space project

Imagining a Space for This Town is Small

Imagining a Space for This Town Is Small: A Space Needs Assessment is a document that shares the research and findings from the space needs assessment process that was undertaken by this town is small from March to November 2023.

Through this process, this town is small has set a new facility goal:

To create an affordable, sustainable, and accessible home for TTIS that enhances programming, unifies community, and increases visibility.

The document includes an organizational assessment of TTIS; an external scan; facility models; identifying space needs and wants; building an inclusive, accessible and community-led space; visioning a way forward; space availability and affordability; key next steps; and more.

This document is a detailed overview, and while it may not be desirable to read in its entirely (although we think it’s a great read!), you are welcome to reference the table of contents to seek out the sections that are of most interest to you.

We’d like to thank the artists, audiences, supporters, partners, consultants, arts workers, and more that contributed to this process.

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Information on this project

This Town Is Small (TTIS) is a spaceless artist-run centre (ARC) that is committed to supporting contemporary art through diverse and supportive community partnerships, providing opportunities for artists and making connections with the public. As the only ARC in the province, it has been a long-term goal to one day have a dedicated space, as visual artists continue to lack a central hub that offers professional exhibitions, workshops, events, and more, as well as intangible benefits that come from a gathering space for creativity and imagination. As the artistic community continues to grow and other arts groups express similar space needs, we see an opportunity to be a leader with the aim of offering an intentional and anti-oppressive lens that welcomes a variety of perspectives/lived experiences for a vision of space that is sustainable, resilient, and shared.

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Through organizational assessment and research, a series of community consultations and an internal visioning session, the development of a space needs assessment document and public presentation of the findings, TTIS will have a better understanding of the impact of a dedicated space on our surrounding communities. We’re grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for supporting this work through a Seed Grant from the Strategic Innovation Fund.

our facilitators

  • Penny McCann brings to her work as an independent arts consultant decades of experience as an arts administrator and media artist.  In her consulting practice, Penny specializes in working with artist-run organizations in the areas of strategic planning, governance, organizational development, mentorship, and facility planning.


  • Carmel Farahbakhsh (they/them) is a community educator, arts maker, and youth worker. 

    They have collaborated on The Khyber Centre For The Arts board for three years, and are enjoying their new position as co-director of local music festival EVERYSEEKER. Carmel builds their vision from their community education background and aims to apply an anti-racist and trauma-informed framework to their work.

It is critical that as we discuss realities of space and potential space ownership that we pay respect to the traditional owners and custodians of the lands on which this town is small and its activities are located. Epekwitk is a part of Mi’kma’ki, the unceded, ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq, and is subject to the Treaties of Peace and Friendship. It is deeply important that through this process we disrupt patterns of nonprofits and arts spaces being aware catalysts of gentrification and/or development of community spaces without consultation and care – we see this as intrinsically linked to the realities of ongoing neo-colonisation.

This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of: