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Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA)

Afternoon visit at the AGA.
I wanted to take more pics but I wasn't sure if that was allowed in the galleries or not so I left my phone alone and enjoyed the scenes.

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love these photos! I used to work at the AGA, so I don't speak for them but i know the policy on this pretty well. Photography is allowed everywhere, including of works on display, provided you don't use flash (the bright light is bad for art/artifacts). Shots of the building are totally good and actually really popular, just no stopping on the stairs (gets in others' way).
If you aren't allowed to photograph somewhere, either at an event or in a particular exhibition (usually because the work on display is still privately owned, so copyright is more protected) there will be a note to that effect in the director pamphlet, usually on the website page for the exhibition, and there will always be signs on the door. it's pretty rare to not allow photography though.
 
I saw the exhibit, which is the entire top level; it's powerful. It addresses the residential schools, Japanese-Canadian internment, and anti-Black racism and the Ku Klux Klan..
Did it also address?:

Ukrainian internment "Canada’s first national internment operations took place during the First World War, between 1914 and 1920. More than 8,500 men, along with some women and children, were interned by the Canadian government, which acted under the authority of the War Measures Act. Most internees were recent immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman empires, and mainly from the western Ukrainian regions of Galicia and Bukovyna. Some were Canadian-born or naturalized British subjects. They were held in 24 receiving stations and internment camps across the country — from Nanaimo, BC, to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Many were used as labour in the country’s frontier wilderness. Personal wealth and property were confiscated and much of it was never returned." https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/search?search=Ukrainian+internment

Forced sterilization of persons with mental health "diagnosis" many of which were not under the Sexual Sterilization Act and Eugenics Board "Eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices aimed at improving the human population through controlled breeding. It includes “negative” eugenics (discouraging or limiting the procreation of people considered to have undesirable characteristics and genes) and “positive” eugenics (encouraging the procreation of people considered to have desirable characteristics and genes). Many Canadians supported eugenic policies in the early 20th century, including some medical professionals, politicians and feminists. Both Alberta (1928) and British Columbia (1933) passed Sexual Sterilization Acts, which were not repealed until the 1970s. Although often considered a pseudoscience and a thing of the past, eugenic methods have continued into the 21st century, including the coerced sterilization of Indigenous women and what some have termed the “new eugenics” — genetic editing and the screening of fetuses for disabilities." https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/eugenics.

Progressive Conservative Government denial of Gay equality and rights'. "Delwin Vriend never set out to be a gay-rights poster boy. Last week, the 32-year-old computer technologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton sounded drained by his seven-year battle with the Alberta government over its unwillingness to provide equal rights to gays and lesbians." https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gay-rights-upheld-in-alberta

Alberta has a disgusting record of controlling peoples rights and freedoms and that continues to this day under Jason Kenny and UCP.
 
Yes, there is much more discrimination that could be addressed. I do remember some art at the AGA concerning anti-LGBT discrimination.
 
The AGA really lacks the quantity of good gallery space needed for big exhibitions. I mean even the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is much better! What would be your thoughts on the AGA expanding its gallery space by taking over and restoring Chancery Hall, and connecting to the main building by a footbridge, nice crosswalk, or tunnel?
 
I'd rather see it bridge over and take the corner of 97/102A from the courts similar to how the Winspear did so it can have a double presence.

As for Chancery, it will be hard to do much with the old gal, but I would still like to see it turned into market micro-suites with common amenities for students, young professionals and the like to have more evening traffic there.
 
Refinery parties were always a blast.

Here's hoping it gets some momentum again.
 

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