Telling it like it is : Harold Cromwell and the black Nova Scotian folk art tradition

Lauren Dimonte

Despite centuries of black settlement and cultural production in Canada's Atlantic provinces, only one black Nova Scotian folk artist, Harold Cromwell, is represented in the collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. In spite of this institutional recognition, however, no scholarly inquiry into Cromwell's practice has yet been published and no exhibition dedicated exclusively to his work has been mounted to date. Working within a cultural studies framework this thesis presents the first sustained scholarly examination of Harold Cromwell's distinctive drawing practice, or what I have termed his 'nervous line.' This project details his personal history, the emergence of his unique aesthetic, his position within Nova Scotian folk art and the political implications of his practice, in order to introduce Cromwell as an important and prolific folk artist within Canadian art scholarship, and thus recuperate Africadian artistic production within Nova Scotia's folk art tradition.

I would like to thank my committee for offering me such encouragement, enthusiasm and expertise throughout the completion of this project. I am indebted to Jennifer Fisher for her continued support, her innumerable intellectual contributions to this thesis, and for her suggestion to research Nova Scotia. Her questions, insights and thoroughness strengthened my work and helped lead me to Harold Cromwell. I am also grateful to Yvonne Singer and Steven Bailey for their constructive criticisms and helpful suggestions across multiple drafts of this thesis. Without their valuable contributions I would have been unable to complete this project. I also thank Denise Nuttall for her help and support during the early stages of my research.

In addition to my committee, I also owe a deep debt of gratitude to Natasha Cromwell for so generously allowing me into her father's life. Her sustained support of my project, her willingness to participate in interviews and her readiness to take time out of her busy days to answer so many of my questions brought this thesis to fruition. Her loving, inspiring and incisive account of Harold Cromwell's life and work is a proud testament to her father's legacy.

Furthermore, I would like to thank Jeanne Nesbitt, at Sissiboo Landing, for generously supplying me with interviews and photographs of Cromwell's studio that were so integral to the writing of this project. I also thank Shannon Parker, at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, for providing me with valuable reproductions of Cromwell's drawings and additional information on his work.

Finally, I thank my family, to whom this thesis is dedicated. Their sustained and unconditional support of this project made my completion of this degree possible.