There's a growing arts community up and down the Fraser Canyon. Their work can be found at First Nations Arts & Crafts and Suncatcher Gifts in Lytton as well as at a few bona fide galleries.
A co-operative of local artists from the Boston Bar/North Bend communities, work at the Zoo Art Gallery includes prints, oils and watercolours, quilts, glass, ceramics, textiles and multi-dimensional pieces. The gallery is housed in an unusual white-washed concrete building. Created in the 1960s, it features stained glass windows rescued from demolished buildings; recycled materials and an interesting use of wine bottles embedded in concrete to let in light.
Exotic Animals
For many years, the property included a zoo with 135 animals including exotics such as an ocelot. The last two animals that outlived this zoo, a bear and a deer, were beloved pets which, after the death of their owner, were tended to by the community. The deer was given a peanut butter and jam sandwich every morning, and the bear savoured the waste scraps from a local restaurant. The Zoo Art Gallery is 4km/2.5mi north of Boston Bar on Highway 1.
Lytton
Ken Glasgow
As a metal artist come philosopher, Ken Glasgow's whimsical metal sculptures are about as out-there as metal can get. Whether it's the series of mammoth-sized Harley Davidson motor cycles or his Cemetery of Life's Values, every eccentric piece is a social commentary on the state of the world, and always accompanied by the rhyming verse that was its inspiration.
Sculpture Hillside
A visit to Ken's enormous steel-molding hanger reveals shelves of Encyclopedia Britannica, stuffed toys hanging from the rafters, and always a welding in progress. This sculpture hillside lies off the Botanie Creek Road and is nothing short of memorable, if not thought provoking.
The Siska Art Gallery & Museum
Representing quality work from many BC First Nations artists, the Siska Art Gallery & Museum's diverse collection of art includes painting, wood and stone carvings, silver jewelry, leather and beadwork as well as a few historical items. The gallery also retails a line of Aboriginal Siska-made botanical soaps, jams, jellies and syrups.
Siska First Nations Knowledge
Huckleberries are used for low sugar recipes, and like Oregon grape and Saskatoon berries, are harvested in traditional ways. Indigenous wisdom has also been used to create an Arnica Oil to treat sprains, bruises, tendonitis and rheumatic pain; healing salves for scrapes, cuts and insect bites and a line of healthful, herbal teas using blends of dandelion, horsetail, mullion, nettle, rose and mint. Siska has also started a small, certified smoke processing plant for salmon.
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