Growing up in the Okanagan with little sense of direction, I knew I was in downtown Kelowna if I saw “the sails,” the giant peach meant we were in Penticton, and Lake Country was marked by the cow on the top of “that building” below the Highway. Nowadays I don’t need these landmarks to know where I am, but nonetheless, I miss that cow in Lake Country.

As it turns out, the cow was the mascot of the meat shop that was under it. It is gone now, but in its place, interestingly enough, is the Lake Country Public Art Gallery.

The Lake Country Art Gallery (LCAG) opened in January 2010 and has been exhibiting local and regional talents ever since. LCAG is a community oriented gallery and, as you can imagine, it is a quirky space. When this space was chosen to become the gallery, many changes were made; walls were painted white, meat hooks were removed, the freezer become the office, and one of the two smokehouses was removed. If you have a keen sense of smell, you may be able to detect a subtle hint of pepperoni in the air.

Needless to say, the Lake Country Art Gallery is a unique place to visit, and with exhibitions changing about every six weeks, a wide array of work is shown there.

As an added benefit, the Lake Country Art Gallery shares a building with the Lake Country Coffee House which is a lovely place to grab a coffee or lunch while visiting the gallery, not to mention that the coffee house has retained some of the meat shop character, including the metal meat hooks that line the ceiling.

The Lake Country Art Gallery is located at 10356A Bottom Wood Lake Road, Lake Country BC. Admission to the gallery is free and it is open Wednesday 10am-8pm, Thursdays and Fridays 10am-4pm, and Saturday’s and Sunday’s 11am-3pm.

For more information visit http://lakecountryartgallery.blogspot.com/