“I love that you’re investing in people here”

Annette Verschuren and Stan Shibinsky are struck by the large photographs on display in the boardroom on the second floor of the Eltuek Arts Centre. The photos are part of a series called Forged, a long-form, photo documentary chronicling the end of steel making in Sydney. They ask about one image of a woman cutting into a large cabbage with a knife and a hammer.

Luckily, the photographer, Steve Wadden, happens to walk by at that moment and he pops his head into the boardroom to share the stories behind the photographs.

You could call it kismet, but that’s just how it is at Eltuek — artists, creators, ideas, energy, passion, optimism all buzzing around to create a space that fosters creativity, community, social change, and, in moments like this, a sense of deep connection through art.

And none of it would be possible without the generous support of donors like Annette and Stan.

“Eltuek Arts Centre is a women-led, artist-driven organization founded on the belief that art and community can reshape the world around us, to be more honest, more just, and more beautiful,” says New Dawn’s Director of Arts & Community, Christie MacNeil.

“Annette and Stan’s gift allowed us to move forward with clarity and courage, and to build something entirely new.”

New Dawn purchased the former Holy Angels High School and Convent in 2013 and soon began the work of transforming the 130-year-old convent building into a contemporary arts centre. After seven years of planning, designing, funding and rebuilding, Eltuek Arts Centre opened to the public in 2020 and has, in the years since, become a vital centre for creativity, connection, and social change. It is a beautiful building crafted with great care and love, and it stands as a symbol of hope and renewal for a community that has struggled for more than 40 years to reinvent itself after the decline of the coal and steel industries.

From the very beginning, Annette and Stan supported New Dawn’s vision for an artist-led, artist-focused centre.

“I loved the objective of this project. I loved that it was economic development, social responsibility, celebrating the culture and the environment that we’re in, and the community — it’s all the pieces coming together,” Annette says.

“I’ve worked with a lot of development corporations and companies and communities, and New Dawn is a rock in our community. I love that its the oldest community development corporation and, in my opinion, one of the most successful and sustainable in the country. I’ve always been very proud of my relationship with New Dawn.”

Growing up on a dairy farm in Cape Breton, Annette knew hard work and the value of community. After graduating from St. Francis Xavier, she began her career working at DEVCO before moving into retail, heading up the growth of Michaels Canada and then Home Depot Canada. Today, she is co-chair and CEO of NRStor, the energy-storage startup she founded in 2012.

Standing side by side with Stan in one of Eltuek’s public galleries, taking in Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris’s painting Miners’ Houses: Glace Bay, Annette’s memories of those early days with Cape Breton miners resurface.

“I learned a lot from them. Wonderful people,” she recalls. That connection — past, present, and future — is what Eltuek is all about.

It’s the love of the island and its people that inspires Annette and Stan to support projects like Eltuek and to spend as much time as they can in their wood cabin on the Bras d’Or. Annette sees the island changing and sees Eltuek as a reflection of that change.

“It represents an inclusive environment. Reconciliation is really important to Stan and me, so we love that component of it and that it brings together our original residents and newcomers, with all the immigration that’s happened over the last number of years, and it’s just a wonderful place where people are welcome and can be creative and can do things,” she says.

Eltuek’s fourth floor collaborative studio, which has workspaces for 22 artists, is named in their honour: The Annette Verschuren and Stan Shibinsky Open Studio.

“What Annette and Stan gave to New Dawn wasn’t just a gift to a capital campaign, nor was it ever simply about restoring a building, it was about reimagining what it, and we, could hold and do together,” reflects Christie MacNeil.

Annette and Stan are art enthusiasts and collectors with a special love for Canadian art. They own one Lawren Harris painting and have seen many others at galleries across the country, but their visit to Eltuek is their first opportunity to view Miners’ Houses: Glace Bay, a painting depicting the company houses occupied by miners and their families and painted during the historic miners strike of 1925. It is on loan from the Art Gallery of Ontario until July 3.

“You’re doing great things here. I love that you’re investing in people. For the next 50 years, my wish is that you continue on that road, making this a place where people want to come,” Annette says.

Eltuek (el-du-ehg) is a Mi’kmaw word meaning “(we) are making (it) together.” The (we) decides what the (it) will be. It could be a painting, a poem, a shared meal, a relationship; the list is endless.

Like Annette, we’re excited for what the next 50 years will bring — for Eltuek, for New Dawn, and for Cape Breton.