director
Emily Blair sits with her arm raised, resting on a large loom. She is wearing a dark blue shirt and there is audio equipment in the background to her right
Emily Blair is a weaver and cultural worker from New Brunswick who has been operating out of
Tiohtià:ke/Montréal since 2017. She began her specialization in weaving at the New Brunswick
College of Craft and Design where she received a Certificate in Foundation Visual Arts with Honors
in 2015 and a Diploma in Textile Design in 2017. Emily won the Dr. Ivan Crowell Award for
Excellence in Weaving in 2017 and received honorable mention from the Virginia Jackson Design
Competition for her upholstery design. Her graduating piece titled Hypothermia was the provincial
winner of the BMO 1st Art! Competition, showing in Toronto at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery in
the fall of 2017. After graduating from NBCCD, Emily moved to Montréal, where she enrolled in a
BFA at Concordia University, with a Major in Fibre and Materials Practice and a Minor in Art
History, graduating with Distinction in 2023. While attending Concordia, Emily worked closely with
artist-run centers such as Art Matters Festival as their Administrative Coordinator, the VAV Gallery
in Administration and curation, and the Fine Art Student Alliance as a Community Organizer. Emily
has also served on the executive team of the Board of Directors for Art Matters, the VAV Gallery, and
the Fine Arts Reading Room. During this time Emily was made a fellow of the Milieux Textile
Cluster, and was nominated as the Representative on the Fine Arts Department Council. Through her
time at Concordia, she exhibited at and worked with Flourish Festival in Fredericton, New
Brunswick in 2018, 2020, and 2023 and has also exhibited in Montreal Galleries such as Galerie Jano
Lapin in Verdun and the VAV Gallery. In all of her work, Emily is most committed to and driven by
community and its celebration through contemporary art.