NSCAD University

Why go

Former merchant shops and warehouses give Fountain Campus a setting unlike a conventional university quadrangle. NSCAD’s history also reaches well beyond Halifax: its visiting artists and publishing activity helped make the school an important centre for conceptual art. A gallery visit connects that legacy with work being made and shown now.

What to look for

• Fountain Campus connects former shops and warehouses.
• Granville’s cobbled pedestrian terrace frames the historic street façades.
• Anna Leonowens Gallery presents work associated with the art school.

The full story

Anna Leonowens founded the school in 1887 as the Victoria School of Art and Design. That beginning is one layer of NSCAD’s identity; another took shape after artist Garry Kennedy became president in 1967. He invited artists involved in conceptual art, bringing the school into a wider exchange of ideas about what art could be and how it could be made. The university press was part of that exchange. Rather than serving only as a record of exhibitions, it published books by and about contemporary artists, including figures such as Steve Reich, Michael Snow and Yvonne Rainer. This history helps explain why a visit here need not revolve around a permanent collection. The school’s importance also lies in teaching, experimentation, exhibitions and publishing. Its old commercial buildings became a setting for work that questioned established artistic forms.

Useful to know

• Combine the Fountain Campus exterior with Granville’s pedestrian terrace.

Your next visit

Estimated · Declared scenario and planning estimates; no live opening, weather, queue or booking service.