Halifax Art & Artists | Sources & Resources

For a small city, Halifax has a surprising number of art galleries. To learn more about the work of Halifax’s artists you can visit the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), the Anna Leonowens Gallery, the Dalhousie Art Gallery, the Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, and the MSVU Art Gallery. The Nova Scotia Archives maintains an exhibition space well utilized by local artists, and other community spaces include the Craig Gallery at Alderney Landing, the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, and the Mary E. Black Gallery. There are four artist-run centres—Eyelevel, the Khyber Centre for the Arts, the Centre for Art Tapes, and the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative—and one hybrid, The Blue Building. There are many commercial galleries, including Zwicker’s Gallery, Katzman Art Projects (formerly Studio 21 Fine Art), Argyle Fine Art, and Teichert Gallery. The AGNS, the Nova Scotia Archives, and the four universities all maintain important archives for historical research. Other sources of information and suggestions for further reading are listed in this section.

John Greer, *Origins*, 1995, patinated cast bronze, 2.7 x 3.8 x 1 m, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax.

Selfie-station with Maud Lewis’s painting *The Bluenose*, 2017, photograph by T.J. Maguire.

Books

Colgate, William. Canadian Art: Its Origin and Development. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1943.

Douglas, Stan, ed. The Vancouver Anthology. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1991.

Harper, J. Russell. Painting in Canada: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966.

Kennedy, Garry Neill. The Last Art College: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1968–1978. Cambridge and Halifax: MIT Press and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2012.

Cover of *Maritime Art: A Canadian Art Magazine*, July–August 1943.

Markonish, Denise, ed. Oh, Canada. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2012.

O’Neill, Mora Dianne. Nova Scotia Society of Artists: Exhibitions and Members, 1922–1972. Halifax: The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1997.

Paul, Daniel N. We Were Not the Savages: Collision between European and Native American Civilizations. 4th ed. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2022.

Paul, Elizabeth, Peter Sanger, and Alan Syliboy. The Stone Canoe: Two Lost Mi’kmaq Texts. Kentville: Gaspereau Press, 2007.

Raddall, Thomas H., updated by Stephen Kimber. Halifax: Warden of the North. Updated Edition. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2010.

Reid, Dennis. A Concise History of Canadian Painting. 3rd ed. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Sherman, Joseph, ed. The AGNS Permanent Collection: Selected Works. Halifax: The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2002.

Soucy, Donald, and Harold Pearse. The First Hundred Years: A History of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Fredericton and Halifax: University of New Brunswick Faculty of Education and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1993.

Stacey, Robert, and Liz Wylie. Eighty/Twenty: 100 Years of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Halifax: The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1988.

Whitelaw, Anne, Brian Foss, and Sandra Paikowsky, eds. The Visual Arts in Canada: The Twentieth Century. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Exhibition Catalogues

Cronin, Ray, Sarah Fillmore, and Donna Wellard. Sobey Art Award: 10th Anniversary. Halifax: The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2013.

Cover of *200 Years of Art in Halifax: An Exhibition Prepared in Honour of the Bicentenary of the Founding of the City of Halifax, N.S., 1749–1949* by Alexander S. Mowat et al. (Halifax: Nova Scotia College of Art, Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts, Nova Scotia Society of Artists, Dalhousie University, 1949).

Cover of *Atlantica: The View from Away* by Jeffrey Spalding (Halifax: Dalhousie Art Gallery, 2004).

Gray, Viviane, and Mora Dianne O’Neill, eds. Pe’l A’tukwey: Let Me… Tell a Story: Recent Work by Mi’kmaq and Maliseet Artists. Halifax: The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1993.

Metcalfe, Robin. Object Lessons: Eight Nova Scotia Sculptors. Halifax: The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1995.

Mowat, Alexander S., et al. 200 Years of Art in Halifax: An Exhibition Prepared in Honour of the Bicentenary of the Founding of the City of Halifax, N.S., 1749–1949. Halifax: Nova Scotia College of Art, Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts, Nova Scotia Society of Artists, Dalhousie University, 1949.

O’Neill, Mora Dianne. At the Great Harbour: 250 Years on the Halifax Waterfront. Halifax: The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1999.

Paikowsky, Sandra. Nova Scotian Pictures: Art in Nova Scotia 1940–1966. Halifax: Dalhousie Art Gallery, 1994.

Poňka, Anabelle Kienle, ed. Halifax Harbour 1918. Ottawa: The National Gallery of Canada, 2018.

Spalding, Jeffrey. Atlantica: The View from Away. Halifax: Dalhousie Art Gallery, 2004.

Sparling, Mary. Great Expectations: The European Vision in Nova Scotia, 1749–1848. Halifax: MSVU Art Gallery, 1980.

Villeneuve, René. Lord Dalhousie: Patron and Collector. Ottawa: The National Gallery of Canada, 2008.

Articles

Burant, Jim. “Art in Halifax: Exhibitions and Criticism in 1830 and 1831.” Revue d’art Canadienne / Canadian Art Review 8, no. 2 (1981): 119–36.

———“The Development of the Visual Arts in Halifax, Nova Scotia from 1815 to 1867 as an Expression of Cultural Awakening.” Unpublished Master of Arts thesis, Carleton University, 1979.

———“Pre-Confederation Photography in Halifax, Nova Scotia.” Journal of Canadian Art History 4, no. 1 (Spring 1977): 25–44.

Piers, Harry. “Artists in Nova Scotia.” In Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, Volume 18, 101–65. Halifax: Nova Scotia Historical Society, 1914.