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HomePort

Ian Scott - Hobbies & Interests

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Wolfville, Nova Scotia was my boyhood home but before that, the first eight years our family lived in New Brunswick, Cape Breton, and Newfoundland. Beautiful Prince Edward Island has been home since 1972. With deep family roots in all four Atlantic provinces, I developed a strong interest in regional history.

A summer job at the Sackville Harness Shop, while studying at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB ignited a connection to creative design and fine craft beginning with leatherwork. I opened a business making and wholesaling leathergoods in the Maritimes after graduation, which led to an offer to teach leatherwork on Prince Edward Island. Surrounded by other craftspeople it didn't take long to discover the creative environment of a craft college was a great place to work. Touring design schools and galleries in Europe convinced me even further and I returned to Holland College School of Visual Arts to run the only full-time leatherwork program in Canada from 1972-1983, when the Island was undergoing a craft renaissance.

While teaching I experimented with wood, metal and pottery and met Daphne Large who had graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and had opened Village Pottery in New London. Daphne taught part-time at Holland College, and in 1976 we were married. Our family included three children, and now five grandchildren.

Actively involved in community organizations from a young age, college years found me immersed in the 1960's student movement as it existed at Mt. A, which eventually transformed student government and student judicial structures into institutions with real powers - run by students. Three years on student council and lots of campus organizations left me with a growing interest in the impact that individual action could have on community development. As a kid I had enjoyed debating and model parliament so it was no surprise that by my late teens I was involved in politics at the national level attending policy conventions as a youth delegate, cementing my interest in public policy and public service. A decisive workshop exploring the roots of the Antigonish Movement and links between adult education and community development expanded my understanding of the relationship between the two and a sabbatical leave led me to complete a masters in adult education from St. Francis Xavier University in 1983. 

That same year I became executive director of the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation, which operates the provincial museum system across the Island. More opportunities in cultural and educational administration within the PEI Provincial Public Service followed including secondments to the Government of Canada and to UPEI. An opportunity to take early retirement in 2005 was a chance to pursue new interests. With experience in administration and teaching, Seniors College became a volunteer passion, serving as teacher and as president during a time when we were able to grow the peer learning model across the province.

In the 1990s I helped organize a volunteer group to save abandoned rail lands and convert them into a linear park known as the Confederation Trail across the Island. The effort succeeded and produced a destination trail that is included with The Island Walk as well as being PEI's portion of the Trans Canada Trail. I continue as a volunteer in a variety of organizations including the PEI Crafts Council, and Nature PEI. Handbuilt clay continues to drawn the trump card now, and I work daily as a potter within the family business which includes Daphne and our daughter Suzanne who is the current owner of Village Pottery. In 2023 we celebrated its' 50th anniversary, a business which now includes the work of over a dozen potters, and is the longest operating pottery shop on PEI.

My interests include photography, writing, and travel, and I enjoy cycling, kayaking and skiing. Spending time with family, especially grandkids is extra fun - luckily they live nearby.

Creating HomePort, was an effort to share family history research. Over the years the focus has grown to cover 60 ancestral families in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island from the 1700's; like most people the personal continuum of family over time - the stories and the connections between past and present - inspire me for continued historical research.

A few blogs and websites keep me busy as well as creating content for Vintage Charlottetown on Facebook.