September 28th, 11-5pm - Details to follow
The Art Gallery of Alberta has been selected as a host site for Alberta Culture Days!
Join us for some free, art-filled programming is waiting for you at the AGA.
We’ll have several days of programming ranging from performances by francophone and Indigenous artists, a talk by a local artist and a hands-on workshop! There will be so many ways for you to interact with art, learn about different cultures in the Alberta art scene and discover the artists within yourself.
September 20th
Come join us for our exciting programming around language and culture !
- 1-3pm: Art & Language Meet Ups for Newcomers to Canada
- Free with registration - Register Here
Our monthly Art & Language Meet ups for Newcomers to Canada offers a unique opportunity for newcomers, as part of AGA’s Thrive: Newcomer Connections program. Join us for a tour, offered in French, Spanish and English, to connect with others that speak your language or to practice a language you are learning! Please register ahead of time here.
Some drinks and snacks will also be available!
- Free with registration - Register Here
2-4pm: Performances:
- 2pm: Poetry Performance by Medgine Mathurin
- Free
Join us for a 30-minute spoken-word performance by a local artist sharing her point of view and her culture through every word.
Multilingual Poet, advocate and Edmonton’s Poet Laureat for 2025, Medgine Mathurin is an immeasurably talented Haitian-born artist. Creating spoken word poetry in French, Creole and English, she explores the magic of language and her intertwined cultural background to unveil something that is truly unique and mesmerizing.
- Free
- 3:30pm: Bilingual Storytelling with Roger Dallaire
- Free
A traditional French-Canadian storyteller, Roger Dallaire is also a musician, comedian, marionetist and folklorist. A man of many talents, he shares his love of history and transports the public back in time with his wild stories and love for his French-Canadian cultural heritage.
You’ll learn, laugh and be left wanting more after his 30-minute performance.
- Free
September 27th
- Artist Talk: Emily Chu and Kathryn Lennon
- 12-1pm - 1hr talk
- With the facilitation of local poet, editor and publisher, Kathryn Lennon, join us for a talk exploring the idea of home and belonging that inspired Emily Chu’s mural, Preserving Fragments. Sharing her journey, culture and her connection with her family, Emily dives into that idea of home, a place, a feeling, a culture and people to share it with.
- 12-1pm - 1hr talk
- 1hr workshop – LL (Community Gallery)
- Collective Zine Creation with Emily Chu & Kathryn Lennon
- Following the talk, on the Lower Level of the AGA, come get your hands and heads working to collaborate towards the creation of a collective zine. Home, belonging and doorways are going to be some of the ideas through which stories are shared, and art comes alive.
- Collective Zine Creation with Emily Chu & Kathryn Lennon
About the artists:
- Emily Chu is a Chinese illustrator and visual artist based on Treaty 6 (Edmonton). Emily's practice includes commercial illustration, murals, storytelling, sketching, and community-arts initiatives.
Emily is the founder and lead organizer of Chinatown's newest LNY Market: Togather Chinatown Arts Festival, and storytelling map project: Chinatown Stories Map. She is also co-organizer of the arts fundraiser project: Chinatown Greetings.
She is currently working on a graphic novel about her childhood immigration story to the Canadian prairies in the 90’s, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. - Kathryn 君妍 Gwun-Yeen Lennon is a poet, editor and publisher. She was born and raised, and resides in Edmonton/Amiskwacîwâskahikan, with mixed Hong-Kong Cantonese and Irish settler ancestry.
She writes to make sense of her connections to place, migration, identity, language, and food. She believes in the power of poetry, and the power of sharing our diverse voices, to help us create more equitable, just and beautiful communities. As a poet, she feels most useful when she is lending her voice to community. She is passionate about building more inclusive, beautiful, and connected communities, through storytelling and placemaking, and has been creating at the intersections of community-building, poetry, and community-arts for over a decade.
She is also the co-creator, co-editor, and co-publisher, along with Kyla Pascal, of Hungry Zine. She sees it as a great honour and privilege to be trusted with other people’s words and art, and to hold space for people to converse, and share their voices, in the form of a literary publication.