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Anna Horsnell There is a very unique show opening in an equally unique location on September 6. Sacred by Nature is a wonderful combination of photography and what can best be described as fluid silk sculpture by Wolfville artist, Kate McKenna. The show is being hosted by Lightfoot & Wolfville Vineyards in their spacious entrance gallery. For eight years, McKenna lived in Mexico where her art career began in earnest before she returned home to Nova Scotia. “This exhibit is particularly meaningful,” she smiles, “Not only because of the subject matter, and the focus and inspiration it provided during the…
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Anna Horsnell Friends and artists Simone Labuschagne and Elizabeth Sircom are partnering in a new exhibition running from September 18 to October 16 at ArtCan Gallery in Canning. Labuschagne is a painter. Sircom creates sculpture. Together they will present the evocative Figures of the Land. The ladies met about five years ago through the world of art, as their husbands are both well-known local artists (Labuschagne is married to Steven Rhude and Sircom is married to Arnaud Béghin.) The two women considered a joint exhibition about a year and a half ago, pre-pandemic. Neither of them wanted to rush the…
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Ottawa-based artist Adrian Gor’s exhibition at ARTSPLACE Gallery Annapolis Royal is by turns shocking, amusing, and insightful.Submitted In Performers in New Old Historical Landscapes, Gor upends figures of cultural, political, and religious influences from ancient to present times through lino-cut prints and mixed-media paintings in an unexpected play of medieval-inspired themes and pop art inspiration in images that include drones and shopping carts. A part-time faculty member at Concordia University in Montreal and a studio and art history instructor at Ottawa School of Art in Ottawa, Gor’s teaching and artistic research encompass theoretical and practical aspects of Byzantine Art in…
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Ron Lightburn Moonlight Grove Coldbrook thelightburns.com Ron Lightburn’s art cards are now available at locations throughout the Annapolis Valley: R.D. Chisholm and the Kings County Museum in Kentville; The Port Pub and Sea Level Brewing in Port Williams; Bent Ridge Winery in Windsor, Wheaton’s in Berwick, Henny Penny’s Farm Market and Saunders Tartans & Gifts in New Minas, and Endless Shores Books in Bridgetown.

Anna Horsnell Alex Colville was born on August 24, 1920. He passed away in 2013. His was a long and storied life in the world of visual art, a master artist distinguished by the exacting realism of his paintings as well as the consistent subject matter. His art was easily accessible and yet often endued with a question or unsettling juxtaposition. Now, as then, Colville is one of Canada’s most celebrated artists. Innumerable essays, articles, and books have been written about Colville and his work, his years as a war artist, his time at Mount Allison University in Sackville, and…
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Wendy Elliott The first live piece of drama that will return audiences to the Al Whittle Theatre in late August is called Light in the Piazza. The musical, first staged in 2004, is based on a 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer, which was published in The New Yorker. The story, set in the 1950s, follows a North Carolina mother on a grand Italian tour with her daughter, Clara, 26. A young Italian man, Fabrizio becomes enamored with Clara, which presents her mama, whose own marriage has failed emotionally, with a dilemma. Clara, we come to see, has suffered trauma in…
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David O’Leary With a bit of help from NS Communities, Culture and Heritage, Evergreen Theatre staged its re-opening in February this year with concerts by Ben Caplan, Hillsburn, Rose Cousins, and Hauler. Given our rather small pandemic seating limits (40 or so folks) the shows were almost instant sell-outs and went off without a hitch while following all Covid-19 precautions. The May lockdown forced the postponement of Sahara Jane and Ken Shorley and a visit from Newfoundland’s Quote the Raven. Those two shows have been rescheduled to July 17 and October 1 respectively. Evergreen is in negotiation with a raft…
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Ken Schwartz As I write this, the company at Two Planks and a Passion Theatre Company is in production rehearsals for the first time in almost two years. Our 2020 season was completely postponed due to Covid-19, and the third wave earlier in 2021 nearly wiped out this year’s 30th anniversary season before we even started work. But only weeks ago, a small window opened in the pandemic, and we were able to start rehearsals in the hopes that, by the time we got to mid-July, live performance for an audience would be possible. We took a calculated risk, and…
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Colin Chase Not that long ago I was having a deep conversation in the hockey dressing room with a team-mate. As we often do, we were discussing the arts. He made the comment that, as a photographer, my work did not count as art because all I had to do was push a button. There are many types of photography. Some is purely documentary or photo-journalism: here the photographer is attempting to exactly record what is happening in front of their lens. There is no Photoshop adjustment except for framing and exposure, very much like what one would do with…
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