Educational Tours
Spark Creativity & Curiosity Through Contemporary Art
At the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, we believe that engaging with contemporary art sparks critical thinking, curiosity, and creative expression. As a non-profit, artist-run gallery in the heart of Kelowna, our mission is to create an inclusive and welcoming space where educational institutions, community groups, and arts organizations can explore diverse perspectives and connect directly with the work of emerging and established artists. A group visit offers a unique opportunity to step into a dynamic environment and experience experimental art across our three distinct exhibition spaces:
Main Gallery: Our primary exhibition venue, showcasing large-scale, solo, and group exhibitions by local, national, and international artists that frequently explore contemporary social, cultural, and political themes.
Project Space: A flexible, experimental site designed for immersive installations, site-specific work, and innovative artistic practices that encourage interactive and non-traditional ways of engaging with art.
Members’ Gallery: A dedicated space highlighting the talent within our local artist community and membership, offering a window into regional creativity and grassroots artistic practice.
Access & Membership
Free Admission & Our "Pay It Forward" Program
We firmly believe in open access for all. To ensure culture remains a barrier-free public good, general gallery admission and group tours are always provided 100% free of charge.
For groups that have the financial capacity, we warmly invite you to support our mission through our Pay It Forward program. Voluntary financial contributions help keep our core public programming free, ensuring art and creative experiences remain accessible to everyone in our community, regardless of financial means. To accommodate your organization's administrative processes and policies, we are happy to facilitate institutional donations, institutional memberships, or issue formal invoices for contributions upon request.
Gallery Membership & Group Discount Rates
Becoming an Alternator member is a wonderful way to support the gallery while unlocking exclusive benefits, including special programming, reciprocal perks, and the opportunity to exhibit work in our popular Members’ Gallery.
If your group is interested in getting involved, we offer group discount rates for individual memberships depending on the size of your group. Additionally, if your community group or creative collective is interested in showcasing work in our Members’ Gallery or collaborating on a group exhibition, we would love to connect! Please reach out to our team to discuss group membership pricing, submission opportunities, and how we can feature your group’s creative talent.
Plan Your Visit Today
We invite educators, community leaders, and tour organizers to explore our upcoming exhibition schedule below and arrange a visit for your group. General tours take place during our standard gallery hours; however, we understand that group scheduling can be complex, and we are happy to accommodate out-of-hours tours based on your specific needs and schedule.
To request a group tour, please send an email directly to info@alternatorcentre.com with the subject line "Group Tour Request - [Your Organization Name]".
Please include the following details in your email to help us process your booking smoothly:
Contact & Organization Details
Primary Contact Name & Role (e.g., Teacher, Group Leader, Program Coordinator)
Organization / School Name & Type (e.g., K-12 School, Post-Secondary, Community Group)
Best Phone Number & Email Address
Group Size & Audience
Estimated Number of Participants (including chaperones and leaders)
Age Range / Grade Level of Attendees
Any Accessibility Needs or Accommodations (e.g., mobility access, quiet hours, sensory considerations)
Preferred Schedule & Exhibition Focus
Preferred Date & Start Time (specify if during standard hours or requesting out-of-hours)
Alternative / Backup Date(s)
Requested Tour Duration (standard tours run 45–60 minutes)
Preferred Tour Format (Guided Tour or Self-Guided Visit)
Target Exhibition or Specific Curriculum Goals (optional)
Administrative & Support Options (Optional)
Interest in making a voluntary "Pay It Forward" contribution or requesting an invoice
Inquiries about institutional memberships or group discount rates
Interest in Members' Gallery exhibition or community collaboration opportunities
Our gallery team will review your request and get back to you promptly to confirm availability and finalize details!
Upcoming Exhibition Schedule
Featured Exhibition Schedule (Fall 2026 – Spring 2028)
Please note: While this reflects our current planned exhibition schedule, programming and dates are always subject to change due to extenuating circumstances. We encourage tour organizers to keep an eye on our website and social media channels for any last-minute adjustments prior to your visit.
The information below will be updated as more details are confirmed.
2026
September 18 – October 30, 2026
Main Gallery: Grace With Holding
Artist: Robyn Jayne Miller (Instagram)
Summary: Vernon-based artist Robyn Jayne Miller presents Grace With Holding, an exhibition bringing together gelatin—the rendered byproduct of industrialized meat production—and a Western colonial dining room setting. The work engages the social performance of dining in a world dominated by capitalism, exploring how natural acts like sharing food become entrenched in structural hierarchies.
Project Space: Debris of a Mother Tongue
Artist: Reyhan Yazdani
Summary: Artist Reyhan Yazdani presents Debris of a Mother Tongue, featuring works on paper, sculptures, and digitally fabricated objects arranged within an imaginary archaeological site. Emerging from experiences of diaspora and motherhood, the exhibition considers language as a living rhizome continually unsettled and reconfigured through displacement.
Members’ Gallery:
Artist: Hana Hamaguchi (Instagram)
Summary: Local artist Hana Hamaguchi presents a solo showcase exploring visual pattern, form, and repetition across painting and screenprinting.
November 20 – December 18, 2026
Curated Members Exhibition
Summary: Curated Members Exhibition. More information coming soon!
December 20, 2026 – January 5, 2027
Gallery Closure: Gallery closed for winter holiday break. No tours scheduled during this period.
2027
January 22 – March 5, 2027
Main Gallery: Potlatch Punk
Artist: Whess Harman (website)
Summary: Vancouver-based Carrier Wit'at artist Whess Harman brings Potlatch Punk to the Main Gallery—an ongoing, expanding multidisciplinary project integrating drawing, text, and textiles. The work navigates fractured relationships to home, identity as a trans adult, and the multi-generational impacts of residential and day schools using custom button blankets, comic illustrations, and ink drawings.
Project Space:
Artist: Fredrik Thacker (Instagram)
Summary: Local Kelowna artist Fredrik Thacker presents a solo painting exhibition exploring queer sex, intimacy, and the consumption of pornography. Through rapid acrylic and oil stick paintings, Thacker transforms contemporary media consumption into expressive, disfigured figurative forms.
Members’ Gallery:
Artist(s): TBC
Summary: TBC
March 19 – April 30, 2027
Main Gallery:
Artist: Laura Rosengren (website)
Summary: Chilliwack-based artist Laura Rosengren presents a solo exhibition of mixed-material paintings and collage-based prints exploring the shifting realities of women's care work and motherhood. Her work incorporates domestic materials and repetitive care gestures such as washing, stitching, and needle felting.
Project Space:
Artist: Scott Kemp (website)
Summary: Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist Scott Kemp presents a focused video installation built around the thematic framework of "DEATH," investigating moments where physical boundaries between the human body and environment blur.
Members’ Gallery:
Artist(s): TBC
Summary: TBC
May 14 – June 25, 2027
Main Gallery:
Artist: Solange Adum Abdala, Alex Gibson and Amanda Kachadoorian Jordi
Summary: Drawing from her identity as a descendant of a Palestinian-Lebanese family in Latin America, Adum Abdala explores the intersections of nature, memory, and history in the Anthropocene, challenging colonial representations of landscape through photography, video, collage, and AI.
Project Space: Sitting Still
Artist: Emily Myatt (website)
Summary: Kelowna-based artist Emily Myatt presents a series of large-scale oil paintings depicting figures knitting within expansive landscapes, linking the materiality of paint with physical land histories shaped by extraction and textiles.
Members’ Gallery:
Artist(s): TBC
Summary: TBC
July 9 – August 21, 2027
Annual Postcard Project & Studio Sale
Summary: Our annual Postcard Project & Studio Sale brings together original, postcard-sized artworks created by local artists and gallery members, offered alongside studio sale items in support of community programming.
August 28 – September 13, 2027
Gallery Closure: Gallery closed for seasonal maintenance and transition. No tours scheduled during this period.
September 17 – October 29, 2027
Main Gallery: A Tragedy of the Commons
Artist: Sean Caulfield (website)
Summary: Edmonton-based artist Sean Caulfield translates political science and economic theory into large-scale prints and sculptures made from reclaimed wood, drawing visual inspiration from Northern Renaissance woodcuts, Dr. Seuss, and contemporary manga to reflect on environmental change.
Project Space:
Artist: Edward Fu Chen (website)
Summary: Vancouver-based artist Edward Fu Chen combines papermaking, etching, silkscreen, and chine-collé to research human rights movements within the Taiwanese Canadian community, collecting oral histories and portrait sketches to highlight democratic discourses.
Members’ Gallery:
Artist(s): TBC
Summary: TBC
November 12 – December 18, 2027
Curated Members Exhibition
Summary: Curated Members Exhibition. More information coming soon!
December 19, 2027 – January 5, 2028
Gallery Closure: Gallery closed for winter holiday break. No tours scheduled during this period.
2028
January 21 – March 3, 2028
Main Gallery:
Artist: Evan Berg
Summary: Kelowna-based artist Evan Berg presents a media-rich solo exhibition utilizing moving images, video projection, photography, and animation to examine how urban development, land use, and economic policy shape built environments and community resistance.
Project Space: Fluctuations
Artist: Brett Malon (website)
Summary: Revelstoke-based artist Brett Malon presents a trauma-informed series exploring nature's capacity to heal Complex PTSD through cold water immersion in the Columbia River, utilizing drawings made with river water, pencil, oil pastel, and watercolor.
Members’ Gallery:
Artist(s): TBC
Summary: TBC