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AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2026

VERNON PUBLIC ART GALLERY

3228 31st Avenue Vernon, BC V1T 2H3 (250) 545-3173 info@vernonpublicartgallery.com vernonpublicartgallery.com VPAG acknowledges our presence on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded tm̓ xʷúlaʔxʷ (land) of the syilx / Okanagan people who have resided here since time immemorial. We recognize, honour, and respect the syilx / Okanagan lands upon which we live, work, and play.

Hours: Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Closed Closed 10 am to 5 pm 10 am to 5 pm 10 am to 5 pm 10 am to 5 pm 11 am to 4 pm

Admission: Free for everyone Donations gratefully appreciated Wheelchair accessible Gender-neutral restroom

Cover image: Mary Kavanagh, Opera Obscura (detail), 2026. Ink on books

The Vernon Public Art Gallery is a registered not-for-profit society. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of BC's Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, British Columbia Arts Council, the Government of Canada, Corporate Donations, Sponsorships, Foundation Grants, General Donations and Memberships. Charitable Organization #108113358RR

Letter from the Executive Director Thanks to our members, donors, sponsors, volunteers, artists, and visitors for helping us raise $118,000 at this year’s Midsummer’s Eve of the Arts and for all that you do everyday to make the VPAG a welcoming space that continues to thrive in the North Okanagan. As the warmer months end and we look towards the fall, the Vernon Public Art Gallery is thrilled to present an exciting new series of three exhibitions: Opera Obscura, Your Absence is Mineral, and Creatrix Rising. Amplifying the voices of women across Western Canada, the exhibitions offer new perspectives on themes like knowledge, grief, and fortitude. Opera Obscura by Mary Kavanagh will bring a massive installation into the Topham Brown gallery, where 2,000 books have been brought in and built into stacks in the centre of the space. Sarah Steeves’ Your Absence is Mineral is a combination of both static art and a piece that will change over the course of the exhibition, as saline crystals grow on copper textiles. In Archway Society for Domestic Peace’s Creatrix Rising exhibition, the women who are a part of their art program show their inner strength through the range of artwork they’ve created, from watercolours to reconstructed and decorated heels. All three exhibitions carry the through-line of reflection on change and resilience. As a finale to the summer on August 22nd, the community’s favourite alternative arts festival, Riot on the Road, will fill the street with music, visual art, and activities from emerging artists. The event has typically taken place on the roof of the parkade but will now instead extend across a road and alleyway by the gallery. We also have an exciting lineup of events planned for Culture Days from September 18th to October 4th, which will all be free or pay what you may. These include free family programming and a Community Conversation on the exhibition Opera Obscura. We look forward to welcoming you to the gallery. Warmly,

Calendar of Events August 7 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Battle of the Bands at Polson Park

August 20 10:00 to 11:30am

Mini Artists

August 20 6:00pm to 7:00pm

Artist Talk with Mary Kavanagh

August 21 3:30pm to 5:00pm

Crit Club

August 22 1:00pm to 2:30pm

Family Saturday

Midsummer’s Eve of the Arts 2026. Photo by SVOI Media.

August 22 7:00pm to 11:00pm

Riot on the Roof Road

September 1

Your Absence is Mineral Opens

September 17 1:00pm to 2:00pm

Leaving a Lasting Legacy

September 24 10:00am to 11:30am

Mini Artists Free Culture Days Event

September 24 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Community Conversations Panel Free Culture Days Event

September 25 3:30pm to 5:00pm

Crit Club Free Culture Days Event

September 26 1:00pm to 2:30pm

Family Saturday Free Culture Days Event

September 30

Closed for Truth and Reconciliation Day

October 6 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Closing Reception for Opera Obscura and Your Absence is Mineral

Opening Receptions are generously supported by:

Current & Upcoming Exhibitions

July 24 to October 7

Creatrix Rising Archway Society for Domestic Peace Community Gallery

August 5 to October 3

Opera Obscura Mary Kavanagh Topham Brown Memorial Gallery

September 1 to October 7

Your Absence is Mineral Sarah Steeves Caroline Galbraith & Up-Front Galleries

Oct 16 to Dec 23

Bound to Birth Darian Goldin Stahl Topham Brown Memorial Gallery

Oct 16 to Dec 23

TBD Mackie AiR Community Gallery

Oct 16 to Dec 23

Exposed! Gallery Members Caroline Galbraith Gallery & Up-Front Gallery

A look back at the Emergence exhibition piece titled Frilly Tank (detail), 2025 by Averi Boerboom, on display from May 29 to July 25, 2026.

Opera Obscura Mary Kavanagh August 5 - October 3, 2026 Topham Brown Memorial Gallery Opera Obscura is a large-scale installation by Canadian artist Mary Kavanagh. For three decades, Kavanagh has investigated sites shaped by nuclear colonialism, militarization, and industrial extraction, tracing how histories are materially inscribed in land, atmosphere, and built environments. In this new work, she turns her attention to one of the defining institutions of civic life: the library. At the exhibition’s centre are approximately 2,000 deaccessioned books sourced from the annual collection review of the University of Lethbridge Library. Spanning disciplines, languages, and eras, each volume has been individually hand-inked and arranged in a dense gridded field. Gilded titles, embossed surfaces, library markings, and traces of use remain partially visible beneath layers of ink. A tension between erasure and preservation extends through a companion series of black-on-black photographs in which individual volumes are isolated, lit, and slowly disclosed. The project investigates the library as both repository and site of cultural negotiation — an institution through which knowledge is ordered, preserved, overwritten, or erased. The work confronts incremental transformations shaping public institutions — technological change, economic pressures, and shifting political priorities — that quietly alter the conditions through which knowledge circulates. Monumental in scale and elegiac in tone, the project registers the slow erosion of the material record, the institutions entrusted with its keeping, and the accelerating forces that threaten both.

Mary Kavanagh, Opera Obscura (detail). Ink on books and photographs.

Creatrix Rising Archway Society July 23 - October 7, 2026 Community Gallery The Vernon Public Art Gallery is pleased to present Creatrix Rising, an exhibition featuring works by participants in Archway Society for Domestic Peace’s arts-based Creatrix Rising program. Archway Society supports families across the North Okanagan to live lives of dignity and respect, free from domestic and sexual violence. Through a continuum of free support services offered, Archway provides essential resources, advocacy, counselling, shelter, and community-based programming for survivors of violence and abuse. Creatrix Rising is one of Archway’s transformative community programs, bringing women together in a welcoming creative space where art becomes a pathway to connection, healing, self-expression, and personal growth. Through trauma-informed workshops led by artist mentors, participants explore a variety of creative practices while building confidence, resilience, and a stronger sense of belonging. This exhibition celebrates the creativity, courage, and unique voices of the women who have participated in the program. The works on view reflect diverse artistic approaches and personal experiences, offering powerful expressions of resilience, growth, and transformation. Through making, sharing, and reflecting, participants develop artistic tools that support self-expression and reclaim agency long after the program itself has ended. At its heart, Creatrix Rising recognizes the power of creativity to foster healing, connection, and hope. This exhibition invites viewers to witness the profound role art can play in building community, amplifying voices, and creating spaces where transformation becomes possible. Archway Society Artists, Creatrix Rising, 2026.

Your Absence is Mineral Sarah Steeves September 1 - October 7, 2026 Caroline Galbraith Gallery & Up-Front Gallery Your Absence is Mineral is a solo exhibition by Vancouver-based artist Sarah Steeves, marking the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition. Steeves’ work rings with a subtle but persistent truth: humans are not separate from the Earth; we are intrinsically linked to it. The exhibition includes ten sculptures, a video work, and a durational installation. Steeves weaves intricate pieces of copper into textile-like forms, which are then immersed in a saline mixture and left to crystallize. These mineral interventions—specifically salt crystallization—reproduce processes of geological weathering that elicit transformation. By mirroring the ways natural forces break down rock, the work draws a parallel to how humans experience psychological weathering through accumulated grief and trauma. At the heart of the exhibition is an exploration of grief, loss, and transformation. For Steeves, absence is not a void but a shifting into another form. The exhibition title takes inspiration from Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s novel Your Absence Is Darkness, a saga about an isolated rural community in Iceland. Steeves gently pushes back against the notion of absence as darkness, instead proposing something more materially grounded: mineral. Her title reflects a belief that we are so deeply interconnected with the Earth’s systems that nothing truly disappears, but instead transforms. Titles also play an important role throughout Steeves’ practice. Using geological naming conventions often employed by researchers to catalogue discoveries, Steeves creates coded references to her own personal world and artistic influences. These subtle naming systems act as quiet gestures toward memory, place, and lineage. Sarah Steeves, Your Absence is Mineral (detail) 2026, Copper, salt crystals. Image courtesy of Rachel Topham Photography.

TICKETS ON SALE vernon’s summer alternative arts festival

MUSIC 2D ARTWORK 3D ARTWORK PERFORMANCE WORK DIGITAL WORK & MORE

ENTRANCE AT INTERSECTION OF 30 AVE AND 33 ST AUG 22 7-11 PM scan to buy tickets

MORE ON IG @RIOT_ONTHE_ROOF

Sept 24

Mini Artists | 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Free tour and art activity for children under the age of 5 and their caregivers.

Sept 24

Community Conversation | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Panel conversation on the subjects surrounding the exhibition Opera Obscura.

Sept 25

Crit Club | 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM After-school workshop for teenagers with free pizza and art activity.

Sept 26

Family Saturday | 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Free exhibition tour and art activity for families and friends of all ages.

Oct 2

First Friday Art Trail | 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Join us for a first friday art trail artist open studio with an artist at the gallery.

Oct 3

Life Model Drawing | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Easels provided, bring your own materials. Model will be clothed. 3228 31st Avenue Vernon, BC V1T 2H3

Sample Artwork from Regional Reach Kit 3

Regional Reach Can't make it to the Vernon Public Art Gallery? Let us come to you. Our Regional Reach program brings engaging, hands-on art activities directly to schools, community organizations, family service agencies, and community centres throughout Vernon and the North Okanagan. Designed to make arts education more accessible, Regional Reach kits include everything you need to facilitate a creative activity inspired by local artists. Whether you're working with children, youth, or families, these ready-to-use kits make it easy to offer meaningful art experiences, no matter where you're located. Two activity kits are currently available to borrow, with a third coming soon. Interested in a Regional Reach kit? Scan the QR code to reserve yours today →

Regional Reach is generously supported by:

Guests in gallery viewing Gathered by SD#22 Indigenous Students

Book a Gallery Tour This Fall As summer wraps up and fall planning begins, VPAG welcomes schools, educators, community groups, organizations, and anyone interested in learning more about art to visit the gallery and explore our current exhibitions. Choose from three gallery tour options designed to fit your group’s needs: Self-guided tours with supporting activity sheets to help guide your exploration. Guided gallery tours led by our education staff, offering deeper insight into the exhibitions. Guided tours with an art activity that extend exhibition learning through a creative activity. Our educators can adapt tours to suit different ages, group goals, and learning needs, creating meaningful and engaging experiences for every visitor. To book, vist our website at vernonpublicartgallery.com/tours or email us at education@vernonpublicartgallery.com.

Publications in order from left to right: Inside Out by Lana Schuster, Kitchen Corner by Samuel Roy-Bois, and Pictograph Roots by David Wilson Sookinakin

Exhibition Publications For over a decade, the Vernon Public Art Gallery has been producing catalogues for each exhibition in the Topham Brown Memorial Gallery and select shows in the Caroline Galbraith Gallery. The publications are ISBN-registered, consist of images of the artworks, alongside curatorial essays and artist statements, and are printed by Get Colour Copies. The Gallery’s gift shop offers a collection of publications from more recent exhibitions that are available for purchase. To enquire about purchasing older exhibition catalogues, contact info@vernonpublicartgallery.com. VPAG members also receive 10% off publications in the gift shop! Your purchase in the gift shop supports the Gallery’s ability to continue putting on exhibitions by contemporary artists and encourages the continued publication of exhibition catalogues. Publications at the Vernon Public Art Gallery.

A look back at Wildfire Regalia (detail) from the exhibition Fireline Kinship, on display at the gallery from May 29 to July 29, 2026.

Become a Gallery Member Being a member of the Vernon Public Art Gallery is a vital investment in your community, sustaining the exhibitions, programs, and educational initiatives that make the visual arts accessible to everyone. Your membership supports the cultural vibrancy of the entire region. Core Benefits Newsletter + E-News Access to Regional Reciprocal Membership Program 10% Gallery Shop Discount Members Only Events Join Here Discounts on Programs & Events Members Exhibition Participation AGM Voting Privileges Access to Art Rental Program STUDENT $10.50 | INDIVIDUAL $35 | FAMILY $50 | CORPORATE $150

Art Event at the Gallery. Photo credit: Wayne Emde Photography

Sponsorship Opportunities As the largest public gallery in the North Okanagan, the Vernon Public Art Gallery (VPAG) connects our community to the visual arts through around twenty exhibitions each year, alongside other impactful community programs and signature events. Sponsorships directly support these exhibitions, events, and education programs, helping to grow creativity and cultural tourism in the region. Upcoming Sponsorship Opportunities Sponsor a Culture Days event at the gallery by helping to make our free events and workshops more in depth and extended. Be a company name behind Art After Dark in November, our biannual after-hours event at the gallery. Join the gallery’s year-round sponsors, with your company’s logo on our entry wall, website, in our newsletter, and in marketing. For more information please email admin@vernonpublicartgallery.com

VPAG Sponsors Thank you to our sponsors for continuing to support Arts & Culture in the North Okanagan.

VPAG Partners We are grateful for the continued collaboration and support from the following VPAG Partners:

Tolko

Gumtree Catering

BigSteelBox Wayside Co.

Browns Transport 107.5 Beach Radio

Sunbelt Rentals Apero Catering Mission Hill Winery Wedge Cheesery SOBR Market Vernon Okanagan Spirits

Vernon Morning Star Kalamalka Eagle Feather Security Okanagan Spring Brewery The Prestige Vernon Lodge Uprooted Kitchen & Catering Co. SVOI Media

Board of Directors Sarah Kennedy – President Kyle Britton – Treasurer Edward Woolley - Co-Vice President Jay Gillman - Co-Vice President Anne-Marie Clancy

Sigrid-Ann Thors Louise Mcguire Karol King Shauna Kay

Staff Dauna Kennedy – Executive Director Victoria Verge – Curator Lubos Culen – Curator Emeritus & Facility Advisor Liam O’Sullivan – Preparator Jordan MacDonald – Education Coordinator Samantha Ahize – Education Coordinator (on leave) Tom Knight – Bookkeeper Chantelle Bullen – Gallery Attendant Gwynneth Tansey – Marketing & Events Coordinator James Jennings – Development & Admin Coordinator Taylor Stewart - Summer Youth Ambassador Ben Liman - Summer Youth Ambassador

A Special Thank You to Wayside for being our official Print Sponsor and helping us bring art to life on paper.