Alumni Association AGM: You're invited to join NSCAD Alumni Association's Board for its virtual AGM to review the year and announce the newly elected Alumni Association representatives. Let us know how we can help support you and your practice. Virtual voting begins Sept.10 and there is no need to attend the AGM to vote. Alumni will receive a link with the slate of candidates once the nomination period is complete.
ONLINE VOTING: Sept. 1 - 8, 12 p.m. (Atlantic)
AGM: Sept. 17, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. (Atlantic) Register here. 

Public Art Award: Jerry Whitehead (BFA 1987) was selected to create a mural for the Historic Post Office in Melfort, Saskatchewan. Jerry will work from the historic site throughout August to paint the mural in his signature colourful style on aluminum. The mural will be unveiled in the fall. Read more.

Award: Nathanael Jones' (BFA 2014) book of poetry Aqueous has been long listed for the Raymond
Souster Award. "It has always been a dream of mine to not only put my work out into the world, but also have it connect with people: this nomination speaks to the capacity for that dream to come true," says Nathanael. Read more.

Fellowship: Congratulations to David R. Harper (BFA 2006), who was selected as a 2025 - 2026
Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow. David Harper's research aims to visualize the idea of interference, referencing two seemingly disparate resources within the Smithsonian. 
Examples include the way city lights interfere with a bird’s natural migratory path, or how magnets distort the image of older televisions. Read more.

Screenings: The Atlantic International Film Festival (aiff) is back for its 45th year in Halifax September 10-17, 2025. Alumni Heather Young (BFA 2009), Kate Solar (BFA 2024), Alan Syliboy (1975), Millefiore Clarkes (1999-2000), Andrea Dorfman (BFA 1995), Nicole Steeves (2004-2006), Thom Fitzgerald (1988-1990), Jason Levangie (BFA 2004) and Bretten Hannam (BFA 2008) will all have films featured in aiff. See the schedule.

Screening: The Toronto International Film Festival will feature Heather Young's (BFA 2009) short film A Soft Touch. The film tells the story of a tenant in seniors’ housing who is forced to make a heartbreaking decision after she lends money to someone who disappears. It reveals the isolation and fragile security experienced by those living on the margins of society. Read more.

In the News: NOISEmakers 2025 is a summer art workshop series brought to you by Nocturne, ISANS and Wonder'neath. The workshops are intended to build belonging, strengthen connections, and create art in public spaces with newcomers and immigrants. Special recognition goes to Yue Li (MFA 2025) and Yawen Zhou (VAC 2025) who participated in this year's workshops. Read more.

In the News: Heather McLaughlin (BFA 1995) was recently featured in Le Devoir's 'Side Roads of University Life' series. Heather writes about her work at Concordia University, the role of art in healthcare and rethinking the role of university health programs through creative innovation. Read more. 

In the News: Sloan will release its 14th album in September. The band, formed in Halifax in early 1991 while Chris Murphy and Andrew Scott 
were attending NSCAD. The band played its first gig at the school. Sloan will tour Canada in the fall, including stops in PEI, NB and NS in October. Read more.

In the News: Concordia’s Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art recently launched Craft & Craftivism: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Ceramic, Fibre and Glass Artists in Canada, a free, three volume e-publication, edited by Loren Lerner, Janice Anderson, Shannon Stride, and Karine Antaki. The volumes include professional biographies of nearly 350 artists, including many NSCAD alumni, who work in ceramics, fibres, and glass. Also featured are artists who blend craft with activism, using their works to convey social and political commentary, challenge the status quo, and advocate for change. Read more.

In the News: Martha Langford (BFA 1975) recently published her latest book A History of Photography in Canada Vol. 1. Anticipation to Participation, 1839-1918. The book 
explores the role photography has played over the decades, from early reports of the invention of photography to the widespread application of photography during World War I. Martha is a Distinguished Professor Emeriti of Concordia University in Montreal. She is the former Research Chair and Director of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art. Read more.

Alumni Profile: Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist, Ben Skinner 
(BFA 2000) loves challenges and enjoys exploring different materials and mediums to find new ways to express how he sees the world. You may recognize his work from the windows of Aritzia, the design house known for its style-forward wardrobe essentials and cult favourites. As Aritzia’s Creative Director, Visual Display, Ben is the  mind behind the fun and whimsical window dressings across Canada and in larger U.S. cities. Read more.

Art Book Fair: The Halifax Art Book Fair is back this year with lots of exciting programming. 
Opening night party: Featuring a performance from Ray Fenwick (BDes 2004), Talk, For People. Aug. 21, 7-9 p.m. Anna Leonowens Gallery, 1891 Granville St, Halifax, NS.
Aug. 22, 2-3 p.m. - Artist and curator Dave Dyment will speak about the late Kelly Mark's (BFA 1994) celebrated practice, and their ill-fated collaboration. 
Aug. 22, 4-5 p.m. - Ray Fenwick’s 
Le Moat Juice a group of short, inter-related performance work, somewhere between experimental comedy and performance art.
Aug. 23, 12-1 p.m. - The Covert Caches Project focuses on Gregor Chiasson's (BFA 2023) most recent work, where he selected books and deposited them into Little Free Libraries across Halifax. Each book was hollowed out to house utilitarian objects.
Aug. 23, 1-2 p.m. - Grounded in Cathy Busby's (BFA 1984) personal and artistic relationship with her late husband and former NSCAD president Garry Neill Kennedy, I WONDER: Art + Care + Dementia outlines the experience of living and making art during Garry’s time with dementia. 
Cathy will speak about and read from the book, and play excerpts from a 1990 audio interview by Norma Ready with Garry about his life and work.
Aug. 23, 2-3 p.m. - The Cloud Factory, a structured conversation around Chris Donovan’s latest photobook. He and Anton Lee (Faculty) will explore the realities of managing such a long-term project, the way in which the observer became embedded in his subject matter, different modes of narrating through photographs, and the experience of making a photobook.
Aug. 23, 3-4 p.m. - Phase Variations and Queer Memory, with Jayme Spinks (MDes 2015), Lou Campbell, Robin Metcalfe (1975). All Nations Church, 2535 Robie St., Halifax, NS. Read more. 

Exhibition: Chromatic States explores the daily practice of self-reflection through watercolour, documenting the shifting terrain of identity, emotion, and embodiment through nearly a year of painting. Each portrait is a moment—sometimes fleeting, sometimes lingering—captured in colour, gesture, and form. Painted while Alice Jennex (BFA 2011) cared for her infant daughter, this series traces the quiet negotiations of selfhood amid exhaustion, joy, and transformation of motherhood. Until Aug. 24. Chase Gallery, Alderney Landing, Dartmouth NS. Read more. Also featured by CBC!

Exhibition: Tall Tales, Short Yarns, features whimsical sculptural ceramics by Teresa Bergen (BFA 2001). Teresa's tiny ceramic worlds create narratives for the viewer and a feast for the eyes. Runs until Sept. 7. Lunenburg School of the Arts, 6 Prince Street, Lunenburg, NS. Read more.

Exhibition: Silas Wamsley's (BFA 2024) exhibition Prospect 20: Ceaseless, explores themes of gender, sexuality and spiritual practice and is informed by queer/trans studies of ecology. Inspired by 15th century Italian Quattrocento painters, Silas investigates new forms of embodiment, intimacy, and ways of being with uncertainty. Opening reception: Sept. 6, 1 - 3 p.m. 
Artist Talk: Sept. 20, 1 - 2 p.m.
MSVU Art Gallery, 166 Bedford Hwy, Halifax, NS. Read more.

Exhibition: Through the objects, 
features 15 new and recent works by Hangama Amiri (BFA 2012), highlighting her engagement with textiles to create images that evoke cultural memory and belonging. The exhibition examines the notion of 'domestic objects', and how their functional character and emotional weight blend, making them bearers of complex longings, while at the same time offering a way to put down new roots. Runs until Sept. 27. Hôtel de tingry, Rue Cornille, 84560 Ménerbes, FR. Read more.

Exhibition: The Backlands features 
small suites of work from nine visual artists including: Frances Dorsey (Former Faculty), Ron Kuwahara (BFA 2011) & Frankie Macauley (BFA 2015). Each artist explores the wilderness of The Backlands, with work created over time and deep familiarity with the terrain, connected through emotional responses to a profound and wondrous landscape. Runs until Sept. 28. Case Gallery, Alderney Landing, Dartmouth NS. 
Read more.

Exhibition: Narratives in Bloom features works by David Zsako (BFA 2006) that use ethically sourced flora and fauna remains as material for large-scale photographic collages and sculpture. Inspired by the palette of the natural world, and its ecological and cultural significance, the work portrays the subtle beauties of preserved natural life, bridging the gap between nature and civilization. Opening reception: Sept. 5, 5 - 7 p.m. Runs until Oct. 25. Sunbury Shores, 139 Water Street, Saint Andrews, NB. Read more.

Exhibition: Only Human is a solo exhibition by paper artist Elly MacKay (BFA 2005) that examines the ethical challenges artists face with the rise of artificial intelligence. As generative technologies advance, creative work is being absorbed into vast training datasets without the artist’s consent, attribution, or compensation, leading to machines imitating their personal style. Runs until Oct. 4., Tom Thomson Art Gallery, 840 1st Ave W, Owen Sound, ON. Read more.

Exhibition: Digital systems and ecological networks increasingly mirror one another in their complexity and precarity. Data is harvested, systems crash, and both natural and digital worlds share a language of crisis, entropy, and transformation. Ctrl + Alt + Delete, explores these parallels through the work of Laura Moore (BFA 2003) and Geoffrey Pugen. Working across sculpture, video, textile, and collage, each artist navigates the porous terrain between the organic and the synthetic. Runs until Oct. 4., Tom Thomson Art Gallery, 840 1st Ave W, Owen Sound, ON. Read more.

Exhibition: Resistant Fibres 
originates from a desire to showcase the Canada Council Art Bank’s textile works of art. Since the 1960s, contemporary artists have explored the subversive potential of fibre arts, on the fringes of art history’s canon. 
Featuring works of art by Siku Allooloo, Haley Bassett, Bob Boyer, Evelyn Coutellier, Erika DeFreitas, Frances Dorsey (Former Faculty), Nancy Edell, General Idea, Chantal Gibson, Murray Gibson, Zoe Lambert, Joanne Lynes, Ann Newdigate, Michèle Provost, Ruth Scheuing (BFA 1984), Carl Stewart and Barbara Todd.
Runs until May 16, 2026. Read more.

Call for Speakers: Are you a visual artist using your creative voice to engage with climate issues? Banye Arts invites NSCAD alumni to serve as guest speakers for our upcoming initiative, Artivism for Climate Justice: Empowering Young Artists as Climate Advocates. To apply or recommend a speaker, email Banye Youth, part of the Girl Child Art Foundation. Deadline for application: Sept. 15. Workshop Oct. 10. NSCAD Port Campus, 1107 Marginal Rd., Halifax, NS. Read more.

Opportunity: Lab2Market Launch Health is a 4-month accelerator program designed for ambitious entrepreneurial students and research teams across Canada who are committed to forming, building, and growing technology-based ventures. Participants gain a Tailored Curriculum, Expert Mentorship and $10,000 to kickstart your venture. Deadline: Sept. 26. Read more.

In the News: Professor David B. Smith (BFA 1992) has been named NSCAD’s interim president. David is well known as a passionate advocate for the application of creative thinking skills to academic disciplines beyond the arts. He served as NSCAD’s president from 2006 – 2012 when he raised a record $9 million for the university. Since joining NSCAD's  faculty as a full professor, David has taught in the sculpture program with a strong focus on teaching Introductory Sculpture to incoming students. Read more.

Employment: Working with executive search firm KBRS, NSCAD has posted a call for applications for the role of President. Read more.

New Course: Dr. Vajdon Sohaili, Assistant Professor in Art History, is launching a new course exploring the history of architectural destruction in global crisis—including war, climate change, and housing insecurity. Titled, Architecture and Crisis (AHIS 4270), the course is a culmination of Sohaili’s ongoing research into the concept of “contemporary reconstruction.” Read more.

Award Finalists: Pai Gallery's National Jewellery Student Competition is celebrating its 22nd anniversary with an exhibition featuring work from seven art schools. Congratulations to NSCAD University finalists: Jessica Li (Current Student), Katherine McHugh (BFA 2025) and Brooklyn Soucie (BFA 2025). Join the finalists at the reception to hear who the winner is and take in this amazing work firsthand. Opening reception: Aug 28, 5 - 7 p.m. Showing until Sept. 17. Pai Jewellery, 497 Sussex Drive, Ottawa ON. Read more.

Finalist: NSCAD student Grant Earl MacIntosh's short film Sydney is part of Toronto International Film Festival's Lightbox programming. The film will be featured in MDFF Selects Student Film Showcase 2025, a platform for emerging filmmakers to screen their work in competition and make connections with fellow artists and industry professionals. Read more.

Screening: Film student, Mitchell Green will be screening his student film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) in Sept. His film, Rudy Boyles’ Spore-nographic Journey, follows a man down on his luck, who mistakenly inhales spores while trying to grow mushrooms in his bathroom—leading him on a world-changing journey. Read more.