Art Gallery of Alberta — Attraction in Central Core

This is literally Alberta's provincial gallery, but why is it so darn depressing?!

One star due to:

Issues with the architecture despite it being quite a new building that (to my understanding) was designed by a renowned architect who apparently won a design competition. The building style emanates contemporary private healthcare medical/dental office vibes. The stairs are falling apart like a crumbling Ritz cracker. There are constantly leaks in the ceiling and buckets placed haphazardly around to collect the water. Also the final cost of this building was way above budget...like, shouldn't it be more resilient with all the hype it had around it? Who on Earth approved this? Someone with no knowledge of the Alberta climate and its needs and no basis of comparison to other provincial galleries? I certainly hope insurance and not my tax dollars are paying for the band aids on all these little building boo-boos.

Poor use of space - spending an hour here would be a stretch. It has three floors, two with two exhibition spaces and one with one exhibition space, all of which are small compared to most provincial galleries and which you can walk through quite quickly as the art never seems to be densely displayed or particularly compelling. $14 or whatever it is now is a bit of a stretch for this place. It should be like...$5, by donation, or free.

Poor quality art and poor curation. The same mediocre local artists or artists with an interest in the community or perhaps Gallery itself are shown on repeat. We get that Alberta had/has university instructors who made/make art and landscape painters, but this cannot be the totality of Alberta or Canadian artists in their collection. And on top of that it would be great if this gallery focused on more diverse, compelling, high quality, and unique pieces when showing local work instead of repeatedly recycling the same mostly bland local artists' work. I really have no interest in seeing another rehashed collection of the same Canadian landscape oainters' landscape paintings at this place. Canada and Alberta is more than this: please make exhibitions that show this.

The opening hours: a little difficult to make it out to see this place unless you're retired, unemployed, or a stay at home parent. Maybe be open till 7 or 8 pm all weekdays to be accessible to more Albertans. When they do have a late night thing it's either their obnoxious themed late night nepo-party (I've been a few times, it's overpriced and not fun unless you're one of"the crowd" - ie. it's by them for them) or some last Thursday of the month free thing for the rest of us proles which apparently now has a bar on the third floor with $2 booze (like cheap unpleasant beer in a 355ml can) being sold for $9 with prefab cellophane wrapped cafeteria muffins and pastries for god knows what price, because that's fun and classy. (Anyone who can remember openings, member events, or free nights from when this place first opened is wincing right now.)

Oh yeah, and did I mention that it's our province's ART gallery.?! The feature exhibits are generally small, lacking in density, and not so much worthy of a capital city's provincial gallery. It's sad that this gallery can't seem to bring in larger/denser shows featuring high profile international art on a regular basis. It is a provincial art gallery... A. Provincial. Art. Gallery.

Conclusion: at this point, I only recommend this place when it's free. I'd rather save my dimes and fly elsewhere then drop $30 to see a gallery that's actually worth $30 than feel cheated out...

I visited the Art Gallery of Alberta on Canada Day, expecting a memorable and enjoyable experience with my daughter. The museum's decision to offer free entry on Canada Day attracted a large number of people, including families like ours. However, the way we were treated by the staff was appalling and discriminatory. After exiting one of the exhibits, we were stopped by two employees and one security guard. The employees who approached us asked if my daughter was mine, despite the fact that she had seen us together just moments before. It was as if my presence as her parent was being questioned. The reason given was that a little girl, who apparently looked like my daughter, was missing. Instead of following proper procedures to handle a missing child situation, they decided to interrogate me in front of a group of people, making my daughter feel frightened and vulnerable.

This experience was not only humiliating but also deeply unsettling. After this incident, it was hard for us to even entertain the idea of enjoying the art. It is disheartening to see an institution that is meant to celebrate art and culture fail to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all visitors.

Even after I assured them that my daughter was indeed mine and we were leaving the exhibit together, the security guard continued to follow us, and the employees kept eyeing us suspiciously. I couldn't help but notice that they did not stop other women with multiple children of the same age and appearance as my daughter. It felt like a clear case of racial profiling, as I stand out due to my different skin color compared to my daughter.

We will never be returning to the Art Gallery of Alberta, as this incident has left us with a terrible memory that will forever taint our view of the institution. It is incredibly disappointing that after this encounter, we were unable to appreciate and engage with the art on display.

I would like to offer some suggestions to the gallery's management and staff to handle similar situations in the future. Firstly, if a child goes missing, it would be more effective to obtain a picture from the parent, as most mothers have multiple photos of their children on their phones. Secondly, the staff should make an announcement, calling out the missing child's name and seeking assistance from all visitors. It is important not to keep such incidents a secret, as it causes unnecessary panic and confusion. Additionally, implementing proper security measures such as locking down the exits can help ensure the safety of all visitors.

In conclusion, my experience at the Art Gallery of Alberta on Canada Day was marred by discrimination and mishandling of a potentially serious situation. It is disheartening to see an institution that is meant to celebrate art and culture fail to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all visitors. I strongly urge the gallery to address these issues and improve its protocols to prevent such distressing incidents...

Let me start firstly with saying that I'm not "cultured" enough to be considered an art critic and secondly that I'm in NO WAY racist. Now having said that, my recent visit to the Art Gallery allowed my Daughter and I to see what the facility offered and what we saw baffled us. The abundance of Aboriginal displays were absolutely uninteresting. And the display reading "I'm more Nativer than you" came across as something NOT to be proud of, ESPECIALLY as IT seems racist itself. The rest of the Aboriginal exhibits were unimaginative and lame as well. The feature exhibit involving painted surf boards and a video of a surf board hung from a tree by barbed wire and having holes shot in it by a rifle just made me shake my head. All I thought everywhere I looked prompted one singular thought which was..."SOMEONE GOT PAID OR GOT SOME SORT OF GRANT MONEY TO PRODUCE....THIS?!?! IF WHAT IS DISPLAYED AT THE THIS FACILITY IS CONSIDERED ART THEN I'M SURE I COULD COME UP WITH SOMETHING FAR MORE INTERESTING." Just how in God's name this place stays open baffles me. I'm only glad that I went on a day when admission was free. Even then, the effort made to go there (the fuel to drive there, the parking downtown, having to walk the two blocks from the parkade) exceeded the value I got from the experience. I only hope that the focus on Aboriginal "ART" (and I use the term loosely) becomes more selective instead of seemingly just accepting ANYTHING. This city is RICH IN ARTISTIC talent and the Art Gallery needs to seek those artists out to offer them a place for their works no matter what their race. Art is about culture, NOT promoting political agendas, which, with the sheer volume and focus on Aboriginal material seems as if a political focus is being made in...