Law firm seeks artworks to be displayed at site of Viola Desmond’s protest
NEW GLASGOW, N.S. — A law firm is seeking submissions from across Atlantic Canada for artwork to be displayed on the exterior of the movie theatre where Viola Desmond took her legendary stand for civil rights.
More than seven decades after her protest, artworks inspired by Desmond are set to be mounted on the side of the building in New Glasgow, N.S., where she rejected racial discrimination by sitting in a whites-only section of a movie theatre.
Desmond was arrested and fined for her act of defiance in 1946, but her actions inspired later generations of black people in Nova Scotia and beyond, leading her to be dubbed by some as Canada’s Rosa Parks.
The businesswoman turned civil libertarian is also set to become one of the few Canadian women to be celebrated on the face of her country’s currency. A new $10-bill featuring Desmond will be unveiled at an event in Halifax on Thursday.