Alumni Association AGM: The NSCAD Alumni Association annual general meeting has been rescheduled to Tuesday, November 3, 2026, from noon to 1 p.m. (Atlantic) on Zoom. The Alumni Association Board of Directors opted to delay the meeting to address changes to the Association. Please register in advance for the AGM. Register here.

Voting starts soon: The nomination committee of the Alumni Association Board has selected four finalists from a strong pool of 11 nominees for available Board positions. Starting Tuesday, October 27, 2026, alumni are invited to vote for their top 2 candidates to join the Board. You can learn more about the four finalists to get ready to vote! Read more.

Finalists include (clockwise from top left): Trevor Van den Eijnden (BFA 2005), Louise Holloway (BFA 1988), Adam O'Reilly (BFA 2007), and Eryn O’Neill (BFA 2008 ) 

Alumni @ Work Virtual Talk: Where will you be in five years? We’ll dig deeper into this classic interview question with two NSCAD alumni who will share their lessons and career paths for the first five years after graduation. Interdisciplinary artist/ceramist Undine Foulds (BFA 2021) and filmmaker/camera operator Devon Pennick-Reilly (BFA 2020) will share how they put their education and talents to work.  The Zoom talk will be Thursday, October 22, noon to 1 p.m. (Atlantic). Register here.

Event: NSCAD interim president David B. Smith (BFA 1992), and incoming president Kyla Mallett will host an alumni event to kick off Art Toronto on Wednesday, October 28, 6-8 p.m. at Adam Thom's (BFA 1992) business Agathom. Space is limited. If you would like to attend, please email alumni@nscad.ca

Top to bottom:
Adam Gunn, You Float on Nothing, 2022, Oil on wood panel
Cal Lane, Untitled (shovel), 2025, plasma cut shovels
Ursula Johnson, Installation view, Square One, 2025.

Art Toronto: NSCAD alumni are well represented at this year's Art Toronto event, happening October 28 to November 1 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (North Building). Galleries from across Canada, the U.S. and beyond, representing more than 90 NSCAD artists will be onsite throughout the weekend. Some of the participating alumni will include Adrienna Matzeg (BFA 2014), Zeke Moores (BFA 2002), Cal Lane (BFA 2001), Adam Gunn (BFA 2010), Colin Canary (BFA 2013), Séamus Gallagher (BFA 2019), Preston Pavlis (BFA 2023), Derek Liddington (BFA 2004), Jack Bishop (BFA 2007), Aralia Maxwell (MFA 2019), Scott Everingham (BFA 2003), Celeste Cares (BFA 2020), Kate O'Connor (BDes 2003), Sof Kreidstein (BFA 2022), Camilla Salcedo Guevara (BFA 2018), Gina Fafard (BFA 2000), Vikky Alexander (BFA 1979), and Carrie Allison-Goodfellow (MFA 2018). Ursula Johnson (BFA 2006) will be featured in a solo artist performance in a dedicated gallery exhibition for The Blue Building, a focused experience that reveals the depth and evolution of her practice. Read more.

Public Art Installation: A new permanent installation by Landon Mackenzie (BFA 1976) has transformed CIBC SQUARE in downtown Toronto (141 Bay Street). The installation, called Terrestrial/ Celestial (Railway and Compass Rose) 2022-25, portrays a fictional view of Lake Ontario. Across 2,400 square feet of back-lit panels, she envisions rows of south-facing picture windows coloured with patterns reminiscent of medieval stained glass. The work is inspired by the knowledge that early Canadian railroads followed established Indigenous trails, and how these were surveyed in part through celestial lunar navigation using mathematical triangulation and observations of the moons of Jupiter. Mackenzie activates each image with brightly coloured circles or artificial moons. Of the 12 pictures, six contain a compass rose—a star-like configuration typically found on nautical charts and historical maps for navigation. Learn more.

Film: Jason Levangie (BFA 2004) and Marc Tetreault of Shut Up and Colour Pictures are co-producing A Woman in the Sun, starring Renee Zellweger, Sissy Spacek, and Mia Threapleton (Kate Winslet's daughter). Currently shooting on Nova Scotia's South Shore, the film is a multi-generational family story set in Nantucket. Levangie's company is also currently producing the fifth season of Sullivan's Crossing. Read more.

Exhibition: Ceramics by Toni Losey (BFA 2018) will on display as part of the PIK'D booth at  the 26th edition of PAD, the Pavilion of Art and Design. PAD is London’s most significant collectible design fair. The exhibits span 125 years, from historic pieces to works straight from the designer’s studio, all on display in the heart of Mayfair. PAD runs until Friday, October 18, 2026.  Read more.

Design competition: Donn Sabean (BFA 2016) has been selected as one of 16 finalists in the 2026 Cashmere Collection. The Cashmere Collection features elaborate fashion designs created from Cashmere-brand toilet paper. Donn’s design is inspired by the structure of a symphony, a musical composition made up of four movements that vary in tempo, mood, and character. The design commemorates the distinct movements that come together to create a powerful story of resilience. This is the fifth year Donn has been selected as part of this national competition organized by Kruger Products to raise money for breast cancer awareness and research. Supporters can vote daily for Donn until November 15 at this link.

Exhibition: Paintings by Jack Bishop (BFA 2007) are on display in a new exhibition at Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art in Calgary. In the Pines features new paintings depicting segments of the Trans-Canada as topiaries, where tree lines carve out an ornamental landscape with the highway cutting through. The commute becomes a liminal space through the wilderness. For a fleeting moment the light changes, and the familiar surroundings emote a sense of nostalgia, romanticism, or deja vu. The exhibition opened this week at Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art, 730 11 Ave SW, Calgary, AB. Read more.

Artist in Residence: Arjun Lal (BFA 2019, MFA 2025) is currently artist in residence at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. Arjun is an interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, performance, wearable art, installation, and moving image. Their practice explores the construction of power, intimacy, desire, and identity through role-play. They will be in residence until August 31, 2027. Read more.

Curator talk: Acadia University Art Gallery's Dr. Laurie Dalton will lead a curator talk about the exhibition: Textiles as Resistance: Contemporary Textiles from the Atlantic Region. This group exhibition presents the work of 13 contemporary textile artists from the Atlantic region and explores the ways in which textile as an object is being explored through: installation, durational work, and political and social histories. NSCAD alumni are among the artists featured, including Hannah Genosko (BFA 2015), Sarah Mosher (BFA 2016), Chloe Lundrigan (2019-2020). The talk is Wednesday, October 21 at 2 p.m. and the exhibition runs until November 4 at the Acadia Art Gallery, Wolfville, NS. Read more.

Exhibition: Works purchased for the Nova Scotia Art Bank are part of an exhibition at Craft Nova Scotia's Passages Gallery this month. 2025 Art Bank acquisitions include works by Andrea Tsang Jackson, Bryson Chisholm (BFA 2014), Claire McNamara (MFA 2024), Eva McCauley, Katherine Knight (BFA 1980), Kayza DeGraff-Ford (BFA 2021), Krista-Leigh Davis (BFA 2005), Luke Fair (MFA 2021), Miya Turnbull, Onni Nordman (1991-1995), and Trevor Novak (BFA 2017). The exhibition runs until Sunday, November 8 at Passages Gallery, Craft Nova Scotia, 1113 Marginal Road, Halifax, NS. Read more.

Award: Emily Lawrence (BFA 2017) is one of the winners of the 2026 Best of Edible Award, presented by Edible Communities, a network of publications that celebrate local food and drink across North America. She won Best Recipe Photograph for her article and photos about post-sex snack ideas called "Spring Fever Snacks." Read more.

Workshop: Craft Nova Scotia will host a workshop with exhibiting artist Kaashif Ghanie (BFA 2016). Kaas will deliver a talk and ceramics demonstration exploring the ideas, techniques, and processes behind his practice. Kaas will demonstrate his approach to throwing unconventional square forms on the pottery wheel, and participants who bring their own leather hard pieces can explore sgraffito techniques. Learn how mark-making, pattern, and imagery can transform a functional ceramic form. The talk and workshop will be Saturday, October 24 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Centre for Craft Nova Scotia, 1061 Marginal Road, Halifax, NS. Read more.

Artists in Residence: Luke Fair (MFA 2021) and Natalie Michelle Goulet (MFA 2022) have been selected for the Pouch Cove Residency on the Northern Avalon Peninsula from October 2026 to June 2027. The Pouch Cove Foundation’s principal interest has been in hosting painters of all genres in its residency program, though the Foundation has also hosted filmmakers, composers, musicians, sculptors, writers, poets, installation artists, architects, printmakers and curators. Residencies range from three calendar months to one year. Most residencies culminate in exhibitions at the James Baird Gallery. Read more.

Upcoming events: Crit Club is back! Laura Bucci (BFA 1992, MAED 2025) and Katherine Diemert (MFA 2025) are organizing a public event series where local creatives share and discuss their work in a supportive, small group setting designed to generate useful feedback. Each three hour, in-person session focuses on three presenting artists who share work-in-progress and receive responses by other creatives through a four-part, facilitated discussion structure. Participants get to experience new work from local creatives, converse about artistic practices, try out a new critique structure, and learn how to present work and generate useful feedback. Sessions will be Saturday, October 24 and Saturday, December 6. For more info and to register. 

Award: Séamus Gallagher (BFA 2019) is the 2027 recipient of the Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography. They will travel to the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity this January for a fully-funded, month-long, self-directed residency at the Crich Studio in the Leighton Artist Studios. For their residency, Séamus will work with alternative photographic processes on lightweight fabric, combining archival imagery with photographs taken in Banff. Séamus will also give an artist talk during their residency, sharing more about their practice and exploring hauntology, queer ecology, camp, mimicry, the limits of representation and failure as a form of liberation. The artist talk will be Thursday, February 4 at 4 p.m. in Room 204 of the Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Building, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, 107 Tunnel Mountain Dr, Banff, AB. Read more. 

Top: A Slippery Place, 2023, installation view, National Gallery of Canada. Photographer credit: National Gallery of Canada. Bottom: OH BABY, 2025, five-channel video, 3 mins., Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, photographer credit Steve Farmer

Exhibition: New paintings by Katharine Burns (BFA 2009) are featured in a solo exhibition called ATLANTIC opening soon in Toronto. The paintings explore the ocean in its many moods, its movement, light,  and atmosphere, and the sense of awe that keeps drawing her back to it again and again. The exhibition opens Friday, November 6 at Abbozzo Gallery, 32 Sousa Mendes St, Toronto. Read more.

Collector's edition: Amy Wetton (BDes 2006) is responsible for cover art direction and design for a deluxe hardcover edition of  Rachel Reid's best-selling novel Heated Rivalry. The collector's edition features gold sprayed edges, stamped foil casing, and full-colour character art endpapers. According to Amy, the book is designed to be bold, luxe and a little sexy. Congratulations Amy! Read more.

Award: The Nova Scotia Talent Trust has selected Jessie McLaughlin (BFA 2020) for costume studies and Stef Hurley (VACS 2025) for ceramics and sculpture, among its 2026 Scholarship Recipients (Visual Arts). The Nova Scotia Talent Trust provides scholarships and special awards to emerging artists from Nova Scotia in all disciplines. Read more.

In the news: Gerhard Richter's (DFA 2026) mosaic-like Doha pavilion will open in November. Designed with architect Annabelle Selldorf, the six-sided waterside structure will provide a 'three-dimensional experience of Richter's work'. Read more. 

Exhibition: Networks, Systems, and Folds is a group exhibition featuring Yifan Liu (MFA 2023), Felix Bernier (VAC 2019, MFA 2021), and Sage Sidley (MFA 2020) at Saint Mary's University Art Gallery. Using new media, each artist explores the consequences of digital technology today. Technology reshapes our perception, thought, interaction, and modes of communication; as well as, how we access and approach information. The exhibition runs until Sunday, December 6 at Saint Mary's University Art Gallery, 5907 Gorsebrook Avenue, Halifax, NS. Read more.

Throwback Thursday: It's been more than 42 years since alternative rock band Sonic Youth came to NSCAD as artists-in-residence for a 10-day to two-week stay in August 1984. They put on a show in the cafeteria. The show had low attendance, likely because punk band DOA was also playing in Halifax that night. There were different versions of flyers, but Adam O'Reilly (BFA 2007) screened this poster. Do you know anyone, or did YOU, attend the Sonic Youth show? We'd love to hear about it. Let us know at alumni@nscad.ca.

Open House: NSCAD University is opening the doors to its Port Campus on Saturday, October 17 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Anyone curious about studying art, craft, design and other creative fields is invited to experience the university first hand at NSCAD's Fall Open House. The Open House will give visitors an opportunity to discover the range of programs and areas of study available at NSCAD, from fine arts and design, to ceramics, jewellery, textiles, film, photography and art education. Visitors can tour studios and creative spaces, see where students learn and make, and meet current students, faculty and staff. Read more.

Exhibition: Multi-disciplinary artist and NSCAD faculty Eddy Firmin is featured in an exhibition After the Island: Caribbean Canadian Ceramics. Through sculpture, painting, immersive installation, and interactive experiences, the exhibition explores what our bodies inherit, protect, and carry forward. Spanning different journeys of migration and cultural memory, these works challenge the idea of the island as isolated, tracing connections across histories, geographies, and generations. The exhibition runs until April 25, 2027 at the Gardiner Museum, 111 Queens Park, Toronto, ON. Read more.

Delicate and Filled with Dynamite, Aaron Coleman. Boat made from basketball court flooring and abandoned playground remnants 15ft long x 13ft tall, 2023.

Artist Talk: NSCAD will present a visiting artist talk with Aaron Coleman on October 27. Coleman is an artist, Associate Professor and Kenneth E. Tyler Chair at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. Employing a multi-media approach, Coleman reworks and re-contextualizes images and site-specific objects, foregrounding their interactions – both past and present – in this history. The objects (e.g., picket fences, colouring books, textiles, turf, basketball court flooring) are visually or physically juxtaposed with contrary or jarring images that release uncomfortable truths and suppressed stories which are personal and political. This talk is presented as part of NSCAD’s Visiting Artist program, supported by the Dalglish Family Foundation Visiting Artist Fund. The talk will take place Tuesday, October 27 at 4 p.m. in NSCAD's Bell Auditorium. Read more. 

Fundraising auction: NSCAD faculty Jordan Bennett has donated one of his paintings to support Canadian Geographic's Journey to the Stars 2026 Silent Auction. Proceeds from the auction help support geographical expeditions and field research across Canada, along with partnerships teachers to help the next generation of Canadians learn about their country, and financial support for cutting-edge geographical research and discovery. The auction is live until Friday, November 6 at 7 p.m. (Eastern) Read more.

Portfolio Day events: The NSCAD team is on the road hosting portfolio day recruitment events in Canada and the US. Upcoming Portfolio Day events include: Oct. 25: Philadelphia, PA; Oct. 31, Hartford, CT; Nov. 1, Boston, MA; Nov. 2, Montreal, QC;
Nov. 21, Vancouver, BC. The tour finishes with a two-day event on Friday, November 27 & Saturday, November 28 at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design, 322 Charlotte St., Sydney, NS. To learn more.

Class of 2024 Survey: If you graduated in 2024, you're invited to complete the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission Graduate Outcomes Survey. Don’t miss your chance to share your path after graduation and enter to win one of eight $500 prizes, or the $2,000 grand prize. Take the survey.

Call for applications: Applications are open for the Icelandic National League of North America Artist Residency Award. The award includes funding and a residency at the historic Buttermaker's House, a meticulously restored heritage farmhouse initially built in 1913. Applications for the award are open from September 15 to November 30 of each year. Awards will be announced no later than January 30 of the following year, to be used in that calendar year. ​The residency award is for Icelandic artists, artists of Icelandic heritage, and artists of any heritage working on projects about Iceland, it's culture, people, and landscape. Read more.

Call for applications: Harbourfront Centre’s Craft & Design Residency program is a studio-based incubator for emerging artists. It is the only long-term Canadian residency supporting contemporary craft and design, helping artists and makers build professional experience and foster the skills and networks needed to develop a sustainable creative career. The program is open to post-graduates and emerging makers with equivalent training in the design, glass, metal, and textile studios. The deadline to apply is Monday, December 7, 2026. Read more.

Festival of Bodywork by Jacinte Armstrong

Work from Black Olives by Ufuk Gueray at HERMES gallery.

NSCAD at Nocturne: Nocturne 2026 is set to run Saturday, October 17 and Sunday, October 18 across downtown Halifax and Dartmouth. Nocturne curator Annalise Prodor (BFA 2011) developed the theme Embodied City and invited artists to respond to the theme by creating works that question what it means to be embodied in urban environments and create opportunities to engage with lived experiences in a more direct and meaningful way. Some of the NSCAD alumni, faculty, and students taking part in Nocturne 2026 include: Gabe Moore (BFA 2024), Eleanor King (BFA 2001), Ada Denil (BFA 2023), Geordan Moore (BDes 2007) aka Quarrelsome Yeti, Andrea Rahal (BDes 2004), Mengnan Qu (BFA 2012), Jacinte Armstrong (MFA 2020), Faculty Ufuk Gueray, and Maggie MacCormick (2012-2015). Read more.

The Living Letterpress Project: This fall, gifts to the Head Heart Hand Fund: Powered by NSCAD Alumni will help revitalize the Dawson Printshop while creating meaningful student employment opportunities. As part of the Living Letterpress Project, students will work alongside NSCAD alumnus and master printer Alex McAskill (BFA 2015), gaining hands-on experience, developing professional skills, and helping activate an important campus resource while preserving a rich tradition of letterpress printing. Thanks to everyone who has donated to the project so far. To donate click here.