Dalhousie Art Gallery
IN RELATION
Exhibition Design
Synopsis
In Relation: Black Material Life and Memory on Mi'kma'ki was curated by Nahom Assefa as part of Dalhousie Art Gallery's Curatorial Mentorship Program. The exhibition explored Afro-diasporic presence on Mi'kma'ki through material culture.
Nahom's role spanned both curatorial and design work: researching and writing all wall text, artwork labels, and exhibition signage, and designing the full brand identity, including posters, brochures, and digital assets for social media and the gallery website. The design drew on earthy tones and textures from works in the show, grounding the visual identity in the exhibition's own material culture.
Held at Treaty Space Gallery, NSCAD University, the exhibition drew 285 visitors and reached over 37,000 people online.
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Funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage's Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program, the exhibition had to hold a wide range of migration histories, from Jamaica, the United States, Ghana, and Ethiopia, each with its own culture, while also honouring the Mi'kmaq's presence on the land. Nahom needed the branding to reflect that same spirit of exchange, between diasporic communities, and between those communities and the land itself, all while managing real time and team constraints as multiple projects ran in parallel.
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Nahom built the branding out of his own curatorial research rather than treating it as a separate task. Earthy tones and textures, including dried strips of wood and ceramic work from the show, grounded the visuals in the exhibition's own materials. He handled copyright clearance, image use, and citation for every piece featured, and folded in the idea of mother to daughter knowledge transfer, one of the show's core themes around preserving material culture. Clara Clayton Gough's wooden basket sculpture, made from materials sourced from the land, became the centrepiece image carried across the branding.
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The exhibition ran for two weeks at Treaty Space Gallery, NSCAD University with gallery hours from 11am to 5pm. It was well received by researchers, the Afro-diasporic community, and audiences who understood the importance of adequate representation in exhibitions like this.
Organic and paid social campaigns supported the exhibition's $60,000 budget, generating over 37,024 total views and reaching 5,501 people on Instagram alone. The show brought in around 285 visitors in total, including roughly 75 at the opening reception and 45 at the public panel discussion featuring Nahom, Sylvia D. Hamilton, and moderator Pamela Edmonds.
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Exhibition Design
Brand Identity Design
Curatorial Research
Adobe Illustrator
Cultural Representation
Afro-Diasporic Studies
Material Culture
Community Engagement