Call for Submissions: Nocturne 2025

Call for Submissions: Nocturne 2025 Art at Night Festival

Submission Deadline: April 7, 2024, 11:59 pm 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: Ground will take place from October 16-19, 2025.

Nocturne is currently seeking artists to participate in their 2025 programming through the development of temporary public artworks that will be exhibited during the festival’s signature night-time art experience taking place on Saturday, October 18.

Nocturne’s 2025 Festival Curator, Marite Kuus selected the theme Ground. For this year’s theme of Ground, artists are invited to explore physical, social, cultural and political aspects of the ground beneath us. Gardeners, mycologists, walkers, archeologists and geologists, roadworkers, settlers; we all have a different relationship with this space which we interact with daily, and applicants are encouraged to consider the multitude of possible meanings of this theme. Learn more about Marite and this year’s theme.

Nocturne pays successful applicants an equitable CARFAC 2025 Public Art Fee Schedule, which includes material/production, accessibility, artist care, and travel.

Nocturne’s Programming Values:

• Encourages proposals that reflect Nocturne’s core values as an independent, non-commercial, and contemporary art festival.
• Encourages emerging artists, creatives, arts workers, and makers to apply.
• 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.

Encouraging Creatives and Artists:

• Encourages applicants to propose new work as well as projects that have been started or completed elsewhere.
• Encourages artists working in all mediums to apply.
• Seeks to view applicants from a lens of equity and aims to create space for equal opportunities.
• Encourages proposals for interactive and engaging installations.
• Is committed to decreasing barriers at Nocturne and do their best to ensure the venues and projects at Nocturne reflect those commitments.

Deadline to Apply: Tuesday, April 7, 2024, 11:59 pm ADT

Application Timeline:

• January 15: Call for submissions opens
• January 28: Info session – Register here
• April 7: Call for submissions closes. The selection committee will review and deliberate.
• Early June: Successful applicants contacted
• August 1: Marketing materials due
• October 16-19: Nocturne 2025
• December 31: Deadline for final reports from artists

Applicants will be informed of any adjustments to this timeline.

How to Apply

Click here to see the full posting and to apply.

Nocturne: Art at Night
c/o Downtown Halifax Business Commission
1546 Barrington Street, Suite 104
Halifax, NS B3J 3X7
nocturnehalifax.ca
info@nocturnehalifax.ca

Facebook @NocturneHalifax
Instagram @nocturnehalifax
Twitter @NocturneHalifax

Image credits and descriptions:

1) A Spec of We: An InterPlay Earth Justice Performance by 3 Cheeks Collective (Laura Stinson, Noella Murphy & natalie (natty) abdou), October 19, 2024. Photo by James MacLean. Description: Five people sitting in a park at night smiling up at a person wearing a whimsical handmade rat costume.

2) Symphony of Nests, by 2024 NOISEmakers, October 19, 2024. Photo by Damir Sancevic. Description: A large group of people dancing in a dark space with dim blue lighting.

3) Spheres, by Derrick Dixon, October 19, 2024. Photo by Tara Nicholson. Description: On a nightime street, several people crowd around a storefront window as a person wearing a baseball cap and headphones controls dials on a soundboard.

4) Through our Eyes by Damini Awoyiga, with Israel Ekanem & I’thandi Munro, October 19, 2024. Photo by Nadim Kesserwani. Description: An image taken from behind a group of people wearing grey sweatpants and sweatshirts walking behind a person with long black curly hair and wearing a black, green, and magenta gown. The setting is an open room with a concrete floor and white walls, and gallery track lighting.