Get your first or second dose of the Pfizer vaccine (ages 12+) at the walk-in vaccine clinic we're hosting tomorrow, Friday, September 10, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the Art Bar! If you're getting your second dose, it must be 28 days or more since your first dose (or 21 days if your first dose was Pfizer). This vaccine clinic is open to anyone who is twelve or older, so take advantage of this awesome opportunity on the NSCAD campus! Make sure to bring your ID and health card if you have one!

NSCAD is excited to announce that the Institute for the Study of Canadian Slavery (@theinstitutenscad) has introduced its first cohort of artists-in-residence and graduate student fellows! This group of individuals will be dedicated to research or an art practice that centres the Transatlantic Slave Trade and we are eager to see what they can accomplish! The Institute is the first research establishment in the nation and only one of a handful in the world that focus on Transatlantic Slavery. It was established at NSCAD University through funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage. The Institute’s position within an art and design school allows the context of ‘research’ to encompass traditional academic outcomes, arts, culture, and media. Read the full announcement at https://nscad.ca/institute-for-the-study-of-canadian-slavery-welcomes-fellows/ and take a look at the biography and project information on the Institute’s first cohort of fellows at https://nscad.ca/the-institute-fellows. Links in bio.

We are so excited to have you back on campus and in the studio taking enriching classes with our expert instructors and with the support of our fantastic technicians and staff! Take a look at this important update for the fall semester from NSCAD President Dr. Sarah McKinnon https://nscad.ca/welcome-back-to-campus/. Link in bio. Photo by Stephen Brookbank.

Get your first or second dose of the Pfizer vaccine (ages 12+) at the walk-in vaccine clinic we're hosting this Friday, September 10, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the Art Bar! If you're getting your second dose, it must be 28 days or more since your first dose (or 21 days if your first dose was Pfizer).

NSCAD’s technicians continue to amaze us with the hard work they put into and outside of the studio! This week, we got the chance to ask photo technician, Stephen Brookbank (he/him), a few questions about his practice and NSCAD experience. You may have seen us post his photos a few times across our socials. What is your own art practice like? I have an active photo-based art practice. Currently, I am working on a collaborative project with the novelist/ short story writer, Ian Colford. Typically, my work involves the urban, suburban and rural landscape, and often includes portraits of people in their home or work environments. I am interested in creating work that supposes stories representing the flexibility and adaptive strength of people. How long have you been at NSCAD? September marks 4 years working at NSCAD University. What did you do before NSCAD? �I worked for many years in Toronto as a fine art analog/ digital printer and image editor for many of Canada’s most notable photography-based artists. All the while I balanced a photography practice, regularly exhibiting my work, and occasionally working in editorial photography. Prior to moving home to work at NSCAD my partner and I lived in Hamilton for several years while commuting to Toronto. For a few years we also lived and worked in Vancouver. What is something valuable you have learned from NSCAD students? I would say the most valuable thing I have learned from the students at NSCAD is that every challenge represents a new learning opportunity. It is my job to support students in their learning experience in the most positive way possible to help facilitate a great learning experience. What advice would you give to current and incoming NSCAD students? My best advice to NSCAD students is to work. Work at your chosen discipline as much as you can healthfully manage, while you have access to these amazing facilities, and utilize the supports in place that are here for you. What do you enjoy most about NSCAD? I love being immersed in the world of art and photography every day. It is a joy and I am humbled every time I walk through the school doors. Photos courtesy of the artist.

NSCAD alumna Fazila Amiri (BFA 2012) has been busy with her film work since she graduated! We got to ask her what she’s been up to, and here’s what she had to say. What are you currently working on or have you most recently worked on? What is this work about? With two years in the making, currently, I am on post-production of my feature documentary Songs She Sings in Shadows, which follows the dreams and struggles of three Afghan women singers in post-Taliban Afghanistan. What continues to inspire your work? My inspiration comes from within who I am as a person, my upbringing and my core values in life, and how I want to share that vision through filmmaking. I love how cinema has the power to relate us to the human condition and cultures elsewhere and is a powerful medium for inspiring social change and elevating awareness. Were there any professors that particularly impacted you during your time at NSCAD? I feel honoured to name Bruce Barber, Solomon Nagler, and Sam Fisher for their continuous support and encouragement. Through their mentorship and recommendation, I enrolled at York University for the graduate program in Film Production. I'm forever grateful. What was the biggest takeaway from your time at NSCAD? As a young girl, I always dreamt of becoming a film director, and when I immigrated to Canada from Afghanistan, my goal was to enroll in university and study cinema, so it was a natural choice to enroll at NSCAD University. The program not only helped me shape my voice and vision as a filmmaker but also strengthened my knowledge of contemporary art and film history. It was also very unreal to be selected in international film festivals for a short film that I made in my undergraduate program. It gave me a boost of confidence and hope for the future. What do you wish you had known when you were a student? Focus on building your crew for lifelong collaboration. Martin Scorcese still works with his long-time film editor Thelma Shoonmaker who he met during a film course. You can see more about Fazila on her website at www.fazilaamiri.ca or on her Instagram @fazilaamiri! Photos courtesy of the artist.

Artist Lou Sheppard has done quite a bit since leaving NSCAD in 2009 with an Interdisciplinary BFA! We got the chance to see what he’s been up to since then. Here’s some of what he told us! What was your favourite part of NSCAD? I loved getting to talk about art so much! I miss sitting with other artists and really thinking through their work, and having that attention paid to my work. What do you wish you had of known when you were a student? I wish that I could have understood more how critical writing and theory would impact my work, and maybe worry less about making art and spend more time thinking and researching, and just experiencing art. I think it’s pretty easy to fall into a production focused mindset when you’re at school, but school is such a rich time to actually not produce, and focus more on learning about why you want to make things. You can see more of Lou @shep_shape! And, if you’re close by, check out ‘I Want to be a Seashell / I Want to be a Mould / I Want to be a Spirit’ with Will Robinson, opening at Dalhousie Art Gallery in September. See the rest of the interview at https://www.facebook.com/NSCAD/posts/6037849756257676. Link in bio. Pieces featured: ‘Crepuscular Rhythms’, 2019 Dimensions Variable Crepuscular Rhythms is a performance score that figures dawn and dusk as queer times of day, times that are boundaries between day and night and that provide protective cover for queer and trans bodies in public space. The score has been performed as a series of walks at dawn and dusk wearing light sensitive t-shirts which are then displayed, and as a graphic score by musicians Robert Fleitz, Carlos Aguilar and Darian Thomas. ‘Pas de deux’ (Installation), 2020 Audio/Video loop (18 minutes) and printed scores. Pas de deux is an improvised dance score for two dancers which finds the boundaries of being hailed into language as a man or a woman. Two dancers navigate a series of directions as both obstacles and desires, finding and figuring the other through their own gestures. Performed by Liana Kleinman and Joelle Santiago. Photo Credit: Wes Johnston

Today, we would like to introduce you to Max Dooher (he/him), a third-year Interdisciplinary student focusing on Media, Printmaking and Photography here at NSCAD! We asked him a few questions about his practice and time at NSCAD. Here’s what he told us. What is your work about? What themes or concepts do you explore? Most of my day-to-day work is about experimenting with digital tools in an almost meditative process. Nothing gets overthought- it starts with the proposition of a simple thought or feeling, and then I push myself to find a way to render that digitally line by line. And that is meant literally, as much of my work is created directly with code. It's a really logically challenging but rewarding method of art making. A special relationship is established between artist and computer when you are drawing pictures with only letters and numbers, or procedural effectors in a 3D workspace - its the sort of unexpected call and response that excites me, where you sit down not knowing what you will discover but come out with something quantifiably unique every time. What inspired you to become an artist? I got into modifying video games at a pretty young age, which led to my interest both in coding and computer graphics rendering. Only in my adult life did I discover that those two concepts are inseparably linked, and that exploring one could mean defining the other. What made you attend NSCAD and what’s your favourite part about NSCAD? Truthfully I didn't know much about the school when I first applied - I was just excited by the idea of being provided with any space where I could really push my creativity. I have since come to know of its historically rich and important experimental background, and having access to space where individual experimentation is understood to be the most important thing is my favourite part about the school. You can follow Max’s instagram to keep up with his experiments @marsdoer!

With so many amazing technicians here at NSCAD, we thought it would be a shame if we didn’t show off the work of the people who are often a huge support in the studio. This week, we got the chance to ask the textiles technician, Anke Fox (she/her), a few questions about her practice and NSCAD experience. Where are you from? I am originally from Germany but have been living in Canada since 1986. I now live on the Eastern Shore of NS in East Petpeswick, close to Martinique Beach. What is your own art practice like? Over the past 35 years I have explored a broad range of textile techniques, from felting to screen printing large scale photographic imagery, from dyeing with lichens and rust to heat transfer dye sublimation, from back-strap weaving to digital weaving and laser cutting. I have a special love though for natural dyeing and tapestry weaving. This summer I am concentrating on growing my own dye plants, such as madder, woad, weld and dyer's chamomile. I have been busy planting, harvesting, dyeing, mordant printing and studying the 18th century process of Turkey Red dyeing on cellulose fibres. What is something valuable you have learned from NSCAD students? I am inspired by the students' tenacity to embrace challenges and use their creativity to make sense of who they are to find their way of being in the world. It is a thrill to see them shine. What advice would you give to current and incoming NSCAD students? Keep an open mind. Explore areas you never thought of before. Experiment with colours you do not like. Challenge yourself every day and do not be afraid to fail. Turn to nature to recharge and be inspired. What do you enjoy most about NSCAD? Our students! I take immense joy in seeing them grow over the course of their studies. From the early samples in their Intro classes to fully developed and engaging bodies of work exhibited at the Anna Leonowens Gallery before they graduate and go out into the world. They make me proud, and I love it when they get in touch years after graduation to seek advice and to keep me up to date with their artistic endeavours. We have a lot of outstanding Textile graduates out there.

This week, we want to show you the work of alumna Kim Waldron (she/her), who graduated NSCAD in 2003 with a major in Media Arts. What have you done since leaving NSCAD? Making artwork and mounting exhibitions. Artist residencies in Vienna, Austria, at the English Harbour Arts Centre in Newfoundland, Chinese European Art Centre in Xiamen and Red Gate Residency in Beijing, China. In 2013 I graduated from Concordia University with an MFA in Photography. I ran as an independent candidate in the 2015 federal election as part of the Public Office project. In 2016 I opened an offshore company in Hong Kong as part of the Kim Waldron Ltd. project. I published an artist book titled The DIY Cookbook, a memoir titled Honesty, Hope and Hard Work and a monography titled Kim Waldron: Une autre femme_Another Woman. Last year I became a professor of Photography at Université du Québec à Montréal. I am raising a 6-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy with husband Jean-Michel Ross. What continues to inspire your work? Trying to remain as open as possible while navigating the relationship between public and private. What were your top three classes at NSCAD? Photo Issues Seminar with Stephen Horne, Printmaking with Dan O’Neill and Bob Rogers, Video with Kathleen Tetlock. What do you wish you had of known when you were a student? Avoid debt when possible. What is something you can't wait to do next in your career? Work with the board members/curators of my company to create conferences/board meetings and an exhibition. You can keep u with Kim on her Instagram @kimwaldronltd and take a look at her recent publication Kim Waldron. Une autre femme_Another Woman online here: http://kimwaldron.com/publications/kim-waldron-une-autre-femme_another-woman/ Kim Waldron Ltd. also produced its first NFT, which you can view here: https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/186952. Links in bio. Image: 02- Worker #28, from the project Made in Québec, 2015, inkjet print, 61 x 61 x 5 cm

It is with sadness that we share the news of the recent passing of Garry Neill Kennedy, legendary pioneer in Canadian conceptual art and former NSCAD president from 1967 - 1990. With Kennedy at the helm, NSCAD became the first degree-granting art school in Canada and evolved from a regional art school into one of North America’s leading visual arts universities. Kennedy is a NSCAD University honorary doctorate, as well as a recipient of the Governor General’s Award in the Visual Arts (2004) and the Order of Canada (2003). His lasting legacy is undoubtedly the acclaimed book The Last Art College: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1968 to 1978, which captures his first ten years as President of NSCAD. We send our condolences to his family and friends, and all those in the NSCAD community who have been impacted and inspired by Garry and his life’s work. (Photos from the NSCAD Archives)

It’s only a matter of time before we’re back on campus for the fall semester! Whether you’re interested in digital media, sculpture, craft, fine art or a mix of them all, find the beginning of your story here at NSCAD! Don’t miss your chance to register for your choice of fall courses today! Sign up on our website at www.nscad.ca!