This September, the Armstrong Spallumcheen Museum & Art Gallery is celebrating IPE Month with exhibitions that connect beautifully to animals, landscape, memory, and the heritage of this region.
Our September exhibition features the work of Kate Tooke and Lana Schuster. Together, their work offers two very different ways of seeing the world around us.
The reception for this show is on September 10th from 6-8 PM, however the show is open from September 3rd, so please feel free to pop in for a sneak peek of the incredible art!
Kate Tooke’s representational oil paintings in her show, Animal Call, bring animals into close and thoughtful focus, meeting chickens, horses, dogs, and other familiar creatures with humour, dignity, and care.
Tooke’s animal portraits are full of presence and personality. Her paintings reflect care, attention, and relationship, inviting viewers to look again at the animals who share our farms, homes, and rural lives. We are also proud to share that Kate is a two-time Ribbon Show winner this year, winning first place in the Representational category and first place in the People’s Choice Awards.
Lana Schuster’s Where Light Remains brings together paintings that suggest gardens, skies, shorelines, fields, and remembered places without defining them completely. Her work is layered, expressive, and full of movement, inviting viewers to slow down and reconnect with the beauty and wonder found in the natural world.
Schuster’s work moves between abstraction and remembered landscape, using layered colour, expressive brushwork, texture, and light to suggest gardens, trees, fields, skies, and weather.
These artists were selected for IPE Month because their work reflects subjects and themes that are part of our heritage through the Interior Provincial Exhibition’s history. Animals, agriculture, landscape, weather, beauty, and community are all part of that story, and each artist brings her own voice to it.
This year, we are honoured that the Armstrong Spallumcheen Museum & Art Gallery has been selected as the IPE Charity of Choice. As part of this partnership, our art shows are sponsored by the IPE.
We are also creating a special installation at Hassen Arena during the IPE. IPE Through the Ages will feature a curated series of photographs, hands-on reading materials, and artifacts, taking visitors on a journey through the past 125 years of IPE history.
Make sure to visit us during this wonderful opportunity to share our archives with the wider community during one of Armstrong’s busiest and most beloved events, and keep an eye on our communications, you may see these photos back later in the year!
If you are downtown, even just walking by, we hope you will take a moment to appreciate the historical and artistic window displays created by our Arts Committee. Their attention to detail in creating beautiful seasonal displays is stunning, and it can be easy to miss if you are in a rush.
We also want to remind the community that the Museum & Art Gallery is a designated refuge during heat and smoke periods. Please feel free to stop in for water and a break in an air-conditioned, air-filtered building.
And with the IPE coming up, one of the best ways to support your Museum & Art Gallery is to choose us as your parking spot during the fair. IPE parking is one of our most important fundraisers of the year, and your support helps keep local history, archives, exhibitions, and arts programming alive in our community.
The opening reception for the September Art Show takes place Thursday, September 10, from 6–8 PM. All are welcome, and admission is free.