Reimagine

Museums are essential.

At Glenbow we are reframing our community’s relationship to arts and culture with this simple yet groundbreaking belief. Our common future will be brighter if we strive together to improve this service for all. This is our aspiration for Glenbow at the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture. This is Glenbow Reimagined.

Today’s big questions demand new perspectives. We require places that will challenge, teach and inspire us to define our world, to connect with others, to become our better selves. Access to arts and culture helps us to grow and evolve for the future. Now, a transformational gift from the Shaw family will make this possible: Imagine a Glenbow that provides free general admission for everyone, forever. Access to Canada’s museums has always been a privilege available to a few. At Glenbow it will become a right for all.

Glenbow is located on Treaty 7 territory and respects the history, languages, traditions and cultures of the nations on whose traditional land we reside: the Niitsitapi from the Blackfoot Confederacy, which includes Siksika, Piikani and Kainaiwa; the Îyârhe Nakoda of the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley Nations; and the Dene of the Tsuut’ina Nation; as well as the Métis Nation Region III. Their contributions to the museum and continued support are integral to our success in educating our visitors and sharing the rich heritage of this land. We further acknowledge the vital connections we have to other indigenous people (including other First Nations, Inuit and Métis), whose visual and intangible culture is represented in our collections and exhibitions.

At Glenbow we are asking, what does it mean for a museum to be radically accessible?

This is helping us to define how you will experience Glenbow at the new JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture. Here’s what we’re working on right now.

• Eliminate general admission to remove the fundamental barrier of affordability. The Shaw family gift will ensure everyone has an opportunity to access Glenbow’s resources, in perpetuity.
• Redesign our building to recognize physical accessibility barriers and incorporate inclusive solutions by listening to experts and advocates with lived experience.
• Explore new methods of reaching you in your home language. Let’s put the monolingual museum behind us.

Glenbow will be a people-centered place that celebrates this community’s vibrancy, while elevating our city on the global stage of design, architecture and renewal.

Tearing down Glenbow’s building was never the solution. Instead, we are leveraging its inherent value, discovering green solutions for our future home and providing other Canadian cities with a model of architectural reuse.

• Glenbow at the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture will anchor the downtown cultural district and help to foster a livable, walkable and safe city.
• For the first time, all eight floors of the museum will be accessible to the public, creating more diverse visitor experiences across a more transparent museum.
• At street level, a new museum entrance along a revitalized Stephen Avenue will engage passers-by with enticing views into the building and a lively, active perimeter.
• A new theatre, shop and restaurant will create more reasons to stay and enjoy all that Glenbow and the city has to offer.
• A fifth-floor roof terrace will invite visitors to experience an expansive yet intimate outdoor space overlooking the heart of downtown.
• Glenbow will provide the cultural infrastructure citizens of Canada and the world look for when deciding where to work, live and raise a family.

Museums aren’t just for looking at things; they help us discover who we are.

Every artwork, every belonging is a window into another person’s experience. When we engage with them we affirm the museum as an engine for empathy.

• More of Glenbow’s collections will be on view more often, providing new opportunities for curiosity and wonder, dialogue and reconciliation.
• We are building new community spaces to support increased Indigenous access to belongings in our care.
• The new JR Shaw Institute for Canadian Art will expand our appreciation and understanding of Canadian Art in all its forms through exhibitions, educational and public programs, and artist and scholar residencies.
• Glenbow’s revitalized curatorial approach will invite artists and individuals from communities represented in Glenbow’s collections to present their own stories.

Museum values have evolved dramatically in the last half century. To stay relevant, the museum today must be community-centered first. That’s why Glenbow Reimagined is about so much more than a building.

Our good neighbour strategy emphasizes community partnerships to bolster the civic, social and therapeutic benefits of museum experiences.

• Commit to decolonization and reconciliation through collaboration with Indigenous communities in Treaty 7 and beyond. Glenbow is building on its long track record of Indigenous partnerships to ensure Indigenous leadership shapes exhibitions, education, programming and stewardship of Indigenous belongings at Glenbow.
• We are building a new education centre to increase our school capacity by more than 30% to 80,000 students annually.
• We are committed to expanding our successful museum school model to provide new learning opportunities for people of all ages.
• We are expanding the museum’s programming so it can serve as a foundation for mental health and wellness.
• Glenbow is developing partnerships with other leading civic institutions in Calgary to pool our ideas and passions for the community at large. We can achieve more together.

Glenbow is advancing new models of sustainability. We owe it to the earth, to each other, and to future generations.

A sustainable Glenbow means progressive approaches to the environment and our finances.

• By reusing our existing building, Glenbow prevents the production of 56,000 t of new carbon over the lifespan of the building and keeps 38,000 t of concrete out of the landfill.
• Building a high performing building envelope and replacing existing obsolete systems will yield annual energy use savings of 38% and will result in a reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 41%.
• Glenbow has considered future risks and hazards associated with climate change and has integrated mitigation strategies into the design to increase the building’s resiliency and to ensure a sustainable future for Glenbow.
• Glenbow is progressively executing an impact portfolio lens across its investments, going beyond environmental, social and governance criteria to directly support resources for artists, Indigenous communities, mental health and climate change, right here at home.
• The building of new restaurant, shop, theatre, and event spaces throughout the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture will increase earned revenues, protecting access to Glenbow’s resources from future economic uncertainty.
• The JR Shaw Free Admission Endowment will bring more people to the museum and increase traffic to Calgary’s culture district, supporting our economic recovery.

Glenbow Reimagined will re-energize our cultural and economic landscape and help reframe Calgary to the world.

We asked our community about its hopes for Glenbow’s future. Your feedback helped us set our campaign target at $175 million. This ambitious goal will provide the resources required to catalyze vibrancy in our downtown core while improving the way we connect with arts and culture. Forever.

With your support, we can revitalize our building and deliver an unparalleled visitor experience, including dynamic new exhibitions and programs. Help us build a thriving, accessible institution driving curiosity, creativity and learning for generations to come.

Along with the $35 million transformational gift in honour of JR Shaw, and $12m already committed by Glenbow supporters nationally, we have secured funding from all three levels of government: $40 million from the Government of Canada, $40 million from the Government of Alberta and $25 million from the City of Calgary. We now seek to raise the final $23 million from our community.

Make an Impact

Your support today means a brighter tomorrow – for Calgary, for Canada and beyond. Together we can rebuild our museum as a source of inspiration and innovation for the whole community.

Glenbow at the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture – a place for everyone, a community hub, and a museum dedicated to the future of art and culture in Canada.

Just imagine.

TO LEARN MORE AND SUPPORT OUR CAMPAIGN – GLENBOW REIMAGINED – PLEASE CONTACT:

Jeni Piepgrass
Vice-President, Advancement
jpiepgrass@glenbow.org

Understanding your ideas and aspirations for Glenbow Reimagined is critical to its success.

Over the last five years we’ve been asking the community how Glenbow could be a more relevant and accessible museum. This feedback helped inform our initial ideas and aspirations for the museum’s renovation. In 2021, with a clearer picture of what the future Glenbow could look like, we went back to the community for input. Beginning with one-on-one conversations with community leaders and stakeholders, we then canvassed a broader segment of the community with an online survey and heard from over 1200 Calgarians. Through this research we were better able to understand public expectations for the renovation and what aspects of Glenbow’s proposed redesign and operations will be the most beneficial. Finally, through two virtual open-house sessions, Glenbow shared information on the renovation plans, focusing on sustainability, innovation and community interface.

These phases of community engagement and research have confirmed support for the primary goals of Glenbow’s renovation and provided insight into programming, amenities and spaces that are crucial to an enhanced visitor experience when we reopen. Throughout the course of our renovation, we will continue to update the community on our progress, ensuring this feedback is built into the project’s evolution.

Engagement with Indigenous Communities

In 2021 Glenbow hired Many Chief Consulting to develop a strategy that would connect the museum with Indigenous communities, informing our short- and long-term planning through the meaningful incorporation of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in the museum’s design, programing and operations. This strategy focused on three key areas that supported respectful and meaningful communications with Indigenous communities: building knowledge, building relationships and building the path forward. Through virtual engagement sessions with members of Treaty 7 and other Indigenous communities, recommendations were made on design, care for Indigenous belongings, relationship building and future exhibitions and programming. 

If you have any questions regarding Glenbow’s Indigenous engagement strategy, please contact us at indigenousengagement@glenbow.org.