Exhibitions and Events
Film still from A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1935
Four Centuries of Shakespeare
SCREENINGS WEDNESDAYS AT 8 PM. FREE ADMISSION
The year 2016 marks four hundred years since William Shakespeare’s death. The Bard’s works continue to inspire and confound, with significant motion picture versions appearing on a regular basis. In this series, films have been chosen for manageable durations as well as their overall quality. The series begins and ends with films about The Bard, kicking off with the Oscar-Winning Shakespeare in Love and concluding with Anonymous, which questions Shakespeare’s authorship.
Lisa Hirmer, Dirt Piles, 2011
"And yet we still remain, going around, and again in dominion's plot...", Lisa Hirmer: Dirt Piles, Landscape/Displacement
For well over a century, the Canadian landscape has been an extensively manipulated one, dramatically transformed by industry, agriculture, and urban development, yet it continues to be read, and often labelled as, wilderness. Post-clearcut Algonquin Park, the managed forests of British Columbia and New Brunswick, the vast wheat fields of the Prairies, are all prime examples of irreversibly altered terrain layered over with a skewed narrative of nature, one that remains nailed to the wall in many exhibitions, runs through tourism promotions, and underscores populist political speech.
The Honourable Mayann Francis at her installation ceremony at Government House on 7 September, 2006. Photo: Shirley Robb, courtesy of Communications Nova Scotia
The Dress: Mayann Francis and the Call to Serve
Upon the advice of the Prime Minister, on 20 June, 2006, Governor General Michaëlle Jean appointed Mayann Francis as Nova Scotia’s 31st Lieutenant Governor, a posting that she held until 12 April, 2012. Francis was the first African Nova Scotian, and only the second woman, to serve as Nova Scotia’s Lieutenant Governor.
Shauntay Grant at Citadel Hill, Halifax, with Winter Quilt, 2013. Photo: Shyronn Smardon
Stitched Stories: The Family Quilts
As a descendant of Black Loyalists, Black Refugees, and Jamaican Maroons who came to Canada during the 18th and 19th centuries, Shauntay Grant’s love of language stretches back to her storytelling roots in Nova Scotia’s historic Black communities. This exhibition features a handful of quilts selected by Grant from the heritage holdings of her family, prominently those of her grandmother, the Reverend Alfreda Smith.
From the Vault, installation view.
From the Vault
Continuing our look at the emergence of artist-run culture and the changing cultural landscape in Halifax in the 1970s and early 1980s, this exhibition focusses on artworks acquired by the Dalhousie Art Gallery during that era. A move into a purpose-built, professional gallery space, and an annual budget for the purchase of artworks, initiated a vital period of growth for the Gallery and its collection.
