The Pentlatch Gallery in Parksville will receive wider exposure now that it has been included as a member of Indigenous Tourism BC.
“It’s actually sort of puts Parksville on the map," said Gerald Fuller, owner and curator of the gallery. "Indigenous Tourism, they advertise across Canada and throughout the province, and they’re connected with Destination BC and quite a few other things.”
Indigenous Tourism BC is a non-profit organization dedicated to growing and promoting Indigenous tourism. In addition to its website map that directs tourists to member businesses across B.C., it provides training, marketing and funding support to help businesses grow.
The gallery opened a little over a year ago at its location at 552 Pioneer Cr., and includes art pieces by a mix of well-known and lesser known artists.
The name was chosen by Fuller to honour the Pentlatch People. They endured severe losses from disease and war, which decimated their population from Parksville to Comox, dwindling their 90 villages to only a handful of families in Comox by the 1930s.
“We’ve sold, in the course of that year, we’ve sold a lot of art,” he said. “Our location is kind of off the beaten track a little bit and a lot of people like that.”
An out of the way location can also be a challenge, Fuller added, and said the team is doing what it can to promote the gallery and let people know it's there.
“We’ve had a lot of people in from different parts of the world. Some from the resorts,” Fuller said. “But this is going to be so much more outreaching than what we’re doing locally.”
Fuller finds all the art and says he looks for both original pieces and limited edition prints. Generating exposure for and supporting artists is a big part of his motivation for opening the gallery. The art comes from across Canada, and includes Coast Salish, Haida, Kwak-waka-wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Objibwe, Cree, Dene and others.
“We’ve been a little nervous about this whole Trump tariff thing,” Fuller said. “But we know that people are coming into British Columbia and if they’re looking at Indigenous Tourism, we’re included in that, so that’s a wonderful thing.”
More information about the gallery is available at pentlatchgallery.com and IndigenousBC.com.
