New west cultural crawl
Saturday, October 3rd + Sunday October 4th, 2026
11 am to 5 pm
The New West Cultural Crawl features venues across the city for two days, inviting visitors to explore studios, galleries, and creative spaces highlighting the creative energy of New Westminster. Check out the interactive New West Cultural Crawl map and discover venues across New West neighbourhoods:
4 Downtown | 18 Uptown | 5 Sapperton
3 West End | 1 Queensborough
Among the highlights is Van Dop Gallery, a cultural cornerstone of New Westminster’s arts scene for 30 years. Located in the Sapperton neighbourhood in a renovated heritage home at 421 Richmond Street, the gallery offers visitors a unique and intimate way to experience Canadian art.
This year, Van Dop Gallery will feature the work of four gallery artists:
Leanne M. Christie | Maryanne Jespersen |
Rodrigo Sarrat-Cave | Lanta Meng | Iris Mes Low |
Leslie Poole | Michael King
Visitors can explore their work alongside pieces by more than 80 other Canadian artists throughout the gallery’s distinctive home-style setting.
The Cultural Crawl is a unique opportunity to experience Van Dop Gallery during an open house, exploring the gallery at your own pace and discovering art throughout the space. Bring a friend—or a few—and make Van Dop part of your day exploring New Westminster’s creative community. If you can’t make it during the Crawl, the gallery also welcomes visitors by appointment for private viewings throughout the year.
ART OF THE GARDEN
Art of the Garden
You and your friends are invited to Van Dop Gallery’s annual Art of the Garden Exhibition.
Set within the gallery’s beautifully designed home and garden space — a one-of-a-kind setting that has showcased exceptional Canadian art for decades — this year’s collection for Art of the Garden celebrates the rich dialogue between art and the cultivated landscape. Wander through lush outdoor pathways and thoughtfully curated interiors as you discover enchanting garden ornaments and luminous glassworks by Violet Finvers, alongside garden-themed paintings and sculpture by Van Dop Gallery artists.
FOR A PRIVATE VIEWING EMAIL TRUDY@VANDOPGALLERY.COM
A sepal, petal, and a thorn
Emily Dickinson
19
A sepal, petal, and a thorn
Upon a common summer’s morn —
A flask of Dew — A Bee or two —
A Breeze — a caper in the trees —
And I’m a Rose!
LEANNE M. CHRISTIE | Featured Artist
New Works by Leanne Christie
FOR A PRIVATE VIEWING EMAIL TRUDY@VANDOPGALLERY.COM
Van Dop Gallery is pleased to present new works by Leanne M. Christie, a Vancouver-based painter whose practice investigates urban infrastructure and metropolitan transformation. Known for her distinctive approach to urban oil painting, Christie transforms the architectural and psychological complexities of city environments into works that are both technically accomplished and conceptually layered.
Her canvases, developed through a rigorous studio practice and daily cycling explorations of Vancouver’s neighbourhoods, reveal shifting atmospheres, structural tensions, and the human imprint on changing urban spaces. Christie’s work captures the evolving geography of the city, balancing painterly precision with an openness that invites reflection on how collective decisions shape the environments we inhabit.
