Exploring Edmonton: Museums and galleries

Edmonton is a fast expanding city with an ever evolving culture. It is filled with cafes, theatres, parks, galleries, and more.  Edmonton features a diverse collection of exquisite museums and vibrant galleries. Not the mainstream places that everyone knows about, but the local offbeat ones you should visit this summer. Ready to embark on this inspiring journey? Let’s go!

Bearclaw Gallery

The Bearclaw Gallery, located in Edmonton’s Gallery Walk district, specialises in Canadian First Nations, Metis, and Inuit art along with West Coast art. Established in 1975 by Agnes Bugera, it has been a significant fixture in the city’s art scene for five decades. It showcases diverse art styles including paintings, sculptures, and carvings. The gallery also features recognised and emerging artists alike, both from within Canada and internationally. 

The gallery announced its new spring exhibition on May 1 stating that “a selection of Northwest Coast wood carvings, soapstone sculptures by Leo Arcand and Anthony Antoine, Inuit carvings by various artists and many new gift images have just arrived. On display in the gallery we have a striking selection of watercolours by Alex Janvier, mixed media by Jane Ash Poitras and Joseph Sanchez, as well as works by Daphne Odjig, Maxine Noel, Eddy Cobiness, Jessica Desmoulin, Nancy Desjarlais, Holly Cheverie, Aguenus and others.” 

Alberta Railway Museum

The Alberta Railway Museum (ARM) focuses on collecting, restoring, preserving, and interpreting railway artifacts and stories that helped shape Albertan and Canadian railways. The museum features an outdoor display of railway equipment and buildings. It includes a terminal with a station, water tank, and car shops, where it houses an extensive exhibit of train cars and locomotives dating back from the 1890s to the 1950s. Visitors can also explore through hands-on experiences like riding a speeder and enjoying the water tower. Being a dominantly outdoor experience, it is open seasonally, only on both the normal and long weekends from Victoria Day to Labour Day.

Mactaggart Art Collection

Whether you are a research scholar, an art enthusiast, or just a curious being, the Mactaggart Art Collection is for you! Established in 2004, this exhibit is a collection of over 1,000 rare works of East Asian art. It includes textiles, paintings, handscrolls, albums, engravings, and other artifacts from ancient and modern East Asia. This collection was donated to the University of Alberta Museums by Edmontonian philanthropists Sandy and Cécile Mactaggart in 2005.