The Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS) has issued a call for African Nova Scotian quiltmakers to participate in a new exhibition focused on the people, places and events that have shaped African Nova Scotian history.
The project follows the success of The Secret Codes: African Nova Scotian Quilts, the long-running BANNS exhibition project that has helped document and showcase African Nova Scotian quiltmaking, storytelling, history and artistic traditions.
BANNS says the new exhibition will bring together quiltmakers to create works depicting important personalities, communities, places and events from African Nova Scotian history.
Participating quiltmakers will have opportunities to take part in specialized workshops and collaborate with leading quiltmakers from across the province. Honorariums are available for participation.
Applicants must be able to create appliqué and picture quilts.
African Nova Scotian quiltmakers interested in participating are asked to submit a biography or CV to admin@banns.ca by November 1, 2026. The organization can also be contacted at that address for additional information.
Building on The Secret Codes
The new project builds on BANNS’ work with The Secret Codes: African Nova Scotian Quilts, an exhibition that brought greater attention to the province’s longstanding African Nova Scotian quiltmaking traditions.
Curated by artist, writer and historian David Woods, The Secret Codes developed through a collaboration between BANNS and the Vale Quilters Association of New Glasgow, a group made up primarily of Black women and described by Dalhousie Art Gallery as Nova Scotia’s only incorporated guild of Black quilters.
The exhibition explores the evolution of quiltmaking in African Nova Scotian communities and the many purposes quilts have served across generations — as functional objects, works of art, expressions of Black culture and ways of preserving family and community stories.
As part of the project’s development, Woods travelled throughout Nova Scotia collecting stories about life in African Nova Scotian communities and created drawings inspired by those experiences. Quiltmakers then interpreted the images through their own designs, techniques and perspectives.
The Secret Codes has since travelled beyond Nova Scotia, bringing wider attention to African Nova Scotian quiltmaking and its role in preserving community histories and experiences.
BANNS’ new exhibition will build on that work, this time inviting African Nova Scotian quiltmakers to create works depicting significant people, places and events from the province’s Black history.
How to Apply
Who: African Nova Scotian quiltmakers
Skills: Applicants must be able to make appliqué and picture quilts
Project: Quilts depicting important personalities, places and events in African Nova Scotian history
Opportunities: Specialized workshops and collaboration with quiltmakers from across Nova Scotia
Compensation: Honorariums are available
Deadline: November 1, 2026
Contact: admin@banns.ca
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