in 2017 with an Undergraduate Honours in Economics. During this time, he also volunteered for over two years as Treasurer on the Board of Directors with Eyelevel. In his spare time, you might find him traversing the treacherous Halifax roads on his bicycle, playing in various bands and musical projects, and giving it his all at karaoke.

[email protected]

Holly Fraughton

Communications Director

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Holly Fraughton

Communications Director

Holly Fraughton (she/her) is a communications professional with a background in journalism. While her chosen art form is the written word, she is passionate about storytelling across mediums and disciplines.

She studied Journalism and International Development at the University of King's College and Dalhousie, and went on to write for a variety of media outlets, including The Chronicle Herald, Global News, and The Globe & Mail. As the former arts & entertainment editor at a newspaper in Whistler, B.C., she quickly became immersed in the vibrant local artistic community.

Holly returned home to Nova Scotia in 2011, bringing with her a deep-seated appreciation for the transformative power of the arts. She now works in communications for the labour movement and is looking forward to uniting her creative background and skills, contributing to the ongoing success of the festival through her involvement with the Nocturne board.

[email protected]

Narbir Sharma

Marketing Director

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Narbir Sharma

Marketing Director

Narbir, an entrepreneur, marketing strategist, and visual storyteller, is rarely seen without a camera lens by his side. His professional journey seamlessly intertwines with his identity as a traveler, adventurer, sports enthusiast, and admirer of diverse art forms. In 2012, while pursuing his MBA in Marketing in India, Narbir established his first entrepreneurial venture. Since then, he has enjoyed setting up multiple ventures, engaging with organizations in different parts of the globe. A few years ago, he embarked on a global visual storytelling adventure, capturing the essence of various cultures and landscapes. Today, he proudly calls Kjipuktuk (Halifax) home.

As a visual storyteller, Narbir embraces the beauty that transcends the lens—a world where the unspoken words, expressions louder than language, colors stretching beyond the palette, and lines merging in-between hold a narrative of their own. This passion led him to establish an organization in 2023 focused on Media and Marketing. Narbir's initial connection with Nocturne occurred in the same year when he covered the festival as a photographer, finding it to be an immensely enriching experience that deepened his understanding of the festival's functioning and values.

With a heartfelt dedication to building inclusive communities through art, Narbir envisions Halifax as a vibrant hub of creativity. In his role as the Marketing Director at Nocturne, he aspires to contribute significantly to this vision, leveraging the power of art to unite, inspire, and foster a sense of belonging within the community.

[email protected]

Michelle Cohen

HR/Personnel Director

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Michelle Cohen

HR/Personnel Director

Originally from Tkaronto, the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit and the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Wendat, and Haudenosaunee, but with roots firmly in Glace Bay, Michelle (she/her) comes from a family who valued artistic practice and politics in equal measure. Encouraged to be more “practical,” she jumped through hoops, spent time in graduate school at the University of Toronto/OISE (with a master’s degree in Cultural Studies), and, wound up galvanized by the 1990’s Days of Action.

Through her student activism Michelle began her career as a trade unionist working for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, first as a researcher in Ontario. She is now the Education specialist for the Atlantic where she gets to combine her creativity and experience by providing popular education for CUPE’s members in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador.

Along the way she has photographed, curated, and held many a forum where the wide and wild social and economic landscapes in which we plunder, plough, and play – are considered.

In her quiet moments Michelle can be found hiking with her dogy Ebony, practicing yoga, and becoming the foodie she knows she was intended to be.

[email protected]

Megan Dexter

Director at Large

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Megan Dexter

Director at Large

Megan (she/her) is a new addition to the Nocturne board, joining in 2022. She holds a BBA from St. Francis Xavier University and an MBA from Saint Mary’s University and brings over 6 years’ experience in marketing communications, supporting many organizations across Atlantic Canada. Born and raised in Halifax, Megan has spent many years attending and enjoying Nocturne and is thrilled to be able to continue supporting the festival and local arts community in a new capacity.

[email protected]

Nita Adams

Director at Large

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Nita Adams

Director at Large

Nita (she/her) joined the Nocturne team in July 2022, having recently moved to K'jipuktuk/Halifax from London, UK, but originally from New Zealand. Nita is a chartered accountant with over ten years of experience. She has had a global career in various finance roles, spanning six countries. Art and sports have always had a substantial role in Nita's life. You can often find her on the frisbee field or running around the city in the evenings. She is looking forward to learning more about the local art scene through her role with Nocturne and is excited to be able to support the local arts community.

[email protected]

Nadim Kesserwani

Director at Large

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Nadim Kesserwani

Director at Large

Nadim's journey to Canada began in September 2022, a whimsical decision that guided him to Halifax, courtesy of a dart's unpredictable trajectory on the map. Originally from Lebanon, he initially immersed himself in the intricacies of chemistry, earning a master's degree. His expertise found a niche in the pharmaceutical industry before he embarked on a new path in event planning and the creation of immersive entertainment experiences.

In the present day, operating within the realm of children's entertainment alongside major global animation and character studios, he supervises a dynamic operation encompassing live theatre spectacles, thematic wonderlands, and exuberant festivals spanning the GCC region, Eastern Europe, and North Africa.

Remarkably, within a short span of time, Halifax has woven itself intricately into his narrative, infusing it with creativity and the rich tapestry of multicultural experiences.

[email protected]

Brigitta Zhao

Director at Large

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Brigitta Zhao

Director at Large

Brigitta Zhao (she/her) is a new member of the Nocturne team. Originally from mainland China, Brigitta has spent the past eight years living in various States of the United States. She relocated to Kjipuktuk/Halifax last fall and is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts Degree at NSCAD University. Brigitta works closely with ocean scientists, utilizing marine data to create digital art featured on social media and in public installations.

Her nomadic journey has had a profound impact on her life, and she believes that art has the power to unite communities and nurture meaningful connections. Brigitta views art as a celebration of humanity and helps us contemplate the profound dance between human existence and the natural world.

In her spare time, she loves to explore the astounding beauty of Atlantic Canada and make new connections along the way. A small personal goal: to start getting into sports to prepare for the coming winter!

Joshua Cadegan-Syms

Director at Large

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Joshua Cadegan-Syms

Director at Large

Joshua Cadegan-Syms (he/him) is a new addition to the Nocturne team. Born in Nova Scotia, and raised in Calgary, Joshua moved back in 2014 making his home in Dartmouth with his husband, dogs, and garden. Joshua has a degree in Computer Science from Dalhousie University (2020) and will be pursuing a second degree in Management starting Fall of 2023. Prior to joining the board, Joshua worked as a volunteer coordinator, sommelier, manager, and event organizer. He is proud to call himself a Nova Scotian and hopes to make Nocturne a more inclusive and sustainable festival for everyone. In his downtime, you can find him exploring this beautiful province, hiking with his family, enjoying a good cup of coffee, renovating his house, and listening to indie rock.

[email protected]

2024 Curator

Shuvanjan Karmaker

2024 Curator: Microcosm

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Shuvanjan Karmaker

2024 Curator: Microcosm

Nocturne is thrilled to announce Shuvanjan Karmaker(he/him) as Nocturne’s 2024 festival curator, who has selected the theme of Microcosm for the 2024 festival.

Shuvanjan joins the Nocturne team, bringing experience working both as an administrator and performing as an artist in festivals and arts organizations, including Halifax Jazz Festival, Everyseeker, SuddenlyListen, Mayworks Festival, Open Waters Festival, Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival (Fredericton), Evolve Festival (NS & NB), and Inspire Festival (Moncton).

Today, Shuvanjan works as an independent music director, leading both small and large ensembles to showcase music from the local BIPOC community and composing original music and arrangements of his own.

For Nocturne 2023, Shuvanjan was a collaborator on the project IN THIS HOUSE, which explored histories of House Music with Soul, Funk, and Jazz renditions, highlighting the past pioneers who shaped the genre and the new generation of musicians that are pushing the genre forward today.

Before moving to Kjipuktuk/Halifax in 2009 to study International Development at Saint Mary’s University, Shuvanjan grew up on Bengali Classical and in the local DIY music scene playing and promoting underground music and contemporary art; writing for The Independent; and composed and recorded music for documentaries and theatre in his home city of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Informed by both Bangladesh-Indigenous and Canadian immigrant perspectives, Shuvanjan is passionate about representation in the arts community and highlighting shared experiences: “Growing up, I’ve seen my family members who are artists and civil workers fight for their indigenous land rights. Living and working in Kjipuktuk has helped me realize that I am not alone in this journey, and there are many just like me who are forging new paths to protect & share their cultures.”

Shuvanjan has selected the theme of Microcosm as a platform for artists to consider and share stories and to create connections around shared love, experiences, tragedies, and/or responsibilities. Continues Shuvanjan: “I invite artists to start conversations, leading us to their vision and understanding of microcosm-macrocosm analogy, connecting our community members to each other's experience and the cosmos as a whole.”

Nocturne takes place October 17-20, 2024. Submissions for artists to participate will open in early 2024. In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like to send a welcome to Shuvanjan, you can reach him at [email protected]

Past Curators

Stephanie Yee & Lux Habrich

2022 Curatorial Team

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Stephanie Yee & Lux Habrich

2022 Curatorial Team

Stephanie Yee (she/her) is a second-generation Chinese Canadian artist and cultural worker based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax), the unceded territory of the Mi’kma’ki. Her education includes a BFA in Intermedia from NSCAD University where she began her exploration into community and identity. With a practice rooted in storytelling, her work manifests as gatherings, performance, writing, installation, video and playing with food. Often beginning with familiar imagery, processes, and materials, Yee playfully interjects as a means of exploring and questioning preconceived notions. She has participated as an artist, facilitator and curator in artist-run centers, festivals, residencies and galleries both locally and internationally.

Lux Habrich (she/they) is a multidisciplinary visual artist, arts facilitator and support worker of mixed Chinese and German heritage, practicing in the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq People. Practicing in K’jipuktuk following an Interdisciplinary BFA from NSCAD University in 2015, she is drawn to the immense storytelling capabilities in tactile processes as a means of unearthing buried intergenerational pain and power. Her interest in ritual objects and commemorative practices center on diasporic experiences of belonging, embodied hybridization in blood and spirit, honouring the untold stories and unspoken legacies that live inside each of us. Committed to developing inclusive creative platforms, and reimagining cultural futures – Lux externalizes intense internal grievances, to open up collective issues and qualities of larger community struggle to allow for shared moments of compassion and insight.

Liliona A. Quarmyne

2021 Curator: Liminal

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Liliona A. Quarmyne

2021 Curator: Liminal


My body is a conduit, a link to past and to future generations.
It takes me back, it takes me forward, it carries the present.
My body is story.

With an eclectic background that has taken her through many performance styles on four different continents, Liliona is a dancer, choreographer, actor, singer, community organizer, and activist. She performs across the country and internationally, creates original works as an independent artist, facilitates community programming, and is the Artistic Director of Kinetic Studio. The scope of Liliona’s artistic work is broad, but is particularly focused on the relationship between art and social justice, on the body’s ability to carry ancestral memory, and on the role the performing arts can play in creating change. Liliona loves to work in collaboration and community, is mom to two wonderful kids, and is thoroughly obsessed with karaoke.

Lindsay Dobbin

2020 Curator: Echolocation

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Lindsay Dobbin

2020 Curator: Echolocation

Lindsay Dobbin is a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) - Acadian - Irish artist, musician, curator and educator who lives and works in Kjipuktuk in Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of Lnu’k (Mi’kmaq). Born in and belonging to the Kennebecasis River Valley, the traditional territory of the Wəlastəkwiyik, Mi’kmaq and Passamaquoddy, Dobbin has lived throughout Wabanaki as well as the Yukon in Kwanlin Dün territory.

As a passionate educator, Dobbin employs traditional and contemporary land-based practices, creativity, play and improvisation as tools for self-awareness, collaboration, experiential learning and community building — revealing that people and the environment are related in dynamic ways. Dobbin is also an active artistic collaborator, and have worked on projects with musicians, sound artists, dancers, visual artists and filmmakers.

Tori Fleming

2019 Curator: Scaffold

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Tori Fleming

2019 Curator: Scaffold

Tori Fleming is a media artist, programmer and curator based in Halifax, NS.. Fleming’s curatorial work focuses on media arts, often centering on the space between media art and filmmaking. Fleming is currently the Director of Programming at the Centre for Art Tapes, a Media Arts based artist-run centre in North End Halifax. Through her independent curatorial practice, Fleming has recently worked with the Anna Leonowens Gallery, The NSCAD Alumni Association and the Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival. Fleming works to promote the status of the artist and Canadian cultural institutions through volunteer work as a director on the boards of advocacy groups including Halifax Ink, a Nova Scotia based artists publication non-profit, and as the Atlantic Canadian Representative for both the Artist-Run Centre Association of Canada and the Independent Media Arts Alliance of Canada.

Working primarily with 16mm Celluloid, Tori's artistic practice also includes painting, installation, and animation. Her works have exhibited in Nuit Blanche Toronto, Art in the Open PEI, the Halifax Independent Film Festival, The Atlantic International Film Festival the Bus Stop Theater, the Khyber Centre for the Arts and more. She has been awarded multiple grants and awards including the Starfish Properties Award for Film, the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative Celluloid Grant, and an Arts Nova Scotia Creation Grant.

Raven Davis

2018 Curator: Nomadic Reciprocity

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Raven Davis

2018 Curator: Nomadic Reciprocity

Raven Davis is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, performer, human rights speaker/advocate and community facilitator from the Anishinaabek Nation in Manitoba. Davis was born and raised in Toronto and currently works and lives between K’jipuktuk (Halifax) and Toronto. A parent of 3 son’s, Davis blends narratives of colonization, race, gender, sexuality, Two-Spirit identity and the Anishinaabemowin language and culture into a variety of contemporary art forms.

anna sprague

2017 Co-Curator: VANISH

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anna sprague

2017 Co-Curator: VANISH

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

2017 Co-Curator: VANISH

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Emily Lawrence

2017 Co-Curator: VANISH

Emily 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.

Michael McCormack

2016 Curator: MOTIVE

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Michael McCormack

2016 Curator: MOTIVE

Michael McCormack is an intermedia artist, curator, and educator of settler ancestry living in unceded territory of the Mi’Kmaq people in K’jiputuk (Halifax). He has worked extensively within the artist-run centre community as Director of Eyelevel Gallery from 2009-2013 and president and representative of the Association of Artist-Run Centres from the Atlantic from 2011-2013. He continues to work as an independent curator for exhibitions, festivals and events, most recently as a guest curator for Nocturne: Art at Night (2016), Flotilla Atlantic (2017), and KIAC's Natural & Manufactured exhibition (2018). Michael completed his MFA at NSCAD University in 2015 and has been steadily exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions since 2003.

Rose Zack

2015 Curator: FOUND AND LOST AND FOUND

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Rose Zack

2015 Curator: FOUND AND LOST AND FOUND

Rose Zack is a Calgary-Halifax transplant and an arts and culture doer, dreamer and volunteer. Calling Halifax home since 2007, Rose is currently keeping company with Atlantic Film Festival, as Regional Outreach Manager and on the boards of Centre for Art Tapes and Business for the Arts - ArtsScene. Past involvement includes as public programmer at the Glenbow Museum (Calgary), on the boards of ArtCity (Calgary), Creative Cities Network (National) and as founding Board Member and past Chair of Nocturne: Art at Night (Halifax). Recognition for her contributions include: The Chronical Herald’s Arts & Culture Honour Role (2011), Canadian Progress Club’s Women of Excellence Awards – Arts & Culture (2012), Progress Magazine’s People We Love 2012 and Fusion’s GO Awards – Arts & Culture (2012). As a cultural planner for the past 15 years, Rose’s raison d’étre is to create meaningful connections between artists, their work, and the public.

Eryn Foster

2014 Curator: Peripheral Visions

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Eryn Foster

2014 Curator: Peripheral Visions

Eryn Foster is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Born and raised in small-town Ontario, she spent her childhood in the boonies of Bancroft and her youth in Orillia. She has also spent time living and wandering around Montreal, Toronto, Algonquin Park, New England, Vancouver, the Yukon Territory, and Sackville, New Brunswick.

Eleanor King

2013 Curator: SPACE AND TIME

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Eleanor King

2013 Curator: SPACE AND TIME

Eleanor King is a Nova Scotian artist based in Brooklyn. She has presented solo exhibitions at A.I.R. Gallery, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, and Diaz Contemporary; and two-person shows at 326 Gallery, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, and Eastern Edge. Her site-specific projects have been shown in venues across Canada and the US including the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, The Peekskill Project, the Spring/Break Art Show and Franklin Street Works, with upcoming works to be presented at Nanaimo Art Gallery, Division Gallery, Dunlop Art Gallery, and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. She has attended residencies at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, SOMA Mexico, and The Banff Centre; she was the 2016 Canadian Artist-in-Residence at Glenfiddich Scotland and recipient of the A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship 2016-17. Her work has been featured in publications including Canadian Art, Art in America and C Magazine. Eleanor is a Fulbright fellow with an MFA from the School of Art+Design at Purchase College, State University of New York, and a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She has been shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award and has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Nova Scotia. Eleanor is represented by Diaz Contemporary in Toronto, and her work is held in public, private, and corporate collections. She is Curatorial Manager and Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Art+Design, Purchase College, and was formerly Director, Anna Leonowens Gallery, NSCAD University.

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