Looking for an indoor reason to leave the house this November? Contemporary Calgary, the city's public gallery for modern and contemporary art, has filled its calendar with exhibitions, workshops and film screenings through the month — and plenty of it won't cost you a thing.
The gallery occupies a striking piece of real estate: the former Centennial Planetarium in Calgary's downtown west end, at 701 11th St. SW. Inside, it rotates work by local, national and international artists, and right now there are five exhibitions on the go.
Kainai filmmaker Damien Eagle Bear's "when you see it" is the longest-running, on display until June 2027. It pairs portraits with images of significant sites across Blackfoot territory, exploring how the land itself holds stories. Curtis Talwst Santiago's "worlds, worlds, worlds" offers something completely different — tiny dioramas recalling Caribbean community life and personal memory, on until early January 2027. Jan Jin Kaisan's "Burial Of This Order" brings three video works about rituals and protest to the walls, also running to January 2027.
Two shows wrap up in November 2026, so time matters if you want to catch them. Ghazaleh Avarzami's Monopoly-inspired installation "Churn, Earn, Burn and then Return" uses sculpture and textiles to pick apart power and economic systems, while Adelita Husni Bey's "Agency" documents a role-playing exercise where 35 Rome high school students stepped into the shoes of politicians, bankers and activists to see how decisions really get made.
The events side of the programme is equally busy. Free First Thursday lands on 5 November from 5 to 9 p.m. (registration required), and Wednesdays bring a free Open Studio for visitors aged 55 and over from 1 to 4 p.m. Weekends mean drop-in art making from 1 to 5 p.m., free with gallery admission.
If you fancy a guided look around, the Contemporary Connections series runs free hour-long tours in Farsi on 7 November, French on 14 November and Ukrainian on 21 November, all at noon with registration. Film fans can catch Chris Marker's classic short "La Jetée" on the evening of 21 November, free with registration. The one paid ticket on the list is an Art Book Club session with artist Simone Elizabeth Saunders on 13 November at noon, priced at $30.
For travellers, this is a tidy cold-weather plan for a Calgary afternoon: an architecturally interesting venue, five very different shows under one roof, and a programme that welcomes drop-ins as easily as planned visits. It pairs well with the rest of the downtown west end, and with winter closing in over Alberta, an art-filled few hours beats shivering through an outdoor itinerary.
