fellowship
Dr. Hilary Grant is the recipient of the inaugural New Voices Publishing Fellowship. Selected through a competitive national adjudication process, Dr. Grant will develop a major new manuscript on the artistic histories and cultural landscape of St. John’s. Situated at the eastern edge of North America, St. John’s has long been shaped by migration, storytelling traditions, labour histories, and profound connections to land and sea. Through her project, Dr. Grant will examine the artists, collectives, cultural spaces, and social histories that have defined the city’s creative life, offering a vivid portrait of St. John’s as a centre of artistic experimentation and cultural exchange. Her book will be published as part of ACI’s Canadian Cities series, joining acclaimed titles on Halifax, Ottawa, Quebec City, and Regina. We are thrilled to work with Dr. Grant on this important new contribution to the study of Canadian art.
Hilary Granton St. John's Art & Artists
Hilary Grant is a cultural studies scholar and art and architectural historian whose work explores how Atlantic Canadian communities use art, heritage, and everyday culture to make meaning through change. She holds a PhD in Cultural Mediations from Carleton University, where she has taught architectural history and heritage studies. Her peer-reviewed research examines questions of conservation, identity, and public memory and has been published in journals such as the International Journal of Heritage Studies and Heritage & Society. She has also worked extensively in heritage policy and public history in Canadian and UNESCO World Heritage contexts.
Will Gill, The Green Chair, 2017, presented at the Bonavista Biennale in Bonavista, NL.
Dr. Grant’s project, St. John’s Art & Artists, is the first sustained art-historical study of the city’s visual culture through the lens of the littoral—the unstable zone where land meets sea. Bringing together historical and contemporary perspectives, the book will examine how geography, economics, environment, and regional identity have shaped artistic production in the city across generations. Dr. Grant’s research explores the distinct social and material conditions that have informed creative practices in St. John’s and situates the city within broader conversations about instability, loss, and change in Canadian art history.