Detached art studio at the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre
The Woodhaven Eco Culture Center is a unique setting for research, creative scholarship and community connections.
Woodhaven isn’t quite wilderness, and it’s not quite the city either. Tucked just off the Gordon Street bus route in Kelowna, it’s a space where the sounds of birds mix with the hum of traffic, and where pine trees grow alongside deer passing by, and neighbourhood homes. This “in-between” setting, neither fully urban nor remote, makes Woodhaven a unique place to explore our relationship with the natural world.
That’s part of what drew faculty and graduate students from UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) to the site. In 2010, Creative Writing professor Nancy Holmes and then Masters of Fine Arts student Lori Mairs launched a year-long eco art project, under the umbrella of the Eco Art Incubator, in the Woodhaven Nature Conservancy, working closely with students and community members. During the course of the project, over 100 local artists and students, including musicians, performers, writers, sculptors and other visual artists created multiple works of art in Woodhaven Nature Conservancy.
The work was created in the park and in response to the park. The artwork left minimal impact on the natural environment, leaving nothing in the park and similarly removing nothing from the park, explains Nancy Holmes.
The project was a success, and the Regional District of the Central Okanagan (RDCO), which supported the initiative, saw the potential for Woodhaven to become a destination park.
“FCCS took on the space to support arts and humanities-based research focused on the environment, the Okanagan landscape, and the idea of place, naming the site, The Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre,” Holmes says.
Since 2012, FCCS has managed the property, which has a large heritage home with two self-contained apartments, providing opportunities for graduate students from FCCS to live during the academic year, and a place for visiting artists and scholars to stay during the summer months. There is a small studio cabin and art studio on the property that is an ideal place to hold seminars, small retreats, art projects, events, and meetings. The site has become a hub for author readings, art events, and outdoor learning activities for local elementary schools.
The list of writers and artists is a who’s who of eco-art in Canada: Tim Lilburn, Don McKay, Russell Thornton, Troy Nickel, Marlene Creates, Teresa Posyniak, Chantal Bilodeau, Peter Morin, Nicola Harwood, Joan Crate, Karen Zalamea, to name but a few; graduate students have run events on the site—Beat Salad and the Woodshed Reading Series; the Indigenous Art Intensive has held numerous celebratory events, faculty and visiting scholars have run courses and workshops, hosted conferences such as Telling Stories: The Humanities in an Age of Planetary Agenda-Setting, book launches, and local organizations such as the Inspired Word Café have held events and festivals on the property.
In 2021, a formal artist-in-residence program was launched, inviting artist to spend dedicated time on their art practice living on the property using the studio cabin as a place to create their work. In 2024, a new 360 sq. ft. art studio was added to the property. Surrounded by mature fir and pine trees, the studio features 10-foot walls and large sliding glass doors to maximize natural light. It serves as a creative space for artists-in-residence, a venue for community gatherings, and a site for eco-cultural study.
The FEELed Lab research centre, located on the top floor of the main house, emerged during the pandemic as a space for graduate students and faculty to gather safely outdoors. What began as informal workshops evolved into a research initiative focused on building inclusive academic communities around environmental questions.
“The work explores what it means to be in good relationship with the land, particularly from settler, Indigenous, feminist, queer, and disability perspectives,” explains Astrida Neimanis, director of the FEELed Lab & Canada Research Chair in Feminist Environmental Humanities here at UBC Okanagan.
Rather than pursuing a large institutional lab, the idea of creating a community-based research space at Woodhaven just made sense to Dr. Neimanis.
“After my first visit to Woodhaven, the space immediately felt like the right fit, the sense of connection to the place was clear—it was quiet, natural, and welcoming,” she adds. “The upstairs suite had recently become available, and the timing aligned perfectly with my research focus on ecological relationships between people, places, and non-human life.”
Woodhaven’s informal, home-like atmosphere, makes it feel more like a community space than an institution. For many, it’s a place where they feel welcome and comfortable in ways they might not on campus. Over more than a decade, the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre has become a vital space for creativity, research, and community engagement, grounded in a commitment to place, relationship, and inclusive environmental inquiry.
These spaces offer more than creative opportunities, they foster collaboration and innovation. The outdoor space, art studio, small cabin and studio apartment are available for rentals to UBC collaborators; students and employees. Alongside the summer artist-in-residence program, the FEELed Lab is starting an Arts and Science Residency, which will be piloted in March 2026, bringing artists and scientists together, creating new ways to connect research, creativity, and community at Woodhaven.
Woodhaven Art Studio Build
This time-lapse captures the entire process of building the detached art studio at the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre, from demolition on October 16, 2023, to completion on February 29, 2024. Watch as the site transforms through groundbreaking, framing, roofing, and siding.
This project was overseen by FCCS Technical Director Philip Wyness and Property Manager Frances Brouse, and built by Quadro Industries’ Ryan and Adam Sawatzky, the 360 sq. ft. studio features 10-foot walls and large sliding glass doors to maximize natural light.