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Wednesday 10am - 4pm Thursday 10am - 4pm Friday 10pm - 4pm Saturday 12pm - 4pm Sunday 12pm - 4pm

Chester Art Centre

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Chester, NS
Chester Art Centre

Community Arts Centre, servicing Chester and surrounding area with exhibits, workshops, studio space, art camps and more. https://linktr.ee/chesterartcentre

Creative and cultural activities, exploration and education. The Chester Art Centre was founded in April 2007 to enhance and encourage artistic opportunities in the Municipality of Chester, Nova Scotia. The Chester Art Centre offers a wide range of exhibits year-round in a classic Chester cottage which features a main floor exhibition space, accessible bathroom and is fully licensed ; the upstairs

is the Art Centre office. The Chester Art Centre Annex at 5 Pleasant street offers a varied and experiential range of classes and workshops for children and adults. We also offer art experiences throughout the community. The Chester Art Centre sponsors the hugely successful Chester Creates, an exciting free two-day festival highlighted by a featured month-long exhibition, stimulating demonstrations and art experiences, live music, and a chance to meet local and regional artists and buy their works. We finance the Art Centre and our educational efforts through art classes, the art fair and festival, and the generous contributions of supporters, sponsors and various government programs. We partner with the Recreation Department of the Municipality of Chester and have co-ventured on programs with the Chester Playhouse, Chester Elementary School, Chester Area Middle School, the Chester Municipal Heritage Society, the Ross Farm Museum, Our Health Centre and more.

09/04/2026

NEXT WEEKEND! Join Beth Lenco at the Captain’s House on September from 12th 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Improve your acrylic painting skills by discovering the joy of painting littles! Come for a day of learning the foundations of a good painting while working from live flower bouquets. Mini pocket paintings will give you the opportunity to create and explore without overcoming your time and money on a large canvas. Gain confidence to keep painting!

Event Highlights:
- The hallmarks of strong work
- Simple drawing techniques
- Making choices and decisions
- Value, colour & composition
- Joy & inspiration with others

09/03/2026

Opening one week from today: Atlantic Women Fish Packers,
an exhibition by Su Rogers.

Please join us for the Opening Reception next Thursday, September 10th from 5-7pm.

“These expressive figurative works combine images and text to explore the often invisible work of Nova Scotia women in the fishery–both as fish packers and as fishers.

The paintings draw on many sources: religious iconography echoing the reliance on faith to sustain fishers and their families through storms and loss; classical symbolism relating to the age-old biblical work of fishing; and folk traditions and motifs which decorated and enriched domestic lives in the coastal communities.

Hopefully, I have succeeded in celebrating aspects of the seaward lives of the many women fish packers who work in small sheds along Nova Scotia’s South Shore and the fisher women who earn their living from the sea.” - Su Rogers

09/01/2026

September is here, which means there is ONE WEEK LEFT to visit our gallery and see the incredible work of Sera Senakovicz in her exhibition: Tender the Garden.

We are open this week Wed-Fri from 10am to 4pm and on the weekend from noon to 4pm. Stop in to see this exhibition before it's too late!

08/31/2026

As families get ready for back to school this week, we are still hearing how BLOWN AWAY our community was by the incredible art installations at the 2026 Charm Diamond Centres Carnival of Colours!

We want to thank our wonderful artists who showcased their talents and made the weekend so special for attendees of our Gala & AFTERGLOW Party as well as all of the families and children who joined us for our first ever FREE Community Day. Everyone had a blast playing your beautiful, creative amusements and the weekend wouldn’t have been the same without your spectacular contributions!

Please follow and support all of these incredibly talented artists. THANK YOU for supporting the Chester Art Centre!

08/26/2026

We had a lovely Opening Reception last Thursday for our current exhibition, ‘Tender the Garden’ by Que Sera Ceramics

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend, it was such a special night for our art centre and the artist, with attendees lined up at the door when we opened at 5pm.

Everything in this exhibition is for sale with proceeds benefiting our exhibiting artist and our nonprofit art centre. These exquisite pieces are selling fast so please stop by between now and September 8th to see Sera’s work for yourself and maybe even add something special to your collection.

08/19/2026

Please join us tomorrow at the Chester Art Centre for the Opening Reception of ‘Tender the Garden’ by Que Sera Ceramics

Doors open at 5pm and complimentary refreshments and charcuterie will be served. We hope to see you there!

08/18/2026

ONLY 4 SPOTS LEFT!

Expand your creative horizons in this weekend workshop with Lorna Mulligan

You’ll learn new skills in this introduction to black ink. From delicate lines and washes to bold, assertive shapes, textures, and descriptive passages. The workshop includes sketching and painting techniques, with plein-air work each day and creative explorations, experimental studies, and collaboration in the studio.

Lorna’s incredible landscape artwork featuring black ink graced our gallery in January. Now’s your opportunity to learn these impressive techniques for yourself!

Sign up on our website! www.chesterartcentre.ca/adultprograms

08/07/2026

What a start to summer it was on that hot night in early July when art and merriment collided under the Big Top. The Charm Diamond Centres Carnival of Colours combined a stunning art exhibition, impressive artist-created games, talented carnival entertainers, and music that had us boogying on the dance floor. We enjoyed lobster rolls, oysters, and inventive cocktails, but most of all, we came together like never before. This community’s involvement in the Carnival of Colours will allow the Chester Art Centre’s mandate of bringing art to the community to exceed expectations for the year ahead.

Your support means the world to us, and it meant we could offer a free art day to the community the very next day after the Carnival. The artists, amusements, live music and interactive art for all ages embodied our vision of offering something for everyone in our community.

By purchasing a ticket to this year’s Carnival of Colours, by volunteering, sponsoring, bidding, buying art or being a donor, you have helped make art a part of life in our extended community. These are a few of the ways you have made an impact:
    •    100 people will receive a free art kit each month
    •    Both emerging and established artists have an opportunity to promote and show their art
    •    Art is offered to children throughout the year, including summer and school break camps
    •    Seniors are thriving with fresh experiences in our senior-specific classes
    •    Community members can engage with a myriad of art instruction
    •    We can continue to partner with the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance to combine art with moving musical performances

THANK YOU & we hope to see you back next year!!!! 🎪🌈

Photos by Rob Decoeli

08/06/2026

Tender the Garden: An Art Exhibition by Sera Senakovicz. Here from August 20th to September 8th.

Opening Reception Thursday, August 20th from 5-7pm.

“‘Tender the Garden’ centres around my work as a ceramicist, painter and gardener. Using inspiration from my own garden to depict the growth, resilience, community and determination found within the space.

Four large scale oil paintings act as keystones of the exhibition, with eighty sgraffito ceramic pots connected with similar imagery to the paintings. All the pieces play with the real and imagined inhabitants/visitors to the garden space including depictions of plants, insects and birds.

The garden has been my refuge for many years. The pleasant street garden has been a project for a decade since moving to Truro. I first began planting with the goal centered around feeding my household but it quickly changed as I noticed more and more insects and birds relying on it for sustenance. It now holds roughly 100 plants that create refuge for numerous pollinators. The garden itself is surrounded by concrete and townscape but inside the fence are over 100 plants that provide refuge for pollinators and myself. Each year I replace more of the grass with native and pollinator friendly plants.”

Address

60 Queen Street
Chester, NS
B0J1J0

Opening Hours

Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10pm - 4pm
Saturday	12pm - 4pm
Sunday	12pm - 4pm

Telephone

+19022755789

Website

https://linktr.ee/chesterartcentre

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