First Fridays Gallery Openings for Red Deer

Exhibition Dates: February 9th – April 10th, 2026

#FirstFridaysRedDeer

First Fridays Red Deer Opening: March 6th, 2026, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

Red Deer Arts Council and Red Deer Public Library are pleased to present, “What is Contemporary Art?” Contemporary art reflects current social, cultural, and political issues, engaging viewers in a dialogue about identity, technology, and global concerns. Contemporary is also artistic expressions created by living artists in today’s current times.

Themes driven by the environment, political uncertainty, new emerging technologies, and expression of individual visual storytelling could be used for inspiration Consider what themes your work explores. What is Contemporary Art to You?

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Upon Return: Landscapes by Jessica Symons

Artist: Jessica Symons

Medium: Oil on Canvas The Red Deer Arts Council Community Gallery, Suite 6–4919 49 Street Exhibition Dates: February 23rd – April 10th, 2026 #FirstFridaysRedDeer March 6th, 2026, from 5:00 – 7:00pm

Artist Jessica Symons will be in attendance

Red Deer Arts Council is pleased to present Upon Return: Landscapes by Jessica Symons on display in the Community Gallery.

Description: Born in Alberta and shaped by years spent exploring the breathtaking landscapes of the Canadian Rockies, Jessica returns with a powerful new body of work that bridges memory, distance, and rediscovery. After moving to the United States as a child, she carried the majesty of the Rockies with her only to find, upon her return as an adult, that while communities and perspectives had shifted, the land itself remained steadfast.

This exhibition is a moving tribute to Alberta’s enduring wilderness: a series of evocative paintings that serve as both love letters to the landscape and a deeply personal journey home.

Artist Statement: Jessica Symons is a self-taught artist whose practice is rooted in community, storytelling, and resistance. I create because art is one of the few places where complex emotions can coexist without needing permission. My work takes the form of landscapes, and while these scenes may initially appear quiet or apolitical, they are deeply tied to my values and lived experience. Land holds the weight of what has happened on it, from displacement and extraction to care and refuge.

Working primarily in an impressionistic and expressive style, I focus on mood, movement, and emotional truth rather than strict realism. Texture, layered colour, and visible brushwork allow the land to feel active and alive. I often begin intuitively, letting the work unfold through response and experimentation, mirroring how people relate to land through feeling before language and understanding.

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First Friday for Alberta Animals and Their Homes by the Red Deer Art Club

Artists: Red Deer Art Club

Medium: Various

The Majorie Wood Gallery, 6300 45Avenue Kerry Wood Nature Centre

Exhibition Dates: March 3 to April 28, 2026.

Reception: Friday, March 6 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

#FirstFridaysRedDeer

Join us at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre to meet with the artists who created our most recent exhibit and view their beautiful display in the Marjorie Wood Gallery! “The Red Deer Art Club was founded in 1948 under the sponsorship of the University of Alberta, Department of Extension. The club has been in existence since then and has changed its membership and focus to adjust with the times. Now we are an all-inclusive club that meets once a week for artists of all abilities. We include individuals who work in many different mediums and at all levels. Each individual artist brings something special to the group and represents an artistic diversity. The club has regular shows, sales and workshop opportunities. Individual members participate in other art related activities as well. Join us on Facebook at Red Deer Art club.” All ages welcome. Free. Drop-in, come and go as you please.

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Anima Motrix V.2.0

Artists: Trudy Golley & Paul Leathers

Medium: Mixed

Viewpoint Gallery, City of Red Deer Culture Services (Central Intermediate School,) 5205 48 Avenue

Dates: March 5, 2026- April 23, 2026

Reception: March 6th from 5-8pm

April 10th from 5-8pm

#FirstFridaysRedDeer

Artist Talk: Thursday, March 26, 7-8pm

Exhibition description:

Anima Motrix v.2.0 includes collaborative artworks in ceramics, metals, and mixed media. The artists construct forms that capture, transmit, obstruct and redirect light, and are interested in how such elements may be brought into conjunction with each other to create novel experiences for the viewer to encounter. Without depicting a specific event, object or place, they aim to capture and hold the viewer’s attention, trigger the imagination, and address notions of conceptual and intellectual illumination.

About the Artists:

Trudy Golley and Paul Leathers are internationally active Canadian artists with extensive experience in education, residencies, and workshops across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Golley holds degrees from the Alberta College of Art, the University of Calgary (BFA), and the University of Tasmania (MFA), is an RCA and IAC member, and recently retired from teaching ceramics at Red Deer Polytechnic. Leathers studied at Sheridan College, NSCAD (BFA), and the University of Calgary (MFA), is an RCA member, and previously headed the Jewellery & Small Object Design program at the Kootenay School of the Arts. Both artists are major grant recipients and are represented in significant public and private collections internationally.

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As We See It – Red Deer Polytechnic Second Year Drawing Student Exhibition

Artist(s): Ava Stang, Calleigh Nanooch, Charlee Craggs, Daniel Corredor, Femi Kharono, Fiona Nadon-Shields, Mya Brunner, Sam Ridderhof, Vipandeep Kaur

Media: Drawings

The Corridor Community Gallery, 4501 47A Ave, inside the Don Moore Recreation Centre

Dates: January 15 – March 26, 2026

#FirstFridaysRedDeer

Exhibition description:

This selection of drawings were created by second year Visual Art Students at Red Deer Polytechnic. In their third semester of drawing the students continue to explore observational drawing, pushing their technical skills in portraiture, life drawing and expanding to an intense unit of en plein air study. Through these drawings you get a glimpse of this exploration.

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Milkin It!

Location: Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG), 4525 47A Avenue

Dates: December 13th – March 14, 2026 #FirstFridaysRedDeer

The MAG will be sharing the history of the dairy industry in Red Deer in a new exhibition. From the pioneer dairy farmers to the commercialization of dairying, to the rise of dairy cooperatives. The Dairy Industry in Red Deer is rich in history and has helped to sustain this community from it’s early beginnings as supplemental money and resources for mixed farmers to major Industry shipping around the world. This exhibition explores the early years of dairying in Red Deer.

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In the world, but not of it. Hutterite

Photography by Tim Smith

Location: Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG), 4525 47A Avenue

Artist: Tim Smith Medium: Photography Dates: December 6th – March 7th ,2026 Artist Talk | March 7 | 2pm

Tim Smith, artist of In the world, but not of it. Hutterite Photography by Tim Smith, will be at the MAG giving a free tour through his exhibition! Join us for this special opportunity to meet the artist and hear about his experience and photography.

For the past 15 years, Manitoba-based photographer Tim Smith has documented the daily lives of the Hutterites — a pacifist Anabaptist community with roots in the 16th-century Reformation. Living in colonies across western Canada and the northwestern United States, the Hutterites maintain their culture and traditions through communal living, self-sufficiency, and a steadfast separation from mainstream society. With over 45,000 members in approximately 500 colonies, they represent one of the most enduring and successful models of communal life today.

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UNHAMPERED Red Deer Food Bank

Location: Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG), 4525 47A Avenue

Artist: Bailey Horton Dates: December 5th until March 15th #FirstFridaysRedDeer

Description: Bailey Horton is a multidisciplinary artist engaged in community advocacy. Their medium is often informed by their research, but primarily draws; with print, sculptural, and textile elements. Her latest project is Unhampered, which investigates food security in the Red Deer community.

The body of work explores imagery from their personal pantry, 2022 statistics from the Red Deer Food Bank, and found grocery material. Through paper bags, she considers the relationship between grocery shopping, in-store donations, and what composes a meal.

Unhampered is a collaborative art workshop and body of work developed to support the Red Deer Food Bank. Unhampered was developed in three interconnected stages: A visually researched body of work; a community carving workshop to foster discussion; and a live printing event. Through this experience, she explored how fine arts can foster communication and support for local issues.

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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 Memorial Centre 5214 – 50 Ave, Lacombe, AB

Lacombe Performing Arts Centre, 5227 Calgary Edmonton Trail, Lacombe, AB

Solorzano Spa Cafe & Wine Bar, 4631 50 Street, Red Deer

The Corridor Community Gallery, 4501 47A Ave, inside the Recreation Centre

The Majorie Wood Gallery, 6300 45Avenue Kerry Wood Nature Centre

The White Gallery, downstairs from Sunworks Living, 4913 50 Ave, Red Deer, AB

by Red Deer Arts Council

First Fridays Gallery Openings for Red Deer

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