Creative Minds – Hidden Blackness: Uncovering the Art of Edward Mitchell Bannister
November 20 @ 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm
Join us for a conversation between Sylvia D. Hamilton and David Woods, Curator, painter, and installation artist, as he details the origins of his passion for art as well as his many adventures creating his newest exhibition Hidden Blackness, the first ever Canadian exhibition of Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828-1901). Bannister was a St. Andrews, New Brunswick born, African American art pioneer who in 1865 became the first artist of African descent, and first Canadian, to win a major art prize in North America (The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition Art Exhibition First Place Medal).
For the past quarter century, David Woods has been the principal curator of African maritime art bringing to light long ignored artists such as Africville born pastoral painter Edith Macdonald-Brown (1886-1955) and sculptor and craft artist Audrey Dear Hesson (b. 1929-) the first graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art (1951). He also presented the first ever group exhibitions of Black maritime art traditions including In this Place: the first exhibition of Black Nova Scotian art (1998), and The Secret Codes: a touring exhibition of Black Nova Scotian quilts (2012 to present).
Admission is free from 5-9pm during BMO Free Access Thursday, however registration is encouraged as there are limited seats available.
About Creative Minds
The Creative Minds series hosts community leaders and creatives to respond to current events, exhibitions on view, or artworks in the Gallery. Through conversation, music, poetry, or movement, these events aim to provoke new ideas, explore the unexpected and create more understanding for everyone involved.
Hidden Blackness: Edward Mitchell Bannister is 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.
About the Artist
Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828-1901) was born in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick. His family lived in a segregated Black village at the eastern end of Saint Andrews colloquially referred to as Slabtown. Bannister was orphaned at age sixteen and left in the care of Harris Hatch, a wealthy lawyer, merchant, and Registrar of Charlotte County, for whom the artist’s mother had worked as a maid. Bannister’s interest in art emerged early and, by his teens, there are accounts of his drawings appearing on the barn doors and fences of Hatch’s farm. Much of his early life was overshadowed by the limited job opportunities and racism Black New Brunswickers faced. In 1850, Bannister and his brother, William, moved to Boston, where Edward worked as a barber ad eventually met Christiana Carteaux, a hairdresser, wigmaker, and entrepreneur of mixed African American and Narragansett heritage. Bannister married Carteaux in 1857, and she helped him become a successful professional artist in Boston and later Providence, Rhode Island.
About the Guests
David Woods is a multi-genre artist and performer. He is the author of Native Song a collection of paintings and poetry, and has won national awards for his art, drama and community arts organization including the Harry Jerome Award and Person’s Award. He was the organizer of the first ever Black History Month celebrations in Nova Scotia in 1984 and was instrumental in establishing Black maritime arts organizations including the Cultural Awareness Youth Group, Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS), Vale Quilters and the New Brunswick Black Artists Alliance.
Sylvia D. Hamilton is a Nova Scotian filmmaker, writer and multidisciplinary artist. Her work has won the Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media. Her award-winning films include Black Mother Black Daughter, Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia, Portia White: Think on Me and The Little Black School House, among others.
Excavation, her multi-media art installation, examines the interrelationship of history, memory, race and place/space. This work has enjoyed multiple iterations and exhibitions, both solo and group, in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec between 2013-2018. One adaptation titled Here We Are Here, gave its name to the 2018 Royal Ontario Museum’s National group exhibition titled, Here We Are Here: Black Contemporary Art, which later toured to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Tender, her poetry collection, won the 2023 WFNS Maxine Tynes Poetry Award and was shortlisted for the 2023 League of Canadian Poets Pat Lowther Award. She is a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia. She is an Inglis Professor Emeritus at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia (October 2025).
Photo by Paul Adams Photography.
Featured image: Edward Bannister, River Scene, 1885. Purchased with funds provided by Sheldon and Marjorie Fountain, 2006.