Ross Creek Centre for the Arts

Imagine a place where the arts are the most important element of every day.

Imagine a facility where kids can go and get their hands dirty with paint, try out their acting skills and plant their own vegetables to boot.

Imagine a beautiful art gallery, a rolling landscape and forest, lofty studio space and an outdoor theatre open to all.

If you can imagine these things, you have a good sense of what’s happening at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, a unique and thriving arts facility, located in Canning, just outside Port Williams.

The centre’s executive director, Chris O’Neill, believes that the arts are central to the success of the province. She and her husband, Ken Schwartz, have dedicated their careers to developing artists and building an appreciation for arts and culture among Nova Scotians.

“Arts have an impact on the health of the community. They’re essential for economic and social development and it’s critical to maintain a focus on the arts to attract people to the province.”

O’Neill and Schwartz are the brains behind Two Planks and a Passion Theatre Company. The two have a background in theatre, and studied and worked outside Nova Scotia for many years before returning to their home province in 1992. That year, they set up Coast Arts, a non-profit organization that oversees Two Planks and a Passion theatre company, and more recently Ross Creek Centre for the Arts.

Coast Arts purchased 186 acres of farm and forest land in 2000 and established Ross Creek Centre for the Arts shortly after. At the time, O’Neill says the goal was to create an international centre for lifelong artistic education and development, a place where kids could have access to the same high quality arts experience as international artists. She adds the mission of the Centre was to expose the public and artists to a variety of disciplines all working in conjunction or alongside each other.

Today, Ross Creek Centre for the Arts offers multi-disciplinary kids camps focused on a variety of artistic media, as well as a venue for visual arts exhibitions and a place for artists-in-residence to work.

“Children are capable of so much more given the right tools and opportunities,” O’Neill says. “Kids at our camps get an amazing mix of arts, recreation and even gardening. We’ve been able to get the kids involved in the food created at the centre and are working to turn the land back into a working farm.”

O’Neill says the children’s camps grew by 34 per cent last year, and she adds that the Centre now has alumni from its first year offering the camp a decade ago. The camps have always employed artists as instructors, in an effort to support the arts community and teach real techniques.

“For me it’s all about providing work for artists. We channeled more than 29,000 person hours of employment to working artists on an annual basis. We want to see artists well-paid and respected. We firmly believe that the work of artists shouldn’t be taken for granted.”

The Centre regularly hosts artists-in-residence, both on the theatre side and in visual arts. O’Neill says it’s important to bring in practicing artists from other parts of the world to contribute new perspectives. She adds Nova Scotia is an attractive destination.

“Ironically, we’re closer to New York City and some of the other major centres than other facilities. Artists come here because of the beautiful surroundings and the convenience of travel.”

O’Neill says Ross Creek Centre for the Arts will continue to focus on building profile for the arts and developing artists in the province. To that end, the Centre works closely with schools and offers learning programs throughout the year.

“We want to be a resource for schools to help them offer top quality arts education and to provide access to skill development. It’s important to maintain the role of artists in this province and to develop young people.”

O’Neill emphasizes that part of the reason Ross Creek Centre for the Arts succeeds is its location.

“We built Ross Creek Centre for the Arts here because Nova Scotia is home. The stories we tell are rooted here – on the landscape and in the text. When we were thinking about what would work, we decided that this location would be perfect. It’s 15 minutes from a world-class university and shopping, an independent film venue with all the amenities of a larger centre, but it’s situated on 186 acres of beautiful gardens and woods overlooking the Bay of Fundy. What could be better?”