Chinatown Public Art Plan

A vibrant street in Calgary's Chinatown.

The Project

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Drawing on the good work of the Chinatown Cultural Plan, the focus of the Chinatown Public Art Plan Project is to engage with community and gather information that will help inform the future of public art in Chinatown. 

We want to hear more from the community regarding projects that already exist, projects that community members want to see implemented and suggestions for future locations and works. Through community engagement at live events, interactive activities, surveys, focus groups and interviews, we hope to hear what you have to say. 

Project Goals 

To create a general plan for the area that: 

  • Articulates an overarching vision for the area based on community feedback and collaboration with community organizations 
  • Identifies current projects and potential sites and projects (including a map) 
  • Identifies pathways to project funding and implementation 

What’s Happening Now 

January 25 & 26, 2025

Visit our table at the Lunar New Year festivities at Chinatown’s Chinese Cultural Centre from 11am-6pm where we’ll be debuting our new Year of the Snake colouring postcards. Free admission and fun for the whole family!

In honour of the Year of Snake we worked with artist Calgary artist Alex Kwong to design a new colouring image that you can download here

Black and white drawing for Year of the Snake as a colouring page for Chinese New Year

Previous Engagement

Our Public Art team had booths at several community events in 2024, including the Chinatown Street and Lantern Festivals, the Dragon Boat Festival and public-art-projects-in-progress talking to people and gathering feedback regarding public art in Chinatown.  We’ve had tremendous response to the project so far, as well as our survey which closed on November 1, 2024. We’ll share what we’ve learned soon.

In the meantime, if we didn’t have a chance to talk to you yet or if you have questions or feedback about the project please feel free to send us an email: publicart@calgaryartsdevelopment.com.

As part of our engagement campaign for this project in 2024, local artist Lyndon Navalta designed a set of images honouring the Year of the Dragon that visitors to our booth could colour and take home with them — now you can also download them here!

There will be other ways to engage with us over the coming months, so stay tuned!

Proposed Project Timeline 

  • Summer 2024 to Present – Phase I Community Engagement 
  • Spring 2025  Phase II Community Engagement 
  • Summer 2025 Authoring of plan and way forward 
  • Fall 2025 Final Report/Recommendations presented to community