The New Brunswick Arts Board is an arm’s length arts funding agency with a legislated mandate to facilitate and promote the creation of art as well as administering funding programs for professional artists in the province.
Are you thinking of applying for the Equinox program for Indigenous artists in September?
Join us for a free interactive online information session about the Equinox program with past recipients who will share insights about the impact of the program on their artistic practice and share tips on how to put together a strong application.
We will also have an artsnb Program Officer present to help answer any questions regarding the online application process.
Upcoming dates
July 15th @ 6pm – 8pm
With artist Emma Hassencahl-Perley
August 12th @ 6pm – 8pm
With artist Melcolm Beaulieu
For more information and to sign up you can reach out to artsnb Indigenous Outreach Liaison Emilio Q. Bonnell via emilio@artsnb.ca
EMMA HASSENCAHL-PERLEY
Emma Hassencahl-Perley is a Wolastoqey (Wolastoqewiyik) visual artist, curator, and arts writer from Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation), New Brunswick. Working across painting, beadwork, murals, and digital illustration, her work explores Wabanaki aesthetics, digital and material culture, and visual language through the double-curve motif—a recurring form in Wabanaki beadwork, birchbark etching, and textiles.
As a curator, Emma has led and co-led exhibitions including Wabanaki Modern (2022), BACA: Creation Stories (2023), Epekwitk Quill Sisters: Etleoogoeiog (Talking Together) (2024) and Jake Kimble: My Bones Are Funny, Sometimes They Ache (2026). Her curatorial practice is grounded in responsibility to national Indigenous art histories, with a special focus on artists from Wolastoqewiyik, Mi’kmaq and Peskotomuhkati nations in New Brunswick.
Emma holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Mount Allison University in 2017 and completed a Master of Arts in Art History at Concordia University in 2022.
She currently serves as Curator of Indigenous Art at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton.
MELCOLM BEAULIEU
Melcolm Beaulieu (they/them), a Two-Spirit member of Metepenagiag Mi’kmaq Nation, is a Fredericton-based artist deeply embedded in the Indigenous art community.
They merge traditional beadwork with virtual reality to explore gender identity, cultural resilience, and the convergence of innovation and tradition.
Their work has been featured in major exhibitions like Radical Stitch and BACA. In 2024, their beadwork illustrated the children’s book, “Animals at Play in Mi’kma’ki.”
Melcolm also teaches beadwork at their Fredericton studio, The Collective, fostering intergenerational learning within their community.
