Art installation launches in Halifax honouring N.S. civil rights icon Viola Desmond
A permanent interactive art installation honouring Nova Scotia civil rights icon Viola Desmond has been unveiled in Halifax.
“The Viola Desmond Experience” is a collaboration between the North End Business Association and the Viola Desmond Legacy Committee.
“To focus on her accomplishments and to show that you know there’s a lot more to her story and that she was a legend really before any of that stuff ever took place,” said artist Marven Nelligan.
Desmond was forcibly arrested while watching a movie at the former Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, N.S., on Nov. 8, 1946.
The theatre was segregated at the time, with Black patrons relegated to the balcony while floor seating was reserved for whites.
Desmond was dragged out of the theatre by officers, arrested, thrown in jail for 12 hours and fined.
Civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond is seen in this photo take in the early 1940s. (Wanda and Joe Robson Collection. 16-80-30220. Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University)
It was 63 years before Nova Scotia would issue Desmond, a businessperson who died in 1965, a posthumous apology and pardon.
Artists from Halifax’s north end submitted their proposals last year.
The space replicates Desmond’s hair studio with a modern twist.
The virtual element will be added to the art installation next year.
With files from the Canadian Press
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