NSCAD was well represented among the recipients of this year's King Charles III Coronation Medals.
At a ceremony held online on March 21, Ombudsperson Jude Gerrard and faculty member Jennifer Green (BFA 2009) were recognized for their tireless efforts to improve NSCAD and the greater community.
NSCAD ombudsperson Jude Gerrard (left) and faculty member Jennifer Green are recipients of the King Charles III Coronation Medals. Credit: Ginger Yu.
Former President Peggy Shannon, who served as NSCAD's president from July On May 1, she will become the Nerman Family President of the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri.
Handed out through the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General, the Coronation Medal is given to living individuals who "have made a significant contribution to Canada or to a particular province, territory, region or community of Canada, or have made an outstanding achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada."
JUDE GERRARD: 'A GOOD ANCESTOR'
Jude Gerrard, a member of the Millbrook First Nation, became NSCADS's first ombudsperson in 2023. He holds a BComm from St. Mary's University and a BEd from Acadia University, where he's now also pursuing an MEd in Equity and Social Justice.
Gerrard was recognized for the exemplary achievements he's made for his community throughout his long career. He highlights a few key moments from his time in various government and educational roles.
"For several years, I led Indigenous-based training for the Public Service Commission, and had the opportunity to facilitate training for the premier and the Liberal caucus, and showcasing the original treaties at the Nova Scotia Archives. And I was part of the original lead team that established treaty education in Nova Scotia," he says.
"I established a drums-in-school program, where I placed approximately 300 Mi'kmaw drums in elementary music classrooms across the province, and worked with all music teachers to teach protocols around the drum and the Mi'kmaw Honour Song as a way to provide Indigenous connections for students and to encourage Mi'kmaw language in the public school system," he adds.
Gerrard is himself a drummer and drum maker.
He says he appreciates how NSCAD provides an environment that supports community engagement. "NSCAD understands the importance of community collaboration and how important relationships based on reciprocity are," he says. "We cannot work in isolation. For students to feel like they are part of the institution, the institution must be part of the community."
Community service is deeply connected to Indigenous ways of knowing, relationships and responsibilities, he explains. "It's not just an academic duty but a form of reciprocity and cultural stewardship."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gerrard admits to carrying mixed emotions about earning a medal to commemorate the coronation of the king.
"On one hand, I am being recognized for my community contributions in the form of a medal that embodies colonial structures, powers, dynamics and historical injustices. On the other hand, I am being recognized for my work by a medal that embodies one half of the nation-to-nation relationship established with the signing of our living, breathing treaties," he says.
"These treaties were about the relationship between the Mi'kmaw and the Crown and how we could live together in peace and harmony. I think of what my ancestors were trying to accomplish with the signing of the treaties and how they were trying to create relationships that would ultimately lead to our survival as a nation. It has been my life goal to continue to spend my time practicing being a good ancestor."
JENNIFER GREEN: EMBEDDED IN THE FABRIC
Jennifer Green, associate professor in the Division of Craft, earned a BFA from NSCAD in 2009 and an MA from the Royal College of Art in London, United Kingdom, in 2014. She returned to NSCAD as a faculty member in 2016.
In 2023, Green received more than $230,000 from Research Nova Scotia to support her Flaxmobile Project: From Producer to Maker, Closing the Material Security Gap Across Mi'kma'ki. In 2024, she became the principal researcher on a four-year, $3.2 million NSERC-SSHRC Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative (SARI) grant, furthering her work on the flax industry and designed to accelerate the development of solutions to support a sustainable agriculture and cultural sector in a net-zero economy.
The funding allows her and a multidisciplinary team of researchers to travel the province to demonstrate flax growing from seeding to processing with farmers and craftspeople. Green's award citation describes the project as promoting sustainable textile production and "fostering local economies, climate adaptation and new ecologies."
"This medal recognizes my research contributions, including the Woolgathering, Flaxmobile and Flax Fibre to Fabric projects, to the development of new knowledge supporting local material production, and the impact of these projects on our Nova Scotian community," Green explains.
"From the creation of textiles to their use and disposal, cloth is embedded in the fabric of society, and has implications on culture, economics and the environment," she says. "I see my role as a NSCAD faculty member as developing new artworks and research that serve a broad community of producers, processors and makers, who are integral to the ongoing development of the sector."
Green readily acknowledges the important role NSCAD has played in advancing her work and that of her colleagues. "Over the past several years, NSCAD has supported faculty in securing funding to pursue research, and in planning and administering large-scale, multi-year research projects," she says.
She also expresses appreciation for the Coronation Medal accolade. "I am passionate about the potential for art, craft and design to serve communities, especially rural or under-represented communities, and am grateful for the recognition provided by this award."
