Banff’s newest gallery is presenting its inaugural show this weekend and rather than open in a permanent location, the artists behind the Banff Floating Gallery are hoping to take underused or vacant spaces and fill them with art, even for a brief period.
The Banff Floating Gallery (BFG) was launched recently to create new opportunities for contemporary artists living and working in the Bow Valley to exhibit their work. At the same time, BFG is also hoping to add some flair and life to cultural and commercial spaces in Banff that are otherwise empty or quiet.
“We wanted to offer an opportunity for local artists to have an exhibition space. There are exhibition spaces in the Valley between Canmore and Banff, but there’s always a need for more,” Sarah Fuller, one of the Banff Floating Gallery founders, said Monday (June 10).
“In that sense we were really interested in offering that to the community and to the community of artists, but also the idea of revitalizing a space that might be vacant,” she said, adding vacant buildings and spaces have a direct effect on a street both visually and in how lively it is.
The idea behind BFG, she said, is to create partnerships with building owners and cultural organizations to bring interest to these underused or vacant spaces by turning them into art galleries.
The BFG’s inaugural exhibition – Transitory Spaces – reflects Banff’s transitory nature “with its fluctuating population and established history as a tourist destination. Banff is continually in flux, changing in character according to the season or time of day.”
Transitory Spaces, featuring eight local contemporary artists, will be up for two days only at the Abegweit House, 136 Bow Ave., owned by the Whyte Foundation, Saturday (June 15) from 1-6 p.m. and Sunday (June 16) from 1-4 p.m. A vernissage, or opening, is scheduled for Saturday from 4-6 p.m.
The idea for BFG first came up just over a year ago when Fuller and former committee member Stephanie Nadeau began exploring Fuller’s idea for a “pop-up gallery,” one that literally pops up in an unused space, is there for a brief period and then comes down.
“The idea was to create a space in town, a transitory space where we can approach landlords and see if they have interest in allowing us to use their space,” Fuller said, adding a grant from Banff’s Building Bridges program allowed them to get started.
Along with featuring work by two members of the BFG collective, the committee that operates the gallery, six artists – Manuela Buechting, Adele Frizzell, Meghan Krauss, Tara Nicholson, Sean Procyk and Wendy Tokaryk – were chosen through a call that went out last winter.
“We really see it as a partnership to highlight a space and draw attention to a space, have some work there and make it more interesting,” Fuller said. “We’re trying to create more opportunities for contemporary art in the valley and at the same time we’re trying to showcase rental spaces.”
