Ecology Action Centre celebrates 50 years with an artistic flair

The Halifax non-profit marks half a century with an interactive, ‘COVID-proof’ exhibition/scavenger hunt entitled, ’50 Things: An Art Adventure’

FALIFAXtoday\ Steve Gow

The Ecology Action Centre is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a special public art exhibition that aims to capture the past half-century of the environmental movement in the province.

“In a regular year, we would have done a big bash but obviously with COVID, we kind of needed a celebration that was COVID-proof,” says Joanna Bull, community engagement manager for the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre (EAC). “So that’s what this is — it’s a way that we can have this experience together and not have to be all together in a room or be cancelled if a lockdown comes back or something.”

Titled 50 Things: An Art Adventure, the EAC’s commemorative exhibition will act as a scavenger hunt of sorts with various types of artwork and installations spread throughout Halifax and around Nova Scotia. Participants can download an app that will help guide seekers to various pieces of art.

“Think of it as a treasure map and the app is the map,” adds Bull, who explains the downloadable app will use location data to notify people when they are near commissioned artwork affiliated with the EAC’s anniversary.

“Some of the pieces will be physical, like a painting or a sculpture,” says Bull. “Some of them are accessible through the app but will only unlock when you get to the location where they are meant to be experienced.”

Bull explains that one such interactive example is from Mi’kmaw artist Shalan Joudry who has designed an auditory exhibit that narrates people through a series of walking trails using the original Mi’kmaw names for landmarks along the way. Other types of media used include paintings, murals, comic books, videos and podcasts.

Created in partnership with Zuppa Theatre Company, the idea for 50 Things: An Art Adventure was devised late last year. When EAC put out a call for commissioned artists, the response was quick and eager.

“It’s been absolutely incredible,” says Bull, who originally expected a few dozen artists to apply. “(But) we got 240 applications. It’s just an incredible response from the artistic community and the quality of the work and the level of passion that is in the pieces that people will see is really mind-blowing.”

Originated by students enrolled in a Dalhousie University course called Living Ecology, the EAC began when the group of scholars organized to promote recycling in Halifax — a fringe concept in 1971.

“People thought they were nuts,” says Bull, adding that while there are still valid critiques of the recycling system today, the group’s action broke new ground in Halifax. “The point of the story is not that recycling is beyond reproach but that something that had seemed very unrealistic, totally fringe and totally weird has now become so normal that now we can’t imagine not doing it.”

Since that time, the EAC has grown into a powerful non-profit organization for environmental activism, education and positive change. Their many notable successes include helping to expose illegal fishing by major fishery corporations, teaming up to put a stop to uranium mining and helping to eliminate fracking in Nova Scotia when the province passed legislation to prohibit the controversial drilling technique in 2014.

“It’s been really interesting looking back on some of the things that I look at where at the time you might not have known what the impacts were going to be, but they have had these ripple effects,” says Bull, who notes at the heart of all of EAC’s successes is community involvement.

“Not a single EAC success is ours alone. It’s all been in the context of the broader environmental movement across Mi’kma’ki, across Nova Scotia, where EAC has been able to play a really important role often as a convener of different groups with different perspectives and often as an authoritative voice.”

For more information on 50 Things: An Art Adventure, visit EAC’s website.