Artist needed for a new Viola Desmond monument in Halifax
Global News
The monument to the businesswoman and pioneer will be on Gottingen Street, close to where Viola Desmond once operated her salon.
The North End Businesses Association (NEBA) has a location picked for the Viola Desmond monument it has received federal funding for, and is now looking for an artist.
Association executive director Tammy Jackson said in an email the monument will be placed at 2300 Gottingen St., very close to where Viola Desmond’s salon once stood.
“We want the art piece to be reflective of Viola’s strength and perseverance, and to inspire young entrepreneurs for many years to come,” she said in the email.
Desmond, a Black businesswoman and civil rights pioneer, was arrested in the 1946 for refusing to leave a whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, N.S.
Her arrest was one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start the modern civil rights movement.
It would take 63 years for Nova Scotia to issue Desmond a posthumous apology and pardon. Desmond later became the face of the $10 banknote, which entered circulation in 2018.
Jackson said the artist for the monument will be selected through a two-phased approach.
Once interested artists apply, a selection panel made up of NEBA representatives, the North End community, and members of the arts community will choose three finalists. She says the first-place finalist will be awarded $100,000 to complete the project.