Free This Week
Indulge in these great events and start the month off right
From blues concerts to performative lectures, this week brings a smoking selection of free offerings. In fact, it’s the perfect time to get out and about, so fill up your calendar and check out these great events:
ProArts@Noon Presents Harrison Kennedy
February 28, 2018, 12:10 – 12:50pm
Cathedral Church of the Redeemer (604 1st St. SE)
Free
Featuring blues singer/songwriter Harrison Kennedy, the Calgary Midwinter Bluesfest honours Black History Month with a free lunch hour concert. Head to ProArts@Noon to hear the JUNO Award-winning musician’s soulful sound.
proartssociety.ca
A Walk Through Blues History
February 28, 2018, 7:00pm
King Eddy, National Music Centre (438 9th Ave. SE)
Free
This midwinter offering from the Calgary Blues Music Association is a great chance to shake off your own case of the wintertime blues. A great free offering, join Harrison Kennedy as he shares stories of his impressive songwriting credits, TV appearances, and fascinating road tales.
calgarybluesfest.com
An Evening with Marlon James
February 28, 2018, 7:30pm
MacEwan Hall, University of Calgary (2500 University Dr. NW)
Free, registration required
Featuring the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, join the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program for a free public reading and book-signing with Marlon James. A Brief History of Seven Killings combines masterful storytelling with brilliant characterization and an eye for detail to forge a bold novel of dazzling ambition and scope. Tickets are free but must be presented at the door.
ucalgary.ca
Mini Masters
March 1, 2018, 11:00 – 11:45am
Esker Foundation (1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free, registration essential
Calling Calgary’s newest contemporaries! Join the Esker Foundation on the first Thursday of every month for a hands-on art class. Parents and guardians are invited to bring their little ones, ages two to five, to explore art making in this fun and social program. All are welcome to participate, just dress for mess!
eventbrite.ca
Each Painted Document Exhibition Tour
March 1, 2018, 12:00 – 1:00pm
Nickle Galleries, University of Calgary (410 University Ct. NW)
Free
A visual manifest of Mark Dicey’s travels into and out of his workplace, explore recent large works on canvas, mid-sized works on paper, a Swarm, a wall collage of notations, a site-specific installation, and a suite of vitrines housing his dedicated sketch-book-works with the artist himself.
nickle.ucalgary.ca
Duchamp’s Fountain and Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi: What is Art Worth?
March 1, 2018, 3:00 – 4:30pm
Biosciences Building 561, University of Calgary (2500 University Dr. NW)
Free, registration required
A lecture by Russell Smith, join the Calgary Institute for the Humanities for a provocative talk on the relationship between art and commerce in the 20th Century. Smith is a freelance journalist and cultural commentator, publishing in The New York Review of Books, The Globe and Mail, Details, Toronto Life, NOW, Flare, Toro, and Sharp.
eventbrite.ca
Crowded Spirit Opening Reception
March 1, 2018, 4:00 – 9:00pm
cSPACE King Edward (1721 29th Ave. SW)
Free
Featuring the works of local artist John Gerrard, Crowded Spirit brings together art, written word, and song. Explore the show at its opening reception.
eventbrite.ca
Free First Thursday Nights
March 1, 2018, 5:00 – 9:00pm
Glenbow (130 9th Ave. SE)
Free
Marking the first Free First Thursday with the immensely popular exhibition Frida Kahlo: Her Photos, start your month off with a bang and head to Glenbow.
facebook.com
Following the River
March 1, 2018, 7:00 – 9:00pm
Shelf Life Books (1302 4th St. SW)
Free
Lorri Neilsen Glenn first discovered her great-grandmother’s tragic death in a passing comment from an aunt. Startled, she began to search out the history of her family and unravel the issues of racism, sexism, and colonial nation building that haunt us still.
shelflifebooks.ca
Bring the Baby Art Tour
March 2, 2018, 12:00pm
Esker Foundation (1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free, registration recommended
A relaxed, social tour, bring your baby to Esker Foundation and have tot-friendly fun while discussing the exhibitions.
eventbrite.ca
Unpleasant Design and its Discontents
March 2, 2018, 7:00 – 8:30pm
Esker Foundation (1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free, registration recommended
Unpleasant Design is a design phenomenon that promotes social control through discomfort, pain, and persuasion. It raises the value of urban space by preventing specific use scenarios such as sleeping on a park bench or loitering in a shopping mall. Selena Savić shares some of the stars of unpleasant design and focus on patterns where these silent agents replace the need for supervision and condition behaviour.
eventbrite.ca
The Original Face
March 2, 2018, 7:00 – 9:00pm
Shelf Life Books (1302 4th St. SW)
Free
A novel about internet art and working freelance, join Guillaume Morissette for the launch of The Original Face. The evening features a reading by Lindsay Sorell followed by a conversation with Morissette and Nikki Reimer.
shelflifebooks.ca
TUPONIA Opening Receptions
March 2 & 3, 2018
Ruberto Ostberg Gallery (2108 18th St. NW)
Free
Did you know TUPONIA, an acronym for The United Provinces of North America, was short-listed as a potential name for Canada? Bee Kingdom’s Ryan Fairweather and Phil Bandura have imagined what it would be like walking around as Tuponians and turned it into art. A blown glass exhibition themed around northern culture infused with the fantastical, this new body of work fantasizes about this alternative land. So dress in your very best Tuponian attire and check out the show at one of two opening receptions, 5:00 to 9:00pm on March 2 or 2:00 to 5:00pm on March 3.
ruberto-ostberg.com
Full Moon Party
March 3, 2018, 7:00 – 10:00pm
Crescent Heights (Centre Street & 9th Ave. NE)
Free
Huddle up by the campfire or dance the night away as Centre Street comes alive with music, lights, bubbles, games, and more! Join the Crescent Heights Community Association and celebrate winter in style.
facebook.com
DeepBeing.zip: A Performative Lecture with Jeremy Bailey
March 3, 2018, 2:00 – 4:00pm
EMMEDIA Screening Room (2005 10th Ave. SW)
Free
Featuring new media artist Jeremy Bailey, check out this performative lecture that closes the exhibition, The Channelers. The piece demonstrates a new decompression software that anyone can use to transform their most trivial experiences into vast oceans of meditative contemplation.
emmedia.ca
Unpleasant Design Workshop: We Will Make You Do It
March 3, 2018, 10:00am – 5:00pm
Esker Foundation (1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free, registration required
Use persuasive and coercive design techniques to invent designs that target specific social strata or behaviors in public space. The workshop includes an Unpleasant City Tour to identify existing designs and possible new targets.
eventbrite.ca
Can You Hear Me Now? Calgary’s All-ages Poetry Slam
March 6, 2018, 6:30 – 8:30pm
Shelf Life Books (1302 4th St. SW)
Free
Come out to Calgary’s all-ages poetry slam and open mic as participants gear up for the fourth annual provincial junior high and high school poetry slam competition. Poets of all ages are welcome to come out and share their words, competitively (in the slam) or non-competitively (open mic).
shelflifebooks.ca
