Carrie Allison: askōhtēskanohwē​

As part of the Artist-in-Residence program and the 8th edition of the Biennale d’art contemporain autochtone, multidisciplinary artist Carrie Allison is developing a new body of work inspired by floral beadwork traditions from her maternal nêhiyaw and Métis homelands. Drawing on her ongoing research in the Museum’s Indigenous Cultures collection, she explores the connections between territory, memory, and material culture.

The project examines how beadwork carries stories of place and lineage, while also reflecting on the role museums play in preserving and interpreting these histories. Through a series of pieces that blend traditional techniques, archival inquiry, and contemporary approaches, the artist engages with themes of inheritance, transmission, and the evolving relationships between communities and cultural institutions.

The exhibition Carrie Allison: askōhtēskanohwē​ will mark an unfolding chapter in Allison’s broader research, offering an intimate look at beadwork as both cultural continuity and creative resurgence.

Thanks to the Ricci family for their generosity in supporting the exhibition.

Carrie Allison

Carrie Allison (nêhiýaw/Métis/mixed European descent) is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in K’jipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). Her Métis and nêhiýaw family names are Beaudry, Surprenant, Noskeye, and Payiw; her maternal roots and relations are based in and around maskotewisipiy (High Prairie, Alberta), Treaty 8, and she is a Manitoba Metis Federation citizen.

© Alexa Crude

She grew up on the unceded and unsurrendered lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and Tsawwassen Nations. 

Allison holds a Master of Fine Arts, a Bachelor of Art History, and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She was the 2020 recipient of the Melissa Levin Award from the Textile Museum of Canada, received an Emerging Artist Recognition Award from the Creative Nova Scotia Awards in 2021, and was longlisted for the 2021, 2024 and 2026 Sobey Art Award.