Some see an old barn. Carissa Ainslie sees an art studio. Where others see a quaint farmhouse, she envisions a place for creatives to congregate. Some see ...
Carissa Ainslie was born and raised in Halifax but was living for many years in Toronto before moving back to Nova Scotia.Some see an old barn. Carissa Ainslie sees an art studio.Some see abandoned farmland. Ainslie sees a beautiful future.
The pandemic gave her a chance to pause and reflect. She thought about a dream she had thought about a couple of years previously to open a retreat for artists - somewhere they could work on pieces or hold sessions. The longer the pandemic lasted, the more she thought about the idea. While property prices rose dramatically during the pandemic, the cost of creating what Ainslie was envisioning in Nova Scotia was far more realistic than it would be in other places.
“For my last presentation, I had just closed on this house, so I was able to use the exact property and not just guess,” she said. But she’s gotten to meet a lot of people and has already immersed herself in the community and has begun volunteering with events like Antigonight, an art event in Antigonish.This fall she will be applying for funding to help fuel the future of her property. She hopes to use it to renovate the barn into a studio. Another building she would like to convert into her own residence so the larger house can be used for others to stay in. Future plans would see cabins on other parts of the property.