A day of culture in Halifax

For our last day in Halifax we chose to visit manifestations of Canadian Maritime culture. We headed off to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in the morning and took in a screening of short films at the second day of the Atlantic Film Festival in the afternoon.

The highlight for me at the art gallery was the display of folk artist Maud Lewis's work, including her 9 foot by 10 foot house, which was right inside the gallery. She lived here for most of her adult life painting everything in sight, including the bread box, the stairs, the front door, as well as hundreds of cards and paintings.

I just love it that a woman who went to grade three and suffered her whole life from Juvenile Arthritis managed to have an entire gallery devoted to her. Look closely at this image and you'll see how deformed her hands were.

Here are a few photos of her tiny fisherman's cabin home taken in the gallery this morning.

After a nice lunch in a wine bar we headed up to the Park Lane Cinema to see eight short films from this area at the 35th Atlantic Film Festival. Subjects were varied but all reflected people who live in this area, from a PEI oyster farmer to a 60 year woman who has been carving stone her entire life, to an outpost village in Newfoundland, to a fellow who built a weir for fishing in the Bay of Fundy.  It was a great introduction to the rich variety of people that make up this part of Canada. Tomorrow we leave Halifax and will be exploring more of the area by car. Next stop is Lunenberg.