VANS

Take our Spring 2016 Workshop Series Survey!

Visual Arts Nova Scotia offers professional development workshops to artists across the province based on feedback from members and artists. These workshops focus on professional development in support of the artist’s creative practice across commercial and public sectors. Let us know what you would like to see VANS offer by completing the Spring 2016 Workshop…

JOB CALL: Programming Coordinator

This is a permanent full-time position at 35 hours/week. Reporting to and working with the Executive Director, the Programming Coordinator will facilitate and deliver programs including but not limited to the Mentorship Program, Professional Development workshops, discussions and panels as well as managing our in-house gallery space, the Corridor Gallery. This position requires a highly motivated and organized individual with a keen attention to detail and strong interpersonal skills; a person who manages multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Merray Gerges selected as Emerging Critical Art Writer-in-Residence

Visual Arts News in partnership with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is pleased to announce our first-ever Emerging Critical Art Writer-in-Residence. Merray Gerges recently completed her undergraduate degree in art history and journalism. She also co-founded CRIT, a free biannual publication curating contemporary criticism in partnership with The Khyber Centre for the Arts.

Alexandra McCurdy – October Featured Artist

Alexandra McCurdy is a graduate of NSCAD university (BFA) and the Cardiff Institute of Higher Learning in Wales. A ceramist/printmaker/independent curator, Alexandra works in porcelain making highly decorative, one-of-a-kind, colourful pieces, informed by her longstanding interest in textiles. Alexandra was recently inducted to the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts and has a celebratory show at the David Kaye Gallery in Toronto Ontario from October 01 through 25.

Sign up for Fall 2015 Workshops

This season’s professional development workshops feature topics such as Taxes, Marketing, Grant Proposals, Writing and Networking for artists. Running October to November in Halifax, Annapolis Royal, Lunenburg and Tatamagouche, the series features the expertise of instructors Katie Belcher, Carol Bruneau, Stacey Cornelius, Nora Macnee, and Sarah Maloney.

Hannah Minzloff selected as Antigonish VANS in Residence artist

Visual Arts Nova Scotia is partnering with The Antigonish Town & County Library and The ASAP Artist Run Centre to provide a five-week residency. It will involve the artist in both their own work, and in workshops, talks and open studios with community members. We are excited to announce that Hannah Minzloff has been selected to take on this opportunity.

Nadine Belliveau

Nadine Belliveau is a visual artist from the Baie Sainte-Marie, Digby County, Nova Scotia where she has been creating professionally since 1971. A graduate of NSCAD, Université de Moncton & Université Sainte-Anne, her contribution to the arts has been as an artist, educator and organizer. Her paintings explore the essence of nature by means of abstraction and decorative expression and unveil the mysterious, immersive qualities of nature presenting their inviting and warm environments through textural, layered and large-format acrylic on canvas.

Announcing the 10th Anniversary Mentorship Program Artists

Visual Arts Nova Scotia is delighted to officially announce the participants of the 10th anniversary VANS Mentorship Program. After receiving a record number of applications, the program has been expanded to support four dedicated emerging Nova Scotian artists. Claudia Legg, Alice MacLean, Sophie Paskins and Anna Taylor have been individually paired with established artists and mentors: James MacSwain, Ian McKinnon, Mathew Reichertz and Becka Barker.

Kas Stone – August Featured Artist

Kas Stone spent her formative years on the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. This sparked a passion for bleak coastal scenery and wild weather that has sustained her spirit and inspired her photography ever since. After a twenty-year stint ‘learning the ropes’ in Toronto, Kas now makes her home in Dublin Shore, Lunenburg County, where she runs a studio gallery and teaches courses in digital imaging. Her work is inspired by our wild coastal scenery with its vast expanse of sea and sky and its smaller textural and colour details.

Harry Hamm, "The Half Full Glass". Oil on board 9 ½” x 7 ½”

2015 Annual Report

Visual Arts Nova Scotia is approaching its’ 40th year of providing advocacy and support for artists practicing in Nova Scotia. As President this past year, I have had the privilege of participating in navigating new growth and change for the governance model for the Board. Important to this has been laying the ground for how we work together and maintain active participation. A core value as we proceed, has been attention to how we engage the full diversity of the artists we represent in Nova Scotia. This is no small task as we are all aware artists in this province include a wide range of artistic practices, mediums, educational backgrounds, culture, ages and place of residence.

Sera Senakovicz – July Featured Artist

Sera Senakovicz grew up in British Columbia and moved to Nova Scotia in 2005. Since graduating from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design she has been making prints wherever and however she can. She has been a recipient of two creation grants from ARTS Nova Scotia to help her to attend a residency at Spark Box Studios and to make a new body of work for a solo exhibition at Parentheses Gallery this past February. She is interested in oral histories of neighbourhoods and buildings and how lives are lived within and around them.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: EMERGING CRITICAL WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE

To further develop critical art writing in this region, Visual Arts News will host a Writer-in-Residence in partnership with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS). The residency will be open to emerging critical writers for a 4-month residency/internship and is designed to help develop and promote the work of emerging art critics.

“Meet Local Women” – 2014-15 Mentorship Program Exhibition

Highlighting the talents of mentees Angela Glanzmann, Kate Walchuk, and Stephanie Yee the Visual Arts Nova Scotia 2014-15 Mentorship Program Exhibition Meet Local Women also includes work from mentors Barbara Lounder, Eryn Foster, and Wilma Needham. Emerging artists in this year’s program present work examining loneliness, the artist stereotype, and contemporary settlement in Nova Scotia, on view at the Craig Gallery July 9 – August 1.