Visual Arts Nova Scotia

Visual Arts Nova Scotia Works for Artists. Visual Arts Nova Scotia advances the visual arts through leadership, education, and communication.

Visual Arts Nova Scotia is an artist-run organization founded in 1976 that advances the visual arts through leadership, education, and communication. Visual Arts Nova Scotia is an artist-run organization incorporated in 1976 to support and promote artists while advocating for the visual arts sector in Nova Scotia. By encouraging artists to pursue their creative and professional practices creating connections to a community of peers and serving as a primary source for information, Visual Arts Nova Scotia fosters excellence, skills development, and learning in the arts.

Today, we reflect on the power of art to hold memory, carry stories and connect us to the histories of this land.We shar...
09/30/2026

Today, we reflect on the power of art to hold memory, carry stories and connect us to the histories of this land.

We share Mi’kmaw artist Alan Syliboy’s Star Woman Blue Dress as an invitation to pause, reflect and listen.

Alan Syliboy, Star Woman Blue Dress, 2024. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo by Steve Farmer.

Image description: An abstract painting of a woman in a blue dress surrounded by stars and colourful geometric patterns against a dark blue background.

Announcing the Mentors and Mentees for the 2026/27 Mentorship ProgramWe are pleased to officially announce the participa...
09/29/2026

Announcing the Mentors and Mentees for the 2026/27 Mentorship Program

We are pleased to officially announce the participants of this year's Mentorship Program. Selected from a strong field of applicants, we welcome three mentees: Aimee Daigle, K.Plantinga, and Stephanie Kossmann.

We are thrilled to pair them with their mentors:

Aimee Daigle with Marianne Brown
K.Plantinga with Bonnie Baker
Stephanie Kossmann with Susan Tooke

This year's program is based in the Annapolis Region. This pilot follows a program review two years ago that suggested alternating between a rural community and metro HRM, providing opportunities to deepen community connection alongside the one-to-one relationships.

Congratulations to all the participants. We look forward to a wonderful year ahead.

09/19/2026

Ibe Ananaba (b. 1976, Belgium) is a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist who grew up in Aba, Nigeria, and studied Fine and Applied Arts at the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, graduating with distinction in 1999. Bred in a Nigerian upbringing and diasporic experience, his research-driven practice explores how consciousness becomes culture, transforming memory, migration, and self-authorship into visual languages through drawing and painting.

Listed in the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, Ananaba has exhibited internationally across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. His practice has engaged institutional and sociocultural research, including decolonial learning initiatives with Acadia University. He presented Black Fashion is Art at the Contemporary African Diaspora Arts panel during Art Basel Miami 2023, was Visual Arts Nova Scotia’s 2024 Artist-in-Residence, and is featured in It’s About Time: Dancing Black Canada 1900–1970 and Now exhibition at Dalhousie Art Gallery.

Ananaba’s work has been featured in publications including Culture Kaleidoscope: 100 Artists of Our Time (2025), Watercolor Masters (2018) and more. He has taught drawing at NSCAD University and mentors emerging artists through the African Female Artist Mentorship Program. He is a member of Visual Arts Nova Scotia and the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia.

 

ibe ananaba

Fall Workshop SurveyVANS is planning our Fall Workshop Series and we want to hear from you.Tell us which professional de...
08/31/2026

Fall Workshop Survey

VANS is planning our Fall Workshop Series and we want to hear from you.

Tell us which professional development workshops you want to see and when. The survey takes less than three minutes to complete.

Your input helps us build programming based on the needs of artists across the province.

Complete the survey by September 7 and you will be entered to win a one-year VANS membership.

Please share this with artists and organizations in your network. We want to hear from members and non-members alike.

Link to survey
https://forms.gle/9GRrj5AFgTGpqhNb9

VANS on the Road: at Creative Pictou County" 99 Water Street, Pictou
08/05/2026

VANS on the Road: at Creative Pictou County"

99 Water Street, Pictou

07/30/2026

Jessica Steele is a collage artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

She holds a BFA in Fibres from Concordia University and a Diploma of Fine Arts from Dawson College. Working primarily with hand-cut vintage print materials, Jessica explores how meaning shifts when familiar imagery is separated from its original context and recombined into new relationships.

Jessica’s work has been shown in group exhibitions across Halifax and collected in Canada and the U.S. In winter 2026, she served as Artist-in-Residence at Pavia Gallery, culminating in a solo exhibition of her collage work. She is one of four emerging artists selected for the 2025–26 Visual Arts Nova Scotia Mentorship Program, a competitive 10-month initiative supporting early-career artists. During her mentorship with established artist Christopher Webb, Jessica focused on expanding the professional structure of her practice.

Jessica and her work have been featured on CTV Morning Live Atlantic, and she was a featured guest on Blackout Podcast. She regularly volunteers with Halifax Collage Collective, a grassroots arts initiative focused on accessible community collage programming.

Address

1113 Marginal Road
Halifax, NS
B3H4P7

Telephone

(902) 423-4694

Website

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