2021 & Beyond

While it would’ve been easy to see Parrsboro Creative take a step back amid COVID-19, the organization persevered in 2020. Bruce Lantz, its director of marketing and communication, and executive director Jocelyn Li are looking forward to bigger and better things in 2021 as Parrsboro Creative looks to enhance and expand its offerings. - Darrell Cole

Organization hopes to expand its presence beyond plein air festival

Written by Darrell Cole, Amherst News
Published October 26, 2020

PARRSBORO - 2020 is not a year Jocelyn Li is ever going to forget.

After arriving in Parrsboro in late 2019 to replace Robert More as head of Parrsboro Creative, she saw her welcoming event cancelled by a January snowstorm. Then the organization’s signature event, the International Plein Air Festival, changed to a virtual event because of the COVID-19 restrictions. Next, its cultural campus classes and artist in residence program were all cancelled.

Now, as she looks back, Li and the organization she represents not only persevered, but it continued to make gains toward making the community a cultural focal point for the region.

“My predecessor created a great profile for Parrsboro Creative in the community, what I’m here to do is create structure and systems,” Li said. “It’s a new era for us because we’re reviewing what works and what doesn’t work.

“Now we’re at a stage where we’ve proven we can be successful and we can go pursue larger grants, and funding, or even investment opportunities. I’m really open to what those ideas will be.”

Li said it would have been easy not to hold a plein air festival due to the COVID-19 restrictions, but the event was still a success - even if the artists were painting virtually from their studios across North America.

“It was a success. We had 80 per cent of last year’s sale and had more outreach because of it being online. Of course, there were hiccups but there are always hiccups when you’re doing something for the first time,” Li said. “One thing I learned is that everything I had to do was done manually, there was no automatic setup.”

Where the festival failed or fell short was showing the depth and detail of the painting. That’s something that requires the viewer to be there as the painting is being created on its canvass.

Looking ahead to 2021, Li said the plan is to go back to an in-person plein air event, but a lot depends on the virus and the status of the U.S. border with half of the participants being from the United States.

“What will probably happen is a call out for Canadians and focus more locally,” she said.

She also is exploring other ways for participating artists to showcase their work, and that includes much more than painting.

She said there has been a resurgence in energy in recognizing Nova Scotia’s Mik’maq culture and heritage and would like to see the plein air festival celebrate that in some way and she also wants to work with the Fundy Geological Museum and The Ship’s Company Theatre to take advantage of the collective energies of those organizations in partnership with Parrsboro Creative.

She sees the organization pivoting to include other arts.

“Our focus has been so narrow with the plein air festival. The beautiful thing is it was high profile so people learned so much about this beautiful area through the artwork and photography,” Li said. “Our downfall was because it took so much of our time it prevented us from focusing on other areas of art. Our name is Parrsboro Creative, not Parrsboro Painting.”

Li’s background is much more diverse and includes working as a technician for one of the largest non-profits in Toronto, focusing on digital fabrication, music, and sound effects. To be a technician, she had to have expertise and experience in all the fields.

“I’m equipped to start representing more than just painting,” she said. “Now that we’ve created that marketing brand in Parrsboro Creative we need to start filling up our body. It’s only empty if it’s one festival, it needs to be more than that.”

Although it’s important to maintain and support existing artists, Li said she sees Parrsboro Creative expanding into other areas and making Parrsboro a wonderful tourist, educational retreat destination that doesn’t interfere with the area’s quiet lifestyle.

She sees the popular pop-ups returning next year, while the Parrsboro Creative office space will feature a gallery. She is also launching a new website for the organization. She would also like to see some arts conferences or conventions come to the Parrsboro area, adding there is capacity in the community to make it happen.