Glenbow Museum

The Glenbow Museum in Calgary, the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta, is a major cultural center founded in 1966 on the initiative of oil entrepreneur Eric Lafferty Harvie. Harvie had previously assembled an extensive collection on the history of Western Canada, which served as the foundation for the museum. Today the museum houses more than a million objects across 8,600 square meters (about 92,600 square feet) of exhibition space. In addition to its traditional museum role, the institution also includes a large library with works dating back to the 15th century, as well as the largest private archive in Canada, which preserves millions of photographs and hours of film footage documenting regional history.

The museum's collections are diverse, ranging from the cultural history of Alberta since 1800 and the ethnology of the First Nations to a global perspective on warriors and minerals. A particular focus is placed on the art of the Northwest of North America as well as on Indigenous works. The museum also presents a permanent Asian loan collection with Buddhist and Hindu objects, as well as an exhibition on West African culture. Thanks to a generous donation from the Shaw family, admission is permanently free, which is meant to make art and culture accessible to all visitors.

The museum is currently closed and undergoing extensive renovation as part of the "Glenbow Reimagined" project. The renovation aims to redefine the museum's social responsibility and to treat cultural access as a fundamental right. Once the work is complete, the reopening is planned for 2026, and the renovated building will continue to serve as a central place for preserving and sharing Canadian and Western Canadian identity.