InterCHANGE by IOTA is one of many public artworks installed across the Halifax Regional Municipality.
IOTA Studios, 2025-2026
Temporary public art opportunities
Cogswell District
About the program
The Halifax Regional Municipality and IOTA Studios have launched a temporary art pilot program within the redeveloped Cogswell District titled InterCHANGE.
In early 2024, HRM developed a project called The Cogswell Storytelling Project – a community-led project that outlined how Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian storytelling will be accomplished in the Cogswell District. Both the Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian engagement reports noted that art and art opportunities for community play a critical role in incorporating community history and ownership into the redevelopment of the Cogswell District. InterCHANGE is one of the results of that engagement work and will provide temporary art opportunities throughout the Cogswell District as the sites become accessible to the public over the next two years.
In 2025, HRM partnered with IOTA Studios to produce the temporary outdoor art gallery program for the Cogswell District as a pilot project. The focus of the pilot project is to provide professional public art opportunities prioritized to Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian artists. This is an initial pilot project and not the full scope of the community commemoration program in Cogswell.
Learn more about the project on IOTA Studios project website.
Meet the 2026 artist selections
Andrea Tsang Jackson (@3rdstoryworkshop) is a textile artist and quilt designer. After working in various design fields and settings ranging from architecture to museums, the quilting medium called to her as a way to explore place, belonging, and agency. She holds a Master of Architecture from McGill University and a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Andrea’s first book, Patchwork Lab: Gemology, was published by Lucky Spool in 2019 and her newest book, Quilting: A Modern Creative Journey through an Age-Old Craft, published with Nine Ten Publications, explores aspects of creative practice specifically for quilt makers. She has worked on multiple public art projects in Halifax and Ottawa. Her quilting work is also held in private and public collections in Canada, the USA, and Europe. Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Andrea has called Nova Scotia home for over a decade. She lives in Kjipuktuk / Halifax with her husband and two sons.
Callum Isaac Moscovitch is a multi-disciplinary designer and illustrator from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Drawing from experiences shaped by long-standing relationships with the land and his own schizophrenia, his work explores myth-making in both human-made and natural environments, madness, and memory. In his daily life, Callum runs a small solo design firm and creates playful, accessible work for values-driven organizations. He would not be able to do this work without the loving care of his parents and partner, Jessica.
Kaya Panthier is a Dominican-Canadian artist working in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Strongly rooted in her Caribbean heritage, Panthier’s work explores diaspora and familial connections with an emphasis on how migration, relationships to land and labour, and intergenerational memory shape identity. Panthier’s work reimagines the landscape of the tropics as one which conceals, protects, and houses spirit. Through a study of incalescence, revolt, exaltation, and haunting on the island of Dominica, her current practice blends a reverence for personal legend with an interest in Caribbean folktales. Panthier graduated from Mount Allison University in May 2025. Her current body of work references found and personal family photographs to explore childhood memory, multicultural upbringing, family history, gender, and migration.
Tayla Fern Paul is an Interdisciplinary Mi’kmaw Artist born in Kjipuktuk / Halifax, and raised off reserve in Wolfville, returning to the city as a youth and staying to attend school and raise a family. She is a member of Pictou Landing First Nation, with connections to Sipenkne’katik, Millbrook, and Eskasoni. Tayla attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University for a Bachelor of Fine Art, Nova Scotia Community College for Certified Welding, Cherubini Metal Works for Metal Fabrication; and invested time with Mi’kmaw Knowledge Holders to inform deeper cultural insights and histories. As an Urban Indigenous Artist living on her homelands Tayla’s art often focuses on Indigenous Presence by producing culturally affirming work within urban spaces. Some of Tayla’s more visible works include the The Annie Mae Pictou Aquash Mural located on Agricola street in Kjipuktuk, the North American Indigenous Games medal design 2023, The Tree Of Life Indian Residential School Student memorial in Eel River Bar First Nation, and The Big Picture a large scale drawing with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry Art Collection. Tayla has taught art in Mi’kmaw communities on and off reserve in U’namaki / Cape Breton, and to the public in Kjipuktuk / Halifax. She does guest lecturing at universities. Has participated in Indigenous Activism, often dedicating her art to raising awareness. Tayla is also the current President of the Kjipuktuk Chapter of Native Women’s Association.
Tonya “SamQwan” Paris is a Cree, Mi’kmaq, and Black Scotian multidisciplinary artist, author, and cultural advocate living and creating in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq people. Her artistic practice centres on cultural reclamation, intergenerational healing, and the intersections of Black and Indigenous identity work that is grounded in community, informed by lived experience, and driven by a commitment to social impact. SamQwan’s artwork and voice have been featured nationally in film, television, and public art. Her contributions include the award-nominated Racism Lives Here Too (APTN, 2020) and creative involvement in Season 3 of Diggstown. She served as Indigenous Artist Consultant and a primary contributor for a series airing on FOX and BET Networks (2021–2022). From 2023–2025, she contributed to Sullivan’s Pond, a major public art installation showcased throughout Montreal’s underground network during the Art Souterrain Festival.
Meet the 2025 artist selections
Letitia Fraser (@letitiasnfraser) is an interdisciplinary artist, whose work centres around her experience as an African Nova Scotian woman, growing up in the province’s Black communities of North Preston and Beechville. Descending from a long line of artists, her creative instincts were nurtured early in life. Through a combination of painting and textiles, she unearths previously untold narratives and pays homage to her community’s history of quilting. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2018 Nova Scotia Talent Trust RBC Emerging Artist Award and was recently longlisted for the 2022 Sobey Art Award. Her work is included in several private and public collections including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Scotiabank, the Canada Council and the Wedge Collection. https://www.letitiafraser.com/
Zeta Paul (@zetapaulart) is a L’nu/Settler illustrator and interdisciplinary artist. Born and raised in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia.) Zeta attended NSCAD University until she decided to put her work into action, she now is focusing on indigenous book illustration, works such as “Muinji Asks Why”, “The Friendship Centre”, and soon to be completed “The Indigenous Kids Book of Canada” and “Borderline.” Zeta aspires to create engaging imagery that is exciting, immersive, and thought provoking, that holds deeper messages about culture and identity.
Carmahn McCalla (@carmahnm.art) is an African Nova Scotian and Jamaican visual artist whose work explores Black identity, nature, and the mystical. Rooted in digital illustration, her multidisciplinary practice spans animation, painting, graphic design, and web design. Largely self-taught with formal studies at Dalhousie University, NSCAD, Athabasca University, and OC Art Studios, Carmahn has exhibited work in festivals, businesses, and public projects. Her illustrations and animations appear in books, theatre, and murals, all reflecting a commitment to celebrating underrepresented voices. https://carmahnart.com
Lou Sheppard (@shep_shape) works in interdisciplinary audio, performance and installation based practices. His work responds to the social and material histories of sites: bodies, and environments. His work questions and disrupts systems of power by deconstructing the language, architectures, genealogies, and taxonomies that hold these systems in place.Lou has created commissioned works for galleries and sites across Canada, including The Banff Centre, at The Art Gallery of York University, The Confederation Centre for the Arts and the Toronto Biennial, as well as internationally, at Kumu Kunstimuuseum in Estonia, in the Antarctic Biennial, and at Titanik Gallery in Finland. Lou has participated in numerous residencies, including Rupert in Lithuania, the International Studio Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, NY., La Cité des Arts in Paris, and as participant and faculty at The Banff Centre. He has been longlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2018, 2020 and 2021. Lou is a settler on the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq in Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia. https://www.lousheppard.com/
Daramfon Morgan (@DCM ART CREATIONS) is a Nigerian Canadian visual artist, muralist, and digital painter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a Black and African Nova Scotian artist, his work blends contemporary storytelling with vibrant cultural symbolism drawn from African folktales, Caribbean traditions, and local Black histories. Through DCM ART CREATIONS, Morgan has exhibited across Nova Scotia and continues to expand his practice into public art, licensing, and large-scale installations.
His visual language is rooted in bold color palettes, surreal textures, and layered composition. Whether through murals, fine art prints, or digital design, Daramfon uses art to honour generational memory, reclaim erased narratives, and celebrate the resilience of African diasporic communities.
With a background in biology and an MBA in project management, Daramfon merges creative storytelling with professional execution—often collaborating across disciplines, including youth programming, community-led housing, and cultural revitalization. He is deeply passionate about using public space to reflect the strength, beauty, and dignity of communities too often left out of dominant histories. www.dcmartcreations.com
Check out the 2025 InterCHANGE installations
