Edmonton earned the nickname "Canada's Festival City" in recognition of its lengthy list of annual events. Keeping the locals and guests busy throughout the year are the Canadian Rodeo Finals, the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival, the largest Fringe Festival on the continent, the Edmonton International Film Festival, the Free Will Shakespeare Festival, and the list goes on. A cultural hub, the city is also home to the Royal Alberta Museum and the Art Gallery of Alberta.

ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS

• The Art Gallery of Alberta (formerly the Edmonton Art Gallery) is located in the city's downtown, and hosts many visiting exhibitions and educational programs in addition to holding a permanent collection of more than 6,000 artworks. Established in 1924, the Brutalist building in which it had resided since the late 1960s was renovated recently to an 85,000 square foot location with twice as much display space, a restaurant, gift shot, theatre, and a dedicated exhibition space for the collection.

  Within the gallery's small but notable collection are works by A.Y. Jackson, George Reid, David Milne, Emily Carr, and Frederick Verner. Other draws include many talks and lectures, film screenings, and family activities.

• Located on the MacEwan University campus, The Gray Gallery is a place of art exhibition and appreciation, intended as an oasis for students to escape the stresses of school.

• The Multicultural Centre Public Art Gallery is one of only seven public galleries in the province. Local and regional artists are showcased in regular exhibits, each of which features an opening reception where guests can interact with the artist.

• Known for representing the best artistic talent in the country, since 1975 the West End Gallery has featured painting, sculpture, and glass art ranging from traditional to contemporary styles.

• The Lando Gallery is the largest commercial art gallery in the city, and showcases both Canadian and International art and artistic objects. Established in 1990, the gallery hosts the Lando Art Auctions thrice yearly.

• Royal Alberta Museum
• Rutherford House
• Alberta Craft Council Gallery
• John Walter Museum
• University of Alberta Museums
• Alberta Aviation Museum
• Ukrainian Canadian Archives & Museum Of Alberta
• Victoria School Museum
• Alberta Railway Museum
• Telus World of Science
• Johnson Gallery

Edmonton, Alberta

ARTISTIC INSTITUTIONS

• At the University of Alberta, the artistically inclined can study a wide range of courses and achieve a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing, theatre, history of art, painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, industrial design, or visual communications. Founded in 1908, the university enrols almost 40,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, and the Arts and Humanities department is ranked in the top 100 in the world. It is also ranked one of the top public research universities in the world. In total, the school offers 200 undergraduate and 170 graduate programs.

• The faculty of Fine Arts and Communications at MacEwan University offers Bachelor's degrees in a wide range of concentrations, including arts and cultural management, communication studies, design, fine art, music, and theatre. The school's artistic programs are offered at the Centre for the Arts and Communications, located in west Edmonton. Established in 1971, the university began as a community college and is named for the former Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Dr. J.W. Grant MacEwan.

• Pro’s Art Atelier is an art school that teaches drawing, perspective and composition for oil painting. The available courses, broken up into three levels, leave students familiar with artistic styles such as Classical Realism, Neo-Classicism, and Impressionism. The facility offers more than 3000 square feet of studio space, and is open to the public at any time. In addition to basics, Pro's offers live model workshops and brings in established artists from around the world to teach.

• Identified as Alberta's Academy of Realist Art, ARTRA Art School offers beginner, intermediate and advanced classes in painting and drawing in the realism style. Available courses include watercolour landscapes, drawing with coloured pencils, drawing wildlife with charcoal, and winter scenes in oil. Their website features a student gallery showcasing the successful works of former or continuing students.

• The Paint Spot
• City Arts Centre
• Adult studio classes at the Art Gallery of Alberta
• Harcourt House Artist Run Centre
• 4Cats Riverbend

NATIVE ARTISTS

There are plenty of artistic people originally from, or currently living in Edmonton, Alberta!

• Aboriginal soapstone carver, painter, and public artist Jason Carter has a wide body of work that has been showcased at the Art Gallery of Calgary and the Vancouver Olympics, and commissioned by the city, the Edmonton Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the arts.

• Blake Ward's abstracted and figurative sculptures have been featured around the world. The artist has worked in Paris and Vietnam, and his social activism is evident in his pieces.

• The philosopher Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was an expert in communication theory and is credited with pioneering Media Theory. His work was inspired in part by Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp.

• Actors Tommy Chong, Nathan Fillion, and Michael J. Fox.

ART AND CULTURAL EVENTS

Annual Events

• A thirteen day festival beginning at the end of June, the The Works Art & Design Festival features artists and designers from across the country, and special international presenters as well. With free exhibits in more than 30 unexpected venues around the city (restaurants, warehouses, parks), the festival showcases artwork of every media, from ceramics and painting to furniture and graffiti. The festival's inaugural event was held in 1985.

  The Canadian Aboriginal Artist Program takes place during the event as well, highlighting the artistic contribution and achievement of both new and established Aboriginal artists. The participants are chosen based on their responses to social and environmental issues affecting the first nation's community as well as all of Canada.

• UP + DOWNTOWN is a music and arts festival that began in 2013. The event is a celebration of independent art and music, and features more than 60 performers and artists over three days in October. The performances take place at a variety of venues around the city.

• A three day festival that features hundreds of artists, the Whyte Avenue Art Walk takes place in July in the Old Strathcona neighbourhood. Not only are more than 400 artists' works showcased along 4 km of surrounding streets, the artists work on their craft, allowing guests to view creativity in progress. The artwork shown is for sale, allowing visitors to develop their own regional collection.

• Nextfest takes place over eleven days in June and features 500 artists and more than 50 events. In addition to performances, plays, and film screenings, the festival showcases the work of local emerging artists, whose art is shown in participating businesses for the duration of the event. In addition to these indoor "galleries", artists have opportunity to contribute with installations and temporary murals.

Other Events and Sights to See

• Visit the Muttart Conservatory to wander the beautiful botanical gardens contained within three pyramid biodomes.

• The tenth largest mall in the world, West Edmonton Mall is home to countless shopping options and Galaxyland amusement park.

• Take in a show at the Citadel Theatre, one of the continent's largest non-profit theatre venues, with five separate performance spaces.

• If it's snowing, head to Rabbit Hill Snow Resort, open from September to April, weather permitting.

• The Commonwealth Stadium is home to the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos, so be sure to catch a kickoff.

• Less than an hour away, Elk Island National Park has been around for more than 100 years, and is home to herds of bison, elk, deer, and moose.

• For more great ideas of what to see and do in Edmonton, visit their tourism website, Explore Edmonton.

The skyline in the dark

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