Call for Submissions for Halifax Design Festival’s 2027 Anchor Exhibition

PASS THE SALT

Exhibition Dates: April 22-25, 2027
Location: Dalhousie School of Architecture
Submission Deadline: Monday, December 1, 2026, 11:59 PM Atlantic Time

SUBMISSION FORM

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Salt is ordinary. Salt is essential. Salt preserves, seasons, corrodes, crystallizes, conducts, transforms. It comes from the sea, from the earth, from labour and industry. It is carried in the air, worked into food, embedded in landscapes and left behind on surfaces. It can make something last or make it decay.

For the inaugural Halifax Design Festival, we invite proposals from designers, artists, architects, interior designers, furniture makers, industrial designers, craftspeople, material researchers, collectives and multidisciplinary practitioners based in Nova Scotia to PASS THE SALT, an exhibition exploring the multiple meanings, behaviours and possibilities of salt.

We are interested in what happens when salt, in substance or idea, becomes a starting point for design. It can be a material, a process, a flavour, a trace, a story, a gesture or a provocation. Salt is both a noun and a verb.

Additionally, the 2027 Festival’s overarching theme is This Place. What might salt have to say about this place?

We particularly welcome proposals that bring design into conversation with other disciplines and ways of making. We are looking for work that might be:

  • spatial, immersive, experiential

  • furniture or object-based

  • material or process-driven

  • sensory, tactile or participatory

  • functional or speculative

  • temporary or site-specific

  • playful, poetic or provocative

  • rooted in research, making or experimentation

The exhibition will occupy several spaces on the ground floor of the Dalhousie University School of Architecture, including the lobby, exhibition room and selected classrooms.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

  • Artists may submit up to 2 works for consideration.

  • All work must be original and recent (completed after Jan 1, 2025).

  • Existing work, work-in-progress and new proposals are welcome. Proposed projects or works in progress require sufficient descriptions and support material to accurately illustrate the project. Include photographs of past works or projects that represent your practice and describe the finished project as best you can, including sketches.

While we have a standard submission process, we aim to ensure our programs are accessible to all applicants. If you require accommodations, we are happy to talk through options. Contact us at hello@hfxdesignfestival.ca.


Submissions must include:

  • 1–3 images of proposed work, work-in-progress or sketches/proposals for new work. Maximum file size is 3MB each.

  • Project statement (maximum 250 words): Please describe your proposed work and how it responds to PASS THE SALT, its materials and dimensions.

  • Designer/artist statement (maximum 150 words)

  • CV or studio profile (maximum 2 pages)

  • Website / Instagram / Portfolio link, if applicable

  • Installation requirements (maximum 150 words): Briefly describe approximate dimensions, materials, power requirements, hanging/fixing requirements, accessibility considerations and any other significant installation needs.

  • Cultural Context Statement*, if applicable (250 words max.)

  • AI use disclosure**, (100 words max.)

SUBMIT NOW

*Cultural Context: Halifax Design Festival and its anchor exhibition are directed by principles of respect, equity, transparency, and accountability. This includes consideration and care for the stories being told through the work displayed in Pass the Salt. Our submission form asks applicants to include a Cultural Context Statement to provide jurors with more information to assess questions of cultural appropriation and cultural knowledge. If your work reflects, represents, is inspired by or draws upon cultural knowledge, wisdom, visual language, or narrative based on or in a specific cultural, politicized, or racialized group, please articulate the group that your work represents and how you are connected to that group.

**AI use disclosure: Halifax Design Festival understands that AI is a tool that designers may use within their process. This includes generative tools used for imagery, text, or design development.
Applicants must be the authors and take responsibility for the work they submit. This means that the concept must be yours and AI use must be disclosed in the submission form. Work should not use AI to imitate or reproduce a specific artist’s or designer’s work. Projects must involve human creative input; use of AI does not necessarily negatively effect evaluation but fully AI-generated work is not eligible.

KEY DATES

  • Submission Deadline: Monday, December 1, 2026, 11:59pm Atlantic Time

  • Notification of Results: December 13, 2026

  • Delivery of Work: April 2027, dates to be confirmed

  • Exhibition Opens: April 22, 2027

  • Exhibition Opening Event: April 23, 2027

  • Exhibition Closes: April 25, 2027

  • Pick-up of Work: Week of April 26, 2027; details to be confirmed.

SELECTION PROCESS

  • Works will be selected through a juried process based on artistic/design merit, relevance to the theme, and overall exhibition cohesion.

  • A maximum of 16 artists will be selected by the Festival co-founders (Alissa Kloet, Andrea Tsang Jackson, and Sara L’Esperance) and one guest juror (juror to be confirmed).