Alan Syliboy, 2024 Portia White Prize

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the 2024 Creative Nova Scotia Awards. Presented annually by Arts Nova Scotia and the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council, these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. Alan Syliboy grew up believing that native art was generic.  "As a youth, I found painting difficult and painful, because I was unsure of my identity." But his confidence grew in 1972 when he studied privately with Shirley Bear. He then attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where 25 years later, he was invited to sit on the Board of Governors. Syliboy looked to the indigenous Mi'kmaq petroglyph tradition for inspiration and developed his own artistic vocabulary out of those forms. His popularization of these symbolic icons has conferred on them a mainstream legitimacy that restores community pride in its Mi'kmaq heritage. Alan still lives and works in Millbrook, NS, where he was born and raised.  He creates his art in his studio in Truro, NS. This special episode would not be possible without the support of Arts Nova Scotia and the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council, and the fantastic production work of Heist and Keke Beatz.