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September 2025 Schedule
#FirstFridaysRedDeer
Events for September 5th, 2025
To download a Word format version of this list, please click here: September First Fridays
GALLERY GUIDE (2025 Edition)
We are excited to announce the launch of a new, interactive Gallery Guide being hosted on the City of Red Deer’s website. With a customizable map, and listings from all public, commercial, and community galleries around the city, this new online version will be a great way to find places to see and buy art in Red Deer! Visit the map and listings at: https://www.reddeer.ca/recreation-and-culture/arts-and-culture/art-galleries/gallery-guide/
“Colourful Travel Journey”
Artist: Aeris Osborn
"Cafe in Revelstoke"
Aeris Osborne
Acrylic on Canvas
Red Deer Arts Council and Red Deer Public Library are pleased to present, “Colourful Travel Journey” artworks by Aeris Osborne running from August 18th to October 6th, 2025, in the Kiwanis Gallery.
Using her travels through the Rocky Mountains to British Columbia, Aeris is a self-taught Hong Kong-born, Alberta-based Edmonton visual artist, the 3rd Alberta Artist in Residence/Art Ambassador appointed by the Government of Alberta and has been painting for over thirteen years. Aeris loves
exploring our Canadian landscape, especially her travel journeys that helped boost her imagination as a form of self-exploration and an opportunity to connect with nature. She hopes that her passion for a modern Impressionist art form will cheer people up with hope and light.
Open to the public during library hours:
Monday to Thursday: 9 am – 8 pm
Friday: 9 am – 5 pm
Saturdays & Sundays: 10 am – 3 pm
Aeris Osborne is a Hong Kong–born Canadian visual artist based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has lived in Alberta since 2007 and has been painting for over 16 years. A self-taught painter and registered social worker, Aeris combines her social work background with her art to explore cultural, heritage preservation, and community storytelling through colorful, bold impressionist interpretations of architecture and landscapes.
In 2022, Aeris was appointed Alberta Artist in Residence (AIR) / Arts Ambassador by the Government of Alberta—becoming the third artist, the first immigrant, and the first self-taught artist to receive this provincial title since the program’s inception in 2019. For her AIR project, Alberta Old Buildings, she traveled over 3,000 km across Alberta, visiting more than 30 museums and heritage sites. The resulting exhibition toured Edmonton, Calgary, and Red Deer, receiving coverage from 13 media outlets across Alberta and Vancouver. This project integrated Augmented Reality (AR) technology into her paintings, enabling audiences to interact with the works via smartphone and explore the history of each building in an immersive, contemporary way.
Her earlier series, YEG Old Houses, created during her 2020–2021McLuhan House residency, was awarded a 2021 Canada Council for the Arts grant. In 2023, her Colorful Travel Journey series was featured by The Works International Visual Arts Society and adapted into the Alley of Light Art Boxes, illuminating a downtown Edmonton back alley in the heritage Armstrong Block.
Aeris is a two-time winner of the Allied Arts Council of Spruce Grove’s Open Art Competition and an active contributor to Alberta’s arts community. She has served as a juror for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton Arts Council, Arts Hub McLuhan House, and Strathcona County. Additionally, she facilitates art mentorship, workshops, talks, and webinars across the province. Her practice bridges visual art, heritage preservation, and community storytelling.
First Friday Opening: September 5th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Artist will be in attendance.
Sunset in Winter
Acrylic
Aeris Osborne
True north Strong & Free Exhibition
‘True North Strong and Free’ 2025 Alberta Culture Days Exhibition
Artists: Ula-Erin Chauvet, Nadine Dunseith, Darcy Edigna, Marianne Harris, Suzanne Hawkes, Margriet Hogue, Melanie Holland, Father Douglas Klein, Laurie Miller, Stephanie Perry, Isabelle Serediak, Andrea Swainson, Sally Tower Sybblis, Jessica Symons, Carmen Therriault, and Tyler Waldo
Media: 2D, 3D and literary artworks
The Red Deer Arts Council Community Gallery, Suite 6–4919 49 Street
Exhibition Dates: September 1st – October 3rd, 2025
#FirstFridaysRedDeer September 5th, 2025, from 5:00 – 7:00pm
A Celebration of Creativity of Alberta Artists | Alberta Culture Days 2025
Presented by the Red Deer Arts Council & the Central Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association
What does “True North Strong and Free” mean to you?
This vibrant exhibition invites you to explore the powerful, personal, and poetic expressions of Central Alberta artists through 2D, 3D, and literary artworks.
From paint to poetry, sculpture to story—this dynamic juried show blends words and visuals, tradition and innovation. It’s an inspiring look at how local artists interpret identity, place, and freedom in uniquely Canadian ways.
Be part of Creative Red Deer.
Show your pride. Your passion. Your perspective.
Experience ‘True North Strong and Free.’
The Long Night of Unweaving
Photo
credit: The Archaeology of Grief Series (Movement), found objects and burlap,
Glynis Wilson
Artist:Glynis Wilson Boultbee
Media: Mixed Media
Viewpoint Gallery, City of Red Deer Culture Services (Central Intermediate School,) 5205 48 Avenue
Dates: September 5 – October 23, 2025
First Fridays:
Reception: September 5 – Artist Tour & Poetry Reading 6pm
- October 3 – Artist Tour & Poetry Reading 6pm
FREE Alberta Culture Days Workshop:
- September 11 – Tapping the Well: Playful Writing Prompts for the Imagination 6:30-8:30pm
- Click here to book:
https://looknbook.reddeer.ca/RedDeer/public/booking/CourseDetails/38812
#FirstFridaysRedDeer
The Long Night of Unweaving
This exhibit of sculptural work, photographs, and poetry traces the artist’s journey through the loss of both her parents during Covid times. It includes reflections on the immediate aftermath of these losses, the sifting and sorting of their belongings, and the time when she began to emerge from intense grief into a world that was the same as it ever was and changed forever. Tender, heartfelt, and hopeful, this exhibit invites viewers to reflect on how we make sense during times of personal difficulty, and it celebrates the power of the arts to offer healing.
Glynis Wilson Boultbee
Glynis Wilson Boultbee has built her life and work around creativity, the arts, and community. She focused on writing for many years before enrolling in the Red Deer Polytechnic Visual Art program. Glynis combines text (mostly poetry) and visual art to create multi-disciplinary installations that explore the stories of our lives. Sculpture and mixed media are her favourite visual practices. She relishes using repurposed materials and found objects. The bandsaw is her particular friend.
Ian Cook: A Retrospective
Ian Cook, Tornado Vortex 2 (2024), Patinated Cast Bronze
Location: Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG), 4525 47A Avenue
Artist: Ian Cook
Medium: Bronze Sculptures
Dates: September 6th – November 22nd ,2025
#FirstFridaysRedDeer
OPENING RECEPTION: September 5th | 5-8pm
You are invited! In September, the MAG’s #FirstFridaysRedDeer evening will offer a first-look at Ian Cook: A Retrospective.
Artist Ian Cook is the founder of Red Deer Polytechnic’s (RDP) highly successful Visual Arts Program as well as the initiator of the RDP Permanent Art Collection, Summer Series Program, and the Bronze Casting Foundry. Undoubtedly Ian’s 50-year career as an Arts Educator has created a legacy through his profound influence on emerging and aspiring artists in Alberta.
This exhibit highlights and introduces us to Ian’s art practice as a sculptor working in bronze. The work in the exhibition spans from 1980, the year the foundry was established, to the present day.
While landscape is an important contextual element in Ian’s work, his sculptures include a reference to a human presence and imprint on the landscape in the form of constructs such as fences, dolmen, temples, houses, bridges, airfoils, and vessels. Also important within his work is the reference to the classical elements of Air, Earth, Water and Fire, and the dynamics of weather on the earth and structures within the landscape.
The most recent sculptures are his Tornado Series which respond to the current crisis of global warming and climate change. These sculptures present to the viewer a series of severe weather events which raise philosophical questions about being, time, and place.
Under the Influence… Ian Cook: selected works of RDP Permanent Art Collection
September 6 – November 29, 2025
You are invited! In September, the MAG’s #FirstFridaysRedDeer evening will also offer a first-look at gallery 2 exhibit Under the Influence…
The Red Deer Polytechnic Permanent Art Collection was started by former Instructor Ian Cook, with the idea that students should see important works beyond photographic slides and visual aids. Ian helped to collect, donate and grow original works by Canadian and International masters. This exhibition will feature the works that were collected by or Under the Influence of Ian during his time at RDP.
On this special First Friday at the MAG, we’re not just celebrating these 2 exhibit openings… we are also getting creative (in the SDS) in the style of featured artist, Ian Cook.
*In celebration of Alberta Culture Days, and thanks to funding from the Government of Alberta, all programs are free to attend for the month of September!
Teen Art Attack
Acrylic
Ever C./H.
Artist(s): Various
Media: 2D artworks
The Corridor Community Gallery, 4501 47A Ave, inside the Recreation Centre
Dates: July 30th – September 25th, 2025
#FirstFridaysRedDeer
Description: Teen Art Attack is a weeklong visual arts intensive for teens age 13-17 hosted by The City of Red Deer at the downtown Culture Services building. Over five days, teens experiment with art materials, techniques, and concepts – both contemporary and historical.
Guided by practicing Artists, campers explore acrylic painting, printmaking, sculpture and mixed media. Each piece is the result of hands-on exploration, risk-taking and personal growth. Beyond technique, these artworks reflect the voices of a new generation: bold, thoughtful, and unapologetically free-spirited
At the end of the action-packed week, the students and their instructor put together a showcase of works to be displayed in a real gallery setting – getting a taste of what it’s like to create with the intention of sharing their art.
“Fields Of Gold”
Artist(s): Margaret Blank, Larry Reese, Kelvin Christensen, and Many More.
Media: Various Mediums
Curiosity Art & Framing, 5002 48 Street, Red Deer
Dates: August 6th – September 24th, 2025
Reception: August 1st, Open late until 7pm
#FirstFridaysRedDeer
Description: August to September the fields glow with gold as harvest season comes ever closer. From wheat, to canola these golden fields are a staple of Alberta. Come and celebrate our province's harvest season with these harvest themed pieces in Curiosity Art & Framing latest exhibit, "Fields of Gold"!
"Light and Shadow"
Location: Alchemy Art Loft Gallery Unit 116, 5301, 43 Street, Red Deer, Alberta T4N 1C8, Canada
Mediums: 2D and 3D
#FirstFridaysRedDeer Opening Reception, August 1st, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Description: Join us at our #FirstFridays with the Exhibition “Light and Shadow”. Featuring works from a dynamic range of artists. From bold and expressive paintings to sculptures and mixed media pieces.
Live performance by Quora Strings
Meet our featured artists
Refreshments served
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
