Glenbow will reopen in its revitalized home, the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture, in 2026.
With 44 exhibitions, displays, and installations across eight floors and 325,000 square feet of inviting new space, the reimagined museum will be an inspiring home for our collections, exhibitions, programs, and events.
Glenbow at the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture
In recognition of a transformative $35 million gift from Shaw Family Foundation, Glenbow’s building will be renamed the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture. Glenbow’s name will remain the same.
This generous donation also creates two significant endowments:
- The JR Shaw Free Admission Endowment ($25 million), which establishes free general admission to the museum, forever.
- The JR Shaw Institute for Art in Canada ($10 million), which supports programs focused on art and artists from across Canada.
Free General Admission, Forever
Thanks to Shaw Family Foundation’s gift, the JR Shaw Free Admission Endowment will establish free general admission to the museum, forever.
Glenbow will be the first major museum in Canada to offer free general admission, ensuring that access to arts and culture is a right for everyone, not a privilege for few. This initiative will make Glenbow more accessible than ever, inviting more people into the museum to explore, learn, and connect.
Radical Accessibility
Radical accessibility is at the heart of Glenbow’s vision for the future. Through the redesign of the building, Glenbow is ensuring new spaces are without barriers to cognitive, cultural, economic, social, or physical accessibility. This means incorporating inclusive solutions and listening to experts and advocates with lived experience.
Additionally, through a new front entrance, visitors will have easier, direct access to the museum from Stephen Avenue.
Increased Access to Collections
Glenbow’s diverse and expansive collections set it apart from other museums and public art galleries in Canada. There are more than 250,000 works of art, objects, and belongings in the museum’s collections, including:
- The largest public art collection in Western Canada, with over 30,000 historical and contemporary works of art.
- A history collection that captures the settler and immigrant experience in the West.
- Extensive collections of Indigenous cultures.
- Collections of cultural belongings from Africa, Asia, and South America.
In the reimagined museum, more of these collections will be available to view more often.
New collections storage spaces with expansive windows will allow visitors to view art and object storage across floors five, six, and seven, which were not previously open to the public.
Additionally, Glenbow’s new Conservation Lab on the eighth floor will give visitors an opportunity to see how conservators maintain and preserve art, belongings, and objects.
Indigenous Engagement
Critical to our vision of the reimagined museum is our commitment to decolonization and reconciliation through collaboration with Indigenous communities in Treaty 7 and beyond.
Building on our track record of Indigenous partnerships, we are working to ensure Indigenous leadership shapes exhibitions, programming, and stewardship of Indigenous belongings.
When Glenbow reopens at the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture, the museum will feature:
- A new Blackfoot Gallery, curated by Elders from Siksika, Piikani, Kainai, and Blackfeet Nation in Montana, in tandem with globally recognized Indigenous curator and scholar Gerald McMaster.
- A new Indigenous Peoples’ Contemporary Gallery.
- New community spaces to support increased Indigenous access to belongings in Glenbow’s care.
Community-Centered Exhibitions
Glenbow is a community-centered museum that strives to help people see themselves and connect with one another. Our new exhibition strategy is built upon the belief that everyone belongs at the museum.
This includes projects such as:
- Exhibitions curated in collaboration with Calgary’s diverse immigrant communities, beginning with community members from Mexico, Indonesia, and Ethiopia.
- A gallery dedicated to emerging Alberta artists.
- Galleries exhibiting Canadian fashion, including the life of fashion icon Jeanne Beker, co-curated with designer Paul Hardy.
- More to be announced!
The JR Shaw Institute for Art in Canada
The JR Shaw Institute for Art in Canada is dedicated to celebrating art in Canada by engaging communities in creative exhibitions and programs, advancing artistic practices, fostering research and inquiry, and providing opportunities for diverse voices.
Created thanks to a $10 million endowment from Shaw Family Foundation, the Institute is devoted to supporting art and artists in Canada. It will feature annual exhibitions, an artist-in-residence program, a research fellowship, opportunities for further study through an internship program, programs for children, and artist-in-conversation events. Through its programs, the Institute will represent stories of art and artists and engage with ideas and artistic expressions that shape Canada today.
Latest News
