Gallery 2005 is currently being renovated. A new exhibit is coming soon.

Gallery 2005

Vertigo Theatre is proud to house Gallery 2005 in Lobby. It is Vertigo's vision to complete the circle of the arts that will be produced in the facility by incorporating the visual arts.

The art on display is the result of the first collaboration between the Provincial art collection (through the Alberta Foundation for the Arts) and the Municipal collection(managed by the Calgary Allied Arts Foundation). Mary-Beth Laviolette was hired by Vertigo to work with both collections as an independent curator. Her vision for the collection appears below.The gallery will be open to the public at all times that the facility is open for performances. There is no charge to view the gallery.

Merrena and Dan Thompson have most generously provided a grant to support the operations of the gallery.

Curator's Statement

From the upper lobby down the staircase and from the mezzanine to the theatre foyer, GALLERY 2005 is a year-long exhibition especially curated for Vertigo Theatre Centre. Featuring paintings, photoworks, original prints, drawings and sculpture, GALLERY 2005 reflects both the aspirations of Vertigo Theatre - a growing presence in the performing arts - and of the visual arts, long a fertile force in the province. Credit for this unique project goes to Vertigo who first took the initiative; to the Calgary Allied Arts Foundation (CAAF) and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) and to Merrena and Dan Thompson who as donors most generously support the project. Established in 1972, the art collection of the AFA has over seven thousand works which reflect the development of the vibrant visual arts community within the province and which has become an important cultural legacy. the City of Calgary's Civic Art Collection has been in existence since the early 1900s and includes over seven hundred paintings, prints, textile pieces and sculptures. CAAF was established by The City of Calgary in 1996 to be responsible for the management and exhibition of the Civic Art Collection; to develop and implement visual arts policies and procedures, and to advise The City on matters related to the visual arts.

As to this selection of art, featured are generally more recent examples that as a body of work acknowledge Vertigo's location within a contemporary cityscape including the downtown arts district. This does not mean there is no room in GALLERY 2005 for landscape-based imagery, only that it is more distilled and more imagined than descriptive. In addition, there are artworks that have a theatrical character, playing, for instancce, with illusion and what the eye does or does not see. There is a nod as well, to the presence of the human figure - so central to the life of the stage - and, to the personal which is at the heart of every moving drama. Other artworks were selected for being fun, for their humour or because they simply had to be included.

For the last thirty years, Alberta, and particularly Calgary (where many of these artists are based) have been important (yet largely unrecognized) centres for art in Canada. This opportunity afforded by Vertigo Theatre to introduce close to twenty artists to a new audience is to be applauded. In addition, there is the foresight of the Calgary Allied Arts Foundation and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for the creation of their respective collections as well as the invaluable assistance of Gail Lint and Graeme Moorehouse (AFA), Bart Habermiller and Linda Finley (CAAF).