Night Market, an event to promote the Winkler Arts and Culture Center, had its debut Friday evening.

The event featured vendors, live music by Derrick Penner and Patrick Simoens, face-painting for kids, and local artist Caleb Hamm's exhibit, 'Storytellers'.

Winkler Arts and Culture executive director Wendy Klassen said the idea for the event was inspired by some of the night market events she had seen in Winnipeg.

"I thought an evening vibe was always fun, and so we were going to try it," she said.

'Storytellers', featuring 30 pieces of Hamm's work, ranging from sculptures to painting, share the stories of people's lives, and will be on display until July 28.

Some of the pieces on display by Caleb Hamm

"Some are quite autobiographic, and other pieces are also about taking on a more political, social awareness role, says Hamm. “Dealing with say, aboriginal people, and as well as mostly the indigenous people of Papua New Guinea and West Papua," he said.

Hamm was born in Papua New Guinea and spent most of his early life there, traveling back to his country of birth as a young adult and learned about the social issues that were affecting the people there.

Hamm says his art shares the stories of these people and shows the social issues of the world.

"The idea of stories you being something that drives our cultures, something the connects our cultures. There's cross-cultural events and cross-class events that happen, that also revolve around stories. We're brought up on stories, we communicate through stories, and I think the beauty of visual storytelling is that it isn't restricted to language or culture."

Hamm feels that this exhibit speaks to Winkler specifically, saying, as the City grows multi-culturally from its mono-cultural roots, the people who have been here a while, grow and change alongside the City.

Friday's Night Market may have been the first of many, as Klassen noted the plan was to hold the event again, possibly as soon as later this summer.