Parrsboro

The Fire of the Imagination

In 2018 PARRSBORO was the winner of the prestigious Nova Scotia Culture and Community Award for the town that best integrates the arts into the fabric of everyday life.

There are several reasons for this achievement. This small village is the home of some big creative events. The Parrsboro International Plein Air Festival draws top artists from across North America. They come from BC, Ontario, Quebec, Maine, New York State, NYC, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, New Mexico and California.

Parrsboro also attracts artists from Canada and the USA to live and work in the town for several months a year as Artists in Residence. They become a natural part of things and during the summer month the exhibitions of their new art are well attended by the local residents.

When these artists arrive, they are embraced by people of Parrsboro. Their imagination is fired by seeing the land and seascapes they have loved all their lives captured on canvas.

It is not just visitors from “away”, that make Parrsboro a special place to live. Dozens upon dozens of local artists are involved in an impressive array of disciplines – music, singing, writing, weaving, quilting, costume design, pottery. It’s the way of life here.

Music in Parrsboro is a year ‘round event. The Two Islands Brewery on Main Street brings in a steady stream of fine musicians, many of whom are East Coast Music Association nominees, and the Hall with its superb acoustics and intimate atmosphere, is one of the best Small Venue performance spaces in Atlantic Canada.

For tens upon tens of thousand of years, the mighty Bay of Fundy, with an almost mythical power, has chiseled breathtaking landscapes out of the sea. It has an almost mythical power and this raw, fundamental, energy has combined with the energy fueled by the imagination of artists, local and international, to give Parrsboro a special energy of its own – the energy of creative exploration.

PARRSBORO – AN ARTS MINDED COMMUNITY

A village of 1100 people with: a regional Film Festival, 2 art galleries, 2 museums, a professional theatre and a superb small venue performance space.