Join David Woods, co-founder of the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS) and curator of Hidden Blackness, as he tells the story of Edward Mitchell Bannister’s remarkable career, the conditions experienced by a racialized artist in post-Civil War North America, and the practice of landscape painting in the 19th century.

David Woods is a curator and multi-disciplinary artist, performer from Dartmouth NS who has been an important figure on the Nova Scotia arts scene for decades. He is the founding organizer of several African Nova Scotian cultural organizations including Cultural Awareness Youth Group (1983), Black History Month Association (1989), Voices Black Theatre Ensemble (1990) Black Artists’ Network of Nova Scotia (1992). He served as Program Director of the Black United Front of Nova Scotia (1982-83) and the Black Cultural Centre of Nova Scotia (1988-89). and Associate Curator Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (2006-2007).

This is the first exhibition of Edward Mitchell Bannister’s work presented in Canada—124 years after the artist’s death. Born in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, Bannister was an accomplished, nineteenth-century African American painter known for pastoral landscapes. In addition to being a respected painter and abolitionist (with his wife Christiana Carteaux Bannister), he won first prize at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia for his painting Under the Oaks (now lost), making him the first African American/Canadian to win a major American art prize. While Bannister is increasingly revered in the United States, he remains largely unknown in Canada.

Organized and circulated by the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, and the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS). Funded by the Government of Canada and Mount Allison University. PACART is the exclusive transportation provider of the exhibition.