Nova Scotia HeartStrings

Statement and video

On August 30, 2022, members of PoPNS hung the Nova Scotia HeartStrings art installation on the fence of Province House to commemorate those who were known to have died of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia. Each hand-cut felt heart represents a person's life. The installation shows COVID-19 deaths in six-month increments, with white hearts representing those who died before the provincial government removed protections in March 2022, and red hearts representing those who died after protections were removed. Deaths due to COVID-19 have continued at an alarming pace, even since the HeartStrings installation.

Text description of artwork

The installation was composed of hundreds of felt hearts, each approximately 10 centimetres tall, strung up in horizontal rows and hung on five sections of the fence surrounding Province House in downtown Halifax. Each section represented one six-month period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nova Scotia, from March 2020 to August 2022, when Nova Scotia HeartStrings was displayed. Each section of the artwork was accompanied by a quote, printed on laminated paper and attached to the fence, drawn from one of the government press briefings held during that period of the pandemic. Each section of the artwork is outlined below:


As of March 22, 2023, a total of 807 Nova Scotians are known to have died of COVID-19. That's 315 more deaths since HeartStrings was created and 575 since the government lifted pandemic protections.