Vision Statement:
Colchester: An Arts Community

Mission Statement:
Introducing, nurturing, and sustaining arts and culture in our community

Values:
The operation of the Cobequid Arts Council reflects our key values:

Creativity, Excellence, Partnership & Collaboration, Transparency & Accountability, Innovation, Accessibility, Respect, Inclusion

The Marigold Cultural Centre

For a number of years, the town of Truro lacked an arts and cultural centre to host various live performances and arts education programs.  When the former Centennial Theatre, located in the heart of Truro, became available a plan to purchase and develop the facility into that long-awaited venue was created. That plan resulted in the money for both the purchase and the renovation of the facility being raised through a Community Economic Development Investment Funds cooperative venture.

The Marigold houses a 208 soft seat theatre, the MMFI Art Gallery, the Colchester County Sports Hall of Fame, a workshop space for arts education programs for all age groups, a boardroom, concession area, and offices. With the strong support of the community and various organizations, the Marigold provides musical, theatrical, live comedy, and dance performances for the community and surrounding areas.

Why "The Marigold" ?

Through the newspaper column of local journalist W. B. Foster, residents of Truro during the years between 1935 and 1968, came to know the fictional EES Marigold, flagship of the Brown Star Navigation Company. Once each month or so, Daily News subscribers in the Truro area were treated to the misadventures of the EES Marigold as it sailed up and down the Salmon River. Its stories became legendary and for 33 years, loyal readers would await Foster’s anecdotes about the Marigold and its passengers, many of them well-known citizens of the day. Launched in the midst of the Depression, The Marigold Sails Again by Edwin Sherdlou, Foster’s pen name, soon became a part of everyday life in Truro, featuring national, provincial, and local characters, making W. B. Foster’s stories seem almost real.  Adding a touch of whimsy to an otherwise somber decade, the Marigold sailed through the political ups and downs of the Thirties, through the Second World War and the post-war Baby Boom before its final voyage in the 1960s. The EES Marigold is a Truro original that captured the imagination of readers across the country.  It seems fitting that the Marigold Cultural Centre share its name as the home for creativity, originality, and community pride.