Nancy Chiasson is a ceramic & mixed media artist, grief peer facilitator, and embodiment practitioner based in Nova Scotia. Her multidisciplinary practice explores the intersection of material, memory, and meaning—often drawing from coastal landscapes, emotional residue, and the quiet rituals of everyday life. With a background in trauma-informed facilitation and yoga, her work bridges personal healing with public reflection. Informed by years of supporting others in grief, Nancy creates installations and objects that hold space for silence, longing, and the invisible threads that connect us. Her recent works invite viewers to move slowly, listen deeply, and engage with what is often left unsaid.

Alexandria Masse is a textile and fibre artist that creates sculptural and wearable art while documenting her creative process online. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Textiles/Fashion from NSCAD University and is fascinated with how material can be manipulated through crochet and sewing. She was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario and uses subject matter from her childhood memories and her mothers culture.

Melanie Barnett is a ceramicist whose work draws upon themes of mycology, agronomy, and climate science to create sci-fi worldbuilding experiences that speculate upon the future. She holds an MFA from NSCAD University and a BFA Honours in Ceramics from IshKaabatens Waasa Gaa Inaabateg Department of Visual Art, Brandon University. Barnett’s practice is currently based on Treaty 7 Territory in Medicine Hat, AB

The Sons of Membertou were formed in 1992, when a group of elders presented a drum to Darrell and Sharon Bernard and asked them to work to re-introduce traditional music back to our community. The group started small but interest in the music and traditions had become popular quickly. The Sons of Membertou recorded an album in 1994 and released it in 1995. That album, Wapna’kik has been re-released in 2025 under the Smithsonian-Folkways label. The Sons have performed in countless festivals, powwows, concerts and gatherings across North America and Europe. They have performed for World leaders and are honoured to perform for the Lumiere Festival in Unama’ki.

Sue Goyette lives in K’jipuktuk (Halifax) and has published several books of poems and a novel. Sue has been offering community writing workshops for over two decades and has been a faculty member of the Creative Writing Program at Dalhousie University for over fifteen years.

Jessie Donaldson is an interdisciplinary artist based in the Maritimes. Freedom to experiment, ample solitude, and occasional collaboration are essential to her practice, and she loves the delightful and unpredictable processes and results that come from interacting creatively with other people.

Chanelle and Isaac are 2Spirit artists from Eskasoni, NS. Their Collaborations come from 2 different perspectives and art styles that merge well together.

Arjun Lal is an interdisciplinary artist based in K’jipuktuk. Through sculptural and performance based work they fuel discussions on themes including colonialism/post-colonialism and queer futurity through fantasy world building. Their past worlds include a forest of fruity people, a leather bar in Bangalore, investigative vibratory soundscapes and portals into space/time.

Lal is currently an MFA candidate at NSCAD University where they are dreaming about what a post-colonial world might feel like. Their work is driven by lived-experiences and collected sensations which manifest into sensory responses through his art practice.

Melissa Kearney is a multi-disciplinary artist in Unama’ki | Cape Breton. Reimagining how geography, and bygone industry tell the story of the soul, Kearney focus on the personal and community. Their practice includes painting, performance, installation and film. They have participated in exhibitions and festivals across the province and is currently the Artistic Director at Eltuek Arts Centre in the north end of Sydney.

Michel Williatte-Battet is a multi disciplinary artist based in St Joseph du Moine on the western side of Cape Breton Island. Inspired by his surroundings Michel’s art is often described as whimsical and humorous. He has been showing and selling his work since 1989 and it can be found in many private collections around the world.

Loretta is a self-taught artist from the Waycobah First Nation in Nova Scotia. Born and raised in a reservation in Cape Breton, she creates bright, beautiful pieces with fabrics, photos and acrylics. Her art is spiritual and her way to get her feelings on canvas. Her first paintings sold in Finland and Germany, and has been creating and exhibiting her pieces ever since.

She is currently working on a compilation of stories that go with each of her paintings, and 2 children’s books to help learn their native tongue. Today, she resides in Cape Breton with her husband Elliot Gould and all their children Dakota Jay, Shianne Snow, Savannah Sipu, Phoenix Lee, Ivy Blue, and Montanna Sky.

Robyn Martelly is from Whitney Pier, Nova Scotia, which is located in Unama’ki (Cape Breton Island). Robyn is an artist, contributing author, poet, and a freelance writer. Some of her work has appeared in LOVE (Leave Out Violence) Newsletter, Teens Now Talk Magazine, Understorey Magazine, Montréal Writes an Online Literary Magazine, the Cape Breton Post, CBRM ConnectArts, CBC Information Morning Cape Breton, Wandering Autumn Magazine and ‘Magine: Unama’ki/ Cape Breton’s Literary Magazine.

Robyn has 15+ years experience creating art and writing poetry, her art and writing is inspired by her culture, community, and social issues.

Daniel MacIvor is a Cape Breton playwright and filmmaker. He is the recipient of an OBIE Award, a GLAAD Award, a Governor General’s Award, the Siminovitch Prize In Theatre and a Canadian Screen Award.

Angie Arsenault is an artist and researcher from the deindustrializing island of Unama’ki (Cape Breton). Angie’s work engages with concepts of value, detritus, memory, botanical life, survival, folk wisdom and storytelling through interventions in the field and installation predominantly. She holds both a BFA (2004) and MFA (2017) from NSCAD University.