Call for Submissions: Nocturne 2026 Low-Sensory Project

Nocturne 2026 Call for Submissions – Low-Sensory Project

Submission Deadline: Monday, March 10, 2026, 11:59pm (ADT)
View full posting and apply online.

Founded in 2008, Nocturne: Art at Night Festival (Nocturne) is a free, independent, contemporary art festival in Kjipuktuk (Halifax). Annually, Nocturne brings 65,000+ people to the streets of Halifax and Dartmouth to experience art and celebrate the visual arts scene in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia). This year Nocturne: Embodied City will take place from October 15–18, 2026.

Programming Values & Guidelines

• Encourages proposals that reflect Nocturne’s core values as an independent, non-commercial, and contemporary art festival.
• Encourages proposals that are interactive and engaging.
• Aims to support efforts that are exploratory, challenging, and critical in nature.
• Strives to create spaces that are welcoming, accessible, and safe for artists and visitors.
• Is committed to decreasing barriers, and do their best to ensure the venues and projects at Nocturne reflect those commitments.
• Seeks to view applicants from a lens of equity and aims to create space for equal opportunities.

About this Call

Nocturne is currently seeking artists to participate in our 2026 programming through the development of a temporary sensory-friendly public artwork that will be exhibited during daytime hours on Sunday, October 18, 2026.

Nocturne’s 2026 Festival Curator, Annalise Prodor selected the theme Embodied City to inform this year’s festival. In Annalise’s words, “to question what it means to be embodied in urban environments can offer relief and create opportunities to engage lived experience more directly. Embodiment, or tuning into the body’s sensory experience, can spark creation, connection, and change through art, collective practice, and site-specific interventions”.

For this year’s festival artists are invited to explore this theme within their proposals. To learn more about Annalise and this year’s theme, visit here.

Eligibility

• Artists working in any discipline are encouraged to apply.
• Nocturne accepts proposals from local, regional, national and international artists.
• Artists must respond to the festival theme.
• We are looking for one temporary public artwork that will be part of our Low-Sensory daytime programming on Sunday, October 18, 2026.
• Projects may include installations, performances, participatory works, multimedia/audio/screen-based work, and more.
• Artists must consider how their proposed project provides sensory-friendly elements.
• Nocturne is primarily an outdoor festival. Artists should plan for the various weather conditions that could be a factor.

What is the Low-Sensory Project?

Founded in 2024, the Low-Sensory Project addresses the reality that the majority of art-at-night festival programming is often not sensory-friendly. For instance, projects often include bright lights, loud noises, and busy crowds. This call was designed to provide sensory-friendly programming as part of Nocturne, during daytime hours.

Nocturne encourages applicants to consider the multitude of sensory differences and sensitivities that individuals may experience such as sensitivities to sound, bright or flashing lights, crowded spaces, etc. Proposals should consider a variety of sensory-friendly elements within their proposal and take a site-specific approach to the project.

The venue for the 2026 Low-Sensory Project will be the Halifax Public Gardens, Family Lawn.

You can view Low-Sensory projects from previous years by visiting our project archive here and here.

About the Venue: Halifax Public Gardens

Halifax Public Gardens comprise an entire block of the downtown core, bordered by Spring Garden Road, Summer Street, South Park Street, and Sackville Street (see map). The gardens were founded by the Nova Scotia Horticultural Society in 1836 and were recognized as a National Historic Site in 1984. The Halifax Public Gardens is also part of Canada’s Garden Route.

This project will take place on the Family Lawn area by the South-East Gate (Spring Garden Road at Summer Street). Visitors are able to walk on the grass in this area only. The designated lawn area has an approximate dimension of 25 metres x 55 metres (not including tree-covered areas). The project must not extend beyond the Family Lawn and must not block any pathways or prevent the public from visiting the rest of the gardens.

Your project must follow the Public Gardens event guidelines. Projects must:

• Remain in the Family Lawn area only
• Not block any paths or walkways
• Not prevent the public from engaging with the gardens and using the Family Lawn

Visit here for additional reference images of the Family Lawn.

How to Apply

Please review the full Call for Submissions and complete the application form. Applicants are encouraged to work offline (ie. in a word document, etc) and collate all support materials until you are ready to submit. Submit your completed application form before the deadline of Monday, March 10, 2026, 11:59pm (ADT). Applicants are strongly encouraged to review the Frequently Asked Questions on this page prior to applying.

Please note, for accessibility purposes, Nocturne will also accept proposals via phone, video, or audio file as needed by the applicant. Please get in touch via email at info@nocturnehalifax.ca to arrange this submission type. This process will take approximately one hour, and it will include a recorded interview that takes place between an organizer or committee member and the applicant to go through each section of the application together. The conversation will be recorded and shared with the jury via video or transcription.

Attend the Info Session
Wednesday, January 28, 2026: 6:00 – 7:00pm (ADT)
Register here

Nocturne will host an info session for applicants via Zoom to help you prepare your application. Attendance is not mandatory. The info session will also be recorded and made available online.

Application Timeline

• January 16: Call for submissions opens
• January 28: Applicant Info Session (hosted virtually)
• February 28: Application Open Studio (in-person)
• March 10: Call for submissions closes.
• Early May: Successful applicants contacted
• August 1: Marketing materials due
• October 15–18: Nocturne 2026
• December 31: Deadline for final reports from artists

Applicants will be informed of any adjustments to this timeline.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please email info@nocturnehalifax.ca or contact the team members below. We are happy to assist applicants anytime.

Signy Holm (she/her)
Programming Coordinator
Signy@nocturnehalifax.ca

Melany Nugent-Noble (she/her)
Executive Director
Melany@nocturnehalifax.ca

Annalise Prodor (she/her)
Festival Curator
Annalise@nocturnehalifax.ca

Nocturne: Art at Night
nocturnehalifax.ca
info@nocturnehalifax.ca
c/o Downtown Halifax Business Commission
1546 Barrington Street, Suite 104
Halifax, NS, B3K 3X7

Instagram @NocturneHalifax
Facebook @NocturneHalifax
LinkedIn Nocturne Art at Night
BlueSky @nocturnehalifax.bsky.social

Image credits and descriptions:

1) Quilted Canopies, by Shayla Bond and Anne Kobayashi. Low-Sensory Project for Nocturne 2024, October 20, 2024, Halifax Public Gardens. Photo by Signy Holm. Description: Four people smiling and holding onto the handles of a large white and blue parachute billowing above them. Greenery and another similar parachute is lying on the ground behind them.

2) Listening Ground by Roberto Santaguida. For Nocturne: Ground, October 19, 2025. Photo by Greg Ellison. Description: Six people are lying on a multi-coloured parachute placed on the concrete floor of an open gazebo. In the background there are several other people standing in front of a forested area.

3) Halifax Public Gardens, Family Lawn. Image courtesy of the Halifax Regional Municipality website. Description: A map with the title HALIFAX PUBLIC GARDENS, which is a square plot of land surrounded by Sackville St, Spring Garden Rd, Summer St and South Park St. A bright yellow dotted rectangle indicates an area on the left side of the map indicated as the FAMILY LAWN.

4) Quilted Canopies, by Shayla Bond and Anne Kobayashi. Low-Sensory Project for Nocturne 2024, October 20, 2024, Halifax Public Gardens. Photo by Tara Nicholson. Description: Several people are gathered around and holding onto a large blue and white parachute while a child plays underneath it. The setting is a public park with trees and pathways.