Skillful
June 13 to October 25, 2026
Nicola Wealth Gallery
TOUR OVERVIEW
Skillful presents sculpture, tapestry and ceramics by three Governor General’s Award-winning artists from Western Canada: Lou Lynn, Jane Kidd and Greg Payce. Each has spent a career pushing a traditional medium somewhere new, balancing technical mastery with conceptual depth.
This is an exhibition about slow work. Every piece in it represents years of practice, and the kind of knowledge that only comes from doing something over and over until your hands know it. That is worth looking at closely right now, when students can generate an image in seconds and find an answer to almost anything just as fast. What is it that takes a decade to learn, and why would anyone bother?
The exhibition makes the case for handmaking as a living, contemporary form of expression rather than something belonging to the past. Expect a thrilling display of colour, perception and scale.
The exhibition includes an interactive makers’ space with weaving and loom activities, and videos of the artists in conversation.
CHOOSING THIS TOUR
This tour asks: What is worth spending years learning to do?
Kindergarten to Grade 5: Cutting, tracing and symmetry. Getting good takes more than one try.
Grades 6 to 9: Design decisions they can explain. Handmade against mass-produced.
Grades 10 to 12: Mastery and slow work in the age of instant answers and AI.
ART ACTIVITY
The guided hands-on art activity paired with this exhibition explores negative space, symmetry and paper collage. Students will make a collage artwork from vessels they have designed themselves.
We will discuss the work of Greg Payce and his use of the negative space between his ceramic vessels, then guide students step by step through the activity.
Students begin by drawing a simple contour shape in pencil in the centre of a piece of paper. They cut out that shape, then cut the remaining paper in half. With their three pieces, the original shape and the two halves, they trace the half shapes to make two different vessels, working one vessel at a time, flipping the paper over to complete each symmetrical form.
To finish, they cut and decorate their paper vessels with drawing media and paste them onto a coloured cardstock “wall”.
For younger groups, we can provide a simple geometric shape to trace for the first drawing.
EXTEND THE VISIT IN YOUR CLASSROOM
WHAT IS THAT?
Supplies: white paper, tracing paper and drawing media
What other objects could have a shape hiding in the negative space between them? Trees? Clouds? Have students draw a simple contour of a shape in pencil in the centre of a page. Tape a piece of tracing paper over the top along one edge. Ask them to imagine a scene on either side of their shape and draw it on the tracing paper, leaving the shape in the centre blank. The finished piece works as two layers: the original shape in line, and the scene that surrounds it.
For a simpler version, have students fill the space around the shape on the tracing paper with an abstract design such as circles or stripes, which reveals the original shape as empty space inside the pattern.
TOUR DETAILS
• Cost: $6 per student
• Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Capacity: up to 30 students
BOOKING
All school tours are booked online. Bookings are confirmed by email within five business days and are taken on a first-come, first-served basis.
We ask for 48 hours’ notice to cancel a booking. A $45 fee applies to cancellations made after that point.
An invoice is issued within two weeks of your visit, based on the number of students who attended.
Exhibition dates are subject to change. If a change affects your booking we will let you know in advance and offer an alternative tour.
CONTACT
Kirsteen McCulloch, Education Coordinator
250-762-2226 ext. 307
kirsteen@kelownaartgallery.com
PLANNING A FULL DAY?
The Rotary Centre for the Arts (programs@rotarycentreforthearts.com) and Kelowna Museums (education@kelownamuseums.ca) offer programming that pairs well with a gallery visit.
GALLERY
Kelowna Art Gallery, 1315 Water Street, Kelowna, BC
Official Sponsors:
