Your Guide to Nocturne 2025

Join Nocturne for a conversation between artists and collaborators Peter Morin (Tahltan, French Canadian) and Leah Decter (Canadian Jewish white-settler) as they reflect on their collaborative project, X: where our paths cross.

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS)
Windsor Foundation Lecture Theatre, 1723 Hollis Street
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.  
Wheelchair accessible

Registration is highly encouraged. 

Artist Talk: Megan Samms

Join Nocturne for an on-site artist talk with Anchor Artist Megan Samms who will share the motivation and embodied research for her project Remember Ktaqmkuk in Peace & Friendship.

Peace & Friendship Park
Hollis Street (across from The Westin)
11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Wheelchair accessible

Net Making with Unconventional Materials

Nets are a multi-purpose tool - objects meant to catch, to hold, to support, and to contain. Join artist Daniel Rumbolt to learn the traditional art of net making, with an unconventional twist.

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic 
1675 Lower Water Street
1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Wheelchair accessible  

Artist Talk & Guided Tour by IOTA Institute Gallery

Join us for an Artist Talk & Tour revolving around the new public artworks installed as a part of the InterCHANGE project.   *InterCHANGE is a new program launched by The Halifax Regional Municipality and IOTA Studios of temporary public artworks within the redeveloped Cogswell District. 

Granville Park (Cogswell District)

*near 1895 Hollis Street

5:00 p.m.

Wheelchair accessible

The Indigenous City Noc-Tour is a guided tour through Downtown Halifax that focuses on Indigenous artists participating in this year’s Nocturne festival. 

Beginning with a performance by Anchor Artist, Megan Samms at Peace and Friendship Park, you will visit several outdoor installations and galleries along the way (see list below). The tour will conclude at the InterCHANGE Outdoor Gallery within the newly developed Cogswell District (in the new Granville Park).

Peace & Friendship Park (Start)  

Granville Park (End)

7:00 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.

The tour covers 3 km (approximately 42 minutes of walking time)
 

Installations and galleries you will see on this tour:

Remember Ktaqmkuk in Peace & Friendship by Megan Samms

Gathering in a Good Way by Sydney Wreaks & Land Connects Us

X: where our paths cross by Peter Morin & Leah Decter

Mi'kmaw SoundWalk by Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission project at Dalhousie University, Graham Marshall & Walter Denny Jr. with support from Ulises García Figueroa, Marcia Ostashewsk & Jennifer Bain

Reconnecting to the Land through Urban Gardens & Wings of Language: Butterflies Without Borders by Land Connects Us, Sydney Wreaks & SeDice

InterCHANGE Outdoor Gallery, by Letitia Fraser, Lorne Julien, Lou Sheppard, Carmahn McCalla, Daramfon Morgan, Vanessa ‘Nessy’ Thomas & Zeta Paul. Presented by IOTA Institute Gallery

For more information on the Indigenous City Noc-Tour, click here.

PERFORMANCE: 'TYING TO REMEMBER' by Daniel Rumbolt

During this 2 hour live performance come witness the making of a net that illuminates in the darkness. Artist Daniel Rumbolt will be present at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, creating a fishing net just as his grandfather from Southern Labrador once did. These traditional techniques are transformed through unconventional materials, creating art objects that convey memories through generational gaps.

MARITIME MUSEUM OF THE ATLANTIC

1675 Lower Water Street

7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. 

Wheelchair accessible 

Explore the Maritime Heritage District on the Halifax waterfront with a visit to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic! 

Explore the main floor exhibits at this special “night at the museum” for Nocturne!

October is Mi’kmaq History Month. Experience our shared maritime heritage and marine history, including our continuing exhibit, Ta’n me’j Tel-keknuo’ltiek (Da’n mej Del-geg-new-ol-tee-egg): How Unique We Still Are, which reflects how Mi’kmaw people remain connected to the lands and waters of Mi’kma’ki. 

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

1675 Lower Water Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Remember Ktaqmkuk in Peace & Friendship by Megan Samms

Remember Ktaqmkuk in Peace & Friendship is a place, memory, and archival response and call to remember in place on Codroy Island: a forgotten site of affirmation of the Peace & Friendship Treaty in South-West Ktaqmkuk.

Through movement, ochreing, and textile activation Megans project is grounded in ceremony in-place, in remembering and sharing in community, and results in continuing a body of work with projected photograph-based moving image and audio.

Peace & Friendship Park
Hollis Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible 

IMPROV SPOOKTRAIL (in the Underground Tunnel) by Spontaneity Improv Company 

Experience this guided tour of shadows, as you descend into the Underground Tunnel. A spine-tingling, laugh-inducing improv spooktrail that blends haunted house thrills with live, unscripted theatre. Led by an eccentric “guide” who seems to know just a little too much about the dark history of the tunnel, guests are taken on a winding journey through a forgotten subterranean world.

Light House Arts Centre
1800 Argyle Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible 

Feedback by inesS Circus

Feedback is an avant-garde aerial circus series exploring themes of grounding, connection, and liberation through creative movement and visual storytelling, set in a society of rapid change and chaos. It draws powerful parallels between technological grounding and the human pursuit of stability, emphasizing the resilience and harmony that emerge when connections are forged amid disconnection.

inesS Circus (Light House Arts Centre)
1800 Argyle Street, Suite 100
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. 
Wheelchair accessible

Eyelevel Reshelving Initiative (ERI 11): About Town by Eyelevel Membership

Eyelevel will present its 11th iteration of its biannual printed matter and multiples member's exhibition, the Eyelevel Reshelving Initiative (ERI 11). This year we are inviting members to submit works in the format of digital billboard ads, which will be displayed around HRM!

Halifax Ferry Terminal (Halifax Waterfront)
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible

Prismatic Trespassing by Éric-Olivier Thériault

Prismatic Trespassing is a sculptural installation built with a variety of reclaimed chain-link fence—some rescued from a former DIY skatepark, some removed from areas where fences have been double layered, some abandoned, some found by chance in rough condition.

5079 George Street 
*beside the Ferry Terminal on the Halifax Waterfront
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible

Rainbow Refugee Association of Nova Scotia (RRANS) presents their "Pottery Program"

This show is the culmination of work created by artists in the Rainbow Refugee Association of Nova Scotia (RRANS) Pottery Program, an inclusive arts initiative tailored to 2SLGBTQIA+ newcomers. Students immersed themselves in eight months of weekly ceramics classes, where they honed their skills and learned pottery techniques, while creating a meaningful, tight knit community.

The Prow Gallery
185-1479 Lower Water Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible 

Enamel Workshop by NSCAD Jewellery Department & Mengnan Qu

Experience the secret of enamelling, while enjoying a Jewellery Show.

Yu Yo invites you to pop-in Saturday and try an enamelling technique. They'll even fire your work in the kiln, so you can take it home. And, continuing with the tradition, the NSCAD Jewellery Department will hold its 7th NSCAD Jewellery Exhibition.  

Yu Yo Craft Supply + Tea House
1498 Lower Water Street, Suite 1117
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  

*NOT wheelchair accessible

Dimension: Intention by Sageev Oore, Derek Riley, Joe Malloch, Rina Wehbe, Hanieh Shakeri, Koojan Lash, Rezwana Mahfuza, Matt Peachey, Sanyaolu Emmanuel, Muhammad Raza & Mayra Barrera Machuca with support from Oore Lab, Calm Lab, HCI4Good, Vertex Lab & GEM Lab

Sample the latest interactive experiences, produced by members of the Graphics, Visualization, and Human-Computer Interaction research cluster at Dalhousie, including virtual and augmented reality, whole body interaction, and novel interfaces for musical expression.

Publics Lab, Dalhousie FCS Paramount Site
1577 Barrington Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible

Let’s Draw by Maxime Touroute

Let’s Draw is a participatory artwork where the public is invited to draw live on walls. Massively interactive, everyone can participate simultaneously by drawing with their phone. 

Historic Properties/Marriott Courtyard
1883 Upper Water Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  

*NOT wheelchair accessible

Le Francofest présente 'Paysages Parlés' by Annie Briard

Paysages Parlés (Refracted Fields) is a video based installation offering insights into our rapidly changing environment and the imaginaries that we attach to places. 

Grand Parade
1770 Barrington Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible

Night Bloomers by Maria Simmons

Night Bloomers is a multi-sensory installation that engages humans and non-humans alike, inviting nocturnal beings to come closer through light, scent, and ritual.

Halifax Law Courts Greenspace (upper level)
1815 Upper Water Street, Lot #16
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible

Different Shoots, Same Roots by Jeighk Koyote 

Different Shoots, Same Roots is two-part installation and interactive piece of 10' tall hand-made aspen tree stands, a polaroid camera and a root system between them. Come live the biology of the aspen tree and meet a stranger along the way. 

Bishop's Landing
1475 Lower Water Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible

Common Ground by The Intensive Training Program and Adult students of Halifax Dance

Performing various dance styles, this mixed group performance explores connection, rhythm, and resilience through movement. Performed indoors and viewed from the street, the dancers reclaim groundedness in an urban space, rooted in tradition, reaching for expression.

Maritime Centre
1505 Barrington Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible

Pleasure Prospects by New Mineral Collective

Pleasure Prospects is a video that follows the artists as they acquire prospector licenses, with which they aim to perturb the values of the mining industry by holding fast their self-described position as “the least productive mining company in the world."

Courtyard at Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) 
1723 Hollis Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.  
Wheelchair accessible - Accessible outdoor viewing

Print, Glow, Grow - Hands-On Artmaking by Art Gallery of Nova Scotia & The Youth Project

Join us for a vibrant night of creativity and connection, hosted in collaboration with the Youth Project. This creative space dives into mycology (the study of fungi) to celebrate transformation, networks, and thriving. Craft your own glowing print or contribute to a luminous mural that grows our sense of community. All welcome!

*Please note the AGNS gallery spaces will not be open to the public during Nocturne.

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) - Studio

1723 Hollis Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

A Love Letter to Craft by Verve Fine Craft Gallery

A Love Letter to Craft… is a participatory project inviting visitors to write personal "love letters" expressing their appreciation for the artists, mentors, materials, and traditions that make up our vibrant craft community. A powerful tribute to the impact of craft, grounding the gallery as a hub of mutual admiration.

Verve Fine Art Gallery  
1573 Barrington Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Wheelchair accessible

Under the Forest Canopy by Amy Ordoveza 

Amy Ordoveza will show paintings based on her observations of the flora and fauna of the forest floor in the Halifax Region.

Argyle Fine Art
1559 Barrington Street, #102
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. 
Wheelchair accessible only on the main level. No washrooms on site.

When the Veil is at It's Thinnest by Belle DeMont

Belle DeMont explores liminal space,borderland between reality and dreams, where the veil between the visible and invisible begins to wear away. The viewers are invited into moments of stillness, reflecting the quiet transitions that come with the changing seasons in her paintings.

Argyle Fine Art
1559 Barrington Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. 
Wheelchair accessible

An Immense and Miraculous Pattern by Mindy Harris 

An Immense and Miraculous pattern is a collection of Embroideries that aim to challenge the binaries between nature and civilization, self and other. Drawing on ancient myth and modern anxieties, Harris uses Hybrids to examine our uneasy relationship with the natural world and the artificial boundaries we draw between ourselves and other fauna.

Argyle Fine Art
1559 Barrington Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. 
Wheelchair accessible

Rag Dolls 2.0 by Martha Mutale with support from Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax

Rag Dolls 2.0 explores the immigrant experience - the self split between two homes. A series of rag dolls where each figure represents a point in time in the immigrant life, softly positioned in space, while the whole assemblage provides a grounded picture of who she is.

Khyber Centre for the Arts
1880 Barrington Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. 
Wheelchair accessible

No Dominion / No Domain by Curtis Botham & Eva Grant

No Dominion/No Domain brings together two artists, Eva Grant and Curtis Botham, whose works reflect on land, labour, infrastructure, and ecological movement. 

Khyber Centre For The Arts

1880 Hollis Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Intertwining Strands: A Community Art Exercise + Nocturne Collective Exhibit by Teichert Gallery Artists

Visitors can take part in an interactive, collaborative fibre art experience. Interconnecting strands create an ever-changing representation of the intersection of individual and shared experience.
 

Teichert Gallery
1723 Hollis Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. 
Wheelchair accessible 

The Magpie's Nest by The Magpie Collective

The Magpie Collective is a shiny group of artists, makers, and community builders from Halifax/Dartmouth and away. United by a shared vision of creativity, collaboration, and kindness, they aim to create art projects that foster connection in support of the local arts scene.

Halifax Waterfront (Tall Ship Quay)
1325 Lower Water Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Wheelchair accessible - Fully accessible

Gathering in a Good Way by Sydney Wreaks & Land Connects Us

Gathering In A Good Way is a community project that invites connection—between people, plants, and place.

Located along the waterfront, a series of gardening boxes have been thoughtfully placed for community gathering, care, and reciprocity. These boxes hold a variety of plant medicines, you are invited to spend time with these living relations—to water, learn from, and care for them—while also considering your relationship to the land and to others in community.

Please take only what you need, leave some for others, and help us care for this small community garden. In doing so, we honour our plant kin and practice reciprocity, land stewardship, and kinship in action.

Helipad (Halifax Waterfront btw Bishop’s Landing & Cunard Lot)

1475 Lower Water Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

What do you see? Grounding ourselves to the always-swimming leatherback sea turtle by Canadian Sea Turtle Network 

The Canadian Sea Turtle Network is excited to share images of leatherback sea turtle satellite tracks across the Atlantic. Come visit the Sea Turtle Centre to explore the images and share your interpretation of the shapes these images form.

Canadian Sea Turtle Centre
Salt Yard, 1549 Lower Water Street
6:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. 
Wheelchair accessible

The Forest Floor by Adventure Earth Centre

Participants will engage in creating a forest floor through leaf ink printing while learning about the different species of trees found in our local parks.

Waterfront Chalet

Foundation Wharf

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Grounded In Melodies by Ekko Performing Arts Society

Our chalet will be brimming with small percussive musical instruments, including shakers and BoomWhackers. Facilitated by an Ekko team member, follow-along materials will be used to encourage festival-goers to try out different instruments and sounds. Additionally, a digital piano will be available to channel their musical expressions, and maybe some bigger sing-alongs! Beautiful things happen when strangers can come together through music and share an experience!

We aim to hold an audience choir from 8 to 9pm, where we’ll all learn a song and sing together!

Waterfront Chalet

Foundation Wharf

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Fossils of the Anthropocene by Alaska Elisabeth Landry & Ecology Action Centre

Join us in creating a collaborative mixed‑media artwork imagining what Nova Scotians will leave in the future fossil record. Collage, draw, print, or sew images of our legacy while learning about the Ecology Action Centre’s work. Together, we ask: what will the ground remember about us 10,000 years from now?

Waterfront Chalet

Foundation Wharf

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Green Fuse by Creative Music Workshop Community, Craft Nova Scotia, Jacqueline Steudler, Sue Street, Helen Verbanz, Ankur Dnyanmote, David Reid, Japhy Sullivan & Jay Perry

At the container stage, audience and sound artists can respond and improvise to pre-recorded clicks of the different plants and their environment. Different percussive instrument will be available. The container stage setting will be “infused” with plant material including roots and leaves. 
 

Waterfront Container Stage

Halifax Waterfront, Foundation Wharf

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible 

Quilt of Belonging: The Stories of What Connects Us by HRM Environment & Climate Change, Ecology Action Centre, Daramfon Morgan, Donica Larade & Marissa Bialowas

Join the municipality’s Environment & Climate Change team and the Ecology Action Centre for a participatory art experience called the Quilt of Belonging: The Stories of What Connects Us. Co-create a paper quilt mural, patch by patch, by reflecting on and sharing meaningful memories connected to nature, community and local food. 

Waterfront Chalet

Foundation Wharf

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Grounded Vessels: Stories in Clay by Nova Scotia Potters Guild

Step into a glowing ceramic studio where unfired clay vessels become a canvas for your words and patterns. Add your mark and watch as the space fills with a collective portrait of what “ground” means to our community.

Waterfront Chalet

Foundation Wharf

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Ground matters for sky dwellers: The importance of the ground in bat conservation by Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute (MTRI)

Like many other wildlife, bat populations worldwide have declined and are threatened by habitat loss, climate change, disease, and more. Being creatures of the night, bats are often misunderstood and truly “out of sight, out of mind”. At our booth at Nocturne, come learn more about the beauty of bats, the importance they hold, and how you can help, whether by creating bat-friendly spaces or gaining an appreciation for these often misunderstood creatures.

Waterfront Chalet

Foundation Wharf

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Glow Henge by Doug Carleton

Glow Henge is a small boulder coated in a new type of glow in the dark material that charges with UV light or sunlight. It is coated in 2 translucent layers, one giving it a golden pearl like surface, and the other a blue pigment, giving the already blue glow different shades.

Waterfront Chalet

Foundation Wharf (Halifax Waterfront) 

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Cast Away & Caught Ashore by Daniel Rumbolt

cast away & caught ashore is a transformative, luminescent textile installation of a traditional fishing net. This work illuminates the process of seeking out what is lost, of blindly looking for answers, and of finding what we seek in the shallows we already wade.

Queens Marque

1715 Lower Water Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Landed to Take Off by Olena Yanchuk, Xing (Johnny) Mu, Yawen Zhou, Margaryta Logvyn, Vita Fomenko, Yue Li & Nahom Assefa

Nothing lasts forever; we all begin somewhere and move toward the unknown. Everything changes—circumstances, identities, the ground beneath our feet and ecosystems. What if the ground is not where you stand, but what you believe is real?

Rogers Square

1626 Grafton Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible 

Art 1274 Hollis art gallery is one of the oldest non profit co-op art galleries in Canada and Halifax’s premier co-op art gallery.

The gallery will be open until midnight on the Saturday of Nocturne with artist demonstrations, a treasure hunt, and a draw for a beautiful gift basket. A number of gallery artists will be on hand throughout the evening.

Art 1274 Hollis

1274 Hollis Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Wings of Language: Butterflies without borders by Land Connects Us & SeDice

In celebration of Latin American Heritage Month, Wings of Language is a community-based art workshop designed to honour the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of Indigenous and Latinx communities across the Americas. This event invites people of all backgrounds to come together in a creative and reflective space to explore the beauty of language, identity, and heritage through the symbol of the butterfly.

NSCAD Treaty Space Gallery Windows

1887 Granville Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Semi-accessible (rough terrain) 

Reconnecting To The Land Through Urban Gardens by Land Connects Us & Sydney Wreaks

Reconnecting to the Land through Urban Gardens celebrates gardening and harvesting as a form of storytelling, that honours Indigenous and non-Indigenous ancestral plant pathways and offers a sense of interconnectedness.

NSCAD Treaty Space Gallery Windows

1887 Granville Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Semi-accessible (rough terrain)

Art @ Night Activation by Students of NSCAD's Art-at-Night Class

A collaborative curatorial window activation co-curated by students in Carla Taunton's art history Art @ Night class that considers Nocturne 2025 curatorial theme Ground in relation to the dynamic histories of making in Mi'kma'ki and the past and future of Halifax's art @ night.

This presentation is supported by Curating Change and the NSCAD University Library.

NSCAD Library Windows

5163 Duke Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Semi-accessible (rough terrain)

Rewild Plant & Pour

Presented by Rewild Wines, this project is a twist on the popular paint and sip trend, and pairs a tasting with a terrarium and plant making workshops using micro greens or herbs.

Halifax Marriott Harbourfront

1919 Upper Water Street

6:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Wheelchair accessible

Lyra: A Nocturne Choir by Choirs For Change, Ryan Henwood & Adam Johnson

Come sing with Choirs for Change in our drop-in, community choir Lyra, featuring easy-to-learn arrangements of songs by local artists.

Performances start every hour, on the hour.

St. Paul’s Anglican Church

1749 Argyle Street

6:00 PM, 7:00 PM, 8:00 PM, 9:00 PM, 10:00 PM, 11:00 PM

Wheelchair accessible