The walls of the new Pason Centennial Arena expansion will feature some local history and artwork.

Okotoks Art Gallery Specialist Katrina Lougheed says two display areas, one on the main floor and the other on the second floor, will feature exhibits that will change every couple of months.

She says the second floor display area will initially highlight the various construction stages of the arena expansion.

"First, it's actually going to be a photographic collage of the construction of the Pason Centennial Arena expansion," Lougheed says. "And we're going to put that up for a few months so that people can see the whole process as they go through. And then, after that, the Okotoks Museum and Archives has done, in the past, some history of sport exhibits, so we're going to work with them to do something along those lines."

On the main floor, the Town's Canada 150 mural, which was completed by community volunteers last year, now has a permanent home in the lobby of the expansion. There is also a display case on the main floor, which will showcase the work of local artists on a rotating basis.

Lougheed says that first up, in that main floor display case, Okotoks artist Tiffany Goerzen will have some of her paintings on display. The artists that are featured in the display case will all be members of the Okotoks Art Gallery, and that's in keeping with the gallery's goal of sharing local talent with the community.

"We've been expanding our reach into the community over the past few years," Lougheed says. "So, with these two new Pason areas, that takes us up to five separate displays throughout the community where we put local artists' artwork up. We like to take the opportunity to expose people to art in areas where they may not expect to see it, and it's always nice to do that with local artists."

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