HAVE JOKES, WILL TRAVEL
Actor and comedian Malik Elassal strikes comedy gold with the FX show Adults
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: A FORCE FOR GOOD LOCAL MUSIC ARTISTS TO WATCH A NEW CHAPTER IN ARTS SPACES
Creativity happens here
ART CRAFT DESIGN
Since 1926
Liam Blunt, 2Knights, 1st Year Drawing, Charcoal on paper
Meet
Bethel Afework, executive director of the Alcove Centre for the Arts, on accessible creativity.
10 Pulse
The latest findings on how Calgarians engage with arts and culture.
13
Experience Spend 48 hours discovering art in and around downtown Calgary.
16 Next Gen Find out about teens baring their souls at Can You Hear Me Now? poetry slam events.
18 Exhibit The Art Bus project puts public art in motion.
20
Discuss Calgary Foundation’s Eva Friesen, arts supporter Heather Campbell and writer Marcello Di Cintio talk about the role of the arts in challenging times.
Calgary’s Next Chapter in Arts Spaces 23
Major arts spaces are undergoing transformation, reshaping what it means for Calgary as an arts city.
Tales From the City 28
Three local writers share how Calgary lives between the lines of their work.
The City as a Canvas 33
The Graffiti Jam project fosters a safe space for expression and creativity.
The Up and Comers 36
Calgary’s music insiders share their picks for local artists to watch.
Here Be Dragons ... and They’re Friendly 42
How Dungeons & Dragons has become more popular than ever as a force for good in a chaotic world.
Actor and comedian Malik Elassal hits
Harvey Nichol embarked on an eightmonth creative journey to craft his
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Chair, Board of Directors
Chima Nkemdirim
President and CEO
Patti Pon
Calgary Arts Development Authority is a wholly owned subsidiary of The City of Calgary. We invest and allocate municipal funding for the arts to hundreds of arts organizations, individual artists, artist collectives and arts events in Calgary. We believe the arts have the power to create vibrant communities and bring together diverse voices and perspectives. We support artists in the development of their skills and the expression of their creativity. Calgary Arts Development supports and strengthens the arts to benefit all Calgarians.
Calgary Arts Development
Phone: 403-264-5330
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Jared Sych
Editorial Contributors
Haider Ali
Catrina Bowles
Elizabeth Chorney-Booth
Marcello Di Cintio
Jason Dziver
Tyler Hellard
Nathan Iles
Fabian Mayer
Olivia Piché
Viancy Salubre
Sarah L. Shaneman
Dane Thibeault
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Published annually by Calgary Arts Development in partnership with RedPoint Media Group.
Thanks a billion,
Over the last 70 years, Calgary Foundation has granted $1 billion to the Calgary and area community – helping to care for our city of over a million people. We have thousands to thank for building a more vibrant and healthy community where everyone belongs. It takes strong partnerships between visionary philanthropists and our effective charitable sector to address the current and future needs of people in our community. Fueled by a permanent endowment, we invest donations over the long term, making it possible to care for generations to come. Thank you, Calgary, for helping us to give more, do more, grant more and invest more.
calgaryfoundation.org
Patti Pon
WELCOME
Since our last issue of Create Calgary in the fall of 2024, so much has happened, and we’ve learned even more about how important and valued the arts are to Calgarians.
We live in complicated times, and people are feeling challenged and concerned by many big issues. Calgary Foundation’s 2024 Quality of Life Report recounted a bleak outlook from Calgarians. With the subtitle Holding it Together, it reported how Calgarians are feeling nervous about their financial situation, they are stressed about housing, there is rising food insecurity, mental health is slipping, and they’re concerned about safety.
Yet, there is hope in the arts. In fact, 86 per cent of Calgarians believe a strong arts and culture scene is key to creating a vibrant city, and 81 per cent feel the arts help them appreciate other perspectives and cultures. The arts play a vital role as a contributor to our quality of life and sense of community and connection.
Calgarians from every corner of the city attend the arts. In 2025, we collaborated with Creative Calgary, a non-partisan group of artists, arts organizations and arts workers who champion the economic, cultural and social benefits of the arts, to understand where Calgary’s arts audiences come from. What did we learn? We learned that Calgarians from every neighbourhood in our city attend the arts — almost every single city block is home to at least one arts attender.
Participation in the arts is not new. The original peoples
of this place: the Blackfoot people comprising the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani Nations as well as the Tsuut’ina Nation and the Îyârhe Nakoda Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney First Nations have taken part in song, dance, drumming, storytelling, drawing, crafting and ceremony since time immemorial. Today, this land is also home to the Otipemisiwak Métis Government Districts 5 and 6, as well as many First Nations and Inuit from across Turtle Island.
Through the years, this place has drawn many others who now call it home, and everyone who arrived added their own distinct culture and story to the rich character of our city. We celebrate all the truth tellers, meaning makers and creatives who help shape our identity and offer opportunities to belong.
I extend my gratitude to everyone who contributed to this year’s magazine — our partner RedPoint Media, the writers, photographers, illustrators, designers, editors, advertisers and, especially, the artists you’ll meet within the following pages — from musicians to writers, young poets to graffiti artists and a stand-up comedian from Calgary making his mark in a big way. I hope you enjoy reading their stories, and I look forward to seeing you at an arts event very soon!
Patti Pon, LL.D. h.c. President and CEO, Calgary Arts Development
P.S. To find out more about what’s happening in Calgary, visit yycwhatson.ca.
MEET: BETHEL AFEWORK
By Marcello Di Cintio
Photographs by Jason Dziver
Tell us about your own experience with the arts in Calgary. I was a very creative kid growing up. I did a lot of theatre in elementary school and music in high school. I didn't necessarily know if there were opportunities to actually work in the arts. It was just something that I enjoyed that I felt like I was pretty good at. But by the time I finished my first year of university, I wasn't really doing arts things. I was really disconnected from it. I felt like the arts were very gate-kept in society. If you don't consider yourself an artist, there aren't a lot of places where you can just be creative.
My friends and I started exploring the local art scene. I felt something was missing. You could go to a music show, or a poetry
reading or a comedy show, but there wasn't an eclectic cabaret that included everything. So a few of us started an open mic series called Raw Voices, which encompassed poetry, comedy and music. It was supposed to be a one-time summer project for us to host, but there was so much interest that we decided to do it monthly. We promised ourselves that we would use the revenue to one day open up a recreational, creative, social space that brought all sorts of arts together.
And this was Alcove?
Yes. In 2021, we started doing day pop-ups of Alcove in outdoor spaces, and then we slowly moved to commercial spaces that were month-long pop-ups. We stored all the furniture and supplies in one half of my parents’ garage — bless them — then moved everything in a U-Haul every month to the places where we’d set up. We’ve done Alcove in Century Gardens, ContainR in Sunnyside, the Esker parking lot, the lobby of The GRAND. The idea was that Alcove could exist in any space. You could create this cozy, welcoming arts community anywhere. We replicated the idea over and over again.
How did you end up in your current space downtown?
In 2022, we connected with a project cSPACE was starting — the meanwhile lease pilot program. It
accesses commercial spaces for low cost and provides them at below-market cost to arts organizations. We opened in 2023.
How would you describe Alcove?
We’ve created a recreational centre for arts like an “art gym,” similar to the YMCA. Alcove is a very social community space. You can go into our drop-in space, which is open Wednesday through Sunday. You can paint. You can collage. Things like that. No one's gonna ask you how long you’ve been doing this or doing that. Or if you're good or fast. People can come and use the space whether or not there is programming going on. We have multiple rooms, so everything coexists.
Artist Profile
Bethel Afework is the executive director and cofounder of the Alcove Centre for the Arts, a recreational community arts space in the middle of the city’s downtown. Since taking over the former O’Connor’s shoe store space in 2023, Alcove has become a beacon of accessible creativity for all Calgarians. Alcove bills itself as a “creative playground to stimulate your artistic senses,” offering free access to arts supplies and musical instruments in addition to workshops, performances and other arts events. We chat with Afework to find out more about Alcove and how it came to be.
What programming does Alcove offer?
Our big weekly event is our Thursday Night Music Jam. If you’re a musician, and you want to jam, you can jam. You can also get crafty with all the drop-in art supplies and enjoy the tunes! We also offer four genres of workshops — textiles, music and performance, creative writing and visual arts — which we host once or twice a week. And we do private workshops for groups who want to do team building.
We also offer affordable rental spaces. A lot of different artists and organizations have rented our space for different events, including music EP release parties, film screenings, conversation meetups. We're open to anything that people can envision in this space.
features live music, plus people are also welcome to drop in and get crafty with the art supplies while they enjoy the tunes.
How important is it that Alcove is downtown?
I grew up riding transit, and downtown was the meeting point for all my friends who lived in different parts of the city. We’d just hop on the train and meet at TD [Square, now the CORE]. Downtown is where we wanted to start. We wanted to create a flagship here.
The west end of downtown is one of the most populated parts of the city. There's a lot of variety of people that live here, and it's a very eclectic place. But there’s a lack of arts programming and amenities in downtown where people can just drop in. That was how we got our first pilot funding through The City of Calgary’s downtown strategy. My pitch was that Alcove can be a destination open to a wide variety of people that is low cost or free.
Do you envision other Alcove locations? Definitely. Our goal is to empower people elsewhere in the city to start up a space like this themselves. Maybe take over a room in their community association to start an Alcove. There are a lot of underutilized and empty buildings out there. So we hope to one day be in other communities, but I never want to lose having a location downtown.
Thursday Night Music Jam at Alcove
Do you still do off-site events and pop-ups?
Yes. Last year, an anti-racism conference commissioned us to set up their wellness room — a space for anyone who needed time away from the conference. We set it up like Alcove, with soft seating, a carpet, soft lighting, and we filled the space with art supplies. We’ve also set up a mini-Alcove in the middle of a park. We were commissioned to do the Sled Island curation exhibition, and we’ve done a variety of projects on behalf of Calgary Arts Development.
What’s it like doing this work in Calgary?
What I like about Calgary, and why I think Alcove is great, is that there's so much talent here. I feel, too, that Calgary has a very collaborative and kind spirit, which helps a space like Alcove thrive, and helps build a culture that I hope Calgary gets known for.
Check out Alcove at 244 7 Ave. S.W. or to learn more, visit alcoveartscentre.ca.
meet
Since 2014, Calgary Arts Development has partnered with Stone-Olafson to better understand the degree and nature of how Calgarians engage with arts and culture in our community. Objectives include monitoring engagement with the arts in Calgary and what type — observation/listening, attendance or creation; evaluating community perceptions of the benefits of the arts and culture sector to the city, their community or themselves; and understanding whether the arts can play a role in fostering a stronger sense of belonging for Calgarians.
The most recent survey was fielded online by Stone-Olafson using a sample representative of the wider population in terms of age, gender and region within the city. A total of 1,000 Calgarians participated between February 24 and March 5, 2025. Here are a few findings from that latest survey.
DEPTH OF ENGAGEMENT WITH THE ARTS
Nearly all Calgarians (89 per cent) are connected to the arts in one form or another. The most common form of engagement continues to be through observation or listening. Expectedly, attendance among Calgarians increased significantly in the past few years as the city saw the return of in-person events. However, there was also a notable increase in creation-based engagement, associated with a rise in popularity of casual, selfdirected creative activities and hobbies.
IMMERSED (35%)
People who engage in the arts in every way (observe, attend and create).
ENGAGED (31%)
People who connect with the arts in two ways — either watching and attending, creating and attending or watching and creating.
Calgarians can participate in the arts by 1) watching and listening, 2) attending and 3) creating. Knowing whether individuals are participating in just one form of engagement or multiple helps form a better understanding of the different kinds of arts audiences. In this research, Calgarians are split into four levels of engagement with the arts: immersed (those who engage in all three ways), engaged (engage in two ways), connected (engage in one way) and disconnected (those who do not engage in any way).
CONNECTED (23%)
People who only engage with the arts in one way — either by watching only, attending only or creating only.
DISCONNECTED (11%)
People who do not engage in any way.
Those who are immersed in the arts have the highest sense of belonging. The idea of belonging is often about being part of a collective “we” and is a connection between an individual and their various communities.
Thirty-five per cent of Calgarians feel engaged with their city and 34 per cent are engaged with the neighbourhood they live in. These respondents tend to be those with the highest levels of arts participation who are more likely to report a strong sense of belonging.
Being involved in the arts gives me a sense of belonging
Arts and culture activities can show people a new way of looking at things around them
Engaging with arts & culture fosters empathy — a greater understanding of other people, cultures, ideas, etc.
BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION
Top concerns for not engaging in the arts are cost and time. Although attendance overall has increased, specific forums like movies, live concerts/performances and museums remain below pre-pandemic levels. (Respondents could choose as many answers as apply.)
It costs too much >>> 43%
Income has changed, no longer can afford all the things I used to >>> 28%
It is difficult to find the time to attend >>> 26%
I’d rather spend my leisure time in other ways >>> 24%
The activity or event is not relevant/does not appeal to me >>> 21%
I cannot find anyone to go with / my friends or family are unavailable/uninterested >>> 20%
It is too much of a hassle to get there >>> 19%
Found new things to fill my time >>> 14%
The hours of operation are inconvenient >>> 13%
I find it hard to connect with cultural activities in general >>> 11%
Not physically accessible to me >>> 10%
It is not child-friendly >>> 5%
I have not enjoyed my prior experience — I find it unwelcoming >>> 5%
Other >>> 4%
None of the above >>> 10%
LOCAL ARTIST DEVELOPMENT
84 per cent of those surveyed think developing local artists – of all kinds – is a good thing for Calgary.
80 per cent feel it is important that there are organizations in the community dedicated to the development of the arts in Calgary.
48 per cent believe Calgary’s current arts and culture offerings are of a world-class calibre.
Arts education programs in school are an important part of the curriculum for children of all ages
Arts and culture experiences help bring people from diverse backgrounds
In the past 12 months, has your feeling of connection to arts & culture …?
Stayed about the same
Become weaker
Don’t know
48 HOURS OF
experience
ART IN THE CITY
Spend a weekend on an arts crawl engaging with Calgary’s vibrant arts and culture scene By Nathan Iles
Calgary’s downtown is brimming with art — from the Conversation sculpture on Stephen Avenue to BUMP murals, concert venues and an entire building full of theatres right next to City Hall.
Whether you’re downtown regularly or haven’t ventured to the core in a while, this vibrant heart of the city is worth a visit. We’ve crafted a two-day, self-directed “arts crawl,” featuring a rich selection of must-see arts and culture activities. (This is but a sampling of the endless options available.)
So grab a date, pack some water, and spend 48 hours taking in Calgary’s arts scene.
DAY ONE
Let’s begin just outside of downtown proper, in Calgary’s historic Inglewood community. The neighbourhood feels like a work of art, with aged storefronts and fading murals surrounding a walkable main street along 9th Avenue S.E., which is considered Calgary’s original downtown. Start your journey with some caffeine and artsiness at The Next Page (nextpageyyc.ca) bookstore. It has a pay-what-you-can coffee shop on the main level, and if you take a peek downstairs, you’ll find a hidden movie theatre that screens Hollywood classics amidst piles of delicious-smelling books.
Next, point yourself at the Calgary skyline and start walking. Eventually, you’ll come across the Atlantic Art Block (atlanticartblock.com) towards the outskirts of Inglewood. This funky building has various dining options, like Lina’s Italian Piazza and Joodam Drink & Talk, if you’re peckish. But we’re here for the Esker Foundation (eskerfoundation.com), a free-entry art gallery that features both a Project Space at street level and an exhibition gallery on the fourth floor.
Keep moseying down 9th Avenue towards the city’s centre, and The Confluence (theconfluence.ca), formerly Fort Calgary, will catch your eye to the right. Its cultural centre immerses you in stories about Indigenous culture and often features a rotating art exhibit. Depending on the day and time, catch a movie or a workshop in the beautiful Burnswest Theatre.
START
ESKER FOUNDATION
THE CONFLUENCE
THE KING EDDY
CONTEMPORARY CALGARY
DICKENS
Watch calgaryartsdevelopment.com for a new Public Art Guide coming soon.
As you enter the core, you’ll be struck by the steel curves and architecture of Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre (studiobell.ca). Explore five floors of permanent exhibitions like the Best of Canada and a Rolling Stones Mobile Recording Studio, and check to see if there’s a performance on; the acoustics of the building are, suitably, excellent. Look down the street near the underpass, and you’ll see the Calgary Dream mural by Parisian artist Meyso along its wall. Commissioned by the Beltline Urban Murals Project (BUMP), this piece captures Calgary's unique mixture of natural and urban beauty. The King Eddy (kingeddy.ca) is also nearby; grab a bite on its new rooftop patio and catch a gig inside. You have a few options from here, depending on the time of day. The Central Library (calgarylibrary.ca), a stone's throw from Studio Bell, features the sculpture TRIO by Christian Moeller right outside the front doors. Inside the library, you’ll find murals and sculptures from Indigenous artists, as well as music/arts programming inside the
Patricia A. Whelan Performance Hall.
To wrap up this whirlwind day, head towards Olympic Plaza (the soonto-be extension of the Arts Commons campus) and inside the newly named Werklund Centre (werklundcentre.ca). This is Western Canada’s largest arts centre, with six performing arts organizations calling it home. Grab a pizza or panini — we recommend the mortadella and prosciutto — from Cravings Bistro on the main floor for dinner, then choose your own performing arts adventure. Want to take in some contemporary Canadian theatre? Head down the hall to the Martha Cohen Theatre and see what Alberta Theatre Projects (albertatheatreprojects.com) is putting on. In a symphonic music mood? Stroll further towards the Jack Singer Concert Hall and get to know the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (calgaryphil.com) Want something experimental? See a Downstage (downstage.ca) or One Yellow Rabbit (oyr.org) show upstairs.
After all that, head home and rest up for another big arts day.
DAY TWO
We’ll pick up where we left off inside the Werklund Centre, but we’re heading upstairs this time. Along a hallway at the top of the large staircase, you'll find the Ledge Gallery (werklundcentre.ca/whats-on/art-galleries-exhibitions/ ledge-gallery), the largest gallery and public studio space here. Also check out the +15 Galleries, eight free galleries of community-driven artwork that rotates regularly. You’ll also hear a sound installation of plunked pianos and crackling radios in the hallway speakers, part of +15 Soundscape.
Just ahead lies the Plus 15 Skywalk (calgary.ca/bike-walk-roll/plus-
VERN’S
GLOBE CINEMA
MACLEOD TR
15-network). Any Calgarian worth their salt is familiar with the Plus 15 network, but did you know that it’s a gateway to a free public art tour? Traversing these walkways brings you to various buildings and street corners that feature paintings, sculptures and all sorts of artistic ephemera. The City of Calgary offers a handy guide (maps.calgary.ca/PublicArt) to map out public art sculptures across the city, from Past, Present and Future by Gernot Kiefer on 5th Avenue to Roseta by Sebastián inside Devonian Gardens (calgary.ca/parks/devonian-gardens). Exit the Plus 15 on Stephen Avenue near the Galleria Trees and grab a drink and snacks at the Unicorn (superpub.ca). This Calgary icon features three different themed floors, with stand-up comedians and singer-songwriters performing regularly. If the weather is nice, take a moment to sit and take in the ambiance of Stephen Avenue; there’s often buskers playing, which echoes through the buildings of downtown Calgary.
If the building is open, explore the lobby of Eighth Avenue Place. It contains several paintings from artists like Jack Shadbolt, a Canadian abstract painter.
Towards the west end of Stephen Avenue, you’ll find both the Globe Cinema (globecinema.ca) and Vern’s (@therealverns) opposite one another. The Globe is Calgary’s premier independent movie theatre, where you can eat some of the best popcorn in the city and take in an old classic (or new favourite) film. Vern’s is Calgary’s most notable dive bar and a hub for local performers to get onstage, often for the first time. LOL at a comedy show, thrash out to some metal bands or enjoy some spoken word; something is always on at Vern’s.
Take yourself further west to the downtown's outskirts and keep an eye out for a mass of brutalist buildings jutting into the sky. Welcome to Contemporary Calgary (contemporarycalgary.com), a vibrant art gallery located inside the old science centre. This multi-level space immerses you in a variety of modern art exhibits and public programs. The first Thursday of the month features free entry(!), and the gallery stays open until 9 p.m. with a curated selection of craft beer and spirits to keep the vibes going. End the night just down the road at Dickens (dickensyyc.com), a queerfriendly bar and club that offers food, drinks and an extremely vibrant events calendar. You might catch a folk singer-songwriter, a bevy of drag performers, a goth-y DJ night or a quirky trivia game. No matter what it is, you have a front-row seat to Calgary’s local arts scene in action, the perfect way to end your “arts crawl” in the Blue Sky City.
experience
CENTRAL LIBRARY
WERKLUND CENTRE
LEDGE GALLERY
THE UNICORN
CALGARY PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
ALBERTA THEATRE PROJECTS
DOWNSTAGE
ONE YELLOW RABBIT
next gen THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
Teens wear their hearts on their sleeves at Can You Hear Me Now? poetry slam events
By Catrina Bowles
A slip of paper trembling in her hands, thenGrade 11 student Sama Hamad took on what would be many teenagers' worst nightmare — reading poetry in front of a crowd. “I was the first to go up,” remembers Hamad. “You’re basically pouring out your entire heart and soul in front of a bunch of people.”
That bunch of people were the participants and audience members of the 2023 edition of the Can You Hear Me Now? poetry slam, where Hamad first read her poetry publicly. What started in 2014 as an annual slam event, and Alberta’s only provincial youth poetry slam, Can You Hear Me Now? has since expanded to include monthly events to give young people more opportunities to perform. Currently, on the first Tuesday of every month during the school year, poets of all ages and their supporters file into Shelf Life Books in Calgary’s Beltline to watch their peers bare their souls.
Rules of the slam are similar across events — poets get three minutes per poem, which are scored on a scale of 1 to 10 by a panel of judges. For
the provincial slam, poets must be part of a team from a participating high school or independent youth club. Teams perform four poems per round, including at least one group poem. After two rounds, the highest-scoring teams advance to the finals.
While the slams are definitely competitive, the playful atmosphere helps melt the stress away. Audience members often boo the judges — but never the poets — if a poem gets a low score.
“As the night goes on, everyone feels comfortable with one another, and you’re all supporting each other,” says Hamad, who went on to be a guest judge for the event.
A CREATIVE SAFE SPACE
Tyler Perry, a local poet, English and creative writing teacher and a founding organizer of Can You Hear Me Now?, entered the world of slam poetry while studying creative writing at the University of British Columbia. It snowballed from there, with him entering slam poetry competitions after returning to Calgary, then starting an intramural slam poetry team while he taught junior high school. He now coaches a poetry team at Bishop Carroll High School to prep students for the annual Can You Hear Me Now? provincial slam.
“It’s a really safe space for students to express their creativity,” says Perry. “We have a lot of queer poets writing about their gender and sexuality. They find that they’re among like-minded and open-minded people.”
Tyler Perry
Shone Thistle
Learning to write poetry in the classroom can be rigid and the writing taken less seriously, according to Perry. Instead, participants in Can You Hear Me Now? get the opportunity to learn from Calgary’s renowned poets, including Shafraz “Shaf” Ladak and Shone Thistle, Calgary’s poet laureate and executive director of Calgary Queer Arts Society.
LEARNING FROM THE PROS
“Having poets like Shaf and Shone ... come out to these events, and having them perform and take the poetry seriously has a huge impact on students,” says Perry. “I know they take it to heart when more experienced poets appreciate their work and give them tips on writing.”
In their role at Calgary Queer Arts Society, Thistle also runs the Coming Out Monologues, which is an all-ages, spoken-word event for queer folk to share their stories (happening this year from October 12 to 15). Both the Coming Out Monologues and slam poetry are emotionally and politically charged, which only highlights the need for youth in the poetry world.
“It would be easy to discount teenage poetry as somehow less than adult poetry. I don’t think it is,” says Thistle. “We need young people in the room with our elders, so that we can build bridges of understanding and compassion.”
The number of participating schools at Can You Hear Me Now? hit its peak from 2017 to 2019, with Perry estimating up to 20 schools taking part. Like many events, the annual slam suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with organizers keeping the slam going in an online format. Since returning to in-person events, the number of participating schools has yet to reach pre-COVID numbers, but organizers are hoping to regain momentum as participants share what life was like for them during
Can You Hear Me Now? participants Zaveria SkolsegSquire and DJ Revilla
the pandemic.
While teen poetry is often denoted by big feelings associated with falling in love for the first time and struggling with body image, the experiences of growing up during the pandemic also punctuated post-COVID slams, especially during the online events.
“I was pleasantly surprised at the number of young people that were writing about human connection without the use of technology,” says Thistle. “It’s really easy to feel like we’re in big trouble, and I don’t necessarily think that’s true.”
For both the future of poetry and that of Calgary’s youth, Thistle sees the Can You Hear Me Now? poetry slam as a sign of hope. “The kids are going to be alright.”
POETRY FOR ALL AGES IN CALGARY
ROGUE POETS SLAM POETRY CLUB
This club operates through the Alexandra Writers’ Centre, where youth Grades 7 to 12 collaborate to create spoken word poetry, all leading up to the annual Can You Hear Me Now? slam. It’s one of the few teams that participates in the slam that isn’t associated with a school. The club meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month of the school year. alexandrawriters.org
SINGLE ONION OPEN MIC
Held the first Thursday of every month at the Erratics Indie Art Club, this new poetry open mic welcomes poets of all ages to share their work or sit back and take in the show. Each event features a different guest poet headliner. thesingleonion.wordpress.com
ALL THE WAY UP: SPOKEN WORD
Quell your nerves (or not) with a cup of coffee from Loophole on the third Wednesday of every month for this all-ages spoken word poetry open mic night. Sponsored by Calgary Poetry Slam, this event prioritizes creating a safe and welcoming space for all attendees. calgarypoetryslam.com
ART THAT MOVES YOU
The Art Bus project rolled through Calgary for its second straight year
By Fabian Mayer
Calgary commutes got a little more colourful this summer as Calgary Arts Development brought back its Art Bus project for a second year. We all know that good art can move you — literally in this case — as 14 Calgary Transit city buses served as canvases for seven newly designed artworks from an array of emerging and established local artists.
Nearly every inch of each bus was wrapped with vinyl featuring an original visual artwork by a Calgary artist or artist collective. Calgary Arts Development public art project lead Natasha Jensen says the project aimed to bring public art to every corner of the city.
2025 ART BUS ARTISTS
Moey Blanco
Dr. Hali Heavy Shield
Sam Hester
Josee La Güita
Mao and Chris
Presley Mills
Sydonne Warren
“The idea was all about how we can get public art into communities that don't have public art right now,” explains Jensen. “Some communities are a public art desert at the moment, but one of the things that every community does have is a bus route. So we thought, let's create a project that brings art into all these communities, and make it easier to access art for everyone.”
ART BUSES ON DIFFERENT ROUTES
Rather than each bus being dedicated to a
specific route, the visually striking art buses went into the regular pool of vehicles for drivers to choose from each morning as they head out on their routes. As a result, each of the 14 vinyl-wrapped moving artworks roamed a different area of Calgary each day, bringing art to every quadrant of the city.
“Public art is public because it's for everyone, and it was really important to engage in all communities,” says Jensen. “Public art becomes the story that you tell about your city. Calgary isn't these isolated communities — we’re all connected, and public art can be that connective tissue for all our communities.”
The art pieces themselves are as varied as the streets they enliven. Interwoven, by Sydonne Warren, features women of diverse cultural backgrounds with distinctive braided hairstyles rooted in their respective cultures. Métis artist Presley Mills’ work, Kinship, honours rescue dogs, showing them adorned in Métis-inspired beadwork and regalia.
SPIRITUAL SWAN
Josee La Güita’s piece incorporates elements of her Nicaragüense heritage and features a swan imbued with spiritual meaning. “Swans have a lot of significance with transformation, death, decay and being reborn,” explains La Güita. “When people see this, I really want them to be inspired to know and love all phases of themselves. The piece is a reflection of the beauty, joy and hope found in honouring the small moments that shape who we are, even when we face challenges.”
Artist Sydonne Warren’s work, Interwoven.
The months-long process of designing the bus wraps presented some unique challenges. Beyond ensuring the art is road-worthy (depictions of street signs are obviously a no-go), artists also had to consider the fact that their art would be mostly seen in motion.
La Güita hopes the bold colours of her piece will help it stand out as it glides through traffic. “Just the other day, someone told me they spotted my bus at Crowfoot station in the far northwest. It’s really amazing that there’s more artwork being seen by so many different people,” she says. “A huge part of the art scene is very much inner-city dominated, so this is a really great initiative to get artwork more widespread across all the quadrants of the city.”
Those riding on the buses will also be able to take in art as they commute; the artists will fill the spaces usually reserved for advertisement placards aboard the buses.
La Güita enlisted the help of her poet sister, Bianca Palacio (a.k.a. Feminine Jacket), to help with the interior elements. Riders can read two companion piece poems as they
head towards their destination in the swan-adorned bus.
Jensen, meanwhile, says the community feedback around the project has been extremely positive. She says the quality and diversity of the works and artists are always a point of pride for Calgary Arts Development.
“Calgary is diverse and that's what makes Calgary so great. It’s a tapestry of people coming together,” says Jensen. “The Art Buses are a really incredible representation of who is doing art in Calgary right now and who we are as a city.”
Artist Josee La Güita’s bus features a swan. Interior placards, shown below, showcase poetry from her poet sister, Bianca Palacio.
THE ROLE OF THE ARTS IN CHALLENGING TIMES
When times are tough, demanding or even just uncertain, we often look for inspiration, consolation and commiseration. Art can provide all of that and more. Here, three prominent Calgarians discuss the influence of arts and culture when life is hard.
Words by Marcello Di Cintio | Illustrations by Dane Thibeault
Eva Friesen is the president and CEO of Calgary Foundation, one of Canada’s largest community foundations with assets of over $1 billion. Heather Campbell is an engineer and energy professional, and a board director with the Werklund Centre (formerly Arts Commons), Calgary’s performing arts centre. Writer Marcello Di Cintio is the author of six books of creative nonfiction and an active member of Calgary’s literary scene.
Marcello: Have the arts always been a part of your life?
Eva: I always acted in the play my elementary school put on every year — in a small Mennonite village in rural Manitoba. Then, in high school, I sang in the choir and in the musicals the school put on. Now, I go to the arts because it's one of the things I'll do for fun. Because I should. Because others invite me. Because it's different. My granddaughters play in recitals. And my daughter is artistic, so she drags me to make art at mother-daughter events. I get to flex my own art muscles.
Heather: The arts have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. It’s what brought me out of my shyness. It’s what gave me some coordination. I’m actually quite tall. I’d literally just fall down stairs because I had no idea how to coordinate my arms and legs. And ballet gave me that coordination, posture, elegance. It also gave me musicality. Music is math. I’m an engineer, so for me, I don't separate those two in my thinking.
Marcello Di Cintio
I still sing. I can still play first clarinet if I have to. I danced ballet and tap. I still have tap shoes in my closet. You're not getting me to do a shuffle ball change anytime soon, but I can do it if I'm asked.
Marcello: I’ll ask later. I don’t need to enumerate all that is going wrong with the world right now. Everything is literally or metaphorically on fire. Has your engagement with the arts, or your appreciation of them, changed at all with the anxiety of the times? Does art make a difference in fraught times like these?
Eva: Absolutely. The Calgary Foundation does an annual Quality of Life Report Calgarians tell us that the arts are even more meaningful and critical during times of anxiety and stress in society. The arts and mental health are very intertwined. The feedback we get from the report confirms that.
Certainly, when we're in a troubled time like now — with the relationship between us and the U.S., for example, and the backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion — the arts can tell the stories in a language that allows us all to come together, no matter if we vote left or right. That's one of the beautiful things about the arts.
Heather: I think it's like the Nina Simone quote: “An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.” You look to artists in times of crisis.
Marcello: Do those crises shift art’s meaning?
Heather: I don’t know if these tense times change the meaning of art, but they change the risks of being an artist. I grew up in Burlington, Ontario, and I was part of the Burlington Teen Tour Band. We travelled internationally. We would do four Independence Day parades in the States in one day. I don’t know that those kids can do that during an economic trade war, with the border and immigration concerns and all of that. That doesn't happen.
But the situation also changes the opportunities for artists. The poets and the comedians and the musicians are going to be off the chain. As patrons and as arts leaders, we just have to sit back and be patient and wait for it to come because it's going to be amazing.
Eva Friesen
Marcello: Are you saying the angst of our times is also fuel for the artists?
Eva: It feeds them. The best songs are written after a heartbreak.
Marcello: Very true. I wonder, though, what should be the chief responsibility of the artists in these times. When the world seems out of control, should the arts address that chaos or provide a refuge from it?
Eva: Both. Art can address the chaos through the stories it tells. Art can help people see points of view they wouldn’t otherwise look at. People are very good at being polarized and staying in their bubbles. The arts can open their minds. The arts can help people be open to different voices, thoughts, ideas and opinions that aren't typically the ones they think they share.
At the same time, the arts can be a refuge that fills your cup with joy when otherwise it feels empty. When the world looks ugly, and people seem to be at their ugliest, the arts can show you there is beauty.
Heather: In times of crisis, we have the tendency as a population to turtle, to spend less and do safe things. The arts are always at risk for cuts, closures and budgetary constraints because they're seen as frivolous or extra. They're not extra. The arts are fundamental to our health as a society, as a community, and as Calgarians. You need art to be able to help in times of deep austerity.
Marcello: So if one of the reactions of society to times of crisis is to cut back on the arts, we're also reducing our ability to address those crises through the arts. This seems wholly self-defeating.
Heather: Absolutely. This is controversial to say, but during an affordability crisis is when you absolutely need to invest heavily in the arts.
Eva: The attitude of the public is shifting and agreeing with that. There is an increasing number of Calgarians who agree that the arts are critical to mental health and well-being. According to our last report, 90 per cent of Calgarians agreed that access to arts and cultural experiences is essential to a high quality of life. Donors to the Calgary Foundation who make gifts to the arts know this. They don’t cut back when times are troubled.
Certainly, for families, when money is tight, food and rent come first. But there are organizations that provide musical instruments, for example, and provide opportunities at no cost. That's part of the charitable sector, which is a beautiful thing because it is important. The world is understanding that the arts are not a cuttable thing. They’re not a luxury.
Heather: Art makes a city thrive. Art makes a city sing. Art is how we tell our story.
Heather Campbell
CALGARY’S NEXT CHAPTER IN ARTS SPACES
Major arts spaces are transforming, reshaping what it means for Calgary as an arts city
By Haider Ali
Calgary’s art spaces are entering a new chapter — one shaped by growth, diversity and a hunger for deeper connection. New transformations are making creativity more visible and accessible than ever. As beloved institutions expand and reimagine themselves, they’re cementing themselves as cultural entry points for all Calgarians, not just artists, but everyday people looking for meaning, beauty or simply a place to gather and connect. These shifts aren’t just about physical infrastructure; they’re about unlocking the full potential of a city that’s ready to see and express itself more clearly through art. Take a look at some of Calgary’s new and upcoming arts spaces.
WERKLUND CENTRE & OLYMPIC PLAZA
Home to six resident companies and Western Canada’s largest arts centre, Werklund Centre (formerly Arts Commons) has long been a cultural cornerstone in Calgary. Across from the centre, Olympic Plaza has served as a symbolic outdoor gathering space since the 1988 Winter Olympic Games. Now, these two spaces are undergoing what the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) describes as “the largest cultural infrastructure project currently underway in Canada.” When complete in 2028, a new 170,000 sq. ft. facility with a 1,000-seat theatre and 200-seat studio will open onto a reimagined, inclusive Olympic Plaza, creating a continuous cultural experience for Calgarians and visitors alike. werklundcentre.ca
PHOTOGRAPHS:
When visitors ask about Calgary’s museums, locals often point to the Glenbow, a familiar cultural touchpoint for Calgarians of all ages. Closed for renovations since 2021, the Glenbow will reopen in 2026 in a revitalized building, renamed the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture. The new facility will feature 44 exhibitions and installations across eight floors, plus a rooftop terrace, theatre, shop and restaurant. Notably, Glenbow will become the first major museum in Canada to offer free general admission forever, “ensuring that access to arts and culture is a right for everyone, not a privilege for the few,” as stated on Glenbow’s website. glenbow.org
Long a home to outdoor festivals and concerts, Cowboys Park (formerly Millennium Park) has also served as a major hub for recreation as Canada’s largest outdoor skate park, along with amenities for basketball, volleyball and climbing. Now, the park is being transformed into a plug-and-play event destination, according to The City of Calgary. Planned infrastructure upgrades will better accommodate events and users. As the downtown core evolves, Cowboys Park is becoming a more flexible and accessible space for recreation, arts and community gathering. calgary.ca/parks/cowboys-park
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025, the National accessArts Centre (NaAC) is Canada’s first multidisciplinary disability arts organization. It provides training, creation and presentation opportunities for artists with disabilities. The NaAC is now embarking on the largest capital project in support of disability arts in Canadian history to build North America’s first accessible, disability-focused, arts learning campus along Memorial Drive. “It is no accident that Calgary will be home to this type of campus, further cementing our city’s position as the epicentre of our country’s disability arts movement,” says Jung-Suk Ryu, president and CEO of NaAC. accessarts.ca
COWBOYS PARK
Momentum is building in Calgary’s downtown eastside, known as the Culture + Entertainment (C+E) District, as it transforms into a vibrant, walkable community. Already popular for exceptional cultural experiences at the BMO Centre, Scotiabank Saddledome and the Calgary Stampede, the district’s full build-out will add over four million square feet of mixed-use residential, commercial and retail space. New features will include the Scotia Place events centre, opening in 2027, hotels and other amenities that support gathering, creativity and connection. cedistrict.com
As one of Calgary's newest art spaces, Contemporary Calgary has been reshaping the city's cultural landscape since 2020. Located in the iconic former Centennial Planetarium, previously home to the TELUS World of Science, this gallery is a modern and contemporary art destination. The ongoing renovations, including expanded galleries and Canada’s first immersive LED dome, are set to further transform the space. “It’s a collective cultural momentum,” says CEO David Leinster, highlighting Calgary’s growing global cultural presence. contemporarycalgary.com
Spirit of Water by Gerry Judah.
Tales from the City
Three local writers share how Calgary lives between the lines of their work
By Olivia Piché
Calgary offers inspiration in abundance. Whether it be from the people who live here or the beautiful landscapes unique to Southern Alberta — the city influences how writers tell their stories. Here, three local writers share the ways Calgary inspires them and inhabits the pages of their writing.
Teresa Wong
Calgary graphic memoirist and cartoonist Teresa Wong may have made a splash with her work — both her books, Dear Scarlet and All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey, have been longlisted for CBC’s annual battle for the books, Canada Reads — but she wouldn’t describe her writing as hugely epic or dramatic. Her graphic memoirs are grounded in everyday life and the beauty of the ordinary, something she says resembles Calgary.
In her latest memoir, All Our Ordinary Stories, Wong recounts growing up as a child of Chinese immigrants and how it impacted her family dynamics. Wong’s writing and drawings pull a lot of influence and inspiration from her upbringing and how the city helped shape it. “If you’ve lived in a place for nearly 50 years and all your childhood memories are from that place, as you’re writing a book about your experience growing up, it’s really difficult to separate that. It really is baked into my identity to be from Calgary,” she says.
For All Our Ordinary Stories, Wong spent a lot of her time drawing Calgary sites that influenced her, such as Chinatown, the old Deerfoot Mall, Macleod Trail and the Chinese cemetery. The more she drew, the more her love for Calgary grew, and although it wasn’t the original intent of the story, her graphic memoir became a love letter to the city.
"It’s a city that’s not normally depicted in books and movies. I’m always excited when it’s in a TV show or a book,” she says. “I wanted to put as much Calgary into it as I possibly could, mostly because that’s my life. I grew up here. I haven’t lived anywhere else. In doing so, it grew my love for the city.”
Calgary continues to inspire Wong’s creative work every day — she rents a space in the University District to write and draw, and often wanders onto the campus for inspiration, which brings back many memories from her time as a student at the University of Calgary.
Wong is a through-and-through Calgarian with a love for the city’s mountain proximity, blue sky access and expansive prairies. It’s apparent in her writing.
“When I’m writing, it just kind of happens naturally,” she says. “When I drive around or walk around, there’s just so much history there that I think about all the time. I feel really grateful to be based in the city.”
Caleigh Crow
Playwright Caleigh Crow grew up in northeast Calgary, surrounded by hardworking neighbours, friends and families. Not only did the suburban edges of town help incubate her imagination as a child, but her northeast Calgary roots inform most of her creative work, too. Crow’s Governor General’s Literary Award-winning play, There Is Violence and There Is Righteous Violence and There Is Death, or the Born-Again Crow, confronts the shortcomings of capitalism, the way society views retail and service jobs, and the disinterest in the needs and well-being of minimum-wage workers. It premiered in Calgary at the Motel Theatre in 2019. Crow draws inspiration from her own difficulties working in retail and service jobs, as well as what she observed growing up.
There are intentional parallels between Crow’s Calgary experience and the play’s storyline in There is Violence, and there are also unintentional traces of Calgary that appear in her work. “When my show went up in Toronto, and I talked to the directors who worked on the show, they were telling me, There is Violence is so Albertan, and I had no clue,” recounts Crow. “It’s the little things, like the Superstore is a huge part of that story [...] and even some of the suburban development out here is pretty unique. In my neighbourhood, I felt like I could look out into farmer fields — it’s not quite like that in Ontario.” Calgary has shaped the way Crow tells stories, although her relationship with the city has evolved over the years. Growing up in
the suburbs with little art and urbanity nearby, she feels Calgary was a place that encouraged her creative mind. “I really felt like I had to go places in my mind to bring me experience; I think that it helped shape [my imagination].”
“In my younger teenage years, the bookstores were the places for me, but now as I’m older, Fish Creek Park, Prince’s Island Park, St. Patrick’s Island and places like that have become so special, and I draw a lot of inspiration from them,” she says.
Crow says it’s an immense honour to be counted among Calgary’s playwrights. She feels it’s part of her responsibility to bring attention to the creative talent that lives in the city — something that is surprising to some as Calgary is not always thought of as a place where creatives live, work and thrive.
“We are important for reminding everybody that we’re here, that we do contribute to the economy, that we do contribute to the character of the city, and that it’s not just a frivolous pastime, but actually crucial to the life of the city.”
In particular, the queer community influences Crow’s sense of belonging in the city. “The Calgary 2SLGBTQIA+ community is a huge part of my artistic practice and a major influence on my work,” she says. “I owe so much to my queer elders. Their tireless dedication to securing and protecting our civil liberties makes it possible for me to do my work. They continue to inspire me with their talent, creativity and dedication to our city. I am so proud to count them as my kin.”
Crow played the role of Beth in the 2019 production of There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence, and There is Death, or The Born-Again Crow.
Crow played the role of Piquette in The Diviners by Vern Thiessen with Yvette Nolan. Produced at Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
Dr. Joshua Whitehead
As an assistant professor at the University of Calgary in the departments of English and international Indigenous studies, Dr. Joshua Whitehead sees a lot of emerging writers with fixations on distant cities, telling tales of Paris or using the streets of New York City as a backdrop. He also spent his early days as a writer drawn to urban cityscapes, but his process quickly evolved into a more personal one.
“Writing from the personal felt more profound to me. I just felt it’s more important,” he says. “We often overlook where we’re from, and that’s such a shame because the spaces that we are guests to, or that we are home upon, are beautiful, vivacious and full of stories.”
Throughout Whitehead’s writing, he pulls inspiration from where he’s been — his Manitoban roots inspire many of his early books, and now that he’s lived in Calgary for a decade, he has works that draw heavily from his relationship with the city. It wasn’t until the pandemic and writing Making Love with the Land that Whitehead’s relationship with Calgary grew deeper.
In 2020, in the face of a major breakup and in the depths of isolation and loneliness
from the pandemic, Whitehead often sat at the top of the hills in the southeast neighbourhood of Dover to reflect and let himself feel.
“I started to learn how Calgary, or Mohkinsstsis and Treaty 7, were kin to me and were there with me and for me,” says Whitehead. “As I was single and completely intimacy- and touch-starved, the city itself, Mohkinsstsis and Treaty 7, reminded me that ‘I am in a relationship with you, and you are in a relationship with me, so stop being lonely.’ It was so profound; that’s why I’m so thankful for this land.”
Making Love with the Land was born from these difficult and revealing times, and it went on to be a finalist for the national Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction in 2022. It’s Whitehead’s first non-fiction book, exploring what it means to be queer and Indigenous, and the relationships between land, body and language. He explores the parallels of identity and what’s put on the page in real-time, sharing essays, notes and confessions from a difficult season when he found Calgary was there to hold him. “The sun was there, and the mountains were witnessing me; the river was rushing by me and sometimes through me, and I was being held by the wind and the land itself,” he says.
“Calgary really helped me think about different writing styles, push myself into different forms and take more risks. There’s no character to hide behind in Making Love with the Land. You can’t really hide in a book like that, which I don’t think I would have had the nuance or the courage to do — I don’t think I would have had the experiences that I did — had I been in Manitoba.”
The
Graffiti Jam project fosters a safe space for expression and creativity
By Viancy Salubre
Photographs by Michael Grondin
foundation told a small piece of graffiti art history unknown to many Calgarians. For years, this concrete foundation created space for secret creative expression, eventually becoming known as “The Foundation” to many graffiti artists. The area was particularly active from 1998 to 2003 until it became more frequently policed and eventually demolished. However, its historical significance in the Calgary graffiti community has persisted.
From the art carved into ancient cave walls in France to the lettering on the buildings of Pompeii, graffiti has existed since olden times. Because graffiti can be created in public or sometimes private spaces, often without permission, it can be seen as a form of vandalism and viewed as offensive, especially if obscene language or visuals are used. The negative connotations and consequences of graffiti push artists toward places like The Foundation.
“The Foundation was just a unique little gem. It was really a safe space for a lot of people to mess around, connect and have an outlet,” says artist Mikhail Miller, a member of art collective NASARIMBA and The Foundation Collective.
But now, the public perception of graffiti is shifting and, when done with permission and intention, it offers the opportunity to make a city look and feel more vibrant, and build community and connection.
Artist CONZ paints the mural on the Associated Cabs building during the Greenview Graffiti Jam.
Greenview Graffiti Jam participant Hugh Bruce in his Foundation Collective t-shirt.
The evolution of the Graffiti Jam
In 2023, Miller met with the Greenview Industrial Business Improvement Area (BIA) when NASARIMBA was working on a sanctioned art mural in the neighbourhood. During that meeting, Miller shared the history of Calgary’s graffiti scene in Greenview.
“[Miller] told me about this rich graffiti history in Greenview, which I was never aware of,” says executive co-director of Greenview Industrial BIA Tel Bruce. The meeting planted a seed for what would eventually become the Greenview Graffiti Jam.
Held over two days in September 2024, the first Graffiti Jam was hosted in partnership with Greenview Industrial BIA and The Foundation Collective, a group of local graffiti artists who practiced at The Foundation and found community and connection through sharing Calgary’s rich graffiti culture. The Graffiti Jam hosted more than 25 graffiti artists collaborating on four vibrant murals located in Greenview. The event, which also included community spray paint workshops, the creation of a full-colour magazine and a photo gallery showcase at Congress Coffee, was
Foundation Collective artists collaborate on a mural at Associated Cabs during the Greenview Graffiti Jam.
funded by a microgrant from The City of Calgary and a Calgary Arts Development grant.
In 2025, Greenview Industrial BIA and The Foundation Collective were awarded another grant by Calgary Arts Development. That grant has helped fund various graffiti wall mural projects led by The Foundation Collective in various neighbourhoods, including Crescent Heights and Inglewood. This work shows how small grants can have big impacts.
Making space for expression and connection One of the goals of the Graffiti Jam is to create safe spaces for experimentation and creativity for youth. “There needs to be more infrastructure, and there needs to be safer places. To be honest, I wouldn't be where I'm at today if I wasn't that kid doodling on lamp posts or just being curious about it,” says graffiti artist and The Foundation Collective member Steven Meldrum.
The Calgary Arts Development grant helped cover the costs of the artists’ work and supplies. Two Greenview Industrial BIA businesses donated two wall spaces in the community for the 2024 Jam. The walls were open for beginners to try their hand at the art form
A community member tries spray painting during a free workshop.
The Boyd Autobody & Glass building features 12 artists on its north wall.
before 25 artists completed the final artwork. A series of spray paint workshops, complete with safety gear and a facilitator guiding the sessions, offered beginners, particularly youth, the chance to learn. Today, the benefits of fostering creativity and public art are tangible within the Greenview Industrial community.
“If you have a neighbourhood that's full of art, full of people creating art, coming together to celebrate art and placemaking, it just lends itself to vibrancy and community,” says Bruce.
The 2025 Graffiti Jam expanded to a three-day event in September, with the first day focusing on production and preparing surfaces. Three walls feature work by a curated lineup of artists, while temporary walls let people experiment. The Jam continues to develop a broader roster of graffiti artists and foster connections through community workshops in Greenview.
BEYOND CONCRETE
As part of the 2024 Graffiti Jam, The Foundation Collective, with the support of the Greenview BIA, created and designed a limited-run, 80-page magazine commemorating Calgary’s graffiti history. The Foundation Collective magazine, which was available at the event, tells the story of Calgary's graffiti culture in the ’90s and 2000s with insights from the people who were a part of it.
“When we put out the word that we were going to do the [Graffiti] Jam, all of a sudden a whole bunch of artists from across Canada who had practiced at The Foundation in the ’90s got wind of it and started sending in all of these pictures, documentations and wanted to be involved,” says Bruce.
The Foundation Collective magazine features other unsanctioned art spaces that were hideaways for creativity, including the Max Bell C-Train tunnel, the back alley of skateboard shop The Source on 17th Avenue and the train yard east of the Calgary Tower, which was later demolished. The underground graffiti culture created a distinct style unique to Calgary.
“The regional styles of graffiti really became apparent because it was before the internet. And so, what you would create was from whatever [graffiti] was local or whatever you see in magazines,” says Meldrum.
DJ Dr. Space plays during the Greenview Graffiti Jam.
THE UP COMERS
Calgary’s music insiders share their picks for local artists to watch
By Elizabeth Chorney-Booth
Music serves not only as the soundtrack but the heartbeat of a city, with local artists providing the melodies for collective moments ranging from the joyous to the sombre. Like any creative city, Calgary is full of awe-inspiring musical artists representing every genre imaginable, all putting a uniquely Calgarian spin on their compositions and performances. But as rich as
the city’s musical tapestry is, budding fans may find grassroots music scenes difficult and even intimidating to navigate.
This is where the experts come in. Radio stations ranging from big commercial broadcasters and the CBC to smaller musicfocused stations like CKUA or the University of Calgary’s CJSW can act as guides, but it’s even better to have focused intel to stay on top of Calgary’s next big breakthrough artists. Here, four of Calgary’s most in-the-know music insiders share their picks for top Calgary-based artists to watch.
Jolie Laide
Eric Volmers
As the sole staff entertainment writer for Calgary’s main newspaper, Eric Volmers is constantly listening to and interviewing musicians of all genres. His list of local favourites is long, but he’s been paying particular attention to classically trained pianist Laura Hickli, who is gaining a following through her haunting art-pop songs and performances. Hickli’s latest album, Dark Secrets, released on Brooklyn’s Ba Da Bing Records, details her feelings in the aftermath of a terrifying car accident she experienced while on tour.
“It is pretty dark, but it’s also hopeful in a way,” Volmers says. “There’s a sort of virtuosity in her piano playing and voice that’s just mesmerizing.”
Volmers is also a big fan of folk-pop singer-songwriter Maclayne, calling her debut album, Off The Deep End, one of his favourite albums of 2024. He’s equally passionate about Jolie Laide, a supergroup of sorts featuring singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia, Jeff MacLeod, Morgan Greenwood and Clinton St. John, the latter of whom duets with Nastasia on every track on the group’s new album, Creatures. Volmers says the two singers’ voices are “absolute magic together.”
Of course, a music writer for a Calgary newspaper would be remiss if he didn’t mention at least a couple of emerging country artists. Volmers points
to Noeline Hofmann, who grew up in the southern Alberta town of Bow Island and has found Nashville success with her song, “Purple Gas,” recorded by country star Zach Bryan last year. Volmers also advises country fans to keep an eye on Mariya Stokes, a local rising star who has graced the stage at Country Thunder and the Stampede’s Nashville North, raising a ruckus with her anthemic single, “Fuck Pretty.” She released her debut album, Mood Ring, in May 2025.
“[Stokes] doesn’t have a committee of Nashville songwriters writing for her; she writes her songs herself,” Volmers says. “Her big single is about beauty standards. As much as she does sound like she could be on mainstream radio, she’s also a bit of a rebel.”
Laura Hickli
Maclayne
Calgary Herald’s entertainment writer
Noeline Hofmann
Sami Parker
host of Local Singles on CJSW, UCalgary’s radio station
In addition to being a busy community supporter through their participation with Sled Island and Music Calgary, Sami Parker showcases their passion for local music through Local Singles, an artist-focused show they’ve hosted on CJSW for the last five years. Parker is especially an expert in the realm of indie, alternative and artrock acts. They say that after a post-pandemic dip in activity, those scenes, along with punk/ post-punk genres, are back running at full steam with a never-ending stream of new artists.
Parker’s newest favourites include SHY FRiEND, a self-described “emotional alt-pop band” from classically trained musician Julie G Olive. While Olive and her gang have strong musical chops, they also offer a healthy dose of irreverent fun, asking audiences to dress to a certain theme while they indulge in creative chaos on stage.
“They’ll do things like Beyblade battles during their shows,” Parker says. “It may seem gimmicky, but the way they pull it off, it’s very authentic. They have a really bright future ahead of them.”
Parker also names 36? — an experimental project from musician Taylor Cochrane that has actually existed for many years but still feels like an underground secret to many — and ADOPTION, the power pop solo endeavour of Daniel Tadic, who impressed Parker when he handed them a CD at a local zine fair. Parker likes the DIY spirit of these acts and also mentions the all-ages acts coming out of BAM! Camp (formerly Girls’ Rock Camp) including Rebel Grrrlz, a Riot Grrl-inspired band made up of young punk rockers.
“They’re a young band,” Parker says. “But they have so much passion for the music.”
While Kerry Clarke looks for artists from all over the world to bring to the annual Calgary Folk Music Festival, a big part of her job involves staying on top of which local artists are ready to play for festival audiences. She’s seeing an increasing number of artists get to the level where they’re ready to move from smaller clubs onto larger
stages both within and beyond Calgary, which is a sign of a healthy music landscape.
“When we’re looking for artists that fit the diversity of our lineup at the folk festival, I don’t have a problem finding artists in lots of different genres,” Clarke says, though she notes it can be tricky to find local artists in some genres like world music.
Clarke shouts out Sargeant X Comrade, helmed by the duo of Yolanda Sargeant and producer Evgeniy “Comrade” Bykovets. Even though the pair has been playing together for over a decade, many Calgarians and music fans throughout the rest of Canada are only now discovering them through their acclaimed new album, Power
“It’s funky, it’s cool, it’s R&B,” Clarke says. “They’re really good at promoting themselves in the best kind of way.”
Another artist on Clarke’s list of ones to watch is the captivating velvet-voiced rocker Kue Varo, who, along with her band The Only Hopes, Clarke suspects is “destined for greatness. Her composition, her lyrics and her approach make her stand above the crowd.”
A little deeper into the country realm, Clarke is taken with singer-songwriter Carter Felker, who released an introspective album called Loser this past spring.
“There’s something about his style of writing that really is very Albertan,” Clarke says of Felker. “It’s got some country to it, but it’s not straight-up country.”
Kue Varo & The Only Hopes
Carter Felker
Yolanda Sargeant
Kerry Clarke
Calgary Folk Music Festival’s artistic director
CONTRA
musician, creative director of FOREIGNERZ, creative director of BUMP Festival
A wildly successful hip-hop artist herself, CONTRA (a.k.a. Priya Ramesh) is not only a musical tastemaker, she’s also a community organizer and tireless champion of underrepresented artists in Calgary. While she’s probably best known for her work in the world of hip-hop, CONTRA says the most exciting music in Calgary in 2025 comes from the city’s pulsating electronic DJ scene, crediting collectives and event organizers like AMBIEN, helmed by Pawnzi and BUCCALTHEFT
“The electronic rave scene here is having a little bit of a moment,” she says. “There are a lot of underground shows and a lot of underground DJs who are pushing the culture and creating community.”
CONTRA also highlights community-minded DJs like DJ Hannah, as well as Jonathan Crane and the DJ events put on by Controller Club, an incubator for budding DJs. CONTRA also works closely with yungkamaji, who she admires as another talented local musician invested in building the scene.
WHERE TO SEE EMERGING ARTISTS LIVE IN CALGARY
While you can hear the work of many of Calgary’s up-andcomers online, nothing beats seeing music performed live.
In addition to Calgary’s larger theatres and concert halls, longstanding music clubs like the Ironwood, Dickens, the King Eddy and the newly relocated Blues Can and Mikey’s Juke Joint are all great venues to catch a variety of artists play.
“I tend to gravitate towards people who also build spaces around them,” CONTRA says. “They need to be able to push that energy and put it back out there.”
More of a producer and electronic composer than a performer, Little Snake is another Calgarian CONTRA believes music fans should pay attention to (though there are likely some local electronic fans who may be well aware of his work but don’t know he walks among us here in Calgary). She says our hip-hop scene hasn’t quite bounced back from the pandemic, but it’s certainly not out of the conversation, and recommends checking out both Trenchcoat Gordy and Zeezylit, two artists who frequently collaborate with one another.
“When it comes to hip-hop artists, I’m always listening to see who’s doing something new and pushing the genre in a different way,” she says.
The Palomino Smokehouse, Festival Hall, Commonwealth and the Palace Theatre also host a number of local artists, both as headliners and opening acts.
To catch truly emerging musicians and DJs, think outside of the box: places like Scozzafava’s Deli (yes, the sandwich shop) and Loophole Coffee Bar routinely host small-scale shows. Music lovers of all ages can also look for gigs at the BLOX Arts Centre or Congress Coffee. Of course, the best place to discover new artists is Calgary’s eclectic collection of festivals — mark your calendars for next year’s Sled Island, Folk Fest, Block Heater, Stampede and other celebrations of music and culture.
Little Snake
DJ Hannah
TO THE UNINITIATED, it might feel like Dungeons & Dragons is having a resurgence. And it is. The game has been around since 1974, but was mostly played by teenagers. About a decade ago, D&D released its Fifth Edition, streamlining the rules and giving the whole thing a fresh coat of paint.
It got pop culture bumps from shows like The Big Bang Theory and Stranger Things, and then its own blockbuster tie-in film, 2023's Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, starring Chris Pine. It also proved popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving people a reason to Zoom with friends and talk about the problems of Faerûn, the fictional setting for much of D&D, instead of those in the real world. And those 1970s and ’80s teenagers, most now middle-aged, are rediscovering D&D and teaching their kids. The game is everywhere.
I grew up in a small town where you were the sort of kid who played hockey or you played D&D. While some kids might have done neither, there wasn’t a single kid who did both. I played hockey. In my world, D&D was played by nerds, dorks and skids. You know, weirdos. And if it seems like my social paradigm was informed almost exclusively by narrow-minded teen movies released between 1986 and 1994, well, you’d be right.
NEXT GENERATION D&D
Calgarian Dionne Angman, also part of my demographic cohort, remembers it like I do. “When I was a kid, it was more the nerdy kids who would play D&D.”
But her kids, 16-year-old Deia and 18-year-old Blake, don’t see it that way. “To a degree, it still is nerds,” says Blake. “But now the definition of the term ‘nerd’ has expanded. Really anybody can do it.” What follows is the four of us fumbling around, trying to come up with a modern definition of nerd. We never really land on one, and it’s not something that seems to concern the kids all that much anyway. Presumably, they were raised on better movies.
Blake and Deia have built a community playing Dungeons & Dragons for the last seven years through a youth program organized by the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society (AWCS). The program is ostensibly a youth writing group that uses D&D as a storytelling mechanism, and its quirk is that it is directed by its participants.
“The kids decide what they want, and we put it into action,” says Kim Firmston, AWSC’s director of youth education. After being introduced to D&D as a form of storytelling, the kids decided they wanted more. One game quickly became several.
“When we moved in 2017, we expanded it, and when COVID-19 hit, we pulled it online and kept going quite successfully,” says Firmston. “Once we came back [in-person], the kids wanted to play more often. We ended up getting so many kids that we run three programs every second week and three more programs on the alternate weeks.” She estimates anywhere from 50 to 75 kids now play each year.
D&D is a natural fit for a writing program. Players get to invent characters with nuanced traits and rich backstories. Play requires engaging with the story’s narrative and contributing to it, with fateful choices ultimately left to a dice roll. It’s also a game where failure can be every bit as entertaining as success. It’s good for imagination, but AWCS’s game also stresses skills beyond the creative.
“They have to work together, so we’re encouraging listening skills, teamwork, leadership, but also ‘followship’ [where kids learn to take direction],” says Firmston. “It’s about how they are all supporting the group.”
SOCIALIZING MADE EASIER THROUGH D&D
Firmston recognizes the value of D&D as a social tool. There are a lot of reasons people might struggle socially, including those living with anxiety, ADHD or who are on the spectrum. More recently, it could be kids who lost two years of social interaction and group play to a global pandemic. Or it could just be kids suffering from the most brutal of (though thankfully nonterminal) social conditions: being teenagers.
Angman thinks D&D gives her kids space to try different roles, take risks and explore or develop their personalities. Blake and Deia mostly just see it as a fun game to play with their friends. It gives them permission to relax and be silly.
“The great part about the game and the community is that everybody’s being goofy,” says Blake. “Playing pretend in any other scenario
might be looked at as weird. ‘Nobody else is doing that.’ But when you’re playing D&D, everybody’s doing that.”
The structured play is also useful for those kids who struggle to form relationships, for whatever reason. D&D, by design, creates an entirely new social context, one that offers rules on how to engage with people. It gives people who might otherwise have difficulty making connections a clear path to share experiences with others.
“A lot of our instructors are neurodiverse, and a lot of the kids that come are neurodiverse,” says Firmston about AWCS’s programs. “Everyone just kind of comes and finds their family.”
BUILT-IN INCLUSIVITY
When I press anybody I talk to about D&D and this
inclusion aspect, they respond like Blake and Deia trying to pin down what a nerd is: mainly with confusion. Their answers all imply, with a hint of incredulity: “Of course D&D is inclusive.”
Renee Haverhals is the manager at the Sentry Box, Calgary’s premier store for buying tabletop games and accessories, including role-playing games like D&D, war games like Warhammer, classic board games you’ve heard of, modern board games you haven’t, gaming-related miniatures, models and so on. It stands as the closest thing D&D in Calgary has to a ground zero. Nerd mecca. In addition to selling these games, the store also hosts a dizzying array of gaming nights for every kind of player. While Haverhals enjoys the diversity she sees in the people showing up, she also adds, “I hope we’re getting closer to a time when this question seems ridiculous.”
She is right, of course, and I do feel a bit silly it took me so long to see it.
Pointing out that a game played by children also happens to be highly inclusive is ridiculous, and somehow it’s only the wizards and warlocks, the dwarves and elves, the lawful evil and chaotic good, who noticed. In addition to going mainstream, Dungeons & Dragons has also grown up. The game is now 51 years old — that’s an entire generation of nerds and weirdos stewarding it along, defining the kind of community they want to be part of. And while this capacity for kindness and acceptance started organically, even Dungeons & Dragons’ corporate owners (Hasbro when you go high enough up the chain) have signaled they want diversity and inclusion to be a part of D&D’s present and future — the most recent major update added sections on “Mutual Respect” and “Setting Expectations” to the official rules.
At a time when we are really, really, really struggling with the character of the celebrities and politicians and athletes we’re producing, the nebulously defined “nerds” playing D&D have become legion and quietly carved out a legitimate safe space where all of the moral clichés we feed to children — be nice, have fun, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose — have been internalized and actualized. D&D offers a place where everyone is, wait for it... kind! Even if their character is an evil half-demon sorcerer with proficiency in deception.
Fourteen-year-old me played hockey. Fortyseven-year-old me plays Dungeons & Dragons on Tuesday nights with a group of other middleaged men and wishes his younger self could have done both. My kids play D&D every weekend, and while they don’t play hockey, I’m certain they’d be accepting of hockey players in their game. In fact, it’s ridiculous to think they wouldn’t.
Where to D&D in Calgary
ALEXANDRA WRITERS’ CENTRE SOCIETY
AWCS runs D&D games across two semesters each year. They also offer an evening class on becoming a better Dungeon Master (for kids and adults), and members get access to classes, camps and more all year. alexandrawriters.org
CALGARY PUBLIC LIBRARY
The library’s D&D program started online during the pandemic, but has continued and grown in-person since. “Get Started with Dungeons & Dragons” is currently running at some library locations for kids aged 13 and up. calgarylibrary.ca
YOUNG ADVENTURER’S SOCIETY
“An enterprising group of Dungeon Masters, players, game enthusiasts and all around cool folk” offering weekly, monthly and one-off games and lessons for all ages. Summer camps and private sessions available. youngadventurersociety.com
ADVENTURER’S LEAGUE CALGARY
Hosted at the Sentry Box, Adventurer’s League Calgary offers weekly official campaign play for experienced and new players alike, with players aged anywhere from 12 to 60. Sign up soon — there’s often a waiting list. sentrybox.com
GO ONLINE
Whether you want to play over the internet or find a local group to join, there is almost always a Reddit thread or MeetUp group of local players and Dungeon Masters (DM) looking to play. You can also find a DM to run games for you and your friends as a one-off or on an ongoing basis. Search “D&D in Calgary” to get started.
FUNNY GUY
Malik Elassal strikes comedy gold with the FX show Adults
By
Colleen Seto with files from Alicia L'Archeveque
Growing up in northeast Calgary, Malik Elassal didn’t know that he could do comedy as a job. “I was disruptive as a kid,” admits the 29-year-old stand-up comedian/ actor. “Comedy always felt like something I wanted to do, but I didn’t know if it could be a career and neither did my parents.”
He’s since figured it out, making appearances at the renowned Just for Laughs festival and landing the role of Samir on the popular new FX series, Adults Even with his recent success, he remains a regular, down-to-earth guy. As he ambles around his New York apartment, last-minute packing for a trip home to Calgary during this interview, he is equal parts witty, authentic and charming.
STORYTELLING FOR UNDERSTANDING
Elassal started out performing small standup shows around Alberta, which could be an unsympathetic training ground, particularly for his brand of humour. “I was talking a lot about being Muslim — you can imagine trying to make that work for a small-town Alberta crowd, but you gotta figure out how to do that,” he recalls. “It made it so I knew how to get people to understand me a little bit more.”
And with that understanding has come laughs — lots of them. Audiences are resonating with Elassal’s comedy, which he describes as “very personal.” Though he’s playing on larger stages now, his comedy continues to be an extension of what he’s always tried to do. “It’s about trying to tell stories about my life that I want to share, and I’m just learning how to tell them better.”
Though he moved to New York to pursue acting, stand-up remains what Elassal always goes back to. “Stand-up feels like the thing I’m always doing, quietly in the background, while I’m trying to do other things. It’s always a tab that’s open, you know? Nothing compares to being with the crowd. [Adults] is a really different thing where I had to wait six months to get a laugh.”
Still, the rush of performing remains the same for Elassal, whether on stage or on a TV set. “That feeling on set is the same thing that I would feel before going up at Broken City,” he affirms.
Fellow Calgary comedian Austin Lonneberg is excited to see Elassal’s success grow, whether it’s acting or stand-up comedy. “He was an actor first, so it's cool to see him use his comedy to get towards that,” he says. “Because he’s so talented, I feel like it’s up to him — if he wants to focus on continuing to act, the sky’s the limit in that direction. But as someone who knows him as a comic and is a fan of his comedy, it’d be amazing to see him continue to focus on that, and become a Hasan Minhaj-level, Ramy Youssef-level comedian.”
CALGARY AS TRAINING GROUND
Learning the comedy ropes in Calgary served
Elassal well. He sees it as a great place for emerging comedians to do the same. “There were a lot of great shows when I was starting out; they were so fun getting to learn and figure out what I would say. The comedy community was really welcoming. And Calgary is great for having a lot of different kinds of audiences. That’s the best part of the city. I want to see more of that. I want to see shows in the northeast — not just downtown. But Calgary has all the pieces to build comedic success. You don’t have to go anywhere else.”
In fact, Elassal performs at local haunts whenever he’s in town. Though he comes here to get grounded and unplug, he always finds himself back on one of his former stages, like the Ratboy Comedy Show at Vern’s, which he sold out on a Wednesday night this past June. “If I’m home in Calgary, I’m like, ‘Well, I have to do it.’ Big shoutout to Ratboy! I love the city so much.”
And the city’s comedy audiences love him. As Zac Wiggins, a local comedian and one of the hosts of Ratboy says, “Every time I see him, it seems like he’s getting better, which is nuts ’cause he’s always been very, very good.”
FROM SKETCH TO SCULPTURE
Harvey Nichol embarked on an eight-month creative journey to craft his massive sculpture, Biringan
By Olivia Piché
If you've wandered through downtown Calgary in the last year, you may have come across Biringan: A Myth Reimagined, multidisciplinary artist Harvey Nichol’s nine-foot-tall assemblage sculpture — a medium that creates something new by assembling a variety of found or discarded objects. It’s currently on tour within different downtown buildings. The sculpture’s grandeur, intricate details and layers of interpretation speak to Nichol’s clear artistic vision and intentional execution.
Nichol was Brookfield Properties’ second artist in residence in its 315 Artist in Residence program, an initiative aimed at adding vibrancy and art to the Calgary core. The program provides local artists the opportunity and space to create large-scale artwork and display it throughout Brookfield’s properties. Biringan, Nichol’s residency piece, is the result of an eight-month-long artistic journey that involved a very engaging creative process.
The sculpture was inspired by the mythical city of Biringan, which translates to where one finds the lost in the Waray language. Nichol sheds light on how his Filipino heritage informs his identity as a Calgarian. He brings the two together in a cohesive manner, showcasing the dichotomy between different cities within a singular piece. He developed the cityscape within the wings to resemble pre-colonial temples in Southeast Asia. The sculpture’s midsection portrays a futuristic and industrial setting to represent Calgary, and the bottom draws inspiration from the landscapes in Tondo, the district of Manila where Nichol is from. These elements mirror the three districts of the fictional city of Biringan, highlighting the inequality in its class structure.
Nichol dabbles in a variety of mediums, but murals, sculptures and comics are his bread and butter. Through all of his work, he employs a similar creative process, which includes some planning but ultimately a lot of evolution, letting the art carve its own path.
“For my murals, I give my clients a proposal, but I tell them that it might change or develop once I start painting the physical form. It's always been a part of my process,” he says.
The same goes for the evolution of Biringan. Nichol’s original inspiration for his residency piece was a sculpture he created during his time at AUArts. That sculpture was much smaller, but the idea was similar. The earlier sculpture represented how his Filipino roots live within his mind, and for Biringan, he wanted to take this concept and push it forward to embody how his Calgary identity, too, lives within him.
Nichol spent months conceptualizing the project, and as expected, it changed throughout the process, much like his other works. Initially, Nichol wanted the sculpture to use the same material as his smaller bust sculpture, but he needed a much sturdier substance
The sculpture was inspired by the mythical city of Biringan, which translates to where one finds the lost in the Waray language.
“I wanted to tell a story of vast inequality and to also give a sense of myself to the people.”
Harvey Nichol
than foam and cardboard for a project of Biringan’s size and splendour. He ended up using welded steel. The god-like head also wasn’t part of the original draft; it came about once he scrapped the first head he welded, which felt too robotic for the messaging he was trying to convey.
A self-proclaimed night owl, Nichol often finds his creative flow after the sun has set, and it was no different for his journey creating Biringan. For months, you could find Nichol in Bankers Hall working into the early hours of the morning, drawing inspiration from the rush of people leaving work for the evening and diving into his own process and reflection once he was alone. “When the world is quiet, that’s when my brain starts working,” he says.
His eight-month residency was divided into different modules, each with a separate focus that ultimately created the final piece.
CONCEPTUALIZATION AND SOURCING
From May to July 2024, Nichol worked on the design and sourcing of materials. The bulk of Biringan is made from recycled elements. “I tried to be as sustainable as possible because having it very big, I didn't want it to be all brand new materials,” he explains.
He finalized his vision with drafts and drawings and spent the time exploring various metal shop dumpsters for material. People brought him bins of old office supplies, like telephones, that he would disassemble and use.
BUILDING THE BASE
In August, vision became reality when he got started on building the base. Since he was working in Bankers Hall, Nichol partnered with a friend and, together, welded the skeleton of the sculpture in a metal shop in the back of a garage.
ADDING THE MUSCLE
After the skeleton came what Nichol calls the “muscle” — the wood pieces that make up the body. Come September, he began the next layer of the sculpture, attaching all the woodcuts that make up the district details and platforms, and wings.
FINAL DETAILS
In October, Nichol added the small, detailed ornaments, which he collected from various community donations. He received plastic toys, metal tubes, mechanical gears and a variety of items that look cyber-punk and futuristic. He finished the piece by painting it all faux-bronze, giving it a cohesive metallic look.
Like many artists, Nichol struggles to know when a piece is complete — sometimes he still feels like Biringan isn’t fully finished. With the residency timeline, Nichol had a deadline to mark the finish, and the final result reflects both the evolution of a creative process and an unyielding artistic message.
“I wanted to tell a story of vast inequality and to also give a sense of myself to the people. It's something that you look at with so many subtexts in it. It's not just the physical sculpture itself; it's the idea of it all. And that, to me, is important as an artist.”
LIFE’S BETTER WHEN WE’RE ALL FEELING INSPIRED
Werklund Centre is a place made for you—a place to get inspired, feel energized, and just take it all in. Whether you’re here to support local talent, discover something new, or just hang out and take in the vibes, you’re always in the right spot.
Because let’s face it—life’s better when we’re all feeling inspired, whether it’s through the powerful anthems of Bon Jovi, the culinary magic of Yotam Ottolenghi, the joy of dancing in the aisles, or a shared experience with a local artist.
Join us and uncover your inspiration at Werklund Centre.
