/reddeerartscouncil
First Fridays Gallery Crawl
First Friday Logo
GALLERY GUIDE (2026 Edition)
The City of Red Deer has a well updated gallery guide that includes socials, websites, addresses and phone numbers of all the working galleries in Red Deer. Take a look at it here: https://www.reddeer.ca/media/reddeerca/recreation-and-culture/arts-and-culture/galleries/Red-Deer-Gallery-Guide.pdf
On the first Friday of every month, join the galleries in downtown Red Deer in celebrating local, regional and national artistic talent. The galleries buzz with art experiences, open gallery spaces, social mingling and maybe some entertainment. Suitable for adults, youth, families, date nights, music lovers, culture-vultures and anyone who enjoys kicking off their weekend with a Friday night party. Free to attend.
Please Note: First Friday Red Deer listings will be posted one to two weeks prior to the events to allow all galleries time to get their information to the Red Deer Arts Council.
on August 7 2026...
Life in clay
Artists: Jennifer Kalika-Kivinen, Roger Neufeld, Dana Rubik, Lyn Andres-Anderson, Debbie Berlinguette.
Medium: Ceramic Sculpture
Location: Kiwanis Public Art Gallery, Red Deer Public Library – Downtown Branch, 4818 49 Street
Exhibition Dates: July 2nd - August 16th
#FirstFridaysRedDeer Opening: July 3rd 2026, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
Red Deer Arts Council and Red Deer Public Library are pleased to present: “Life In Clay”
Life in Clay brings together 5 artists from the Red Deer Pottery Club. This collection of sculptural ceramic work reflects on various themes of human life and experience. Clay has a life of its own, and lives forever in the layers of the earth. It has told us so many stories about people from the past and can be a medium to tell stories of today. There is a connection that has run deep into the lives of so many for so long. These artists have also chosen clay as a way of expression; a Life in Clay.
McKenzie Trails Show and Sale
Artists: Group Show
Medium: Painting, various mediums
Location: Community Gallery, Red Deer Arts Council, #6 – 4919 49 Street, Red Deer, T4N 1V1
Exhibition Dates: July 13th - August 28th
#FirstFridaysRedDeer Opening: August 7th 2026, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.
This year’s 3rd Annual Plein Air Paint Out was held at McKenzie Trails. Local painters near and far were treated to beautiful summer weather, and a picturesque view of the pond. Twenty-three artists spend the day painting the scenery surrounding the pond en plein air over the course of the day; from completely blank canvas to the artwork now on display. Despite painting at the same site, each artist is drawn to different aspects of the park. Some followed the restless birds, whose birdsong carried across the pond. Others rested their attention on the peaceful pond, nestling beside the bridge and on outcroppings. And some artists nestled into the cooling shade of the forest, sheltered from the storm that passed through in the afternoon.
If you are interested in purchasing any of the art, inquire with a gallery attendant. Each painting sold 30% commission will go to fund programs at the Red Deer Arts Council.
ReconciliACTIONS
Photo Credit: Tracey Metallic
Artists: Group Exhibition with Madeline Belanger, Kalum Teke Dan, Delree Dumont, Michael Fatt, Em Forbes, Flora Johnson, Saila Kilabuk, Donna Langhorne, Christiana Latham, Aloysius Manybears, Shelley May, Tracey Metallic, Audra/Keevin Simeon-Rider, Tamara Shepherd, Gordon Wesley, Ryan Jason Allen Willert, Lana Whiskeyjack, Autumn Whiteway, and three youth artists from Stardale Women’s Group – Kory, Jaylena, and Mazzy.
Medium: Mixed
Location: Viewpoint Gallery, City of Red Deer Culture Services (old Intermediate School,) 5205 48 Avenue
Dates: July 30 – August 26
First Friday Reception: August 7, 5-8pm
The exhibition ReconciliACTIONS reminds us that reconciliation is an ongoing process, a chain of care and repair, not a one-and-done event. Decolonizing our relationships with one another and drawing new pathways of understanding based on mutual respect is empowering for all of us. Indigenous, settler, immigrant, and refugee alike all play an integral role in enacting reconciliation.
Rita Leistner: The Tree Planters
Location: Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG), 4525 47A Avenue
Artist: Rita Leistner
Medium: Photographs
Dates: June 6th – August 22nd ,2026
First Friday: Artist Reception | June 5, 2026 5–8pm
You can’t plant a tree without believing in the future. Each spring and summer, thousands of people head into the remote backcountry of British Columbia to do some of the hardest work most Canadians will never see. Tree planters move through uneven, rocky, fire-scarred terrain – bending, driving, moving – in a rhythm that sits somewhere between elite sport and industrial labour. An experienced planter might put 1,000 to 4,000 trees in the ground in a single day, each one an act of physical and environmental commitment.
Rita Leistner’s The Tree Planters is a series of large-scale, painterly portraits that document the people behind one of Canada’s most essential and overlooked forms of environmental labour. These photographs ask us to look closely at the land, at the work, and at the people who are out there showing up for both!
About the Artist: Montreal-based photographer Rita Leistner knows this work from the inside. She spent a decade as a tree planter herself, putting over half a million trees in the ground before going on to a career as a photojournalist, including coverage of the Iraq War, and eventually returning to the forest with her camera.
The result is The Tree Planters: a series of large-scale, painterly portraits that document the people behind one of Canada’s most essential and overlooked forms of environmental labour. Leistner’s images are intimate and monumental at once, honouring the endurance, grit, and quiet heroism of the people doggedly helping our nature recover. Leistner’s project also gave rise to the documentary film Forest for the Trees and a 220-page monograph published by Dewi Lewis Publishing.
These photographs ask us to look closely at the land, at the work, and at the people who are out there showing up for both.
Nature Alberta
Artist(s): Nature Alberta
Medium(s): Mixed
Location: Marjorie Wood Gallery, located in the Kerry Wood Nature Centre at 6300 45 Ave Red Deer AB
Exhibition Dates: July 7 to Sept 20, 2026
First Friday Opening: August 7, 4-6 p.m.
Nature Alberta has empowered people of all walks of life to connect to nature through art in a variety of unique community art projects. The positive energy beaming through the artwork created by hundreds of artists truly embodies Nature Alberta’s Community Connected by a Love of Nature.
Check in with these galleries directly for updated exhibition information:
Artribute Art School, 212 – 4836 50 Street, in the Old Courthouse. Treaty 6 & 7
Art in the Hallway, Northside Community Centre YMCA, 6391 76 Street
Curiosity Art & Framing, 5002 48 Street, Red Deer
Lacombe Performing Arts Centre, 5227 Calgary Edmonton Trail, Lacombe, AB
The Corridor Community Gallery, 4501 47A Ave, inside the Recreation Centre
The White Gallery, downstairs from Sunworks Living, 4913 50 Ave, Red Deer, AB
Lacombe Memorial Centre 5214 – 50 Ave, Lacombe, AB
