Mark Brecke, A tense Sudanese Liberation Army rebel stands guard. 2004

DARFUR/DARFUR
March 14 - 21, 2008

DARFUR/DARFUR is a provocative photography exhibit that was projected onto Glenbow Museum's walls facing Stephen Avenue and 1st St. S.E. from March 14 to 21, 2008. Over 170 colour and black-and-white images by seven internationally acclaimed photojournalists and one former U.S. Marine brought into focus the landscape, the culture and the people that are currently under attack in the Darfur region in western Sudan.

The photographs, dating from 2003 to the present, were taken in Darfur by former U.S. Marine Brian Steidle and photojournalists Lynsey Addario, Mark Brecke, Helen Caux, Ron Haviv, Paolo Pellegrin, Ryan Spencer Reed, and Michal Safdie. The exhibit was premiered in 2006 and has been displayed at museums across North America, Europe and Africa, including The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

 

For the Love of Rubens
February 14 - 17, 2008

It was love at first sight on February 14th when Glenbow Museum unveiled a Studio of Rubens painting titled The Fruit Dance (c.1616-1617).On long term loan to Glenbow from a generous Canadian collector, the painting is a feast for the
eyes!

Our unveiling celebration included a presentation by internationally recognized scholar of Renaissance and Baroque art, Paola Pacifici.

Emily Carr, Big Raven, 1931, oil on canvas, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Emily Carr Trust, Photo: Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Gallery

Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon
Presented by TOTAL
October 27, 2007 - January 27, 2007

Glenbow was proud to be the only prairie venue to host this national touring exhibition organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada.

This unique show explored Carr's art and her life, something not done in earlier retrospectives. A remarkable Canadian woman and a trailblazer, no other artist in Canadian history has sparked as much popular and scholarly response as Emily Carr. The exhibit featured nearly 200 objects by Carr and other, including paintings, drawings, watercolours, caricatures, ceramics, sculpture, hooked rugs, books, maps and photographs.

Organized and circulated by the Vancouver Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada.

Quilt of Belonging at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Belonging: A Place for Everyone
Presented by TRICO Homes
June 30 to September 30, 2007

Belonging: A Place for Everyone celebrated Canada's multiculturalism with five exhibits showcasing our country's rich cultural diversity.

Anchoring the exhibition was the Quilt of Belonging, this tapestry stretched 36-metres in length and featured 263 blocks of fabric that represented all of Canada's First Peoples and every world nation.

A Joyful Harvest, developed by the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta, shared the varied stories of southern Alberta's Jewish community and celebrated over 100 years of the Jewish experience in this region.
Celebrating Prairie Cultres was Glenbow's own exhibit. It shared the stories of First Nations and the other world cultures that had made their home on the Canadian prairies.

ImaginASIAN Photo Exhibition: Convergence and Disturbance was a touring photo exhibit by Calgarian photographer Kristen Wagner which profiled people within the Asian-Canadian community who had shaped our city, province and country.

AMANTEA: Personal and Public Lives saw artist Gistele Amantea examine the lives of Italian communities in western Canada in two art installations.

Egypt, Mummy Mask, Early Roman Period, ca. 100 A.D. , Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Egypt, Greece and Rome:
Art of the Ancient Mediterranean

Presented by Centurion
June 30, 2006 to June 3, 2007

Three of the most influential ancient cultures in history were spread across the Mediterranean. Egypt, Greece and Rome traced the rise and fall of these civilizations and discovered how they influenced one another in history, architecture, art and culture. Featuring over 200 artifacts spanning 5,000 years, visitors were able to embark on an ancient Mediterranean tour and learn how travel, trade and the mixture of different cultures brought about new artistic styles.

This exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in collaboration with the Nagoya/ Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Variations: Holgate, Group of Seven and Contemporaries
Presented by TransAlta
March 18 - June 4, 2006

Variations included three art exhibits featuring many of Canada's most beloved and well known artists from the first half of the 20th century.

Edwin Holgate: Canadian Painter travelling from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, was the first major retrospective on this important Canadian artist, who was invited to join the Group of Seven in 1929. Holgate was best known for his nudes in the landscape and his remarkable portraits.

Art and Society in Canada, 1913-1950, organized and circulated by the National Gallery of Canada, featured works from three of Canada's most distinctive art movements: the Group of Seven, the Social Realists and Les Automatistes. These artists painted at a time when many were dedicated to the ideals of nationalism, social awareness and a liberated society, and when there was a belief that art could affect and shape society.

Beyond the Group of Seven: Paintings by their Contemporaries from the Glenbow Art Collection provided visitors an opportunity to compare the pursuits of the many other equally talented artists who were overshadowed by the Group's popularity.

The Great Court at the British Museum in London, England. Photo credit: Nigel Young/Foster and Partners

Foster and Partners : Works
February 18 - March 31, 2006

Over the past four decades Foster and Partners, a leading studio of architecture, planning and design, has created some of the most original architectural designs around the world.  Their work ranges in scale from the largest construction project on the planet, the Beijing International Airport to furniture design. The exhibit was comprised of 19 architectural design models and a DVD presentation of some of their major buildings; featuring such renowned works as the new German Parliament in the Reichstag Berlin and the Commerzbank in Frankfurt, both in Germany; the Millau Viaduct in Gorge du Tarn, France; the Swiss Re Headquarters in London and the new Beijing Airport in China.  Foster and Partners is the architectural firm retained by Calgary-based EnCana for its new corporate headquarters complex.

City of Petra, The Treasury

Petra: Lost City of Stone
Presented by Aim Trimark
October 29, 2005 to February 20, 2006

Widely recognized as the backdrop in the 1989 film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the city of Petra was carved from the red sandstone in the harsh desert cliffs of southern Jordan over two thousand years ago.

Petra was the trade crossroads from the 2nd century B.C. through the 3rd century A.D. , linking the great civilizations at that time - Greek, Roman, Near Eastern and Egyptian. Located south of the Dead Sea, Petra was unmarked on modern maps until it was rediscovered in 1812. Premiering in Canada at Glenbow Museum in October 2005, Petra: Lost City of Stone was one of only two Canadian venues for this groundbreaking exhibition. Bringing together over 200 objects, including colossal stone sculptures and architectural elements travelling from Jordan for the first time, visitors were able to examine the history and culture of Petra in the most comprehensive exhibition ever presented on this ancient city.

Girls with sparklers. Photograph by Ellen Kaplowitz

Voices of Southeast Asia

Presented by Trico Homes
July 1 to September 25, 2005

Combining four unique exhibits, Glenbow Museum's entire second floor was transformed into a celebration of Southeast Asian culture. Travelling from the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi, the exhibit Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind & Spirit explored life in contemporary Vietnam with nearly 700 objects including ceramics, textiles, handicrafts, masks, photographs, and videos.

Seven Stories profiled the fascinating stories of seven Calgarians, originally from Southeast Asia, who chose Western Canada as their new home. The exhibit shared their personal stories - how they left their land of birth, the challenges they faced, and the new roots they have found in Canada.

Foreign and Familiar: Reconsidering the Everyday examined the visions of five contemporary artists all of whom are first generation Asian-Canadians. Working in diverse media, these artists looked at the many ways we can explore everyday objects as part of our identity.

As part of the Voices of Southeast Asia exhibition, Glenbow invited visitors to revisit the permanent gallery Many Faces, Many Paths: Art of Asia with over 80 world-class Asian sculptures, as well as learn about Theravada Buddhism.

 

Our River: Journey of the Bow

Presented by Enbridge
February 19 to June 5, 2005

In celebration of Alberta's 100th anniversary, Glenbow Museum welcomed visitors to journey down Alberta's lifeline in the first-ever exhibition on the Bow River. The Bow River has multiple identities - it is a mountain river fed by glaciers; it is an urban river that provides water and recreation to a million city dwellers; it is a prairie river that nourishes our parched farmland; and it also provides some of the best fishing in North America. All of these uses reflect the complicated relationship between southern Albertans and the Bow River. This innnovative multi-disciplinary exhibition explored the importance of water as a critical topic of the 21st century as visitors learned how this precious resource has helped shape and define our region.

Auguste Rodin, The Kiss,
c.1881-82, date of cast unknown.
Bronze. Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.

Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession
Presented by The American Express Foundation
Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation October 30, 2004 to January 30, 2005

For the first time in Calgary, Glenbow Museum was pleased to present an exhibition featuring the famous sculptures of Auguste Rodin, one of the most important sculptors of the nineteenth century. Regarded by many as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo, this exhibition of Rodin was the first Canadian venue on its North American tour and featured such masterpieces as The Kiss and The Thinker.

Charles M. Russell, The Wolves, 1914, Collection of Glenbow Museum

Capturing Western Legends: Russell and Remington's Canadian Frontier
Presented by Hesperian Capital Management Ltd. June 19, 2004 to October 11, 2004

In this exhibition, visitors travelled back to the western frontier and discovered the legendary tales and maverick personalities of the Canadian West through the eyes of two great western artists, Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington. For many, these artists created the iconic images of the West as they visited the northwest frontier at the turn of the nineteenth century, recording the history through detailed sketches, paintings, and sculpture.

Yde Girl (dated 200-500 A.D. ) The body of this 16 year old girl was discovered in the province of Drenthe, in the Netherlands in 1897. Drents Museum, Assen, The Netherlands.

The Mysterious Bog People: Rituals and Sacrifice in Ancient Europe
Presented by AIM Trimark
October 18, 2003 to May 24, 2004

Glenbow Museum welcomed over 110,000 visitors who explored the mysterious rituals that took place in European bogs 12,000 years ago. The Mysterious Bog People brought to Calgary for the first time ancient European human remains and over 400 artifacts including the world's oldest known boat, jewellery, pottery, and other treasures. Visitors also explored ancient life in the Discovery Room by creating their own wire jewellery, using tools from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, and trying on clothing inspired by ancient Europe.

One of the most successful components of this exhibition was Glenbow's development of BSI: Bog Science Investigation, inviting students and the general public to take on the role of forensic scientist as they investigated a hypothetical body found in a bog. BSI welcomed over 200 school program visits and over 45,000 visitors during the exhibition's run. This hands-on interactive program has been sold to the International Bog Team, marking the first time that Glenbow Museum programming has been developed and sold as a component in a major travelling exhibition.

The Mysterious Bog People is a unique partnership between the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum in Hannover, Germany; the Drents Museum in Assen, The Netherlands; the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec; and Glenbow Museum in Calgary.

Inuit children, Alaska, c.1900-1908. Lomen Brothers, Glenbow Archives ND-1-71

Inusivut: Our Way of Life
Presented by BP Canada Energy Company
June 14 to September 21, 2003

Inusivut: Our Way of Life offered a sweeping view of various aspects of Inuit life. Exploring the fascinating story of survival and innovation in Arctic culture, Inusivut provided a rare opportunity to learn about the "True North. "

Over 30,000 visitors viewed one of Canada's best collections of Inuit prints, learned about the six seasons of the Arctic, climbed onto a reindeer sleigh, looked at rare early twentieth century photographs from Alaska, and saw contemporary video from Igloolik, Nunavut. Inusivut also offered an exciting range of live programming initiatives including dancers in traditional costumes, throat singers and drummers, Inuit film and video, and hosted a weekend of personal reflections on the North. Glenbow Museum also partnered with the Calgary International Film Festival and the Calgary Folk Music Festival to present unique programming opportunities.

Alfred Bastien, Over the Top, Neuville-Vitasse, 1918, Collection of the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa.

Canvas of War: Masterpieces from the Canadian War Museum

March 8 to May 25, 2003

Glenbow Museum offered visitors a rare opportunity to explore a collection of art portraying the efforts of Canadian and British artists who served in the First and Second World Wars. Featuring nearly 70 large paintings, Canvas of War was drawn from the Canadian War Museum's collection in Ottawa and included works by such well-known artists as Alex Colville, Arthur Lismer, F.H. Varley, and A.Y. Jackson. A powerful and compelling art exhibition, Canvas of War reminded Calgarians to reflect and honour Canada's sacrifices and contributions that have helped shape our country.

Diego Rivera, Farmer Carrying Turkey, 1944, From the Collection of the Government of the State of Veracruz.

¡Viva Mexico!
Presented by The American Express Foundation
November 2, 2002 to February 22, 2003

Visitors to Glenbow Museum travelled to the sunny south with ¡Viva Mexico! which showcased the richness and diversity of the arts and culture of Mexico. The exhibition included four exclusive Canadian presentations: two of internationally renowned artist, Diego Rivera; evocative photography by Graciela Iturbide; and precious shaft-tomb figures from West Mexico.

Lawren S. Harris, Mountain Forms, 1928, Private Collection of Imperial Oil Ltd. , Toronto. Photo: Thomas Moore.

The Group of Seven in Western Canada
Presented by AIM Trimark
July 13 to October 14, 2002

Nearly 60,000 visitors took in The Group of Seven in Western Canada during its exhibition run at Glenbow Museum. One of the most ambitious historical art shows Glenbow has ever produced, this significant exhibition opened the doors to the Group of Seven's many contributions to Western Canada's visual art history. Their works encompassed the rolling hills of the prairie landscape to breathtaking mountain scenes of the Rockies to evocative coastal images and austere northern climates. The exhibition and its book marked the first time the Group's Western Canadian work had been given such a focus and was met with huge success and to critical acclaim. The Group of Seven in Western Canada went on a national coast-to-zcoast tour with stops in Halifax, Winnipeg, Victoria, and ending at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.