Ross Creek Centre for the Arts – Canning, Nova Scotia - Atlas Obscura

Ross Creek Centre for the Arts

A converted cattle farm is now a hub of art and theater surrounded by nature. 

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Ross Creek is a converted cattle farm turned international artist residency, arts education facility and an outdoor theatre, Two Planks and a Passion Theatre, which performs around a fire in the middle of a forest. 

Ross Creek is down a dirt road on 178 acres of field and forest, overlooking the Bay of Fundy, with the highest tides in the world. The centre has walking and snowshoeing trails, a sound sculpture by blacksmith John Little to play on its front lawn  and a collaborative sound installation called the Primrose Path of Dalliance by Newfoundland Artist Kay Burns that takes the listener (with a GPS-enabled cell phone) on a listening journey  through the landscape.

While focussed on the arts, it is still a registered farm, and through volunteers from around the world they supply their own programs with vegetables and fruit, exchange hay for beef and pork from a local grass-fed beef farm, tap their own maple trees and keep bees. 

Artists from around the world are often in residence and share their work in progress from nascent contemporary dance performance to readings to studio tours. The centre has two galleries, a cultural library that visitors are welcome to use, and education programs including camps in all the arts. 

Know Before You Go

Directions
Located just north of Canning, Nova Scotia, the Centre is easily accessible. It is 1.5 hours from the Halifax International Airport and close to a vibrant community which supports the gallery and community programs, yet secluded enough for a true retreat experience, whether for the artist colony or the overnight summer arts camps.

Ross Creek GPS:
Latitude 45.22159
Longitude -64.43816

If coming from Halifax:
Take Highway 101
Take Exit 11, turn right off ramp
Continue straight through lights toward Canning and Port Williams – follow signs for Canning (11km)
In the Canning village centre, turn left at the monument
At the T at the top of the mountain, turn left
Turn immediately right down Ross Creek Road (gravel)
Approximately 3 km down that road, The Ross Creek Centre is on your left.

In 2017, the summer season includes Nothing Less!, a musical by best-selling novelist Ami McKay and Ken Schwartz, and the fireside show is Midsummer Night's Dream with lantern puppets for fairies.

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April 5, 2016

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