Recently, Glenbow’s team undertook the monumental task of rehousing the museum’s art collection – the largest public art collection in Western Canada, with over 30,000 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper – in its brand-new visible storage area.
Visible storage means when Glenbow reopens in its new home, the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture, visitors will have a special opportunity to see behind the scenes. Unlike traditional storage, visible storage allows the public to view art and object storage areas that were previously obscured, offering new ways to engage with the collection.
To learn more, we sat down with Kelsey Black, Glenbow’s Curatorial Assistant, Art, who played a key role in coordinating the art move. She shared her insights into the planning, challenges, and joys involved in ensuring the art collection’s safe transition.
Why did Glenbow’s art collection need to move?
Glenbow’s collection is always growing and the ways we need to access it are always evolving. The art collection needed a fresh new home after decades in its previous space to allow for higher density storage and better accessibility for visitors. With the museum being reimagined, moving the art collection lets us better support all the exhibitions and programs future Glenbow visitors have to look forward to.
What was your role in the move? Tell us a bit about a day in your life during this project.
I was the staff coordinator for the day-to-day of the project. Big decisions like which kind of storage systems to use were already made. My job was to work with an amazing crew of movers to find a home for every single piece of art!
Every day required a thousand little decisions to help make the art collection more accessible: where to store each object, which storage solution each object needed, how to best track each object’s location, how to maximize access, and which objects looked best displayed together. I built broad plans and worked with the crew to translate them into many, many smaller steps.
What special precautions were taken to ensure the safety of artworks in the collection during the move?
When moving artwork, the single most important precaution is planning. If I know what an object is, how to care for it, and exactly where to move it, keeping everything safe is so much easier. Proper handling was something we talked about before ever taking a single step, and starting with a plan ensured we knew how best to make it all happen.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during the art move?
The art move was my first project at Glenbow, so my biggest challenge was navigating the collection for the first time! Not yet knowing exactly what was here was stressful at times, but it was so rewarding to see all the pieces come together.
How long did the art move take?
The art move began in January 2024 when we started moving sculptures into a temporary space, and we finished by moving the last boxes of prints in January 2025. That year also involved removing the old storage systems, adding temporary ones, installing the new ones, and moving every object to its permanent home. There are still many things I’m working on to ensure everything is just right, but the vast majority of the move is now done.
Did you come across any interesting discoveries or new favourite works during the art move?
For me, everything was a new discovery! I’ve always loved works on paper and had a great time sorting through prints from artists like Walter J. Phillips, Margaret Shelton, and members of Kinngait Studios. There is also a massive painting of the Selkirk Mountains by William Brymner that I remember stopping to stare at with our movers because it was so amazing. Picking just a few things from the whole collection is so hard – there are little gems everywhere just waiting to be found.
The relocation of Glenbow’s art collection marks a key milestone in the museum’s transformation. With artworks now housed in visible storage, visitors can look forward to greater access than ever before to Western Canada’s largest public art collection. As Glenbow looks toward reopening at the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture, what was once behind the scenes is now woven into the visitor experience – an exciting step toward a more open, accessible, and inspiring future.
