Columbia Basin Culture Tour is coming!
By Contributor
Mark your calendars. On Aug. 10 and 11, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., the Columbia Basin Culture Tour allows you to explore artists’ studios, museums, art galleries and heritage sites during this free, self-guided event.
Travel to studios and archives that aren’t normally open, see demonstrations, new exhibitions and collections or meet people behind the scenes. To participate in the tour, simply grab a map, your Culture Tour Directory and go!
Rossland is home to four features on the Culture Tour this year! Stop by the Rossland Museum & Discovery Centre for family-friendly fun, gold panning, mining and social history of the area on top of the historic Black Bear Mine on Red Mountain. Special activities are planned for the Columbia Basin Culture Tour.
New to the tour is Rossland Light Opera Players where you can get a taste of their upcoming theatre performances and visit their beautiful historical building. Tour around their crazy cool building. Ghosts and their friends have been known to hang out in here but don’t worry, they know us and will “let us pass.”
TR By Hand, the working studio of textile artist Tricia Rasku, who works with natural materials in all media. For the tour: looms will be set up, spinning wheels in place and fibre everywhere ready for felting, dyeing or spinning. Also at this same location, you can see Polly Esther the Clown who will be making balloons and doing face painting as well as some clown skits and magic tricks.
In Trail you can visit the Trail Museum & Archives at the Riverfront Centre. Integrated with the Trail & District Public Library, the Trail Museum & Archives exhibits, interprets and preserves the collections of the Trail Historical Society. Browse rare photographs and film footage of Trail’s sports heroes. Make your way up our grand staircase to take in the History Gallery and immerse yourself in the social and cultural history of Trail.
New to the tour this year is Salmo & Area Museum Society. The museum invites you to experience the early history of Salmo and Area, its social life and its people, with displays of work and home life in the early mining towns of the area. Exhibits include the day-to-day paraphernalia of home and business, as it was over 80 years ago.
Also new to the tour is talented watercolour artist Edward Kingdon who will be showing his recent watercolour paintings and will be working on a painting in his studio on both days of the tour. His paintings will also be for sale.
In Ymir the Salmo District Arts Council will be set up at the Ymir Schoolhouse displaying, demonstrating and selling their work. The weekend will feature artists from across the Salmo River Basin, displaying artwork in a variety of media. You will also see Robyn Gold who will be showing and selling her acrylic paintings and collage art.
Tour brochures are available at tourist information centres and participating venues. Visit the website at www.cbculturetour.com to view full artist/venue profiles for further details on each location’s activities or register to receive a tour brochure in the mail. For further information, call the CKCA at 1-250-505-5505 or toll free at 1-877-505-7355. The Columbia Basin Culture Tour is generously supported by Columbia Basin Trust funding.
