Cinthia Arias Auz is an Ecuadorian artist and writer based in Kjipuktuk. Her writing has been published in Visual Arts News, Public Parking and Billie Magazine. She has exhibited her work in Canada and Ecuador in art spaces such as Otorongo - Laboratorio Creativo in Cuenca, Multinacional in Quito and the Museo Antropológico y de Arte Contemporáneo (MAAC) in Guayaquil. 

Kayza DeGraff-Ford was born in Lacombe, Alberta in 1992. They are an emerging contemporary painter working in narrative portraiture, landscape, and still-life. DeGraff-Ford completed the foundation program at Yukon School of Visual Arts in 2017, where they were the recipient of the BMO 1st Art award for Yukon Territory. They transferred to NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, completing their Bachelor of Fine Arts, Major in Interdisciplinary Arts in 2021. Since living in Halifax they have shown work at Hermes Gallery, Dalhousie Art Gallery, and Anna Leonowens Gallery. DeGraff-Ford was the grand prize winner of the 2020 NSCAD Student Art Award. They are currently funded by the Arts Equity Funding Initiative as a NSCAD Community Studio artist-in-resident at the Macphee Center for Creative Learning in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. 

Michael Fernandes is a Trinidad-born artist who came to Canada in the 1960s to study at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. His works often rely on polemical constructs like “us and them” to provoke a self-recognition on the part of the viewer. His installations have a sense of improvisation and literalism, which results in an intimacy and directness and opposes the packaged, the streamlined and the simulated. One could say—at least metaphorically—that his work is in the first person, present tense, and that it stands against facade and spectacle in favour of activism. At NSCAD, where he has taught since 1973, Michael is known for the subtlety of his pedagogical methods. He has exhibited extensively across Canada and abroad. In 2020, Fernandes was the recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

Ryan Josey is an artist and writer from Nova Scotia. They have been supported by grants from The Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Nova Scotia, and have participated in residencies internationally, including the New York Arts Practicum (New York); the Centre for Art Tapes (Halifax); the Arteles Creative Centre (Finland); the Khyber Centre for the Arts (Halifax); Plug In ICA partnered with DIS.art (Winnipeg); and Eastern Edge (St.John’s). Their writing has been published by Visual Arts News; C Magazine; Flash Art International; Black Dog London; Commo Magazine, and others. From 2016 to 2021 Ryan was the studio manager for Canadian artist, Brendan Fernandes. Since 2019 they have assisted artist Emily Falencki in founding The Blue Building Gallery. Their experimental writing is published irregularly @ryryjo on instagram.

Melanie Colosimo is an interdisciplinary artist from Kjipuktuk / Halifax, Nova Scotia. She received a BFA from Mount Allison University (2006) and an MFA from the University of Windsor (2011). Using soft, simple materials such as fabric and cut paper, Colosimo creates drawings and installations that address themes of collectivity, power and care. Her work has been presented in festivals and galleries internationally and across Canada such as AKA Gallery (SK) the Art Gallery of Windsor (ON), Bonavista Biennale (NL), Mount Saint Vincent University Gallery (NS), the Guangdong Museum of Art, (Guangzhou) and the He Xiangning Art Museum, (Shenzhen). She has participated in multiple residencies at the Centre for Art Tapes, University of Windsor, the Banff Centre and at the Vermont Studio Centre in Johnson, Vermont. She represented Atlantic Canada on the 2017 and 2020 Sobey Art Award long-list. Colosimo is also the Director/Curator of the Anna Leonowens Gallery Systems at NSCAD University where she facilitates over 200 exhibitions & events annually. In 2016 she was responsible for developing and piloting the Art Bar +projects, a venue for performance art, events and happenings.

Ursula Handleigh is an artist and educator of Filipino mixed-ancestry working within expanded photography and alternative modes of image making. While challenging traditional methods of documentation, Handleigh's practice explores questions of identity and how the role of memory, ancestral knowledge and storytelling can be used to reconstruct archives and preserve histories. Handleigh's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at galleries including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Harbourfront Centre and Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. Handleigh holds a MFA from NSCAD University and a BFA from OCAD University. Handleigh is a Tkaronto Scarborough-born artist, currently living and working in Kjipuktuk / Halifax, Nova Scotia.

William Robinson lives and works in Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, NS). As a multidisciplinary artist, Robinson creates installations that combine sculpture, sound, video, performance, score, photography, and printed matter. His work is often situational, frequently responding to specific buildings, sites, and objects. Influenced and directed by his interest in sound, performance art, musicology, architecture and his family history, Robinson engages collaborative and poetic processes that divulge the unexpected logic, design and history of specific sites and locations close to home.

Jenny Yujia Shi 施雨迦 is a visual artist residing in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Shi grew up in a Beijing hutong (胡同), a historic neighborhood in the heart of Beijing that was lost due to a redevelopment project in the 1990s. As a racialized settler, Shi relocated to Kjipuktuk (Halifax) in 2009 on a temporary visa and received Canadian Permanent Residency in 2019. Shi’s practice has been shaped by forced relocation in early childhood and navigating the Canadian immigration system as a young adult. After completing a BFA and a BA from NSCAD University (2016), Shi has explored these experiences through drawing, painting, site-specific installation and most recently, silhouette animation. Engaging in community-centered projects has been integral to Shi’s practice and setting roots in her chosen home.