The seed was planted.

Abandoned Field © Dick Groot

Windsor-Wear Textile Mill © Dick Groot

The seed of the project “Ribbon to the Future” was planted in 1996-97 when I spent holidays with my family in the Annapolis Valley.  Driving the old routes from Annapolis Royal to Minas Basin I was struck by the architecture of the farms, villages and towns that betrayed both wealth and economic decline.  The landscape itself presented fields that had gone out of production and abandoned railroads overgrown with young forests of alders, birch and pine; sometimes cleared to start life anew as recreational trails.  I was also struck by a terrific example of late 19th century classic “Standard English Mill” industrial architecture: The Windsor Wear- Nova Scotia Textiles Mill.  It had gone out of business and some entrepreneurs had a vision to turn it into high-end condos and art centre including a brewery and restaurant.  I photographed the plant just after most of the old machinery had been moved.

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As we summered in the Valley until 2001 we became more and more interested in the life and spirit of the valley towns and villages and more puzzled by the reasons for the decline in economic activity, the vitality of the artistic community.  At the same time we saw new enterprises that looked more like soloist craft or artisan type activities and old buildings that had found new uses, for example the railway station in Wolfvile which is now the Public Library.  

Holly Carr, Fiber artist © Dick Groot

When in 2002 we moved permanently to Wolfville I became interested in creating a portrait documentary of artists of the Minas Basin area who had migrated here from the early 1970s onward.  I wanted to know what makes them tick, why did they come and given the precarious economic conditions in which many find themselves, why do they stay?  At the end of the project I concluded that these folks are passionate about their art and independence, and they measure their quality of life in those rather than economic terms.  I completed this documentary of 12 artists and artisans and showed the result at ViewPoint Gallery in Halifax in the Fall of 2003 and at ArtCan in Canning in February 2004.

From the first visits to the Valley I have made photographs of the tidal landscape of Fundy and Minas Basin.  A selection of 32 of those were shown in a multimedia installation in the Fall of 2010 at the Art Gallery of Acadia University.  This was a significant departure in my solitary photographic practice as it involved the collaborative effort of poets, a composer, a sound specialist, a recording specialist as well as actors and singers to read the poetry, in addition to myself.  The experience led to new personal insight into dealing with the place of photography in relation to other art media to achieve a specific purpose. 

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Low Tide Starrs Point

Hannah had also arrived at a point in her photographic career where the traditional way of showing work in exhibits on walls was no longer the only satisfying one.  We began kicking around ideas as to how one could reflect the economic and social history of the Valley around a core of very good photography, to colaborate with artists in other media to complement our work.  To exploit not only conventional ways of presenting the work but also the new web media.  Taking this path would make the project much more broadly accessible and could even evolve into a community resource to which new information could be added.

Thus an art based project would become a stimulus for individuals to explore the history and better understand the potential of the Annapolis Valley as a great place to live, have families and start new enterprises that take full advantage of the opportunities of the growing IT technologies.

Dick Groot
August 2011

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