Dalhousie Art Gallery
It’s About Time:
Dancing Black in Canada 1900-1970 and Now
Exhibition Promotional Design
Synopsis
Since 2018, Dr. Seika Boye has curated It's About Time, spotlighting over 70 years of Black dance and performance history across Canada. In January 2026, the show arrived at Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, its fifth stop, this time honouring Nova Scotia's own Black history through contemporary responses from five local artists, including Ibe Ananaba, Preston Pavlis, and Allen D. Crooks.
Nahom designed the marketing for the Dalhousie stop, keeping the show's existing visual language consistent while creating new digital assets for posters, evites, and social media, built to adapt across print and online formats. He also captured behind the scenes photos to build anticipation ahead of the opening.
The exhibition opened to near full capacity, and the social media campaign reached 31K impressions, 1.1K interactions, and gained 168 new followers.
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The Dalhousie stop layered a new regional response, contributions from five Nova Scotia based artists, onto a show that had already toured the country for years. Given the depth of that curatorial work, honouring both the existing exhibition and its new local context, the marketing needed to match it. Posters, digital displays, and evites had to carry both threads at once, staying true to the show's established identity while making room for what was new and specific to Halifax.
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Rather than build new branding, Nahom worked with the Dalhousie Art Gallery team to keep the show's existing visual language consistent, creating the digital assets needed for this stop while clearing any copyright concerns along the way. The designs stayed true to the show's original vision while responding to its local Halifax context.
The work was built to adapt across formats, ready for print and for online use across social media and the gallery's website. Nahom also captured behind the scenes photos for social posts, helping build anticipation ahead of the opening.
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The exhibition opened on January 22, 2026, with a reception in the Dal Arts Centre's Sculpture Court that drew community members, scholars, performers, and artists, including a reading by George Elliott Clarke and music by Aquakultre. It was one of Dalhousie Art Gallery's biggest openings, reaching near full capacity.
The design and promotion helped build anticipation ahead of the opening. On social media, the campaign reached 31K impressions, 1.1K interactions, and gained 168 new followers, tracked through consistent scheduling and reporting.
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Brand Identity Design
Exhibition Marketing
Digital Design
Cultural Representation
Black Canadian History
Community Engagement
Social Media Strategy