The Works Art & Design Festival runs through Canada Day
Churchill Square and beyond is a gallery, music venue, and marketplace through Wednesday, July 1, with standout new installations and daily concerts.
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The Works Art & Design Festival has transformed Churchill Square into an outdoor gallery, music venue, and marketplace running through Canada Day on Wednesday, July 1, 2026.
While more modest than last year without a single epic centerpiece, the festival—running since 1986—has packed dozens of artworks and daily concerts across the grounds.
Amô by Clinton Minault is a megabee made from repurposed aluminum pop cans and recycled materials, celebrating kinship between animals and humans. It shares the square with Jill Stanton's giant Supergarden flowers.
Not Alone as Such by Diana Ohiozebau at Stanley Milner Library features bright acrylic-painted tapestries with dynamic shapes and multiple eyes, celebrating Yoruba heritage through traditional Aso-oke handwoven textiles known for rich texture and bold patterns.
Anonymous Edmontonians by Jared Epp invites visitors to become graffiti co-creators on interactive packing-tape figures, spawning everything from spiritual messages to lighter tags.
The Aesthetics of Collision by Robert Dmytruk at Don Wheaton YMCA presents complex, exuberant Tron-like light cylinders that hit viewers with inexplicable joy.
Past to Present: Here to Stay by Jared Quinney features folk-art nature scenes spanning from the dinosaur age to present day—paintings by a Saddle Lake artist who's been part of the Nina Haggerty community for eight years.
Crown of Fire by Arcana Shanks is a hanging, scorched birch forest representing 731,634 hectares of human-caused fires during the 2011 Alberta wildfire season—a large-scale immersive piece you can smell up close.
Niwapahkwanin//I See Flowers When I Close My Eyes by Sharon Rose Kootenay showcases gorgeous Metis beadwork quilts and poetry celebrating matriarchal worldview and romantic relationships that have sustained her growth.
Living Portraits curated by Darren Jordan displays stunning portraits of Black artists in Edmonton on a sculptural wall designed by Shoko Cesar, with QR codes revealing the artists' own stories and inspirations.