By Josh Casey
Read more in the June 21 edition of The Interior News.
Smithers Art Gallery and Bulkley Valley Museum hosted a reception last Friday for Canada 150 inspired art work.
Kira Westby, curator for the Bulkley Valley Museum, said both the museum and art gallery spent several months planning for the show.
“Together the museum and art gallery came up with the ‘what’s your story?’ theme as a way to share what the sesquicentennial means to them,” she said.
One of the artists was Michelle Gazely who created West Coast Rainforest. She talked about the story behind her painting.
“In reflection of my family’s logging history, I’m third generation B.C. born … my great-grandparents and grandparents worked in the logging camp in the west coast rainforest,” she said.
Frank Ebermann constructed a chair out of an almost 150-year-old tree. His piece is called 150 Years Growing Together With Canada.
“If you walk around it, you get infinite amount of angles and it opens up all these different aspects of the work … It really goes well with the theme of 150-years Canada,” he said.
There are many different stories to be shared through the eyes of the artist, the museum wanted to include artifacts that tell Canada’s story as well.
“We wanted to select artifacts that talked about all sorts of different aspects of Canada’s history so that it’s celebratory, but also reflective,” Westby said.
The Canada 150 inspired art work will be on display at the gallery until July 15. Hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
