PAINTS

colourful boxes of rug hooking materials

New Workshops for 2025

PAINTS is delighted to have added new artists to our roster this school year. So far, there are a dozen brand-new workshops being offered with more coming all the time. And, the favourites from the past few years are still there too! We are fortunate to have PAINTS artists living and working all over Mi’kma’ki.…

Extra PAINTS Deadline – Tues. November 12

      Teachers! Get matching funds for workshops in your classroom PAINTS is delighted to be welcoming new artists to the program. To celebrate, we’ve created an extra opportunity for teachers to request workshops. Requests are being accepted now until November 12.  We’ll be supporting the first 20 projects requested. For this special deadline, only…

A Call for New PAINTS Artists

ARTISTS! Are you interested in working with students?  The PAINTS (Professional Artists In The Schools) Program is seeking professional artists and fine craft artisans who want to offer workshops to schools in their home community. Our program is available to schools throughout the province, for grades Primary – 12, so we need artists everywhere. Some…

We’re Fine in the Lowlands, Oil on canvas, 2024, 48” x 36” “We’re Fine in the Lowlands” depicts an imagined and dream-like landscape, packed with abstracted water and plant-like forms, along with cartoonish blobs that are suspended within the scene. Referencing theatrical set design through proscenium arching, and the layering of forms and foliage to create an illusion of deep space, this piece is playing with notions of both personal and artistic space-making. The work involves vibrant colours, many layers of paint application, energetic brushwork, and shifting perspectives to create a cavernous environment that simultaneously pulls the viewer in and pushes them away. A picture light installed above the painting offers a humorous nod to traditional modes of scenic landscape painting.

VANS in Residence at ARTSPLACE Cortney Cassidy

Visual Arts Nova Scotia, in partnership with ARCAC, is so pleased to welcome Cortney Cassidy as the newest VANS in Residence Artist. Cortney will be in residence from June 2 – 28, 2024 at ARTPLACE in Annapolis Royal. Cortney Cassidy is an emerging painter, based in Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Canada). They are a recent graduate of…

CRESCENDO-Voices-of-the-fingers-detail An image of a drawing of a person playing guitar.

VANS in Residence at Wonder’neath Artist Ibe Ananaba

We are thrilled to announce that Ibe Ananaba has been selected as the artist in residence for this Spring in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) at the Wonder’neath Studios in the Central North End of the city, May 20 – June 15, 2024. From the artist: “My artistic practice is fueled by a passionate curiosity to explore socio-cultural issues…

A still image from ART RECESS video. Overhead image of hands creating a blue and white collage on a table with art supplies and a laptop nearby,

Take an ART RECESS

ART RECESS. A break, a change, time to play, to have fun – just like regular recess!  You can even have a snack too.  ART RECESS is a collection of short, accessible workshops that can be delivered online at times that work for teachers in the school year, or for parents and caregivers anytime. VANS…

Indigo square with darker blue geometric shapes in the background with the words Equity Subsidy in white capital letters in the middle with the VANS logo underneath.

New Equity Subsidy for Schools

Visual Arts Nova Scotia is offering an Equity Subsidy to support PAINTS (Professional Artists In The Schools) workshops in schools serving significant populations of BIPOC students. The PAINTS Equity Subsidy will support qualifying schools by fully funding projects including the artist fee, materials and any travel costs. Workshops are usually 3 – 4 hours in length for up…

Upcoming PAINTS deadlines for schools

PAINTS (Professional Artists In The Schools) has art workshops for students! We’re keeping the online option, but schools and teachers can now also book in-person workshops. Workshops are available from grades Primary through 12, most workshops take from 3 -12 hours and we currently have 16 workshops on offer. Any teacher can request a workshop…

PAINTS Project Call: Art Recess

With students across Nova Scotia now learning from home, PAINTS is responding with a new initiative: Art Recess! Artists will put together art activities that can be completed in about 15 minutes. They’ll make videos to lead students through the art activities using materials that would be readily available in most homes of school-age children.…

A call for PAINTS workshops

The PAINTS program is seeking initial sketches/outlines for workshops that you could lead remotely. All workshops will be either online in real time via Google classrooms, or facilitated by the teacher with paper prompts provided by the artist as a guide to take students through a process. We’re approaching all workshops as one-off live events.…

VANS in Residence in New Glasgow

VANS, in partnership with The Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library and the Town of New Glasgow, will host a 3-week Artist Residency in New Glasgow. This program provides a stipend to support the artist to work full time for 3 weeks. 60% of the time will be dedicated to the artist’s own work (creation, research or both)…

New Deadline for PAINTS Projects

Do you know a school that could use a PAINTS project but missed the January 30th deadline? Don’t worry, we have added a spring deadline this year so schools and teachers can apply for a PAINTS project. Tell your local school that the new PAINTS deadline is Monday, April 16th for projects that will take…

PAINTS Deadlines for 2017

PAINTS brings together professional visual and fine crafts artists, educators and students all over the province. We’re always looking for more artists who interested in spending some time working with children and youth. All members of VANS or NSDCC are eligible. There is no fee to apply or participate. The application is simple; fill out…

VANS in Residence

VANS is excited to announce the artists who have been chosen for the three VANS In Residence initiatives this spring. We have both rural and urban residencies in HRM this year, involving fantastic partners. Each artist will spend their time split between their own practice (studio work, research and other endeavours), and time actively working…

Sara Roth – Artist Profile

Sara Roth is a multidisciplinary artist, whose work bridges illustration, installation and sculpture. She holds a BFA from NSCAD University and a Diploma in Fine Craft from the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. She previously worked as part of the collective Moving Arms II (with Bernie MacCuish), whose performance and installation works replicate,…

Marla Benton – Artist Profile

Marla Benton earned her education through the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, the Ontario College of Art and Design and Nipissing University. From growing up in a small town, traveling to 41 different countries, building a home inside a pickup truck, enduring a six month journey on a motorcycle, roughing it in…

Suzanne Gauthier, Rain On Fox River, digital photograph, 2014

Suzanne Gauthier – October Artist Profile

Suzanne Gauthier was born in Lorette Manitoba and studied and taught at the University of Manitoba (BFA Honours 1969). In 1989 she relocated to Halifax to teach full time at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Her work is based in drawing, printmaking and collage, and has recently been engaged in photographs of moving water. See her studio exhibition Acquainted with Light, October 16-31, as part of Photopolis.