I had a very disappointing experience inquiring into renting the facility at the art gallery which is a beautiful space but the rates for rental are ridiculous for this town. At first I asked about renting the space and I got a few very stilted and poorly-written responses that didn't address my questions (I asked about renting in spring but was only given information about renting in summer, I asked about rates and was told to refer to a rental policy that was not attached to the email or available on the website). Finally someone else entirely sent me a "rental policy" that, when I was able to decipher it gave me the information I needed (very poorly written, but I was told that the organization has high school students who do summer work for them, so I guess it was written by one of them, but you would think for something like this someone would proofread it - e.g. a non-refundable deposit is required, but it is actually refundable, a lot of gibberish about photography fees, redundancy everywhere). I don't know if I am able to write fees on this website, but the rates for renting the building are double - and in some cases triple - the rates for renting any other building I have looked at in Grand Forks. The reason I am writing this on trip advisor is because I think it is really wrong for a city funded organization to be able to charge people so much for renting their space. I pay taxes to support the art gallery and I don't think that means I should be able to rent it for pennies, but I cannot believe the rates that they are charging because tax money already funds them and then now they want rental rates charged to tax payers to also fund them, and the stipulations they put on it, saying that if the event is outside of business hours on top of the space rental you have to pay $45 an hour for a staff member just to be there, plus $45 an hour for someone to set up and take down the event? I don't know anyone in Grand Forks who makes $45 an hour, though I guess I would now like to see the salaries at the art gallery. Other stipulations are that the art gallery needs to see the menu from the caterers before the event and that only members can rent the building. It seems very fascist. Finally, the rental policy had "confidential" stamped across it, though when I asked specifically about the confidentiality I was told that it wasn't in fact confidential...why would it be confidential if it is a rental policy for a public space? In any case, I think that the rates are way too high and I will be contacting the city about it, as well as letting my friends know. I know a lot of people who have had xmas parties and weddings at the art gallery but there is no way they paid this amount of money. Are there secret special rates that you can get if you know someone there?

Our family travels through Grand Forks every year to go to the Crowsnest Pass for our summer holiday. We've been doing the trip now for 4 years, since my daughter was 9 and my son was 4. We have to leave on Sunday, because my wife works Saturdays at her job and we like to maximize our vacation time as much as possible. The first year we took the trip, we stopped in at the Visitor's Centre in Grand Forks to use the washroom and get some information about other places we might stop along the way, and things we wouldn't want to miss in the Crowsnest Pass (since we visit family we usually don't do a lot of sightseeing, but we had heard there was a really great history in the place so we didn't want to miss out on anything). That first visit, my wife wandered into the gift shop with our kids, and it has now totally become a must-stop on our trip. The foyer area is so inviting, with the nice couches, and the bathrooms are so clean, and the gift shop is such a nice little store to wander around in, and so unique. My kids have come to love visiting the gift shop as much as they love spending 2 weeks in the cabin with family, because there are so many cute little old fashioned toys to play with. So it was a major disappointment for us when we tried to stop in last Sunday and we found that they were closed. At first we wondered if we had just come at the wrong time, but no, their hours say that they are not open on Sundays. What changed? There is nothing else open on Sundays in Grand Forks, except for the grocery stores, and so we had to go down to the municipal park to use the washrooms, and they were really gross and smelled bad. I'm sorry to give such a low review to a place that we have come to love, but it kind of soured the rest of our drive that we couldn't stop in for our yearly visit. There was a couple that were on a motorcycle trip through the Kootenays that were stopped there too wanting to use the washroom and get some information about where they were headed. They said they were surprised to not be able to get in because they have always stopped there and they thought that the visitor's centre was open every day and that all of the other places they had stopped had been open on Sundays. Even though we never stop in Grand Forks on the way back home from vacation, I had to promise my kids that we would change our plans this year so that they can get their little toys and my wife can look at the art.

Great place to find gifts as well as items for your home. The work done by local artisans is showcased here, and the quality of work is amazing. It was hard to walk out of there without wanting to take half of the artwork home.