Blog & News

The Okanagan Print Triennial offers visitors a fascinating glimpse into the global printmaking community. This open, juried show is dedicated to showcasing the creative forays made in printmaking across Canada and beyond, at a time when experimentation dominates and traditional practices and processes are challenged. This year, Okanagan Print Triennial will feature such a diversity of style and subject matter that visitors can look forward to leaving the exhibition with a true appreciation of contemporary printmaking.

The Okanagan Print Triennial was initiated in 2009 by Kelowna-based printmaker Briar Craig, and supported by the Kelowna Art Gallery, the Vernon Public Art Gallery, and the University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus. The winner of the 2024 Triennial will be given a solo exhibition at the Kelowna Art Gallery in 2027.

The exhibit runs until October 27th. Learn more about the Kelowna Art Gallery here.

"Last week a major heritage site in British Columbia was moments away from being destroyed by a wildfire and was saved by the herculean effort of the B.C. Wildfire Service and site staff, new fire breaks, and a miraculous last-second shift in the winds.

Elsewhere in the province, art galleries and museums in central B.C. are opening their doors for free to evacuees displaced by wildfires in Alberta.

Each day museum, gallery, and heritage workers and volunteers are going to work while waiting to hear if they will be forced to evacuate their sites, homes, and communities.

It has never been a more dangerous time for B.C.’s museums, galleries, and heritage sites — and this danger takes a significant toll on the people who devote their lives to safeguarding our irreplaceable cultural heritage."

Read the full article by Ryan Hunt, Executive Director of the BC Museums Association, here.

Ron Verzuh reviews "A River Captured: The Columbia River Treats and Catastrophic Change" by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes.

Excerpt:

"American-born author Eileen Delehanty Pearkes came to the northern banks of the Columbia in 1985 to do further research into its history. She was partly interested in learning more about the river as a food source for First Nations like the Sinixt or Lakes People that were falsely declared extinct in 1956.

We follow her research much like we might tag along with a traveler exploring new territory. She is a modern-day David Thompson, the explorer who first mapped his way along the river’s 2,000 kilometres to the Pacific Ocean in 1806. Except that she has other goals in mind than finding new trade routes for a rapacious corporation like the North West Company.

Dedicating her book to the river, she writes that she wants “to see for myself how and why the fish no longer spawn in the upper Columbia region.” She also wants to see how the First Nations people who lived next to the river were devastated by its capture."

Read the full review here.

A chief’s seat that has been in the Royal B.C. Museum’s possession for more than a century is being handed back to the ­Heiltsuk Nation near Bella Bella.

Marilyn Slett, a Carpenter descendant and the elected chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, said the seat is the first of Carpenter’s major works to be repatriated. “For this to come home, it’s a ­monumental day for us. It feels like Captain has come home.” “Captain Carpenter was a good leader. He made sure that the people in the Bella Bella were fed,” said Steve Carpenter, Captain Carpenter’s great-grandson.

The seat was reassembled from storage for the occasion, but will be taken apart to travel by truck to Heiltsuk lands in Bella Bella, where a larger celebration is set to take place on July 25.

Read more here.

Resident shipwright, Dave Sharp is now working out of Richmond Boat Builders, a workshop originally built in 1932 by Japanese Canadian boatbuilder Saeji Kishi.

His current project is the repair and maintenance of the Silver Ann - built in 1968-69 by Sadajiro Asari - the last wooden gillnetter to be built in this workshop. Catch Dave in action during weekdays to see his latest project.

Visit their website here.

Villains and Vittles Dinner Theatre returns for its 30th year at R. J. Haney House. Enjoy performances every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday evening from July 14th to August 25th.

This annual event for the R. J. Haney Heritage Village & Museum is a fun way to support the museum. To learn more visit their website.

The sod was turned on July 9th, 2024 to begin construction on the new roof that will shelter locomotive No. 5500 at the Revelstoke Railway Museum.

The project will build a roof over diesel locomotive No. 5500, a piece of designated Canadian Cultural Property. The locomotive was built in 1966 by General Motors in London, Ontario and was the first diesel-electric locomotive. It was a significant part of Canadian railway history and Revelstoke's railway history. The roof will protect the locomotive from inclement weather.

Original article from The Revelstoke Review.

The Chinese Canadian Museum in Victoria has officially launched their new exhibit, "Victoria in the Time of Exclusion." Learn more about Chinese people who lived in Victoria during the dismal exclusion years (1923-1947) through surviving C.I. certificates.

This exhibit is an extension of the Museum's inaugural "The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act" exhibition.

Learn more here.

Parks Canada is planning the future of Fort Langley National Historic Site, and are seeking the public's input.

Share your thoughts on the visions and strategies gathered for the new Fort Langley NHS Management Plan by taking their survey. 

Survey available until July 23rd, 2024.

Registration is now open for the BC Museums Association's annual conference.

The conference will be held in Prince George from September 23rd to 27th. Registration is open to Emerging/Underemployed Professionals, BCMA Members, and Non-Members.

Learn more about the conference and register here.