Variations: Holgate, Group of Seven and Contemporaries

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

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

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

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

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.