A shipping container structure being used to house a Vernon Public Art Gallery exhibit could stay the summer.
(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)
May 09, 2015 - 2:34 PM
VERNON - A pop-up shipping container art gallery and coffee vendor could stay the summer if they get permission from City Hall.
That’s why the Vernon Public Art Gallery has asked the City of Vernon to extend its license agreement for the temporary steel shipping container structure at the bus loop downtown, across from Cenotaph Park.
The art gallery was granted the space, normally used for parking, for use as additional gallery space for the international Okanagan Print Triennial exhibition. The show is set to close May 21, but instead of packing up the unique Big Steel Box structure, the gallery is hoping to keep offering exhibits there throughout the summer.
“We have received multiple requests to consider leaving the structure onsite thorughout the summer months as people are liking the vibrancy created by having the art gallery present on this site,” gallery executive director Dauna Kennedy Grant said in a letter to the city.
On-site vendor Ratio Coffee has set up outside the shipping containers over the two-month show, and has also expressed interest in staying the summer. There’s also an indication another mobile vendor is interested in using the site this summer.
The request goes before Vernon city council Monday, May 11, and art gallery will also need permission from the North Okanagan Regional District. A staff report to council concluded: “The temporary gallery installation and coffee vendor are animating the space in a positive way and providing increased surveillance in the area.”
If the request is granted, 23 parking permit holders who ordinarily use the space would be accommodated at the parkade, or another city parking lot.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015