Twenty minutes, one blank canvas, and a room full of people cheering you on. That's the premise behind Creative Combat, artsPlace's annual live painting competition in Canmore, Alberta — part art show, part fundraiser, part spectator sport.

This year a dozen Bow Valley artists will go head-to-head, each producing an original painting from scratch while the crowd watches. When the timer runs out on each round, the audience votes for their favourite piece, so the result is genuinely in the hands of the room. The competing lineup includes Alice Conniff, Alice Helwig, Anthony McNally, Avi Dalton, Chyvonne Archer, Dillon Leask, Holly Kaquitts, Kerry Langlois, Megan Parker, Patti Dyment, Rosemary Berglund and Sarah Marie Pullman.

The painting is only part of the evening. DJ Rob Murray is on the decks, circus artist Luna Ivana performs, and there's food plus a silent auction. A raffle adds a proper incentive to stick around: one winner takes home a trip to Nova Scotia. Tickets include food and two drinks — cocktails or beer — so it works as a full night out rather than a quick gallery visit.

Everything raised goes back into artsPlace's year-round arts and cultural programming across the Bow Valley, meaning your ticket does double duty as a night of entertainment and support for the local scene.

The details: Creative Combat happens at artsPlace, 950 8th Avenue in Canmore, on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026. Doors open at 6 p.m. and organisers ask guests to arrive by 6:30 p.m. Individual tickets run $100, while a group of six can book together for $500.

If the date doesn't work, artsPlace keeps busy through November. The Y2Y Film Festival screens on Tuesday, Nov. 17, pairing films with conversations about climate and conservation, and the Reel Rock Film Tour — a climbing film festival that suits Canmore's mountain-town character perfectly — runs on Nov. 19, 25 and 28.

For travellers, this is a good excuse to pair a Rocky Mountain getaway with something you won't find on the usual Banff itinerary. Canmore sits just outside Banff National Park, so you can spend the day on trails or scrambling up views of the Three Sisters and be back in town for a 6 p.m. door time. It's also a chance to see a working arts community rather than a tourist show — the artists competing are local, the crowd is local, and the money stays local.