HALIFAX REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY - Residents are invited to attend an official unveiling and artist talk for the Prospect Road Community Centre Public Art installation on Saturday, April 23 from 7pm- 9pm The artwork is a collaboration between artists Ivan Murphy and Norbert Sattler. The piece was commissioned by Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) through a public solicitation and peer jury selection process as part of HRMs mandate to provide public art as a component of all future municipal building projects. HRM partnered with the Prospect Road Community Centre and the Resource ...

HALIFAX –  The Centre for Art Tapes (CFAT) welcomes visiting artist Sharon Switzer for a week-long residency at CFAT, a street-level exhibition of her work and an artist talk as part of the Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival (HIFF). Switzer’s video series I Should Be Dreaming Of Butterflies will be installed in the windows of 1658 Barrington Street from the 5th through to the 8th of April, during the Festival. WHAT: Public Realm screening - Sharon Switzer WHERE: 1658 Barrington Street WHEN: April 5 - 8, 2011, dusk - 11pm HOW MUCH: Free

ALL CITIES - The city is in constant conversation. Amidst important discussions about its streets and people, it also engages in the day-to-day talk of the weather, business, and what’s-for-lunch. It relays the events of its days and offers itself to the future. And while there are serious matters to be dealt with, it is important to listen closely to the habitual hum of the city, by reading signs of its livelihood and well-being. This is the cities 'urban vernacular'. The concept of urban vernacular considers the correlation between the aesthetic and the cultural (historical, geographical) patterning of a place. The term further suggests that a silent conversation exists in the city, where changing conventions are archived in building design, but signs also speak of place - in text, material and font. We may read into this dialogue as it takes place through visible textures, materials and characters in urban architecture and infrastructure. With due attention to both form and content, we may gather greater insight into the subtleties of local culture and geography. The following compilation of photos considers the way in which roadside marquee signage speaks of the city, within the city. For, the signs nod to similar notions of cultural geography, personal expression, the flux of economics in the abundance (or lack) of resources.

HALIFAX -  In 2005, Halifax's north end collective consciousness came together to sprout Imagine Bloomfield in an effort to renew and preserve a nexus of history, community and cultural activity relevant to the needs of the area. Since 2005, needs assessments have been conducted, consultants hired, volunteers amassed and finally in 2010 a MasterPlan for redevelopment of the site was tabled and accepted unanimously by Halifax Regional Council. Recently, Imagine Bloomfield reported that “an implementation process report is expected to begin being acted upon in 2011.” Without saying, Imagine Bloomfield is an incredible project which has been inspired by the the passion and dedication of a group of people and has successfully inspired city planners to imagine new ideas for their property to move a little quicker to get this development off of the ground. Based on my own observations and experiences of developments and planning in Halifax for the last 9 years, the skeptic in me still wonders when this project will in fact bloom. Seriously - IMAGINE - planning in Halifax. From March 10- 12, 2011, Dalhousie University graduate students from the School of Planning have organized a conference titled IMAGINE. The intent of IMAGINE is to explore long-term planning through speakers and activities to create an understanding of how long-term planning should and can influence how cities are planned today. The conference will facilitate the sharing of ideas and lessons learned between professionals, academics and the community, while exploring a combination of initiatives and ideas from a wide range of speakers with diverse backgrounds.

HALIFAX REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY -  Obviously, the city needs more bike racks and with all the exciting hype around cycling infrastructure in HRM (surveys and consultations), the city will likely need more bicycle parking. If you could park your bike - not on a fence, not on a parking meter, not on a tree - where would you park it? Submit your creative and/or functional bike rack ideas to the Sustainable Environment Management Offices' (SEMO) HRM ...

HALIFAX - Come play with artists Zoe Nudell and Maggie Boyd who will be sculpting fresh snow at the Canada Games Oval today (Saturday), from 2 p.m - 6 p.m. Come solo or with a group to claim and carve your snow - use your imagination and be creative. It's like white clay has fallen from the sky and it's waiting to be sculpted. The snow has been collected for participants to use today at the North Park ...

HALIFAX, NS - As part of HRM's Open Projects initiative, artist Aimée Brown will be activating Point Pleasant Park through her project - The Gatekeeper's Lodge - over the next few months through in-park performances, outdoor installations and printed matter projects. As a location that has survived extreme weather phenomena [Hurricane Juan], Point Pleasant Park is an ideal microcosm for wilderness survival practice. Aimée Brown’s works will be presented as publicly accessible installations, performances, and open studio sessions at the Park Lodge, at intervals throughout the project’s duration. Some of the performances will take place without prior publicity, accepting the park’s regular users as audience, whereas other performances will be advertised and promoted in advance, inviting new user groups to the park who may not feel an immediate sense of ownership or normally identify with this public space, bringing a new public to the park. In relation to the above image and information captured from The GateKeeper's Lodge blog, Browns' initial series of research explorations are based on what could have been the burbs of Point Pleasant Park:

Halifax, NS - You are invited to participate in the first artist-lead, community-created art project at the Canada Games Oval. Artists Zoe Nudell and Maggie Boyd will be leading fence weaving artwork on the fence that surrounds the Oval and faces the street. Bring your own fabric or use our Canada Games theme colours. If you'd like to contribute fabric bring any colour or patterned material that won't bleed when wet. You can match the Canada Games theme colours or ...