Open Spaces: Windows to a View

Exhibition space at the Centre Street LRT platform 

A highly detailed coloured pencil drawing of vibrant red-orange flowers with soft, layered petals. The flowers stand out against a smooth, multicoloured background with tones of blue, green and pink. Signed "Ensi 2017" in the corner.
Artwork by Ensieh Farrokhi

The Program

Since 2009, the Open Spaces program has provided exhibition space to local and regional artists while enlivening the Centre Street LRT platform on 7 Ave. between Centre Street and 1 St. SE. Two large display windows on the exterior of the Telus Convention Centre are updated with new exhibits regularly throughout the year.

As of September 2024, Calgary Arts Development is partnering with the Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation (ICAI) for the Open Spaces program, fostering artist development and increasing the visibility of newcomer artists in Calgary. This year-long partnership will see a rotation of different artists and exhibits in two window galleries located downtown.

Current Exhibition

A digital illustration in warm red and orange tones shows two people sleeping on each other’s shoulders inside a train. One has curly hair in two buns, the other has short hair. They are wrapped in blankets with suitcases beside them, one tagged "YYC" and the other "MIA."

Title:

Light, Line and Life | Held in Empathy, We Bloom

Artist(s):

Ensieh Farrokhi | Bukhtawar Malik

Timeline:

June to August 2025

Location:

Centre Street LRT Platform (125 7 Ave. SE)

Ensieh Farrokhi’s work captures the quiet intricacy of the natural world through hyperrealistic drawings in pencil, oil and pastel. Bukhtawar Malik blends vibrant colours and organic forms to explore memory, connection, and emotion through a storytelling lens.

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Past Exhibitions

The Artohol | Canada in my eyes  

Elena Faushteyn developed a unique style using unconventional materials and surreal imagery that aims to surprise. Fatima Hammoud, a realist oil painter, blends timeless techniques…Read more

Medium: Various

Year: November 2024 – February 2025

A view of artworks behind glass from the exhibit Storytelling Through Light: Photographers of the National accessArts Centre

Storytelling Through Light

In Storytelling Through Light: Photographers of the National accessArts Centre, the photographs are representations of the learning and reflections on personal identity that the artists…Read more

Medium: Photography

Year: June – September 2024

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Our Commitment to Equity

Our commitment to Indigenous reconciliation, racial equity, disability justice, and gender and sexual diversity.

We acknowledge that the land we gather on, Mohkinsstsis, is the ancestral territory of the Siksikaitsitapi — the Blackfoot people — comprising the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani Nations, as well as Treaty 7 signatories, the Tsuut’ina Nation and the Îyârhe Nakoda Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney First Nations. Today this land is home to the Otipemisiwak Métis Government Districts 5 and 6 as well as many First Nations and Inuit from across Turtle Island.

We acknowledge that there has been art, music, dance, storytelling and ceremony on this land since time immemorial and it is in the spirit of this land and its people that we do our work.

Please see our full Commitment to Equity, including the sections on our aspirations, accountability, current initiatives and EDIA history.