La Fecundidad by Salvador Dali will hang in Gallery 244 in Brooklyn on Saturday as part of the Queens Coast Art Tour. Photo courtesy of Sue and Chres Jensen

It’s the third year for the Queens Coast Art Tour and studio rally, but it will be the first year that people will be able to see a piece by Salvador Dali at one of the galleries.

Gallery 244 owners Sue and Chres Jensen bought a signed Dali in September and they plan to display it at their gallery in Brooklyn starting Saturday to coincide with the art tour.

Called La Fecundidad or Fertility, it’s a sterling silver relief from 1977. It’s signed by the Spanish surrealist, weighs just 249 grams, and measures 18 by 24 centimetres.

It was part of a limited run created for American Express as a promotional item for some cardholders.

The couple are in Toronto for six months while Chres awaits surgery. They told QCCR this week that they bought it from their friend Doug Peterson in Burlington, Ont., who has owned it since the ‘70s. 

They thought it would be a great way to help promote the art tour and Queens County artists.

“We knew we weren’t going to be there for the art tour and we wanted to send something back to Nova Scotia that would align our artists with a master,” Sue says. “I’m hoping that people come to see it and enjoy the work.”

“It’s kind of a draw like a bit of a fish hook so that people will see a piece by a well-known artist, and that will maybe introduce them to some of the local artists there,” Chres says.

“So that will create some curiosity and some buzz and that’s what we’re hoping to do and hopefully give the art scene in Liverpool and Brooklyn a boost.”

Sue says the piece will be hung differently than other artwork in the gallery. She says they’re not concerned about security.

“It’s gonna be hung in a little different way on the wall, but no, we know where we live and we want people to enjoy seeing it.”

After the art tour, she says they’ll store it in a secure place until next spring when they reopen the gallery.

The back of a piece by Salvador Dali bought by Sue and Chres Jensen of Gallery 244 in Brooklyn. Photo: Sue Jensen

Gallery 244 features work by Chres and other local artists. 

He says the Dali, which he estimates is worth around $5,000, will help add to the eclectic nature of their space.

“Our gallery is kind of diverse but we are more contemporary. We have abstract artists and cubist artists. I guess I’d put myself in that category. We try to offer something different to the public. Some people want to have something a little different and more striking in their personal collection of art.”

Sue says their friends have been looking after the gallery for them while they’re in Toronto.

“It’s exciting to give back to the community. The artists and musicians have been watching the gallery for us and working, so it’s just something to send back to them to say thank you.” 

The Queens Coast Art Tour is on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In addition to the Salvador Dali piece and other work at Gallery 244 in Brooklyn, the tour features artisans at work all over Queens County. You can meet artists in their own workshops or at three public sites – The Astor Theatre, Coastal Queens Place or White Point Beach Resort.

More information is available on the Queens Coast Art Tour Facebook page.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Summerville artist and retired diplomat Scot Slessor is in Arusha, Tanzania, working with a group of artisans to expand their markets. (Rick Conrad)

A Queens County artist is in Tanzania for the next two weeks, helping artisans there develop ways to get their products to more people.

Scott Slessor is a retired Canadian diplomat who lives in Summerville. He’s also the owner of SAS Glass, a stained glass studio in Liverpool. As a Canadian foreign affairs officer and consul general, he led strategic planning and training in places like India, Afghanistan and Thailand.

Since he retired, he’s done a couple of stints in places like Mongolia and Cambodia with Catalyste Plus, a Canadian NGO focused on economic development in Indigenous communities and emerging economies. This will be his first trip with Catalyste Plus working with artists in another country, as part of a project to improve economic and social well-being for women and girls.

“This one is very unlike the other stuff I’ve done,” he says.

“This is about arts and crafts. So this tacks onto a whole other part of my life. I’ve never been to Tanzania. I’ve never been to East Africa. This is all new, which is going to be really cool. … And so they wanted to, in this institute, look into, as part of their tourism program, working with craftspeople, with artisans, and sort of up their game a bit.”

He’ll be working with about 20 artists in Arusha, a city of more than 600,000, near Mount Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti. In an interview before he left for Tanzania, Slessor said he’ll be helping local artists develop ways to get their goods into the hands of more tourists and hikers.

“We’ll be talking about the market there. Who are they actually trying to sell to? Because I don’t think they’ve necessarily done a full assessment. And I have. The government of Tanzania has done some. So we have some starting points of the ages of people coming there, where they’re coming from, a lot from the U.S., Canada, Europe. … And these are people who are going to climb Kilimanjaro. These are guys who are going to have a carry-on (bag) with their hiking boots on. So how do you put something in their pocket? So we’re going to generate a whole whack of ideas. And then they’ll have to decide how they’re going to implement that.”

Slessor has been doing glass art for more than 25 years. And he’s lived in Queens County with his wife, also a retired diplomat, since 2022.

He’s one of the organizers of the Queens Coast Art Tour studio rally. He says he hopes to be able to connect some artists from his trip in Tanzania with Queens County artisans who have offered to be occasional mentors.

“You know, it’d be fun if a couple folks from here, even just an hour a month for three or four months, hook up with somebody in Tanzania just to talk about, ‘What are you making today?'”

Slessor says he hopes his two weeks with the artisans in Arusha can help set them up for success.

“If a couple of these people develop habits that help them design more appropriate stuff for the folks that are coming in, then I think that’s a real win. So I’m going to spend a bit of time with them on, who are these Westerners that are coming here with their money? And then how do you sort of represent your culture, the local techniques, and all of that in a way that satisfies you as an artisan, but also allows you to make a few bucks?”

Slessor says meeting new people and experiencing different cultures are part of why he enjoys taking on these projects.

“So for me, it’s a lot of fun. I mean, I’m going to get to meet 20 people, but then I get to see a new part of the world, which is really fun. Yeah, I think that’s a fair amount of win for me.”

Slessor says Catalyste Plus is always looking for people with experience in varied backgrounds, from marketing and finance to factory production and information technology. More information can be found on their website.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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The members of Crafternoon get together every Tuesday at the Seaside Centre in Beach Meadows. (Rick Conrad)

A group of artisans gathers at the Seaside Centre in Beach Meadows every Tuesday afternoon at 1 p.m. to work on projects, chat and make new friends.

The group began in 2021 with three women from the neighbouring community of Eagle Head. Craft novice Karen Costello got together with rug hooker Cathie Mourre and knitter Donna Sampson Dowling.

The group welcomes everyone who wants to work on their craft or learn a new one. It now counts as many as 25 people, mostly from Queens County, but some also travel from Lunenburg County.

Members say they enjoy getting together for four hours each week to bond around a shared love of creation. And they say they’re always looking for new people to drop in.

QCCR stopped in on a recent Tuesday to talk to some of the members.

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Bruno is one of the regulars at Crafternoon at the Seaside Centre in Beach Meadows. (Rick Conrad)

Rug hooking and a variety of other crafts are worked on Crafternoon at the Seaside Centre. (Rick Conrad)

The artisans group at Seaside Centre in Beach Meadows has about 25 members in total. (Rick Conrad)

Susan Letson is on the committee organizing the Medway Head Lighthouse Art and Craft Show and Sale, beginning Friday (Aug. 16) in Port Medway. (Rick Conrad)

The Medway Head Lighthouse Art and Craft Show and Sale opens on Friday at 5 p.m. with an opening reception at the warehouse in the Lighthouse Park in the village of Port Medway.

It’s the 13th year for the show, which features artists and artisans from around the South Shore and beyond.

It raises money to help maintain the historic Medway Head Lighthouse, down Long Cove Road in Port Medway.

The show continues Aug. 17 to 25, open 10 to 4 every day at the warehouse and at Seely Hall in Port Medway.

Here’s more about the show in an interview with organizing committee member Susan Letson.

Listen to our interview below.

Kim Jackson, president of the Nova Scotia Native Council Zone 9, organized the National Indigenous Peoples Day event in Liverpool on Friday. (Rick Conrad)

People from indigenous communities across Canada celebrated National Indigenous Peoples Day on Friday.

In Liverpool, the Nova Scotia Native Council Zone 9 organized an event at Great Oak Park near the Hank Snow Home Town Museum on Friday afternoon and evening.

People from around Queens County turned out for the cultural celebration featuring dancing, drumming, a vendors market with Mi’kmaw artisans and some traditional foods.

QCCR spoke to Kim Jackson of Milton, president of the Nova Scotia Native Council Zone 9, and other people at the event.

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Scot Slessor at his stained glass studio SAS Glass, just off Main Street in Liverpool. Slessor is one of the organizers of the Queens Coast Art Tour on June 22 and 23. (Rick Conrad)

Liverpool stained glass artist Scot Slessor wants the Queens Coast Art Tour to be memorable.

But he also wants the map for the tour to be just as unforgettable, and useful. Last year, he recruited Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman to help him with a video explaining how to make a paper airplane out of the map.

Obviously making a paper airplane isn’t the map’s most important function. In fact, Slessor wants people to unfold it to reveal the many Queens County artisans listed there and pay them a visit during the Queens Coast Art Tour.

The map plots all participating artisans and businesses, with QR codes that link to their websites or social media accounts.

Slessor owns SAS Glass in downtown Liverpool. He and some other local artisans got together last year to form the Queens County Arts and Crafts Society, taking over from the Queens Arts Council. 

One of their first projects was to create an art map and studio tour. That happened last October, and it included almost 25 artisans from Liverpool to Western Head to Port Medway.

This year, it’s expanded to more than 40 artists, shops and popups all over Queens County. And there will be two chances to participate, in June and October.

The first one is coming up on June 22 and 23. The tour runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

Slessor says it’s all about promoting Queens County as an arts destination, and about artisans opening up their studios or demonstrating their craft to local residents and visitors.

“I’ve been on a ton of these studio tours,” Slessor said in a recent interview.

“What I’ve told everybody, you’re just not another sale. Just don’t put stuff on a table. If you’re painting, paint. I’m glass, I’ll be doing something with glass those days. People can come in, I can show them what I do, what the materials are, how I play with them. That has to be there, because people do find that interesting. … We need to be different. Everybody does craft sales up and down the shore. So what’s the difference? I think the difference should be come on down, we’re throwing some pottery, we’re making some jewelry, you can see what we’re doing.”

Slessor says last October’s art tour was a success for many of the artists, some of whom were surprised by how many people dropped by to see them in action.

“I had 30 people each day in here. All I did was gab all day to people. And then I talked to other people who never really opened their studio and they said, ‘I can’t believe all these people showed up to my studio.’ So, it was kind of cool.

“You might show one person your studio and have a cup of coffee, but when you have 20 people rolling through in a day, it is kind of neat.”

In addition to visiting artisans at their studios or work spaces, art lovers can also meet them at three popup locations: the Astor Theatre, White Point Beach Resort and Coastal Queens Place in Port Mouton.

“Some artists are very quiet and unassuming. And suddenly you find there’s a guy on the street here who’s a fantastic portrait painter. You didn’t even know he was there. And locally, I think it’s important. Last October, when we did this, a lot of folks who came around were local.

“One of the wider goals of something like this is you feel like you have a sense of community and that you’re not working totally in isolation. Doing art can be a very isolating thing. To let them know that they have a community to be part of.”

Aside from the obvious goal of giving artisans more chances to sell their work, another objective of the tour is to bring art lovers to the area from all over the province and beyond.

“In the perfect world, I’d love to see artisans selling stuff and making some money,” Slessor says.

“I think if we bring people to the county, whether they buy from one of us or just spend some time in a restaurant or going to the Astor or doing whatever, that’s all positive. So we (hope to) increase the number of people coming into the county.”

Slessor says the Queens County Arts and Crafts Society has also applied for provincial funding to help them work on their online marketing and promotion. 

And he says he’d like to see international artists come to Liverpool for four-week residencies.

The former diplomat has reached out to some of his contacts overseas.

“It would be great to have, I don’t know, a Taiwanese artist here for four or five weeks. They’d be at the Astor. We would introduce them to other artisans. It would be fun and informative and something totally different.” 

People can pick up a Queens Coast art tour map in Liverpool at the Visitor Information Centre, the Astor Theatre, Main and Mersey coffee bar, Shore Thing Studio and Emporium or at SAS Glass just across from the Astor.

You can also find the map online here: https://sasglass.ca/resources/map6.jpg or follow Queens Coast Art Tour on Facebook.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Cathie Pincombe and Ray Leger of the Medway Head Lighthouse Society. The group is looking for volunteers to help preserve the iconic light near the end of Long Cove Road in Port Medway. (Rick Conrad)

A local community group is hoping to recruit more people to help preserve a historic lighthouse in what some refer to as the Peggys Cove of Queens County.

The Medway Head Lighthouse Society took possession of the lighthouse in 2014. 

Near the end of the picturesque Long Cove Road in Port Medway, the current light has been standing since 1983. But there has been a lighthouse of some kind at the site since 1851, when I.K. Perry was the inaugural keeper.

Cathie Pincombe is secretary of the Medway Head Lighthouse Society and is an organizer of the Medway Head Lighthouse Art and Craft Show. Both are run entirely by volunteers. She says they need more to make sure this piece of Nova Scotia’s heritage survives.

“We are a dedicated hard-working group of people that want to save our iconic Medway Head Lighthouse just like all the other iconic lighthouses in this province. And if not for societies like ours, we would not have lighthouses in this province.”

Like all Nova Scotia lighthouses, the Medway Head Lighthouse was automated in 1983. But it still opens in the summer to tourists, who can learn about the vital part these structures and their hardy, brave keepers and their families played in seaside communities like Port Medway.

The society maintains the lighthouse, doing necessary repairs and upkeep.

Some of the art from last year’s Medway Head Lighthouse Art and Craft Show in Port Medway. (Medway Head Lighthouse Society Facebook page)

To do that, they hold a major fundraiser every summer in the village of Port Medway. The society will hold its 11th annual art and craft Show in August.  

“We are the largest art show on the South Shore. And it’s a pretty impressive show. We have anywhere between 70 and 80 artists that are part of the show every year.”

To run the lighthouse and the art show, however, Pincombe says they need more volunteers. The lighthouse is open three days a week from late June to early September. And the art show goes from Aug. 17 to 25. 

The show alone requires eight volunteers daily for nine days. And the lighthouse needs enough volunteers to cover 36 shifts through the summer.

Sales at the art show are vital to pay for lighthouse repairs and maintenance. Last September’s Hurricane Lee blew much of the siding from one side of the structure.

“It still is going to require some specialized equipment and we’re hopeful we can get it done in the $10,000 range. So it’s not inexpensive to maintain a lighthouse.”

Pincombe says it’s getting more difficult to find volunteers, even as it becomes more important to replenish their ranks.

The society hopes to hire a student for the summer to help with tours and administration. And she says they’re also on the lookout for a treasurer.

“I think it’s getting tougher because even though there are a lot of people moving into the area, and we try to get to know our new community members and hope that they will get involved, it doesn’t seem to be quite as easy to get volunteers as it has been. And we’ve expanded the locations (of the art show) and the number of days. So we’re giving ourselves a bigger number of shifts to cover. So it’s not as easy.

“We volunteers are getting older, so we need younger people to get involved.”

Pincombe says the lighthouse and the art show draw people from across Canada and around the world. Her partner Ray Leger looks after the building and its volunteers and leads many of the tours at the lighthouse in the summer.

“I think we had something like 800 visitors to the lighthouse last year. And Ray … tracks where everybody comes from. And it’s a wide range of people from all over the place. And you’d be amazed how many local people like to come out to the lighthouse.

“So it’s a great cause. The art show is a fun thing to volunteer with, because it’s busy. You meet lots of people. And the lighthouse is a fabulous place to volunteer because you meet people from all over the world with stories and why they came here. It’s really an exciting thing to do.”

If you’re interested in volunteering with the Medway Head Lighthouse Society or the art show, check out their Facebook page, or email them at medwayheadlight@gmail.com.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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