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Campbell River Art Gallery director says Members’ Show is their chance to celebrate local art and artists

Show features over 50 works by members of both the art gallery and the arts council

The 36th Annual Members’ Show has been installed at the Campbell River Art Gallery and is open to the public.

The exhibition features over 50 works by members of both the Campbell River Art Gallery and the Campbell River Arts Council. Artists must be members in good standing of both organizations in order to display their work in the annual show, which runs through Feb. 21.

At the grand opening of the exhibition on Thursday, new executive director of the gallery, Vicky Chainey Gagnon, said of all the exhibitions and installations that the gallery will have this year, this is one of the most important.

“This is our chance to celebrate you,” Chainey Gagnon said to the room of artists and community partners gathered for the opening Thursday night. “It’s the artists and members of the community who make this gallery the wonderful place that it is, and for that I would like to thank you very much and say it’s an honour to have your work on these walls right now. Congratulations, it looks fabulous.”

Ken Blackburn, executive director of the Campbell River Arts Council, says the diversity – along with the exceptional quality – of the work in the exhibition shows just how vibrant the arts are in Campbell River right now.

“This is really a remarkable time in Campbell River,” Blackburn says. “All you have to do is take a look around this room to realize that arts and culture here is very alive and well.”

Blackburn says that between the new staff at the gallery, “the wonderful programming happening these days at the Tidemark Theatre, as well as the work happening at Rivercity Stage, the music scene at Spirit Square, the work taking place at the Museum at Campbell River,” as well as the work of the arts council – for which he is “admittedly biased” – he feels the community is going to be well-served as it continues to move forward in terms of arts programming and offerings.

“The arts and culture scene of Campbell River has always been here – it’s been an undercurrent of the strength of this community – but I don’t know that it’s ever been more exciting and in the forefront,” Blackburn says.

Next up for the gallery is an exhibition entitled “Recover All That Is Ours,” with guest curator Shannon Webb-Campbell, which will be an exhibition of poetry on the walls of the gallery that examines and redefines our ideas about Canada and its cultural relationships.

A full list of upcoming exhibitions can be found at crartgallery.ca/exhibitions/upcoming

The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission to all gallery exhibitions is by donation.