Nocturne 2025 in Downtown Halifax

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 *near 1895 Hollis Street
5:00 p.m.
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 

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 

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

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

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.

Nathan Green Square
5079 George Street
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

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 St, #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

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

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

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

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