Best Art Gallery: Glenbow Museum
For decades, the Glenbow Museum has been a highly influential institution in Calgary’s museum and art collection scene, winning the Best Art Gallery award yet again. Founded in the mid-1960s with a donation of historical Alberta art from philanthropist Eric Harvie and a $10 million investment, you will find room after room of various art collections showcasing the history of Alberta through depictions of influential Calgary events, personalities and institutions. Since 2013, the Glenbow Museum has been overseen by President and CEO Donna Livingstone. In addition to its art gallery, the museum also hosts one of Canada’s largest non-government repositories and contains many archival records documenting Western Canada’s social, political and economic history.
The Glenbow is now home to over 33,000 works with pieces ranging from the 1800s through to the present. Throughout the museum, some classic pieces that you’ll find are: a Canadian prints collection from Walter J. Phillips and Sybil Andrews, First Nations and Inuit art, landscape painting depicting the north-western quarter of our continent and various wildlife art. Among 2019’s traveling art exhibitions are: Christian Dior organized by the Royal Ontario Museum; the Meryl McMaster: Confluence collection; Chris Cran: At Play; Ladylikeness: Historical Portraits of Women by Women; Antoni Tapies: Prints 1948-1976; and Power in Pictures: The Outside Circle and the Graphic Novel. Find the Glenbow Museum’s hours of operation and more artistic information on their website.
FIRST RUNNER UP: ESKER FOUNDATION
SECOND RUNNER UP: MASTERS GALLERY