About Calgary's Cultural District
What
Located in the heart of the city, Calgary's Cultural District is home to dozens of arts and culture hotspots like galleries, museums, theatres, concert halls and outdoor festival space, plus excellent shopping, dining and nightlife all within a few browsable blocks.
The Cultural District is a public gathering place and offers a tantalizing mix of things to see and do including browsable streets with surprises and discoveries on every block, a hotspot for creativity and experimentation, street vendors and markets, festivals, parades, fireworks, great food and a place for reading, relaxing and people watching.
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Where
The Cultural District encompasses 14 blocks of downtown Calgary and includes many of Calgary's arts and culture venues including the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts, the recently restored Grand Theatre, Vertigo Theatre, the Glenbow Museum, the Art Gallery of Calgary, Cantos Music Foundation and Art Central, along with many other galleries and music venues.
Close to the downtown transit lines, the District also includes several major hotels, the Calgary Tower, Stephen Avenue Walk and Olympic Plaza, a key Calgary landmark that served as the medal ceremonies site for the 1988 Winter Olympic Games.
Why
The vision for the Cultural District is to become Calgary's - and one of Canada's - most loved urban destinations for arts and entertainment.
The Cultural District offers a place that melds history and the future, reflect's Calgarians enormuous zest for life, capacity for innovation and is a place where Calgary can come together as one.
Who
The Cultural District Renaissance Society of Alberta, a non-profit operating as the Cultural District, is a group of property owners, business managers, arts organizations, attractions, hotels, restaurants, retailers and citizens.
The group has been working together since 2001 to animate and promote the Cultural District, working closely with many community members including The City of Calgary, the Calgary Downtown Association and Calgary Arts Development.
Counterpoint in Black and White: the Photography of Arthur Nishimura and Craig Richards
MOCA will be open to the public from 6 pm to 10 pm
FREE ADMISSION
Beats & Eats
Beats & Eats
Iconic DJs and sushi specials
Featuring legendary DJs Al Testa and Dean Clark on February 2nd!
Enjoy the best sushi in Calgary alongside some of the best music this city has to offer.
1/2 price sushi and Sapporo beer
As Wee See It
As Wee See It
Opening Reception, in partnership with Fig Tree Foundation
Talk by photographer Steve Speer as he shows his work done in China The exhibition will be complemented by Visionary digital artists and some mixed media artists.
Meet the Curators: Architect Marc Boutin
The Glenbow presents:
In the Theatre: Meet the Curators!
The Architect: Marc Boutin
12-12:45pm, ConocoPhillips Theatre, $5
THE EXHIBITIONS (highly recommended)
FIRST THURSDAY at UBU Theatre Lounge
UBU Lounge presents a rotating roster of Calgary's iconic dj scene.
This week, Deep house grooves featuring DJ Jon Delirious (www.nordictrax.com/jon.html) jamming with CK SAX (saxophone).
1/2 price sushi and Sapporo beer
Dinner service 3:30 - 10pm. Music entertainment 6:30pm - 10pm
THIS IS MY CITY Festival
This Is My City launches on First Thursday January 5th:
ROVING FESTIVAL LAUNCH PARTY
5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Meet at MOCA (formerly Triangle Gallery) at 5:30pm for a guided tour of events led by TMC volunteers.
FREE
This project unites a collective of professional artists and homeless Calgarians to explore a hundred years of evictions in this new, live radio play.
MOCA-Calgary,104, 800 Macleod Trail SE
OUT OF THE SHADOWS: New York - Calgary
Opening at MOCA-Calgary 5:30-8PM
The works of painter and photographer New York-born Bernard Safran, and Calgary-based photographers George Webber and John Dean focus on aspects of street life.
The Eviction of the Stuart Block
Presented by theHigh Performance Rodeo in partnership with This is My City Art Society
7 pm – 7:30
John Dutton Theatre, 2nd floor, The Central Library 616 Macleod Trail SE, Calgary, T2G 2M2
Tickets at the door (pay what you can)
On 7th Avenue SW, off the C-Train tracks, sits a century-old building known as the Stuart Block. Over the years, it’s been home to the most eclectic gathering of Calgarians imaginable… but now it sits empty. This is My City unites a collective of professional artists and homeless Calgarians to explore a hundred years of evictions in this new, live radio play. Listen to the stories of Stuart Block residents experiencing the last few minutes in their homes before being evicted; celebrating their time in the space and mourning its loss. This unique creation explores the timeless theme of house and home through comedy, drama, and music.
EPCOR CENTRE PRESENTS...
While you're in the EPCOR CENTRE on First Thursday for Theatre Calgary's "Enron" or ATP's "Drama", check out the window exhibitions by Calgary's artist-run-centres in the +15 level near the Jack Singer Concert Hall, the video art presented by GAMA on 3 monitors in the public areas of the building, and the EPCOR CENTRE's own art exhibitions in the windows near the Max Bell Theatre (Theatre Calgary):
FREE
TWIGS Extended Holiday Clearance Event
TWIGS stays open late on First Thursday!
Extended Holiday Clearance Event
Twigs & Company
Save 30% to 50% on All Christmas Stock and Apparel
The store will be open for extended hours - until 8pm
Christmas & Winter Fashion Blowout! Stop by and browse our fashion centre, La Femme Boutique by Twigs and Company. Here we pride ourselves on keeping up with the current trends, colours and feel of the seasons with apparel and jewellery sure to please any Fashionista. Find that perfect accessory to finish off that one special outfit, or one that works with all your outfits - or find the whole outfit! From the office to evening outings and weekend escapes. We've literally got you covered - from head to toe. We also offer unique gift and home décor items and accessories. From tableware and unusual ornaments to greeting cards and garden accessories, all guaranteed to be a showpiece and conversation starter in any home. It's truly an endless world of possibilities for the fun shopping, or gift buying crowd.
www.twigs.ca (403) 263-3302
Out of the Shadows: New York - Calgary (Exhibition Opening)
The Launch of This Is My City Festival, in conjunction with OYR's High Performance Rodeo:
A provocative exhibition at MOCA Calgary discussing the aspects of street life, prostitution, homelessness, gentrification, urban renewal and a displacements of marginalized communities:
OUT OF THE SHADOWS: NEW YORK-CALGARY
Bernard Safran, George Webber and John Dean
January 5 - January 25, 2012
Free admission – donations welcome.
PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE OPENING of the exhibition Out of the Shadows: New York-Calgary and the launch of This is My City Festival on Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 5:30 pm at the Museum of Contemporary Art-Calgary.
Elizabeth Malyon, daughter of the late Bernard Safran and the Executive Director of the Bernard Safran Estate, and the exhibiting photographers: George Webber and John Dean, will be in attendance. A wine & cheese reception will follow the official part. Free admission.
Curated by Jacek Malec, MOCA's Managing Director/Associate Curator and Marcella Ducasses, MOCA's former Administrator, "Out of the Shadows" discusses several aspects of street life - vanishing communities, urbanization, gentrification, prostitution, homelessness, the working class and the elderly - through the expressive corpus of work of three eminent artists: Bernard Safran (1924-1995) - a New York-born graphic artist, painter and photographer, George Webber and John Dean - two Calgary-based veterans of documentary photography.
The lower gallery features a selection of paintings and photographs by Bernard Safran from his seminal New York City Project documentating the unvarnished reality of, and a complex insight into, everyday life in three of New York's boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn and Harlem - a premiere presentation of his work in Western Canada. The upper gallery showcases a companion presentation with documentary photographic works by John Dean (East End/Three-Hundred Block Series from 1975-1980) and George Webber (Calgary Series from late 1970s to 2011) reflecting similar subject matter in Calgary. Their observations offer the viewer a dramatic urban reality we often reject, preferring it to remain hidden, revealed only in shadows.
MOCA's "Out of the Shadows" special exhibition has been devised as a flagship presentation and contribution to the city-wide festival: "This Is My City". "This Is My City" is an interdisciplinary festival of arts from the margins - has been initiated by the Department of Arts & Culture of The City of Calgary in partnership with the This Is My City Art Society. The Festival is dedicated to showcasing works of art that provoke discussion on the impact of gentrification and 'urban renewal' and the subsequent irreversible changes in the social fabric of communities. From January 5 to May 3, 2012, several exhibition projects, performances, public debates and panel discussions will be held around Calgary at the participating venues.
Sponsors & Partners: The Museum of Contemporary Arts-Calgary Society, Estate of Bernard Safran, The City of Calgary, This Is My City Art Society, The Nickle Arts Museum, The City of Calgary Civic Art Collection, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Calgary Arts Development, Iron Lava Corp and Walls Alive.
The Museum of Contemporary Art-Calgary is located at #104, 800 Macleod Trail SE in Calgary (adjacent to the Municipal Building). The Museum is open to the public Tuesday to Friday from 11 am to 5 pm and Saturday from 12 pm to 4 pm. The Museum is closed Sundays, Mondays and statutory holidays. Free admission. Donations are welcome !
Museum of Contemporary Art Calgary
#104, 800 Macleod Trail S.E.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2G 2M3
Ph. (403) 262-1737
Fax (403) 262-1764
