Small Town, Big Ideas (Paint the Town Symposium, 2025 - Annapolis Royal)
Small Town, Big Ideas: Surviving and Thriving as a Rural Artist
66 Victoria St., Annapolis Royal – Legion/Community Centre
Heading to the country for inspiration is one thing. Making your life here, year in year out, is quite another. Four artists bare their rural roots in an honest discussion of the rewards and challenges of grounding their practice in smaller communities.
- Moderator:
Therese Cruz (Shelburne) - Executive Director, Visual Arts NS / Councillor, Town of Shelburne
- Panelists:
Rebecca Fisk (Mahone Bay) – Artist, High School Art Teacher
Debra Kuzyk (Annapolis Royal) – Artist, Lucky Rabbit Pottery
Garth Laidlaw (Granville Ferry) – Artist, The Animation Tutor
Artist Profile - Therese Cruz
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Therese Cruz is a dynamic leader deeply committed to fostering community prosperity in Nova Scotia. As the Executive Director of Visual Arts Nova Scotia, she passionately champions the province’s visual artists, advocating for their recognition and growth within the vibrant arts scene and beyond. She is also a trained goldsmith/jewellery artist, which helps her understand the challenges and triumphs that artists face, especially for those who are in rural areas.
Beyond the arts, Therese is a proud advocate for local food systems, serving as the President of Farmers Markets of Nova Scotia. In this role, she supports the promotion of sustainable agriculture and direct connections between producers and consumers, to help strengthen the local economy. Her dedication extends to supporting small enterprises as a member of the Shelburne and Area Chamber of Commerce, where she works to enhance the vitality of local businesses.
Furthermore, as a Town Councillor in Shelburne, Therese emphasizes the critical importance of government support and strategic investment in ensuring the long-term prosperity and resilience of rural communities. Her multifaceted involvement underscores a holistic approach to community development, blending cultural enrichment with economic sustainability.
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Artist Profile - Garth Laidlaw
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Garth Laidlaw is an animator, illustrator, painter, and online tutor, and lives in Granville Beach. Since moving to the area of Annapolis Royal he has been renting space to cultivate his painting practice at H’Arts on Church St where he shows his work and paints out of. Garth is aesthetically tied to the impressionists and post-impressionists in his colour palette, and forever exploring his technique; pushing and pulling between classical and modern traditions.
He mentors young artists online under his company ‘The Animation Tutor’ where he builds online courses and one-on-one mentorships for students to learn the increasingly rare classical skills of drawing and design for animation; filling the gap left by high-schools globally.
Garth attends ARCAC’s life drawing to maintain his abilities with the skills that he teaches, and looks forward to painting with other artists in and around this region of Nova Scotia.
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Artist Profile - Rebecca Fisk
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Rebecca Fisk is a passionate and introspective painter whose work explores identity and the realities of racism. Raised in rural Nova Scotia, Rebecca’s early connection to art evolved into a powerful tool for self-expression and social critique. Her paintings often center around self-portraiture, blending realism and symbolism to examine personal identity and challenge cultural stereotypes. Informed by lived experience and a strong awareness of social issues, her work confronts racism with honesty and urgency. Each piece becomes both a mirror of her journey and a window into broader systemic injustice.
In addition to her studio practice, Rebecca is a dedicated high school art teacher who encourages creativity, critical thinking, and social awareness in her students. She has exhibited widely across Nova Scotia and Canada, and is a recipient of Canada Council and Arts Nova Scotia grants. Through her art, Rebecca invites viewers into a deeper conversation about identity, empathy, and racial equity.
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Artist Profile - Deb Kuzyk
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Debra Kuzyk is a clay-based artist living in rural Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia.
She completed a BED at the University of Saskatchewan, a BFA at NSCAD University, and a one-year residency at the Banff Centre. After graduating, Kuzyk spent a decade learning about
self-employment in arts related work before teaming up with potter Ray Mackie to establish Lucky Rabbit studio and gallery in Annapolis Royal, NS. in 1999. For over 25 years they produced
functional and exhibition pieces which featured Debra’s depictions of local flora and fauna. She sculpted animal finials, embellished the surfaces of Ray’s pots and ran the gallery. In 2017 she
established Lucky Rabbit & Co. Artists’ Collective which received an Industry Leadership/Supporter Award in 2022.
Lucky Rabbit closed its doors at the end of 2022, and Debra is now working solo. She continues to create work about the wildlife and disappearing wilderness of Nova Scotia.
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