The Smithers Art Gallery and The Bulkley Valley Museum have reopened to the public.
As of Monday(June 1), the gallery and the museum have opened and will be operating Monday to Friday from 12 p.m. until 4 p.m.
According to Smithers Art Gallery Manager Nicole Chernish, the planned exhibitions have been postponed until 2021 but artists who were invited to have exhibitions this year to provide work in a pop-up gallery.
Artists that will be featured in the gallery are Sarah Zimmerman, Mark Tworow, and Emily Klassen.
Chernish said getting the gallery ready for reopening was nerve-racking but now that they are open it feels amazing.
“It feels absolutely fantastic. We’ve got all this fantastic art on the walls and it just feels really refreshing and satisfying to have that visual art surrounding me so I can’t wait until we have more people come in and experience that for themselves,” she said.
Chernish added on the first day of the reopening the gallery had six people walkthrough.
She called it fantastic due to having a max capacity of five people for the building.
According to Chernish, during the gallery’s closure, they moved a lot of their content online, so they could still interact with the community.
Chernish said having the virtual exhibitions was difficult because they haven’t done a lot of them on their own.
“I think people are able to access it but it doesn’t feel quite the same as coming into a gallery and seeing a piece of art right in front of you so, I think it’s been an adjustment not only for the gallery but for visitors as well,” she said.
The Lakes District Museum is also open and the Witset Museum is set to open on Friday (June 5).