O P E N G A L L E R Y

September 27 to November 29, 2025 

Reimagining Children's Relations with the Arts presents pedagogical work created by children aged five and six in response to Métis artist Amanda Strong’s stop-motion film Biidaaban: The Dawn Comes, exhibited during Stories That Animate Us in the fall of 2024 at the Kamloops Art Gallery. This artwork emerges from a longer, three-year collaboration among children, early childhood educators, a pedagogist, artworks, and the Kamloops Art Gallery, where a small group of children visited weekly throughout the school year to engage with the shifting exhibitions. 

September 5 to September 21, 2025 

The artworks included here were created over the course of eight weeks by 128 artists aged 5 to 12 enrolled in the Kamloops Art Gallery’s Summer Art Camp.  

Inspired by the exhibition Keith Langergraber: Staircases Leading to Nowhere, throughout the summer young artists explored materials, concepts, and techniques used by the artist. They were especially fascinated with Langergraber’s interest in the herd of wild horses found near Ashcroft, his exploration of portals and other realms, as well as the energies that physical places hold.  

July 26 to August 23, 2025

Presented in collaboration with the Kamloops Art Gallery, the Kamloops Food Policy Council, and Propolis Cooperative Housing Society.

Craftivism, is “a way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper, and your quest for justice more infinite.” ~Betsey Greer 

In 2022, we gathered as a group of Kamloops community organizers who were busy bringing to life projects and advocating for more resilient and equitable housing and food systems. We began tapping into the creativity of the community by hosting craftivism workshops. Experimenting with what takes place at the intersection between art and activism was fruitful for us. This exhibition features the creative expression of workshop participants. Distributable zines, buttons, and patches make their way into the community in unexpected ways and have unanticipated ripple effects. Please take one with you and help its message spread. 

June 7 to July 19, 2025

Presented in partnership with Kamloops Pride

Queer Time was created through a collaboration between the Kamloops Art Gallery and Kamloops Pride. 10 local queer artists came together in the KAG Studios weekly over the course of five months to ponder identity, time, and how they intersect.

Curated by Teresa Donck-Matlock

April 5 to May 31, 2025

Presented in collaboration with Jennifer Chrumka and the Climate Disaster Project.

Climate change is causing untold damage to lives and livelihoods in Kamloops and beyond. Too often, there has been a failure to tell the many human stories about climate disaster: from heat waves and floods to wildfires and droughts.  As a result, we can feel as if we are fragments on the frontlines of climate change, disconnected from one another’s experiences and sometimes even our own. This exhibition features the stories of nearly two dozen people across British Columbia who have lived through climate change and offer lessons of what’s to come. Their testimonies are based on reporting conducted by students from Thompson Rivers University participating in the Climate Disaster Project, an award-winning international teaching newsroom that works with disaster-impacted people to share their stories. Under the instruction of Jennifer Chrumka, these environmental journalism students co-created stories of survival, community and hope.

Honouring the Past, Celebrating the Present, Inspiring the Future

February 1 to March 29, 2025

Presented in Partnership with Hardley Williams and the Unique Get Together Society

This exhibition tells the story of Black history in Kamloops across generations. It honours the pioneers who paved the way, the leaders shaping today, and the youth who will carry the legacy forward.

Through art and storytelling, we celebrate resilience, culture, and community. Our history is still being written—together, we continue to make an impact.

Through a series of intergenerational collaborations, artists created these works to record narratives that honour the past and educate future generations on Black history in Kamloops.

October 26, 2024 to January 25, 2025

Presented in collaboration with Early Childhood Educators of BC and Early Childhood Pedagogy Network

re:materia exhi’pit is a participatory artistic installation and exhibition space launched at the Early Childhood Educators of BC (ECEBC) Conference in May of 2024 as an invitation for early childhood educators and their allies across the province of BC to take up the difficult labour of disrupting the capitalist citizenship that supports the extractive cycle of consumption and waste production. The installation is hosted by the re:materia program, a partnership between the Early Childhood Pedagogy Network (ECPN) and ECEBC that invites early childhood educators to creatively and critically reimagine pedagogical processes and curriculum-making around waste.

September 14 to October 19, 2024

While creating these works, we thought of the ways land makes us feel. What does home mean to us? How do landscapes shape us? 

The artworks included here were created over the course of eight weeks by 160 artists aged 5 to 12 enrolled in Kamloops Art Gallery Summer Camp. 

Inspired by the artists and artworks in Town + Country: Narratives of Property and Capital, young artists explored materials, concepts, and techniques represented by the many artists in the exhibition. 

We hope that you will take your time exploring the artworks created here this summer and join us in celebrating the work of these incredible young artists.

Curated by Nicole Favron, Ian Laurrabaquio, and Adrian Romeo 

August 10 to September 7, 2024

So Long As They’re Friends; Queer Safety on This Side of the Rainbow presents traces of how queer folks have created safety within conditions of criminalization and discrimination, and creates a space for education and dialogue around 2SLGBTQPIA+ topics.

Curated by Teresa Donck-Matlock

June 8 to August 3, 2024

Presented in collaboration with Hardley Williams and The Unique Get Together Society, Black Odyssey illuminates the past, embraces the present, and envisions the future of the Black community in Kamloops. The Open Gallery features art posters spotlighting local Black community leaders, who attended a free gathering on June 15 in the Kamloops Art Gallery Studios (on the main floor of the TNRD building). With awareness and understanding at its core, this initiative is open to everyone interested in learning and sharing about the Black experience in Kamloops.