Esker Foundation

10/15/2026

TONIGHT! Cozy Community Night

Thursday 15 October, 5-7 pm
Free, all ages , all welcome

Hello friends and families! Drop-in for an evening of family-focused exhibition tours, fun gallery activities for kids, youth, and adults, free, delicious refreshments from Lina's Italian Market and other local providers, and a special one night only 15% Community Discount at The Bookshop at Esker.

DESIGN BY: Elizaveta Suldina.

10/14/2026

🚀 Just released ☆ free tickets 🎟 for:
Conversational Tour with Naomi Potter and Shauna Thompson

Thursday 26 November, 6-7 pm
Register at the link in our bio Esker Foundation

Join Esker Foundation Director/Curator Naomi Potter and Curator Shauna Thompson as they take audiences on an informal conversational tour of our fall exhibtions: Brendan Fernandes: "Other Moves," Arthur Jafa: "Love is the Message, the Message is Death;" and Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca: "Swinguerra."

☆ Questions and discussion are encouraged and always welcome.

Photos by: Elyse Bouvier.

10/14/2026

10/14/2026

10/14/2026

PERFORMANCE
Brendan Fernandes: "Noise See"
Friday 20 November, 6-8 pm
Free

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/performance-brendan-fernandes-noise-see-tickets-2003358561386

Registration is optional, visitors are welcome to drop in during the evening. There will be two performances with a 15 minute intermission. The performance is unseated ☆ stools will be available on request.

"Noise See" is a performance work by Canadian visual artist and choreographer Brendan Fernandes. Originally commissioned by The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, the work explores themes of visibility, protest, the legacy of empire, and embodied resistance. Central to the performance are vibrant quilted tapestry costumes that evoke textiles commonly associated with contemporary Maasai culture in Kenya yet rooted in British colonial influence.

Presented alongside the exhibition "Other Moves," "Noise See" is performed as a duet: two dancers engage in a choreographic dialogue—merging and separating, concealing and revealing—through their bodily interaction with one another and their own biomorphic form as they inhabit their costume. These dynamic textiles become agents of action, shaping and being shaped by the dancers’ movements.

☆☆☆

Brendan Fernandes, "Noise See," Performance, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 2025. Courtesy the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago; and Susan Inglett Gallery, New York.

10/14/2026

Artist Talk with Brendan Fernandes
Saturday 21 November, 1-2 pm
Free
Register at www.eskerfoundation.com

How can movement create new spaces for connection and belonging? What stories do our bodies tell?

Join artist Brendan Fernandes for a conversation about his creative practice at the intersection of dance and visual art. Fernandes will discuss how his work engages themes of migration, identity, q***r culture, protest, and collective movement. His projects often take hybrid forms, described as “part ballet, part q***r dance party, part political protest,” and are rooted in collaboration and fostering solidarity.

We invite you to reflect on how creativity, movement, and collective action can shape how we relate to each other and ourselves.

Brendan Fernandes. Photo by: Patrick Lupinski.

10/12/2026

🌟Thank you 🌟 to all who attended the "Panel Discussion: Have We Failed Contemporary Art?" on Thursday 8 October. It was a wonderful evening with an amazing turnout and an interesting, in-depth discussion with strong points made by all four on stage: moderator artist Babak Golkar; and panellists: Sky Goodden, Monika Szewczyk, and
Haema Sivanesan. Thank you to all the presenters.

"This new annual initiative of talks and panels emerges out of an ongoing attempt to grapple with the state of contemporary art and the conditions shaping its reception today."

"Demands placed on contemporary art—for directness, spectacle, or a reduction to economic functionality—will be central to these conversations. This series is interested in thinking through how these pressures inflect not only the production of contemporary art, but also its circulation, interpretation, and institutional framing."

"Has contemporary art failed us, or have we failed contemporary art?"

The discussion was audio recorded and will be shared via our website and on our socials ASAP.

Photos by: Wayne To.

10/09/2026

💐🍁 This weekend take in some thought provoking and vital contemporary art at Esker Foundation, visit our fall exhibitions by Brendan Fernandes, Arthur Jafa, and Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca. 🍁💐

We are open this holiday weekend ☆ regular hours ☆ Saturday and Sunday: 12-5pm, always free admission and free parking.

Find out more at www.eskerfoundation.art

10/08/2026

Tonight at Esker Foundation at 6pm.

❓️Have We Failed Contemporary Art❓️

A panel discussion moderated by artist Babak Golkar and panelists: Haema Sivanesan, Monika Szewczyk, and Sky Goodden

Thursday 8 October, 6-8pm. Free.

Check out the radio interview with Haema Sivanesan on Calgary Eyeopener find it at cbc dot ca. CBC Calgary CBC

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
The Polygon Gallery
Esker Foundation
YYC What's On
Inglewood Calgary
Daily Hive
The Scene
CKUA Radio
Alberta University of the Arts, Continuing Education

10/08/2026

❓️Tonight at 6pm at Esker Foundation.❓️

❓️Have We Failed Contemporary Art? ❓️

Join a panel discussion moderated by artist Babak Golkar, panelists: Haema Sivanesan, Monika Szewczyk, and Sky Goodden.

Thursday 8 October, 6-8pm.

Check out the interview with Haema Sivanesan on CBC Calgary Calgary Eyeopener find it at www.cbc.ca

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
The Polygon Gallery
Esker Foundation
CBC Arts
Tourism Calgary
YYC What's On
Inglewood Calgary
Akimbo
Daily Hive