Tours

Exhibition Tour: When the mind is untroubled > December 9th

Shauna Thompson

The exhibitions of Tammi Campbell, Agnes Martin, and Sarah Stevenson are united in an austere formal language of grid and line. However, foundational to these ascetic aesthetics are individual interests in emotion, physicality, and sensuality. Join Esker curator Shauna Thompson on this conversational walking tour that aims to illuminate the nuanced and affecting inspirations behind these three artists’ practices. Registration recommended.

Exhibition Tour: Living Above the Line > November 17th

Elizabeth Diggon

While Tammi Campbell, Agnes Martin, and Sarah Stevenson each create work in different media, their practices are linked through a shared fascination with the grid and its infinite permutations. Join Elizabeth Diggon, Esker’s assistant curator, on this informal tour that parses the conversations occurring between Campbell’s, Martin’s, and Stevenson’s work on the visual language of the grid and its different material expressions. Registration recommended.

Tour of the Alberta Printmakers’ Gallery and Studio > October 26th October 26th

Join Esker Foundation for a private tour of Alberta Printmakers’ Gallery and Studio. Established in 1989, this Calgary based non-profit and artist-run centre features a fully equipped print studio and a contemporary gallery specializing in print-based exhibitions of established and emerging artists. On this tour we will view the current exhibition, Fiercely Open by John Graham, followed by a lithography demonstration by local artist James Boychuk-Hunter, while learning about this long-standing artist-run centre. Participants will meet at the Alberta Printmakers’ Gallery and Studio, transportation will not be provided. 16+ only. Registration essential.  

Exhibition Tour: The silver cord > October 19th

Naomi Potter

Please note: new revised date. Drawn, etched, painted, and suspended, the line forms the central core from which all three artists in these fall exhibitions are connected. The simplicity and variation of a line, and the intervals of space between, are emblematic of the gratifyingly modest practice of each artist. This tour will draw together the practices of Campbell, Martin, and Stevenson, with particular focus on how their work, specifically the course of the line, inscribes the movement of the body through the hand. Registration recommended.

Edible Plant Walk with Full Circle Adventures > September 29th

Julie Walker

The City of Calgary’s Wildland and Provincial parks are protected pockets of indigenous, wild plants – some even endangered. On this walking tour of Pearce Estate Park, learn to identify native plants, their uses, and the habitat they grow in. This program is held outdoors and is a physical outdoor walking tour. Please make sure you dress appropriately for the weather. The tour will meet at Pearce Estate Park, transportation will not be provided. This program is not wheelchair accessible. 10+ only. Registration essential.

Bus Tour to the Canadian Museum of Making > August 26th

Join us on an intimate and rare tour of the Canadian Museum of Making, located near Cochrane. This museum features a collection of machinery and tools that were built and used from 1750 to 1920 in Canada, Britain, and the United States, as well as an extensive African metalwork collection. The tour will also feature a blacksmithing demonstration by artist, blacksmith, and curator L. Japheth Howard. Bus transportation to and from the museum will be provided. Unfortunately, this program is not wheelchair or walker accessible. Participants must be over the age of 16.  

Exhibition Tour: The Magic of Material > August 17th

Naomi Potter

Join Naomi Potter for a tour of the fantastic and magical worlds of Vanessa Brown and Anna Torma. Rich in symbolic imagery, both artists reclaim and activate craft traditions by challenging the historical stereotypes of certain materials or skills; embroidery, patchwork, and appliqué relegated to the domestic realm, and steel associated with industry, weaponry, and brutality. These seemingly opposite material selections act as a point of connection, proposing a conversation that binds as much as it does question the hierarchy of material and making.

Exhibition Tour: Curiouser and curiouser > July 27th

Elizabeth Diggon

Vanessa Brown and Anna Torma both layer fantastical imagery, personal histories, and hidden symbols into their work. Join Elizabeth Diggon, Esker’s assistant curator, on this informal tour that considers the conceptual and material threads that link together these two artistic practices.

Threads of Beauty: Hungarian Textiles in the Glenbow Collection > June 16th June 16th

Daryl Betenia

Daryl Betenia, Manager, Collections will offer a behind-the-scenes look at Glenbow’s small but beautiful collection of Hungarian textiles. Learn about the various uses behind these textiles and the history of how they became part of the Glenbow collection. The tour will also highlight some special household items that are part of the collection. Participants will meet at the Glenbow, transportation will not be provided. To attend this tour, you must be over the age of 16. Registration essential.

Exhibition Tour: The screen, the dream, the stitch, and the weld > June 9th

Shauna Thompson

Join curator Shauna Thompson on this walking tour of Vanessa Brown’s The Witching Hour and Anna Torma’s Book of Abandoned Details. Together, we’ll discuss the narratives of material value, craft and fabrication, remembrance, and feminist histories, as well as the richness of humour, pleasure, and fantasy that weave together these two materially lush exhibitions. Registration recommended.

Exhibition Tour: Pretty in Pink: The emotive power of colour > April 19th

Naomi Potter

Baker-Miller Pink, the colour used in Kapwani Kiwanga’s pink-blue, is a tone of pink claimed to reduce hostile, violent, or aggressive behaviour. Early tests performed by colour researcher Alexander Schauss in the late 1970s observed that this particular shade of pink had a profoundly calming effect, noting that merely staring at an 18 × 24 inch card printed with this colour, especially after exercising, would result in “a marked effect on lowering the heart rate, pulse, and respiration.” In 1979, the first institutional use of this pink was tested on prisoners at the Naval Correctional Institute in Seattle, Washington. The findings were that “no incidents of erratic or hostile behaviour” were experienced, and “only fifteen minutes of exposure was enough to ensure that the potential for violent or aggressive behaviour had been reduced.” Schauss named the pink after the Naval Correctional Institute directors, Baker and Miller. What effect does colour have on you? Do you believe orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, that blue suppresses appetite, or that babies cry more in yellow rooms? Let the colours speak for themselves in this tour of A wall is just a wall (and nothing more at all). Registration recommended.

Tour of the Canadian Architectural Archives > April 7th

Join staff from Archives and Special Collections at the University of Calgary for a guided tour of the Canadian Architectural Archives. The CAA is the largest collection in the world of Canadian architectural materials. Staff will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the archival storage vault, and highlight some special items. Participants will meet at the University of Calgary, Taylor Family Digital Library. Transportation will not be provided. Registration essential.

Exhibition Tour: Architectures of Control and Resistance > March 15th

Shauna Thompson

Curator Shauna Thompson gave a walking tour through Kapwani Kiwanga’s exhibition A wall is just a wall (and nothing more at all) and discussed the institutional legacies of colour, light, and design and how bodies in space might be controlled by or find ways to resist architectural influences.

Exhibition Tour: Research as Resistance > February 22nd

Elizabeth Diggon

Through a strikingly minimal visual vocabulary, the work of Kapwani Kiwanga employs extensive research on institutional architecture and design, the management of bodies through colour and light, and subtle means of resistance or subversion. Join Elizabeth Diggon, Esker’s lead researcher, on this informal tour that will trace the threads of research and the connections to Alberta histories and institutions that run through Kapwani Kiwanga’s A wall is just a wall (and nothing more at all). Registration recommended.

Exhibition Tour: Whose side are you on anyway?  > December 16th

Shauna Thompson

As we maneuver together through the subtexts of violence in Mary Anne Barkhouse’s seductive, tableau-like Le rêve aux loups into Postcommodity’s disorienting and uncomfortable A Very Long Line, we will consider the disruption of borders (physical, psychological, political, and social) and the deconstruction of binary, colonial thinking as strategies of adaptability, resistance, and resilience. Registration recommended.

Exhibition Tour: We are all in this together > November 30th

Naomi Potter

Although the materials used in the work of Mary Anne Barkhouse and Postcommodity share little in common, how they do connect is through a commitment to challenging mainstream social, political, economic, and historical discourses by creating space for Indigenous narratives. Giving space to both human and animal perspectives, this tour will consider the various connections between immigration and migration, borders in relation to boundaries, and imperialism versus the environment. Registration recommended.

Reimagining Boundaries: Exhibition Tour > October 5th

Elizabeth Diggon

In Decolonizing Methodologies, Linda Tuhiwai Smith characterizes Western articulations of space as a tool of colonialism, arguing that “the Indigenous world view, the land and the people, have been radically transformed in the spatial image of the West.” In this tour, we will consider how Mary Anne Barkhouse and Postcommodity subvert and reimagine lines and boundaries – either real or imagined – that run between or across territories and delineate perceptions of domestic and private, human and natural. Registration recommended.

Bus Trip to the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary > September 30th

Tour the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary located outside of Cochrane. An interpretive walk through the sanctuary allows visitors to see the facility and view the packs of wolfdogs at your own pace. In addition to the self-guided walk, participants will receive a thirty-minute introduction from a wolfdog expert and access to one of the enclosures (behind a short barrier). There is no physical interaction with the animals on this tour. Participants must be 16 years and older to participate. This is a physical, outdoor walking tour with no seating. Please make sure you dress for the weather. This program is not wheelchair accessible. Tour fee: $35.00 Registration essential.

Guided Walk of the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and Nature Centre > September 24th

Come explore the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and Nature Centre on a guided walk led by a City of Calgary Environmental Educator. The sanctuary was designated as a Federal Migratory Bird Sanctuary in 1929 and to date there have been 270 species of birds, 21 species of mammals, and 347 species of plants recorded and housed onsite. This guided nature walk will include historical facts about the sanctuary, as well as information on the plants and wildlife. Participants will meet at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary (2425 9 Ave SE). This program is held outdoors; please dress for the weather. The Inglewood Bird Sanctuary is wheelchair accessible. Registration essential.

The Voice of Things Exhibition Tour > July 27th

Elizabeth Diggon

Taking its name from Francis Ponge’s classic 1942 book of prose poetry that takes an intimate look at the inner lives and depths of objects, this conversational tour will consider the sculptures, drawings, installations, and videos of Jason de Haan and Anton Vidokle as starting points for broader metaphysical and fantastical questions. We will consider the individual works as the tip of a conceptual iceberg and as a series of propositions on the subtle gestures that link humankind with the vastness of the natural world. Registration recommended.

Close your eyes Exhibition Tour > August 10th

Naomi Potter

What is the connection between the Capuchin Sisters of Querétaro, Shelly (the soft-shelled turtle) at the The Royal Tyrrell Museum, haunted mirrors, crystals, fossils, humidifiers, and a golden ring? Join Naomi Potter for an exhibition tour that entwines the various ways in which Jason de Haan attempts to reverse, adjust, and interrupt the course of time through small gestures that resonate with poetry, impossibility, and magic. Registration recommended.

Cosmic Kinships Exhibition Tour > June 22nd

Shauna Thompson

What are the conversations that happen in silence? Is death a luxury? What exuberant, transformative forces surround and influence us every day? Join Curator Shauna Thompson on a tour of Jason de Haan and Anton Vidokle’s current exhibitions in which we will discuss the conceptual, poetic, scientific, and speculative underpinnings of each of these evocative works. Registration recommended.

Bus Trip to the Royal Tyrrell Museum > June 17th

As Canada’s only museum dedicated exclusively to the science of palaeontology, the Royal Tyrrell Museum celebrates the spectacular diversity of life on Earth, from the tiniest grain of pollen to the mightiest dinosaur. This world-renowned museum and research facility is situated in the Alberta Badlands, which offer some of the richest deposits of dinosaur fossils in the world and spectacular views. The day will include a journey through time in the Royal Tyrrell’s nine ever-evolving galleries and a guided hike through the Badlands that will tell the ancient story of Alberta. We recommend bringing water, a hat, sunscreen, insect repellent, and suitable clothing for the hike. There is a cafeteria onsite for lunch, which is not included in the fee below. Unfortunately, this program is not wheelchair accessible. Museum admission and program fee: $20. Registration essential.

Medalta Bus Tour > May 6th

Join us for a day trip to Medicine Hat to visit Medalta’s iconic beehive kilns and old ceramics factory, an early and un-altered reminder of the beginning of Western Canada’s industrial revolution. We will visit Medalta’s artist-in-residence centre where Pierre Aupilardjuk, Shary Boyle, and John Kurok created some of the artwork on exhibition at Esker. We will tour a working studio as Medalta staff create pottery using historic machines and methods from over a century ago. Bus transportation to and from Medalta and lunch from a local café will be provided. Unfortunately, this program is not wheelchair accessible. Lunch and Medalta tour fee: $40 Registration essential.

Cooked Earth and Ghost Noise > March 10th

Shauna Thompson

In this conversational walking tour, we’ll spend time exploring some of individual the myths, narratives, and creative cosmologies in the ceramics and works on paper in Earthlings. (Please note this talk has been rescheduled from March 9th.) Registration recommended.

Cooked Earth and Ghost Noise > February 12th

Shauna Thompson

In this conversational walking tour, we’ll spend time exploring some of the individual myths, narratives, and creative cosmologies in the ceramics and works on paper in Earthlings. Registration recommended.