Hidden Blackness: Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828-1901) runs from 25 January 2025 – 6 April 2025.
Vernissage: Friday 24 January @ 7:00 pm
Curator: Dr. David Woods. Organized and circulated by the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, and the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS).
Hidden Blackness is the first major exhibition of Edward Mitchell Bannister’s work ever presented in Canada—124 years after the artist’s death.
Born in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, Bannister was a self-taught, nineteenth-century, African American/Canadian painter of the Barbizon school known for pastoral landscapes and seascapes. In 1876, Bannister’s painting Under the Oaks (now lost) won the bronze medal (first place) at the Centennial Exposition Art Exhibition in Philadelphia, thus making him the first artist of African descent and the first Canadian to win a major art prize in North America.
Before becoming a full-time painter, Bannister worked as a cobbler, shipmate, barber, and daguerreotypist. He was also a prominent abolitionist and philanthropist (along with his wife Christiana Carteaux Bannister), and a respected art critic and co-founder the Providence Art Club, one of the oldest art societies in the United States.
“Hidden Blackness will give the Canadian public its first glimpse of the creativity and excellence of Edward Mitchell Bannister’s artistry, while also providing an important opportunity to examine his early years in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, as well as the life of nineteenth-century Black New Brunswickers in communities like Slabtown.” —Dr. David Woods
The Writers’ Open Mic is a free monthly event open to all. Come out and read your poems, short stories, comics, novels, essays, twitter posts, stand-up comedy, etc. Or just come to listen.
A projector will be set up for those with comics or other images or videos they want to share. Files can be brought on a USB or emailed in advance. Accessibility concerns, general questions, and image or video files can be directed to laurawatsonartwork@gmail.com.
The Owens is thrilled is to be collaborating with Nicole Porter of Amlamgoog and Scott Peters of We’koqma’q on two Introductory Mi’kmaw Basket Making Workshops.
These workshops are open to the public, but priority registration will be given to Indigenous students, staff, faculty, and community members. We encourage everyone interested in attending to sign up! The Basket Making Workshops are free, with all materials provided, but space is limited.
Both workshops will be held in the Mawita’mkw Centre, which is located in room 130 on the first floor of the Wallace McCain Student Centre, Mount Allison University, at 62 York Street, Sackville, New Brunswick.
Workshop 1 10 October 2024 12:00-4:00 pm Mawita’mkw Centre, WMSC 130
Workshop 2 10 October 2024 5:00-9:00 pm Mawita’mkw Centre, WMSC 130
Join us for a panel discussion organized in conjunction with the new exhibition Estuarieswith Sylvia D. Hamilton, Joana Joachim and Thandiwe McCarthy.
Dr. Joana Joachim is Assistant professor of Black Studies in Art History and Social Justice at Concordia University. Her research and teaching interests include Black feminist art histories, Black diasporic art histories, critical museologies, Black Canadian studies, and Canadian slavery studies. Her curatorial projects include Estuaries presented at the Owens Art Gallery (2024) and Blackity presented at Artexte (2021). Her current book project examines practices of self-preservation and self-care among Black women in contexts of slavery under the French by considering both historical and contemporary artworks. She earned her PhD in the department of Art History and Communication Studies and at the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at McGill University. Dr. Joachim obtained her master’s degree in Museology from Université de Montréal and her BFA cum laude from University of Ottawa. In addition to the special issue of RACAR, “salt: For the preservation of Black diasporic visual histories” co-edited with Pamela Edmonds, Dr. Joachim’s writing has appeared in books, journals and magazines including Routledge Companion to African Diaspora Artedited by Eddie Chambers (forthcoming October 2024), History, art and Blackness in Canada, Manuel Mathieu: World Discovered Under Other Skies, Canadian Journal of History and C Magazine.
Sylvia D. Hamilton is a multi-award-winning Nova Scotian filmmaker, artist and writer known for the documentaries Portia White: Think on Me, The Little Black School House and Black Mother Black Daughter, among others. She is the author of the poetry collection, And I Alone Escaped to Tell You, a finalist for the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award and the 2015 League of Canadian Poets Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her latest collection titled Tender was a finalist for the League of Canadian Poets 2023 Pat Lowther Award and the winner of the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia Maxine Tynes Poetry Award. Other awards include the 2019 Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media and the Documentary Organization of Canada’s 2021 Luminary Award.
Thandiwe McCarthy is a 7th generation African Canadian spoken word poet, writer, and public speaker. After a residency at Arteles, Finland, Thandiwe has begun focusing on his writing practice. As the culture correspondent for Maritime EDIT magazine, he highlights Black community leaders and artists. He has delivered keynotes for the Atlantic Public Libraries Association, the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design’s 2024 graduation and has lectured on leadership at Saint Thomas University. He was a Co-founder of the New Brunswick Black Artists Alliance and Emancipation Celebration event and he has played a key role in helping to recognize August 1st as Emancipation Day in New Brunswick. His Canada Council funded project the “Still Here Initiative” celebrates fifteen generational Black New Brunswick families and will launch a national art exhibition and globally distributed book in July 2025.”
This panel discussion is made possible with support from the Centre for Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University.
Join us for a poetry reading with Sylvia D. Hamilton and Amatoritsero Ede, organized in conjunction with the new exhibition Estuaries. Organized in collaboration with the Department of English at Mount Allison University.
Friday 4 October, 4:00 – 5:30 pm, in Tweedie Hall, (Wallace McCain Student Centre, Mount Allison University)
Amatoritsero Ede has published three well-received collections of poetry, “A Writers Pains & Caribbean Blues (1998), Globetrotter & Hitler’s Children (2009) and Teardrops on the Weser (2021) as well as one collection of literary nonfiction, Imagination’s Many Rooms (2022). He also appears in over 15 poetry anthologies and is the publisher and Managing Editor of the Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS. He teaches English at Mount Allison University.
Sylvia D. Hamilton is a multi-award-winning Nova Scotian filmmaker, artist and writer known for the documentaries Portia White: Think on Me, The Little Black School House and Black Mother Black Daughter, among others. Her poetry collection, And I Alone Escaped to Tell You, a finalist for the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award and the 2015 League of Canadian Poets Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her latest collection titled Tender was a finalist for the League of Canadian Poets 2023 Pat Lowther Award and the winner of the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia Maxine Tynes Poetry Award. She is an Inglis Professor Emeritus at the University of King’s College and recently she was appointed to the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia.
Join us on October 4th, 2024 at the Owens Art Gallery for the opening vernissage of the new exhibition Estuaries.
Curated by: Joana Joachim
Works by: Denise Ferreira da Silva & Arjuna Neuman, Sylvia D. Hamilton, John Hammond, Oluseye, Camille Turner, Denyse Thomasos, and Gary Weekes.
About the Exhibition: Estuaries form when freshwater rivers meet the ocean and become slightly salty. The Atlantic is the saltiest of the five ocean basins. It is also the body of water across which more than 30,000 ships carried over twelve million abducted Africans into slavery through the lethal crossing known as the Middle Passage. These ships returned laden with goods produced through the forced labour of Black captives. John Owens, eponym of the Owens Art Gallery, was a successful shipbuilder, as was his executor, Robert Reed. Using funds from Owens’ estate, Reed worked with artist John Hammond to develop a teaching collection now housed at the Owens Art Gallery.
The Maritimes, like the rest of Canada, profited from shipbuilding and colonial economies linked to transatlantic slavery and trade. Meanwhile, Black histories in New Brunswick and elsewhere were systematically washed away. To this day, the histories and contributions of small Black communities in New Brunswick and across Canada are overlooked due to their size, their seemingly limited archival presence, and, in some cases, the common, inaccurate belief that they simply do not exist. Estuaries floats in the space between these facts, musing on Black diasporic peoples’ relationship to the ocean. Featuring artworks by both contemporary and historical artists, as well as archival documents and artifacts, it contends with the tensions that arise once we allow the freshwater river of Canadian history to meet the ocean of Black Atlantic life. Read more…
Art inspired by nature is the theme for a special event featuring 20 artists from Atlantic Canada. On Saturday, July 20, from 12:00 – 4:00 pm, visual artists will be working en plein air in the Sackville Waterfowl Park, Sackville NB.
Visitors to the park can witness works-in-progress, learn about techniques and appreciate a range of styles. Completed artworks will be exhibited and offered for sale at Struts Gallery on Sunday July 21, from 1:00 – 4:00 pm. Free admission
Levee on the Lake is a four-day folk music festival with free and ticketed concerts as well as free cultural workshops.
Located in Sackville, NB, the event features Indigenous, Acadian, Celtic, Bluegrass, Country and traditional music from Atlantic Canada and farther ports. The signature event is the Lakeside Levee where you can paddle up to the stage, watch from the beach or the park lawn! There are also two foodie events and a square dance rounding out the weekend and of course a community breakfast at the legion!
Sappyfest is an annual festival held in the heart of downtown Sackville, New Brunswick, featuring music, art, poetry, and performance from regional, national, and international artists. Known for its cutting-edge programming and exciting lineups of emerging and celebrated artists from all genres, Sappyfest is a must-see for music and art fans looking to enjoy the region.
