Invitation to the Special Awards Ceremony on December 11 at Halifax Central Library

l-r: Curtis Botham, Julia Rivard, Claire Campbell

In 2018, visual artist Curtis Botham and Claire Campbell won the 2011 Canada Games Young Artist of Excellence Awards.

Who will it be this year?

Join us to find out!

Wednesday, December 11, 2019 at 2 p.m.
at the Halifax Central Library

In a Special Awards Ceremony attended by The Honourable Arthur J. LeBlanc, ONS, QC, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia and Honorary Chair of the NSTT.

We are proud to present two new awards that honour the legacies of Susan Wood, visual artist, teacher and mentor, and Peggy Corkum, avid arts patron and supporter. Community efforts to raise money in their name reinforce our shared cultural impact.

The fifteen Special Award winners were chosen from a field of 59 scholarship recipients from across the province representing the artistic disciplines of music, literary arts, visual arts, film, dance, circus arts, and theatre.

The Special Awards Ceremony will be held at the Paul O'Regan Hall at the Halifax Central Library. The event is free and open to the public.

“We are pleased to partner again with the Halifax Central Library to host the ceremony in a space that is open to the public and to celebrate the achievements of our scholarship and award recipients with all Nova Scotians. It will be a wonderful culmination of our 75th anniversary year”, says Jacqueline Steudler, NSTT Executive Director.

For the last 75 years, we've continued to support emerging Nova Scotian artists as they pursue their studies towards the ultimate goal of establishing professional careers in the arts.

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Devin Huang Performs Piano Recital Through The Cecilia Concert Series - Free Event

Presented in partnership with the Nova Scotia Registered Music Teachers' Association, and the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts, and the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, Devin Huang promises a perfect musical afternoon hosted by the Cecilia Concert Series.

photo and bio from Cecilia Concerts

Sunday Dec 8, 2 p.m.

Lillian Piercey Concert Hall

Maritime Conservatory 
6199 Chebucto Rd, Halifax

Free and open to the public. Register in advance. 

Devin will perform works by Frédéric Chopin, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Robert Schumann.

About Devin Huang:

Twelve-year-old Devin Huang began studying piano at the age of seven. He’s since gone on to win a bevy of top awards and prizes, at both the provincial and national levels, for his skill and the beauty of his performances. In fact, he’s well on his way to becoming a consummate Canadian performer on international concert stages.

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Katherina Bakolias and Julia Topple in Neptune's Peter Pan

Sister organization Neptune Theatre casts NSTT alumni Katerina Bakolias and Julia Topple in their comedic and musical adaptation of the classic Peter Pan. 

Nov, 27, 2019 - Jan 5, 2020
7:30 p.m. & weekend 

2 p.m. matinees 

Neptune Theatre
Fountain Hall
1593 Argyle St, Halifax

About Peter Pan:

When Wendy, Michael and John find themselves whisked away to Never-you-mind-land by a mysterious flying boy, they have no idea what awaits them: peculiar pirates, a posse of Underdog Kids, a giant ticking crocodile and a very wicked, show-tune loving Captain Hook. This play is full of pop songs, hilarious jokes and encourages you to play along.

Like Cinderella, Peter Pan continues Neptune’s new tradition of bringing classic stories to life in a family musical format for the holiday season.

Artist Bios:

Katerina Bakolias who plays, the lost boy Eric, is a Halifax based actor, playwright, and screenwriter who graduated from The Fountain School of Performing Arts in 2015. She's been highly involved in various roles in theatre and writing. She was one of five selected participants in FIN Atlantic International Film Festival's Script Development Program, nominated for a Merritt Award, and won Best Performer in the Halifax Fringe Festival.

Julia Topple is an actress, known for work in Haven, Trailer Park Boys and Everyone's Famous. Read about her stage work this year in Pleasureville, on TWISI.

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Alex Yang Featured Soloist with Chebucto Symphony Concert

Scholarship recipient Alex Yang, is celebrated for winning the Chebucto Symphony's 2019/2020 Concerto Competition with a solo performance with the orchestra. 

Photo from Chebucto Symphony 

Thur, Nov 21, 7:30 p.m.

Faith Tabernacle Church,
6225 Summit Street 

Halifax 

Alex Yang Bio:



11-year-old Alex Yang is a grade six student at Halifax Grammar School, and has been a student of Professor Lynn Stodola since 2015. In the 2019 Halifax Kiwanis Music Festival, Alex won First Place in each of his six senior level piano classes, and was invited to perform at the Festival’s Gala, where he received the Gordon Murray Rising Star Award for the second consecutive year. As a result of his outstanding performance in the Festival, he was awarded the Halifax Ladies’ Music Club Junior Award at their annual post-festival recital.

In June, 2019, he won First Place in both piano and violin in the Canadian Music Competition (CMC) National Final in Calgary, Alberta, and he was awarded the Grand Prize for an exceptional mark of 97 in piano.

Alex has been an RCM Gold Medalist (Atlantic Region) in both Piano and Violin, and winner of numerous Nova Scotia Registered Music Teachers Association (NSRMTA) trophies and Scholarship Competitions in piano and violin. As one of the youngest Nova Scotia Talent Trust Scholarship recipients in 2017, 2018 and 2019, he was invited to perform in recital at Government House on their Music on Tuesday Series.

Alex loves music composition as well and he won First Prize in the 2019 NSRMTA Composition Competition.

Alex enjoys musicals, such as “West Side Story” and “The Lion King”, etc. In addition to music, He likes playing tennis and computer coding.

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James MacLean and Laura Vingoe-Cram Pop Up with Theatre

Alumni James MacLean and Laura Vingoe-Cram with Katharine Kyle Vingoe-Cram add original theatre to our 75th Anniversary Pop Up series. 

HEADLESS BARBIE
DANCE PARTY

November 23 & 24
1- 2 p.m.

Lake City Cider

35 Portland St, Dartmouth  

About Headless Barbie Dance Party: 

An immersive show about notions of childhood, nostalgia and rediscovering "play" as adults, Headless Barbie Dance Party takes audiences (or cider goers) on an interactive, delightful journey, with more than a few tears, back into the kaleidoscopic prisms of their youths.

“Katharine Kyle and James have been friends for 25 years. When we were kids, we used to get together and play games - obstacle courses, monopoly, being the Spice Girls - often tagged along by Katharine’s younger sister, Laura. Sometimes, Katharine Kyle and James would even torment Laura by transforming her room into a haunted house and hanging her Barbies up by their hair.

After a while Laura became part of the gang and soon our triumvirate was creating worlds out of plasticine, inventing characters with unstoppable powers and rescuing balls from evil Dobermans. The world was our oyster and creativity was constant.

Now all three have grown up and we are artists in our own right. James is an actor, Laura is a theatre director, and Katharine Kyle is a visual artist. We now get to be creative for a living, which, while awesome in and of itself, can be a struggle when it comes to tapping into that sense of childlike play that came so easily when we were kids. This pop-up performance is about trying to get back to that sense of ‘play.’

The Nova Scotia Talent Trust is highlighted through our real stories. After all the Talent Trust allowed us to pursue our childhood dreams of becoming artists. This piece is about what lead all three of us to pursue careers in the arts.”

Artist Bios:

James MacLean 

James is a Halifax based actor and theatre creator. He is particularly interested in devised and immersive work. His recent show with Tea Time Creation Co saw a sold out run at Good Robot Brewing with the show Romeo & Juliet; A Drink Along, and in September the company received the ‘Fringiest Fringe Award’ from the Halifax Fringe Festival for their show ‘First Date Last Date’. He has worked as an actor with companies like Halifax Theatre For Young People, Shakespeare By The Sea, Eastern Front and Neptune Theatre. In 2008, James received the Theatre Nova Scotia Award through the Nova Scotia Talent Trust.

It is James’ preference to work collaboratively on shows, where the entire team can contribute to aspects of design, direction, and the overall shape of a piece.

Laura Vingoe-Cram

Laura Vingoe-Cram is a director, playwright, producer and co-artistic director of Keep Good (Theatre) Company. In 2015 she graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a masters in Directing. In 2019, she participated in the Michael Langham Workshop for classical direction at the Stratford Festival. Last year she completed an emerging artist residency with 2b theatre company. Her credits include, Interactions with Art¨ (Halifax Theatre for Young People), Time of Trouble (Opera Nova Scotia), Constellations (Keep Good Theatre Company) and Oh Graveyard you Can’t Hold Me Always (The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). In 2015, Laura received the Theatre Nova Scotia Award through the Nova Scotia Talent Trust.

Katherine Kyle Vingoe-Cram

Katharine Kyle Vingoe-Cram is a visual artist, comic artist and arts administrator, who is working on their first graphic novel, Kettle Harbour. Previously, they have exhibited paintings, drawings and collaborative works at various art galleries, particularly in Kingston, Ontario, where they lived for five years. They hold a BFA (2010) from NSCAD and an MA (2014) in Art History from Queen’s University. Their artistic interests include devising new forms of visual writing, themes of enchantment and grieving, queer kinship, gender identity, and the ethics of storytelling. HEADLESS BARBIE DANCE PARTY is their first time being in a play.


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First You Dream Exhibition Opens at AGNS-Western Branch in Yarmouth

First You Dream: Celebrating 75 years of the Nova Scotia Talent Trust: A Touring Arts Exhibition 

 
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia – Western Branch Yarmouth
November 22, 2019 – May 17, 2020.
  
Opening Reception:  

November 22 at 6:30 p.m. 
  
Regular Gallery Hours:
Thursday 12 – 8 p.m.
Friday, Saturday, 
Sunday 12 – 5 p.m.
341 Main Street, Yarmouth
artgalleryofnovascotia.ca

Since it takes long term commitment and far reaching foresight to create a lasting cultural imprint, it’s only natural that the Nova Scotia Talent Trust would partner with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia for its 75^th Anniversary celebrations.

For many decades the two organizations have nurtured and highlighted home-grown artists while encouraging young people across the province to imagine a life filled with creative expression, collectively deepening regional appreciation of the arts. The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia compliments the NS Talent Trust’s efforts to support aspiring artists in rural areas and its Western Branch in Yarmouth will be hosting the last presentation of the touring exhibition, First You Dream: Celebrating 75 Years of the Nova Scotia Talent Trust.

“I was honoured to be part of the curatorial team that brought First You Dream together. This exhibition features the work of 10 artists who were recipients of Nova Scotia Talent Trust scholarships between 1979 and 2016, a span of 37 years. These individuals are at various stages of professional practice and are engaged with a wide range of disciplines. They represent the breadth of creativity this province has to offer and the enduring impact of the Nova Scotia Talent Trust itself. We are more than pleased to see First You Dream on view at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Yarmouth,” states curator David Diviney.

The exhibition is named after Portia White’s post humous album, paying homage to the Truro born and internationally renowned operatic contralto that inspired the organization’s founding. First You Dream: Celebrating 75 Years of the Nova Scotia Talent Trust features works by Talent Trust scholarship alumni, Jordan Broadworth, Sandra Brownlee, Lux Habrich, Sara Hartland-Rowe, Dan O’Neill, Lucy Pullen, Pamela Ritchie, Despo Sophocleous, Emily Vey Duke, and Charley Young.

The exhibition includes drawing, ceramic, fibre, jewellery, mixed-media, painting, printmaking, sculpture and video pieces which were curated by Ingrid Jenkner (retired), David Diviney and Greg Davies in 2017, after a call to all NS Talent Trust scholarship recipients in visual arts.

Following its Halifax debut at the Mount St. Vincent University Art Gallery from May 18 – July 28, First You Dream travelled to the Cape Breton University Art Gallery in Sydney from August 16 – October 4 and completes its tour at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia – Western Branch in Yarmouth from November 22, 2019 to May 17, 2020.    

Since the unprecedented efforts to support Portia White in 1944, the Talent Trust has awarded over 1,000 deserving Nova Scotian artists in the early stages of their professional development, with scholarships and special awards totalling more than $2 million dollars.


About the Artists  
 
Charley Young  
Charley Young was born in Calgary, Alberta and received her BFA from NSCAD University, Halifax, in 2008 and her MFA from Main College of Art in Portland, Maine, in 2014. She is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily with drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and public installation. She has been recognized in Blouin ARTFINO’s top 30 under 30 artists and has received the 2012 Talent Trust Lieutenant Governor’s Award and the 2012 Charlotte Wilson-Hammond/VANS Award presented by the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, among other awards. Charley currently lives in Bedford, Nova Scotia, and has a studio in North End Halifax where she continues her practice. She works as a Regular Part-Time Faculty at NSCAD University, teaching drawing and printmaking. 
  
Dan O’Neill 
Dan O’Neill was born in Montreal, Quebec. He received a Double Major with Honours in Painting, Drawing and Printmaking from OCAD University, Toronto, in 1993; a BFA in Studio Art from NSCAD University, Halifax, in 1994; and an MFA in Studio and Media Art from NSCAD University in 1999. In 2011, he earned the Recognition Award as an Established artist from the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council. He works primarily in lithography, although he continues working on his interdisciplinary practice that includes drawing, painting, writing and collage. He lives and works in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he has been teaching at NSCAD University as a Regular Part-Time Faculty for over 20 years.   
  
Despo Sophocleous  
Despo Sophocleous was born in Nova Scotia and received her BFA from NSCAD University, Halifax, in Jewellery Design and Metalsmithing in 2008. During her undergrad, she also participated in a year-long study exchange at Pforzheim University in Germany. She received her MFA from the Munich Academy of Arts in 2015 where she studied under Otto Künzli. She has received several awards for her work including the Talent Trust Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Artistic Achievement from the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, the DAAD Scholarship for graduate studies and the Herbert Hoffman Award. She is currently based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 
  
Emily Vey Duke  
Emily Vey Duke was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She received her BFA from NSCAD University, Halifax and her MFA at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Since 1994, she has worked almost exclusively in collaboration with her partner, Cooper Battersby. In addition to several other prestigious awards they have received the pair was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2010. In addition to her work as a media artist, Duke maintains a strong critical writing practice and has been published in several art magazines in North America. Emily currently lives and maintains her practice in New York City where she teaches at Syracuse University. 
  
Jordan Broadworth 
Jordan Broadworth was born in Esquessing, Ontario. He studied at the School of the Museum and Fine Arts in Boston and NSCAD University, Halifax, and received his MFA from the University of Guelph, Ontario, in 1997. His work has been exhibited across Canada in Museums and Public Galleries along with a recent solo exhibition in New York City in 2016. He currently lives and works in New York City, where he has been based as an abstract artist since 2008. 
  
Lucy Pullen  
Lucy Pullen was born in Montreal, Quebec. She received her BFA from NSCAD University, Halifax, in 1994. After receiving her MFA from the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, in 2001, she held a tenured position in the Visual Arts at the University of Victoria. During her time there she led a collaborative team to build The Cloud Chamber, a freestanding sculpture that also works as a detector and imager of cosmic rays which is currently on display in the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy. She currently lives and continues her art practice in New York City, where she also teaches at Montclaire State University and Brooklyn College at the University of New York. 

Lux Habrich 
Lux Habrich was born in Montreal, Quebec and moved to Atlantic Canada in 2012 to attend NSCAD University, Halifax. In 2015, she received her BFA from NSCAD in interdisciplinary arts, focusing primarily on textiles and ceramics. She draws on her mixed racial and cultural identity as the foundation of much of her work and is interested in tactile craft practices. She has received numerous awards including the 2016 Charlotte Wilson-Hammond/VANS Award presented by the Nova Scotia Talent Trust and currently lives in Nova Scotia, where she maintains her practice and, most recently, has completed a residency at White Rabbit Arts in Upper Economy, NS. 
  
Pam Ritchie 
Pamela Ritchie was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia. She received her MFA from NSCAD University, Halifax, and completed postgraduate research work in Norway. She has received several awards and support for her work from institutions such as the Canada Council for the Arts, the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, the Government of NS and in 2017, she was the recipient of the Governor General’s Saidye Bronfman Award. She has served as the Canadian Advisor for several European exhibitions and her work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions spanning three decades. She retired in the summer of 2018, after teaching at NSCAD University for 34 years and continues her practice in Halifax, NS. 
  
Sara Hartland-Rowe  
Sara Hartland-Rowe has lived and worked in Halifax, Nova Scotia, since 2000. She received her BFA from NSCAD University, Halifax, and her MFA from the University of Illinois, Boston. She works as a painter and site-based installation artist, often experimenting with form and structure and representing human beings as the subject of her work. She was a finalist for the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award for her large-scale permanent site-based painting for Halifax Transit, which was completed in 2010. She continues her practice in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she teaches at NSCAD University. 
  
Sandra Brownlee 
Sandra Brownlee is a Halifax-based interdisciplinary artist and teacher. She received her BFA from NSCAD University, Halifax, and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. She has received several awards including the Governor Generals Award in Visual and Media Arts (2014) and was a finalist for the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award (2012). She lives and works in Halifax, where she has been an active teacher for 48 years and continues her practice in weaving and tactile notebook keeping. 
 
About the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is Atlantic Canada's largest arts museum with locations in downtown Halifax and Yarmouth. It offers a range of bold exhibitions and engaging programming for all ages in an inclusive public gathering place that connects people with art to inspire new ways of thinking. www.artgalleryofnovascotia.ca

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