RBC Emerging Artist Project at the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts
This exciting opportunity is open to visual artists who are in the early stages of their arts careers. Four to six apprenticeship opportunities will be awarded to emerging artists.
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Visual arts & new media
Drop-in Sketching at RAM: Birds
Have you ever wished you could use the Royal Alberta Museum’s collections for sketching inspiration? Now’s your chance! We'll be showcasing rarely seen museum objects to create a still-life setup for you to practice your drawing skills.
This month there will be a huge migration of birds from our collection rooms! Everything from owls, penguins, sparrows, and turkeys, you’ll have a chance to draw birds from Alberta and around the world.
Learn more: https://www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/node/648
Work of the Week celebrates Bold Women and International Women's Day
Faye HeavyShield
blood, 2004
cotton, cotton string, acrylic
In celebration of International Women's Day we are proud to share, blood—the work of Kainai artist Faye HeavyShield.
Bold Women
Two of HeavyShield’s installation artworks, blood and homecoming, from the AFA’s Art Collection have been selected for Bold Women, a landmark exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas.
The show features over forty primarily Indigenous, Black, Newcomers and LGBT women artists as well as those of gender non-conforming identities whose visionary ideas and experimentation demonstrate the concept of boldness through challenging dominant institutional, cultural and social boundaries and reshaping historical narratives.
Set to open February 18 and running through to July 6, 2025, the exhibition includes 75 artworks from various disciplines including photography, sculpture, textiles, paintings, video, installations and is organized across four galleries each exploring one element of boldness:
- Portrayal / Resistance: ways that portrayals can deny visibility
- Collective Preservation / Liberation: women preserving, healing, and liberating communities across generations
- Nature / Erasure: the erasure of women’s contributions, in conversation with nature
- Wisdom / Knowledge-keeping: transmitting knowledge and women as connectors
The exhibition was curated by Susan Earle, the Spencer Museum’s curator of European and American Art, along with a team of diverse curatorial collaborators from across North America including the Brooklyn Museum’s Curator Dr. Kimberli Grant and Wanda Nanibush, an Anishinaabe curator from the Beausoleil First Nation in Ontario among others.
About the artist
Faye HeavyShield is a member of the Blood Nation. She graduated from the Alberta College of Art in 1985, and continued her studies at the University of Calgary. Gaining prominence and recognition in the past few years, her work has been the subject of many solo shows including major exhibitions of First Nations contemporary art. HeavyShield's work is a fusion of highly evolved personal and powerful imagery influenced by her Christian and Blood upbringing. Her minimalist installations are metaphors of the human body and a reflection of her personal experiences.
Bold women accelerating action at the AFA
Meet the bold women of the AFA's Board of Directors that are passionate about the arts and work steadfastly to support a vibrant Alberta arts community that sparks innovation, bursts with creativity, fosters understanding, and promotes belonging.
Click the names of the board members and watch as they share their personal takes on the importance of the arts in Alberta.
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About International Women's Day
International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8 around the globe. IWD has been celebrated globally since 1911 and is an important day that highlights the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
This year’s IWD theme focuses on accelerating action for gender equality. We encourage you to take part in an IWD event within your community and continue supporting women in the arts throughout the year.
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Two of Kainai artist Faye HeavyShield’s installation artworks, blood and homecoming, from the AFA’s Art Collection have been selected for Bold Women.
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Work of the Week celebrates Bold Women and International Women's Day
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Two of Kainai artist Faye HeavyShield’s installation artworks, blood and homecoming, from the AFA’s Art Collection have been selected for Bold Women.
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Work of the Week celebrates Bold Women and IWD
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Two of Kainai artist Faye HeavyShield’s installation artworks, blood and homecoming, from the AFA’s Art Collection have been selected for Bold Women.
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A special holiday greeting from the AFA
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A special holiday greeting from AFA Board Chair Cynthia P. Moore.
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The holiday season is a wonderful time to reflect with family and friends. At the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, we are forging a deeper understanding of our role and responsibilities as Alberta’s provincial arts funder and principal supporter. We are in a period of renewal as we look forward to new opportunities. Whether it is the performing arts, literary, visual, film or video, the AFA’s job is to help individual artists and organizations explore, practice, create and promote their exceptional work.
We have a profound sense of optimism for the years ahead that is buoyed by the Alberta government’s commitment to increase AFA funding to a record-level $39.1 million by 2027.
We look forward to continuing our work with government for the betterment of Alberta’s arts sector.
Art and Alberta’s artists are at the heart of everything that we do. In that vein, I’m proud to continue the AFA’s tradition of highlighting an artwork from our collection. This year, I’m pleased to feature Crowsnest Mountain and the Seven Sisters by Dr. Joane Cardinal-Schubert.
This beautiful Indigenous work is representative of the mountain landscape in Southern Alberta. Cardinal-Schubert’s use of color is so appropriate during the holiday season.
On behalf of the AFA Board of Directors and staff, please accept my best wishes for a safe and restful holiday season, Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.
Cynthia P. Moore, Chair
Alberta Foundation for the Arts
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A special holiday greeting from the AFA
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A special holiday greeting from AFA Board Chair Cynthia P. Moore.
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A special holiday greeting from the AFA
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A special holiday greeting from AFA Board Chair Cynthia P. Moore.
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Artist
Dr. Joane Cardinal-Schubert
Title
Crowsnest Mountain and the Seven Sisters
Year
1989
Medium
oil on paper
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ArtBUs
Get ready to hop on the ArtBus on Saturday, March 22nd!
Portraits of Place
Portraits of Place
Wendy Gervais
Curated by Maysa Miller-Saohin
March 22 - May 3, 2025
You’re invited to the opening reception of Portraits of Place — a solo exhibition by Wendy Gervais. The exhibit explores the loss of original houses in Garneau, reflecting on their role as landmarks of memory when shaping a community’s identity.
Opening Reception: Saturday March 22, 2025 from 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Emerging Artists Unleashed
The Alberta Society of Artists is pleased to present our annual exhibition “Emerging Artists Unleashed: 2025” featuring the work of Alberta undergraduate students: Avery Neumiller (Undergraduate Scholarship recipient), Thea Galang (Undergraduate Scholarship recipient), Kayla Heinen, Aleanna Mau, Kacey Reichert, Karly Zouppas, and Kay Peters.
This exhibition celebrates the diversity of undergraduate students enrolled in a Fine arts program at a secondary institution within Alberta.
The exhibition runs March 12, 2025 – April 26, 2025, at the ASA Art Gallery, #222, 1235 – 26 Ave.
Curator of Art, Nickle Galleries
We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta.
The City of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Districts 5 and 6.
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Spectre of Comparison
The Alberta Society of Artists is pleased to present the solo exhibition “Spectre of Comparison” featuring the work of Alberta artist Kuhlien Migue.
The exhibition runs March 12, 2025 – April 26, 2025, at the ASA Art Gallery, #222, 1235 – 26 Ave. SE, Calgary, Alberta. Gallery hours are Wednesday – Saturday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and parking is free.
There will be an opening reception and artist talk Saturday, March 15, 1-4 pm.
"The successive colonial and imperial regimes of Spain, the United States, and Japan in the Philippines produced postage stamps brimming with propaganda.
EnglishFrench Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography 2026
Created by the friends and family of the late artist Barbara Spohr, the Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography encourages the development of Canadian contemporary photography by providing financial and creative assistance to a mid-career artist making a compelling contribution to the field.
This annual award supports one mid-career Canadian artist (Canadian citizen or permanent resident) working in photography to undertake a fully funded residency at the Banff Centre.
Description
During this month-long self-directed residency, the award winner will have