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New studio opens at Vernon's Caetani centre

After three months of construction, the Caetani Port Studio, a new multi-purpose facility, is opening its doors with a celebration of art.
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Visitors can check out the new Caetani Port Studio at an artistic celebration

Vernon’s Caetani Cultural Centre is entering a new era.

After three months of construction, the Caetani Port Studio, a new multi-purpose facility, is opening its doors with a celebration of art.

Located on the grounds of the historical Pleasant Valley Road home once belonging to an aristocratic Italian family and their renowned artist daughter, Sveva Caetani, the studio will be used to host workshops, presentations by artists and writers, exhibits, music and other cultural activities.

“We are so pleased to be able to open this space at this time. It is already booked for youth programs, the new Spoke Literary Festival in August, Runaway Moon puppet theatre productions, and workshops by our visiting artists program. It is a new era for the Caetani centre,” said board chair Angelika Jaeger.

The artistic celebration, Tuesday, July 12, features a lineup of 14 different artists, including literary readings by Kerry Gilbert, Laisha Rosnau, Lorna Tureski, Natalie Appleton, Virginia Dansereau, Mary Kelly, and visiting Montreal writer Roxanne Lajoie.

Visual art will include works by photographer Renee Leveillee, painter and ceramic artist Gabrielle Strong, painter Destanne Norris, and metal sculptor Sandra deVries, with a special presentation by Fresh! AiR visiting artist Sandrine de Borman, from Belgium.

During her stay in the Okanagan, DeBorman hopes to highlight the incredible diversity of plant life by using native plant samples in her artwork.

Her work involves hammering fresh plants on cotton fabric so that the sap of the plant dyes the fabric and produces the precise shape of the plant.

An example of this “herbarium map,” as DeBorman calls her work, will be shown at the opening of the studio as a means to encourage visitors to observe the wild plants of the local trails, and she will be offering workshops in this technique.

Musicians Cuyler Page and Devon Muhlert will also serenade the audience at the opening.

“We have so many different and diverse creative people in the North Okanagan,” said the centre’s executive director Susan Brandoli. “This presentation space will certainly be a positive addition to the collective inventory of creative spaces available in the area. Vernon is such a great cultural destination and we need to let the world know about us.”

Tuesday’s event, from 6–8 p.m., is by donation.

Due to the road construction on Pleasant Valley Road, visitors are asked to park on side streets and walk to the property.

For more information, visit caetaniculturalcentre.org, or call 250-275-1525.