Stínesten Gallery, an Indigenous-owned and operated community art space dedicated to supporting underrepresented Indigenous artists, is officially opening its doors on Oct. 24, 2025, at 140 Laburnum Street on Kamloops’ North Shore.
The new space aims to become a welcoming hub for creativity, collaboration, and cultural resurgence while giving local artists the opportunity to showcase their work in an inclusive and supportive environment.
Shay Paul, Project Director of the Indigenous Resurgence Project and current Gallery Curator, sees the gallery as more than just a place to display art. It is a place to nurture talent, provide mentorships, build confidence, and create a safe space for Indigenous artists to thrive. “Stínesten is meant to be a building block for Indigenous artists to not only gain skills and experience in the art world, but to explore creative themes and topics freely and autonomously,” Paul says.
The gallery also plans to work with group collaborative exhibitions, designed to help artists connect and grow through shared creation. “These collaborative programs have the artist engaged through every level of the exhibition process: from the conception of the topic and how they are going to approach it, the artistic creation process in a shared space, and the eventual installation and showcasing of their artwork in a public space,” says Paul.
The gallery’s very first exhibition, Returning to the Land, will run from Oct. 24 to Dec. 19 and features the work of Sayisi Dene photographer and filmmaker Gina Bussidor. Through a combination of photographic storytelling and short film, Bussidor invites viewers to delve into a deeply personal and reflective journey of healing and connection. The exhibition looks at how returning to nature can be an act of cultural and personal restoration, and how the land can serve as a source of resilience and renewal for everyone who lives within it.
“This work is really quite a personal and a meaningful journey for me,” Bussidor says. “I am really excited to share these pieces and to see how others connect with them.”
“Our inaugural exhibition is tone-setting for the Stínesten Gallery, emphasising our continued support for Indigenous artists of all backgrounds and practices,” says Paul. “Stínesten is meant to be a welcoming space for everyone, and a way to allow our local artists the freedom to explore their creative styles.
Paul shares that the process of opening the gallery has involved plenty of obstacles, delays, and unexpected changes. “It’s been a long road on this opening,” Paul explains. “As with anything when you’re starting out, you hit roadblocks, things change, plans deviate, and inevitably, your date gets pushed back.”
And now the time for opening has come! The opening weekend will be a celebration of art and culture. “Our gallery grand opening is happening on Friday, Oct. 24,” Paul says. “The gallery space itself is quite small, so RSVP is encouraged.”
Friday, Oct. 24 is the public reception. Oct. 25, during the day, will have an Indigenous artist circle and invite the artists involved with the Indigenous Resurgence Project to come in and check it out, and then Saturday evening will have an open-house style drop in. Info and RSVPs for all of the opening weekend events can be found on Eventbrite.
And once the gallery opens its doors, it’s community support that will help it establish roots here in Kamloops. Paul hopes the Kamloops community will help spread the word of the gallery’s vision. “Right now, we need the word to get out that Stínesten Gallery exists, and the message of our goals and values to make its way into the community,” Paul says. “Kamloops is a very word-of-mouth city, and so the best way to help Stínesten and its artists is to share this with other people. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, or sign up for the monthly newsletter on the IRP website.”
Check them out for yourself and see how they are welcoming everyone into a space built on community, reflection, and the power of art to bring people back to the land and to one another.