ARTS-LED CITY-BUILDING
There is an increase in the number of events, tables and initiatives we, and the arts, are invited to be part of. From participating on the Downtown Strategy Champions Network to being on the Executive of Chinook Blast; from sitting on the civic partners committee for activating downtown during the Rotary International Convention to being one of the primary partners of RISE UP, we are finding that our voice is being included in many city-building initiatives.
Patti Pon is highly regarded as a seasoned arts leader and is frequently invited to be a guest speaker or panelist at arts and city-building events across Canada. In 2025 she was invited to be the inaugural Policy Fellow at Cultural Policy Hub at OCAD U (Ontario College of Art and Design University) in Toronto. She also received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Mount Royal University in recognition of her community service and work in the arts. Patti is often invited to be part of high-level conversations and think tanks, and is a go-to source for arts reporters. Other members of our staff are also contacted for their valued input on arts policy, research, trends and programs and as a result of this work, Calgary Arts Development has garnered a regional, national and international reputation.
Our reputation as an exemplar is due in large part to the data and information we gather through our research and the relational ways our community investment team works. Data informs our program development, partnerships and policy decisions and demonstrates the impact of arts on citizens, and on civil society. As a result, members of CADA’s leadership team and staff are often invited to speak on panels locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Panel topics in 2025 included: citizen engagement with the arts, democracy and the arts, art for social change, 2SLGBTQIA+ arts, representation in the entertainment industry and grant writing. Further, CADA is often called on to partner on a variety of projects as a key contributor.
Our research manager, Greg Burbidge, is a leader in the arts research realm, our EDIA initiatives are recognized both locally and beyond, our programs for Indigenous artists are highly regarded by other funders, and our Future Focus Program has been replicated by other arts funders. Our work’s impact is deeply felt in Calgary and goes beyond our city limits.
We aspire to a future that includes arts and creativity as part of our city’s DNA.
One of our goals is to help create conditions for Calgarians to live their most creative lives, including opportunities to develop the creative economy, increase the vibrancy of downtown, enliven neighbourhoods and enhance quality of life.
Living a Creative Life, Calgary’s arts development strategy, encourages everyday creativity for all Calgarians. Following its 10th Anniversary in 2025, we wanted to revisit the strategy to decide what direction it should take going forward into the next decade. As was done in the strategy’s initial development, it was important to generate ideas based on the needs and hopes of Calgarians. To understand how Calgarians imagine possible future directions for the arts, we engaged Intelligent Futures to convene a Citizen Reference Panel.
Identifying and engaging a representative cross-section of Calgarians using a civic lottery process, Intelligent Futures brought together Calgarians from every corner of the city to learn, deliberate and co-create possible future directions for the arts. The approach confirmed the panel as a true citizen voice informing how Calgary Arts Development responds to the question: How might we imagine a cultural community that empowers every Calgarian to live a creative life and contributes to a prosperous, innovative city where everyone belongs?
To support this thinking, the panel used a tool called the Futures Triangle to distil their experiences and reflections before moving into the development of recommendations. This framework helps people explore three dimensions that shape the future: the Pull of preferred futures that inspire action, the Push of current trends and drivers that are already influencing change, and the Weight of barriers or legacy ideas that hold progress back.
By looking at all three dimensions, the panel gained a clearer picture of what may be needed to strengthen Calgary’s arts ecosystem to create the conditions where Calgarians might live their most creative lives.
The final report, which will be released in 2026, was authored by citizens based on a process that equipped them with the knowledge necessary to articulate recommendations with sufficient depth and grasp of important dynamics so that a clear strategic response can be made by key players in the sector.
The Storytelling Project is one of the ways we share stories about Calgarians who are living creative lives, including written stories and our web series, which highlights the rich diversity of stories about creative Calgarians. As of the end of 2025 we have shared 132 written stories, 129 podcasts, 102 videos and 68 photos of the month through the Storytelling Project. During 2025, we took a new direction with our web series and saw exponential growth with the number of subscribers growing to 60,000 from 6,000.
Supporting Youth Access to the Arts
Calgary Arts Development continues to support access to arts for young people not only through the Artist as Changemaker program and grants to artists and organizations that are targeted to young audiences, but also by sponsoring Arts Commons’ Arts ReimaginED program. This program helps develop teaching artists and increases the number of opportunities for artists to connect with students in classrooms and on-site at Arts Commons. In 2025 our sponsorship supported a presentation by Kid Koala, free experiences for over 6,500 students in 15 schools and four Calgary Public Library branches. The program also supported Teaching Artist development, and the Little Wonders Festival at the University of Calgary’s School of Creative and Performing Arts.
cSPACE Projects was created in 2011 as a subsidiary of Calgary Arts Development in partnership with the Calgary Foundation to strategically address a critical demand for creation, production, presentation and rehearsal spaces that are affordable, sustainable and collaborative.
cSPACE Projects is a Calgary-based, mission-driven cultural infrastructure developer–operator, intentionally established to deliver and steward permanently affordable creative space through a social-purpose real estate model. The model is demonstrated through cSPACE Marda Loop, an adaptive reuse of a vacant heritage school into a stabilized, multi-tenant creative hub. It opened in 2017 as their flagship project, delivering 47,500 sq. ft. of studio, event venue and coworking space in South Calgary. To this day, the building continues to be 100% leased and provides 30-plus artists and not-for-profit tenants with below market rents. With 130,000 visits to the building, plus an additional 22,000 visitors to the outdoor Farmers & Makers Market, this is an active hub for the community.
In 2025, cSPACE Marda Loop hosted over 781 events and its spaces remained active throughout the year, including classes, workshops, exhibitions, film screenings, markets, media shoots, meetings, performances, presentations, social events and weddings. 369 were external client events and 412 were events held by cSPACE Marda Loop tenants. 202 individual events were hosted in the Studio Theatre with over 89% of events from the arts and not-for-profit sector.
cSPACE Marda Loop continued hosting arts-focused, public engagement events providing paid performance opportunities for local artists and musicians. 2025 Events included:
Ongoing partnerships that support community engagement and knowledge-sharing include:
In arts space development, cSPACE also manages SPACEPILOT, a meanwhile lease program that temporarily repurposes vacant commercial properties for arts and culture use. 63,837 square feet of downtown commercial space was leased by the initiative by the end of 2025, providing a home to 22 not-for-profit arts organizations and artists, which included nine new spaces totalling over 34,000 square feet. SPACEPILOT has established itself as the largest program of its kind in Canada.
In 2025, SPACEPILOT’s tenants held a total of 1,452 rehearsals, 1,256 performances and 720 educational events. Their events had over 92,000 attendees in total, contributing to the vibrancy of the communities where they are located. Their activities provided 3,964 artists with paid opportunities and 4,782 artists with free use of space.
Reaffirming the quest to develop longer-term stable space, in spring 2024, after an expression of interest evaluation process, The City of Calgary chose cSPACE as the top candidate to reimagine Historic Fire Hall No.1 and North-West Travellers Building into a new arts and culture campus. This decision was based on cSPACE’s success with similar projects, like the reimagined King Edward School in Marda Loop, which has become an important part of Calgary’s arts and cultural scene.
The City of Calgary and cSPACE Projects have signed a Memorandum of Understanding and are collaborating to find new uses for the Historic Fire Hall No. 1 (140 6 Avenue S.E.) and the North-West Travellers Building (515 1 Street S.E.) as vibrant spaces where artists can engage with Calgarians.
Throughout 2025 a conceptual design and feasibility study were undertaken to develop a path for these iconic buildings to become spaces for art, creative work, community events and business. This urban transformation project supports The City’s efforts to enhance Calgary’s downtown and create accessible spaces for creativity and culture. Advancement of the project will be confirmed in 2026.
The current vision is for a unified, climate-protected creative campus that conserves and adaptively reuses the two historic buildings. With shared production, gathering, rehearsal, presentation and live/work space, FIREWORKS could create a reliable four-season downtown cultural hub — supporting artists and cultural organizations while contributing to vibrancy, safety, heritage renewal and economic resilience.
cSPACE also collaborated with Tara Beagan and Andy Moro of ARTICLE 11 to activate the buildings with projected artwork and engaged with Shone Thistle (Poet Laureate) and One Big Jam for the launch event, which was an incredible placemaking moment — signalling a possible culture-led future for the site.
cSPACE introduced a new program called the Sandbox Sessions which is a Creative Desk Residency supported by the Pekisko Arts Fund at Calgary Foundation. This program supports artists by providing access to a desk within our co-working space with the goal of promoting connection and visibility for emerging and independent artists. From September to December 2025 the program supported five creatives of varying disciplines with month-long residencies.
An exciting arts scene is crucial to creating vibrancy for those who work, live and visit downtown. The arts sector’s ability to offer engaging experiences and welcoming spaces is of great benefit to re-imagining Calgary’s downtown.
In 2025 we supported many Initiatives that contribute to Downtown Revitalization, Cultural Tourism and the Creative Economy.
Patti Pon is a key member of the Executive committee of Chinook Blast, which we also supported with an investment of $125,000. Chinook Blast activates the downtown with arts, spectacle and light in the dead of winter, attracting hundreds of thousands of Calgarians.
CADA is part of the Downtown Calgary Champions Network, bringing ideas on how arts activities and activations can contribute to downtown vibrancy.
Knowing the creative economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, we continue to be active participants in the creative economy space with a focus on three pillars through our Cultural Activation fund:
Indigenous Creative Economy — we are participating in the planning of an Indigenous Music Festival in Calgary in partnership with Tourism Calgary, and we also provide support for Indigenous entrepreneurs including market purveyors, artists and fashion designers.
Cultural Tourism — we are active supporters of RISE UP, a collaboration between Tourism Calgary, Calgary Economic Development, the Calgary Hotel Association, The City of Calgary and Calgary Arts Development. We supported two main activities in 2025. The first was further development of the Community Activation Catalogue featuring arts experiences that can be purchased and activated by conventions coming to the city so they can get a true Calgary experience. The second was contributing to Blue Sky Arts, which brought Calgary’s new brand to life through the eyes of local artists. Five artist activations engaged thousands of Calgarians and visitors at places and events like Canada Day at The Confluence, the Ismaili Stampede Breakfast, Alberta Day at Heritage Park, Globalfest, Southcentre Mall, Calgary Central Library, Calgary City Hall, The CORE and YYC Airport. Arts and culture are not ancillary to the tourism sector, they are central to the visitor experience — especially with the increasing demand for unique, authentic experiences.
Calgary as a Music City — we believe Calgary can become a true music city and we continue to focus our support on research, strategy, partnerships and small experiments with radical intent within the music industry. Our efforts align to wider strategic objectives led by industry associations.
The arts create jobs and help diversify the economy. Organizations supported through the Operating Grant program supported the economy in a variety of ways:
Total number of artists hired
Total number of full-time equivalent staff
Total revenue of operating grant recipients
Total direct economic output of operating grant recipients