Activating community spaces

Arts & Culture Stories of Community Impact 2025 Activating community spaces

Our work strengthens Calgary’s neighborhoods by transforming public spaces into vibrant, welcoming places through local festivals and events, public art and cultural programs. These diverse and accessible experiences foster connections across cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Safe environments, where citizens can engage directly in shaping spaces and programs, help to define Calgary as a cultural capital.

Quick facts

  • 20%

    Increase in events booked in 2025

  • 195

    Event organizers directly supported

  • 2 million

    Calgarians and visitors attended supported events

  • 1,300+

    Artworks in Calgary's public art collection

Creative placemaking helps to animate the public realm

Creative placemaking helps to animate the public realm, especially in areas struggling with vacancies. With the supports offered by Arts & Culture, an incredible variety of artists, non-profits, cultural programmers and local businesses can engage with communities to bring previously unused or underutilized spaces to life. This helps to reduce social isolation and negative perceptions of shared public spaces, while improving the overall experience of Calgary's built environment.

Festivals and Events Subsidy Program

Since 2010, the Festivals and Events Subsidy Program has helped approved festivals and events cover part of the cost for City of Calgary services, including permit fees, license fees and pay-duty fees. In 2025, the program provided a total of $3.3 million in funding to 148 initiatives.

In 2025, the program expanded with the Festival and Events Subsidy Innovation Microgrant. This new grant offers startup funding for fresh and unique components within existing events. The goal is to spark creativity, inspire change, and elevate Calgary’s festival scene by encouraging new ideas and innovation.

BUMP Festival

With support from the Festivals and Events Subsidy Program, BUMP Festival brought two free, art-filled events to Calgary streets, attracting more than 1,200 people. The events showcased 53 local artists and were supported by 11 community partners, 21 businesses and 53 volunteers. Inclusive programming featured Indigenous creators, LGBTQIA2S+ artists and cultural storytellers, adding colour, music and urban expression to the city.

In 2025, the Festivals and Events Subsidy Innovation Microgrant also helped BUMP launch Muster Point, an immersive art experience in a long-vacant Crescent Heights space. Over several weeks, three local installations transformed the site into a creative hub, inviting residents to explore new ideas and rediscover their neighbourhood. This project expanded BUMP’s artistic reach beyond murals and showed how small-scale innovation can spark big community impact.

Korean Day Festival

With support from the Festivals and Events Subsidy Program, the 2025 Calgary Korean Day Festival brought 20,000 people downtown for a free, family-friendly celebration of Korean culture. Powered by 1,000 local creative professionals, 40 community partners, 30 businesses and 100 volunteers, the festival featured traditional dance, K-Pop performances, cultural games and authentic cuisine. Inclusive programming created a welcoming space for all ages and highlighted Korean heritage, while adding energy and vibrancy to the city’s core.

Through the Festivals and Events Subsidy Innovation Microgrant, the festival introduced new cultural experiences, including Korean mask-making and Minhwa art workshops, plus a community basketball tournament. These activities encouraged hands-on learning, creativity and intercultural connection, enriching the festival and strengthening community bonds.

Photo credit: Larry Kwon

Working behind the scenes to keep events safe

The City of Calgary’s Festivals and Events team reviews every supported event to anticipate challenges and keep sites safe. This work involves partners such as the Calgary Police Service, Peace Officers, Safety Codes Officers and Alberta Health Services.

All event organizers can receive direct support from an Event Liaison to develop a package with emergency plans, site maps, traffic detours and safety information to help with preparation and to protect the public.

The team also works with other City departments to find gaps in emergency planning and suggest ways to reduce risk. Common steps include adjusting layouts, adding police or peace officers, setting up security checkpoints and using barriers to prevent vehicle threats. For higher-risk events, practice sessions are held with emergency teams and social media is monitored for potential issues.

These efforts help ensure safe, enjoyable events that bring community and culture to Calgary.

 

New Year's Eve 2025

Cultural stewardship: What goes into artwork conservation and moves?

The City’s Public Art team is responsible for the conservation and maintenance of more than 1,300 public art pieces, ensuring Calgary’s collection remains vibrant and accessible to everyone. Worth more than $35 million, the artworks in the public art collection are part of our collective cultural identity.

Unlike art in galleries, public artworks are exposed to challenging conditions such as weather, pollution, sunlight, and constant interaction with people and their surroundings. To conserve and maintain the collection, the conservation team does regular checkups, cleaning and protective treatments. Conservators share their knowledge of materials to help artists create new artworks that can stand up to outdoor conditions and public spaces. If an artwork gets damaged, conservators repair it using internationally recognized methods that include careful documentation, reversible treatments and consultation with the right people. These efforts help protect the look, meaning and long-term condition of artworks in the collection.

Watch this time-lapse video as it captures the move of the Women Are Persons! monument from Olympic Plaza to storage until an appropriate location for the artwork's relocation is determined.

Conserving Katie Ohe’s sculpture Day and Night

The public art conservation team worked to restore and relocate the sculpture Day and Night by local artist Katie Ohe. The artwork had been operating as a fountain in Prince’s Island Park for over 50 years and had deteriorated over time under the outdoor conditions, prompting its move indoors to Devonian Gardens. Conservators consulted with the artist to learn more about how the artwork was made and to inform the conservation approach. The sculpture was carefully restored through gentle cleaning and meticulous repairs, working with compatible materials and taking care to match mortar and aggregate colours. Returning Day and Night indoors to its new contemplative site in Devonian Gardens ensures it will continue to inspire viewers for generations to come.

 

Meredith Thompson, contracted conservator, removing the old epoxy from Katie Ohe’s Day and Night.

Activating vacant City assets with arts and culture programming

The Arts & Culture Development team, in collaboration with Downtown Strategy, invested $75,000 to activate the Historic Firehall No. 1 courtyard space with free arts and culture programming for all ages. This initiative increases accessibility to the arts, promotes public safety and fosters social connection. The events also support efforts to reimagine the fire hall and neighbouring North West Travellers Building into a vibrant arts hub – transforming unused space into a dynamic community asset.

 

Historic Fire Hall No. 1 activated for Calgary Culture Days.