“We’re planning to have an exhibition in the upper gallery, during the summer, that will celebrate this building and its 100 years of being kind of the meeting place and cornerstone of art and culture in the community,” [executive Diane] Toop said. “But it's been more than that, I think it's really meant a lot to a lot of people. It's an important part of our history and it needs to be celebrated.”
This year the Station House Gallery is celebrating 100 years since the construction of the Station House with a wide variety of exhibits, fundraisers and new programs.
The Station House started its life in 1919 as a simple station house for the then small town of Williams Lake, built by the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. It remains the oldest standing structure in the lakecity by far and has been preserved since the 1970s by the Station House Studio and Gallery Society.
Now most commonly used as an artists’ retreat and venue, the Station House continues to be a central hub for Williams Lake’s culture and artistic scene. By always striving to bring something new to the city that was built around it, its continued to remain a fresh and interesting pillar of the community.
This desire to bring new and different art is inherent in the gallery’s 100th-year lineup, as executive Diane Toop laid out. Toop has been with the gallery since 1996 and said this year they’ve filled 2019’s lineup with 16 unique exhibitions and plan to have live music at every gallery opening they can this year.
In addition to the usual exhibits, Toop is looking to bring new ways to experience art to both the community and the members of the Station House Gallery Society.
Toop plans to talk with members of the Museum of the Cariboo-Chilcotin about the exhibit and bring in some historical items related to the Station House.
From the Williams Lake Tribune