Sparrow Artspace

Sparrow Artspace Why sparrow?

Creativity - Community - Collaboration

Sparrow Artspace provides monthly residencies where artists can create, collaborate, and exhibit to further their artistic journey in a supportive community. Sparrow Artspace wishes to embody the spirit of the sparrow as symbolic of creativity, community, collaboration, communal environment, friendly, caring, working together, simplicity, empowerment, inclu

sion, resourcefulness, helping spirits, and joy. Sparrow Artspace is located in the historic deWaal building (b.1910) in Bridgeland, in Mohkinstis (Blackfoot “elbow” where the two rivers meet, otherwise known as Calgary). Sparrow Artspace gratefully acknowledges that we stand on Treaty 7 territory, ancestral home to the Blackfoot Confederacy (which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai First Nations), the Stoney-Nakoda First Nations, (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations), the Tsuut'ina First Nation, and the Metis Nation of Alberta, Region III.

CALL FOR CALGARY ARTISTS: SPARROW ARTSPACE RESIDENCIES 🕊️Applications now open for:🗓️ AUGUST 2027Application due Sept 15...
08/26/2026

CALL FOR CALGARY ARTISTS: SPARROW ARTSPACE RESIDENCIES 🕊️

Applications now open for:
🗓️ AUGUST 2027
Application due Sept 15, 2026 > application on our website (link in bio)

Sparrow Artspace in Bridgeland offers 700 sq. ft. of creative space for exhibitions, working space, installations, performances, events, and workshops.

✨ No accommodations or travel included.
🏡 This opportunity is only open to Calgary-area artists at this time

🎨 CREATIVITY
Explore, experiment, and expand your practice in a supportive, flexible environment.

🤝 COLLABORATION
Residencies are for two or more artists — side-by-side or fully collaborative.

💫 COMMUNITY
Engage with visitors, host workshops, and share your art. Sparrow is a hub for creativity and connection.

We welcome applications from racialized, Indigenous, and 2SLGBTQ+ artists, and from arts organizations.

💵 Residency fees:
$300/month per artist (min 2 artists), rate negotiable for larger groups.
Sales commission: 25% to Sparrow Arts Society
$500 damage deposit

🪶 Sparrow Artspace is run by the non-profit Sparrow Arts Society Sparrow Arts Society , powered by volunteers and donations. Artists are encouraged to apply for grants (see Calgary Arts Development and Rozsa Foundation for a full list of grants

📍 Located in the historic De Waal Building, 36 4 St NE, Calgary
🌐 Apply at sparrowartspace.com (link in bio)

Framing Your Stories - A Drop-In WorkshopSaturday, August 29, 20262:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.Sparrow Artspace36 4 Street Nor...
08/26/2026

Framing Your Stories - A Drop-In Workshop

Saturday, August 29, 2026
2:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Sparrow Artspace
36 4 Street Northeast Calgary, AB, T2E 3R7

FREE, please register on our website (link in bio)

Drop by anytime between 2 and 5pm — no experience, artistic skill, or commitment required. Come for ten minutes or stay the whole time.

Join us for an afternoon of storytelling and reflection as part of the Sparrow residency’s HOME exhibition. Throughout the residency, our cohort of artists — Ezgi Turker, Shea Iles, Kseniia Koshmai, Jona Redwood, and Yu Chen — has explored what home means through miniature boxes, portraiture, beadwork and games, dreamcatchers and maps, and letters — the places we’ve left, the ones we’ve found, and the ones we carry with us. Now it’s your turn to add your voice. Using a frame we provide, you’ll create a small piece of your own story of home — a memory, a feeling, a place, a person — expressed however you’d like: write it, sketch it, collage it. All supplies are provided, so just bring yourself and your story. The artists will be present throughout the afternoon, so it’s a chance to create alongside them and hear more about the work. When you’re done, take your frame home as a keepsake of the afternoon, and of what home means to you.

HOME Closing Reception

Saturday, August 29, 2026
5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Sparrow Artspace
36 4 Street Northeast Calgary, AB, T2E 3R7

FREE, limited seating, please register on our website

Join us to close out the Sparrow residency’s HOME exhibition with a communal long table gathering, an evening of shared food and conversation, gathered around the table the way we would at home. Meet residency artists Ezgi Turker, Shea Iles, Kseniia Koshmai, Jona Redwood, and Yu Chen, and hear more about the stories of home explored through their work across miniature boxes, portraiture, beadwork and games, dreamcatchers and maps, and letters.

Following the Framing Your Stories workshop earlier that afternoon, this is your last chance to walk through the full exhibition together before it closes. Bring the frame you made, bring a friend, or just bring yourself — pull up a seat at the long table and stay a wh

Artists Trading Cards: theme of HOMEWednesday, August 26, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.Sparrow Artspace36 4 Street Northeast C...
08/20/2026

Artists Trading Cards: theme of HOME

Wednesday, August 26, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Sparrow Artspace
36 4 Street Northeast Calgary, AB, T2E 3R7

FREE, please register on our website (link in bio)

What does home mean to you? Is it a place, a memory, a community, or a feeling that lives within you? For some, home is where they’ve come from. For others, it’s where they are building a future. For some, home is deeply connected to ancestral land, traditions, and resilience.

Sparrow Artspace invites you to explore these ideas at an Artists Trading Card (ATC) session. ATCs are miniature works of art, created by hand and exchanged with others—tiny canvases that spark conversation, connection, and creativity.

This community art-making experience is connected to the HOME Residency in July and August 2026, which brings together newcomer and Indigenous artists to reflect on, reimagine, and share perspectives on home through art. Some of the artists will be in attendance at this trading card session.

Come create, share, and trade art that speaks to what HOME means to you. Leave with a pocket-sized collection of original artworks that hold many voices and many visions of home.

No prior art experience is needed, and people of all ages and backgrounds are welcome. All supplies are provided, with a wide range of materials—from paints and markers to collage paper, and more.

What Are Artist Trading Cards (ATCs)?Artist Trading Cards are miniature works of art measuring 2.5 x 3.5 inches—the size of a standard playing card. Originating in the 1990s, the ATC movement began in Switzerland with artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann, who envisioned a way for artists to exchange their creations without monetary transactions. The concept quickly gained global popularity, fostering artistic expression and collaboration. Today, ATCs are celebrated as an inclusive and accessible way to share art and build connections within creative communities.

Artist-in-residence Yu Chen Yu Chen I am a Calgary-based oil painter working with portraiture to explore identity and be...
08/20/2026

Artist-in-residence Yu Chen Yu Chen

I am a Calgary-based oil painter working with portraiture to explore identity and belonging, with a focus on immigrant artists from diverse cultural backgrounds. My practice is shaped by my involvement in Hanfu culture and an ongoing interest in cultural exchange. Through oil painting, I create portraits of individuals in their traditional attire, where clothing carries personal and cultural meaning beyond appearance. Each work is developed through interviews, photography, and observation, grounded in lived experience and collaboration, creating space for connection and dialogue across cultures.

Home Residency - Artist Talk with Jona Redwood and Yu ChenSaturday, August 22, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.FREE, please regist...
08/18/2026

Home Residency - Artist Talk with Jona Redwood and Yu Chen

Saturday, August 22, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
FREE, please register on our website (link in bio)

Join HOME Residency artists Jona Redwood and Yu Chen for an artist talk exploring identity, belonging, cultural memory, and the personal meanings carried through handcrafted objects and portraiture. Jona will share their practice creating dreamcatchers, jewelry, and interactive craft experiences as intentional forms of grounding, self-expression, mindfulness, and connection. Yu Chen will speak about her oil painting practice, which uses portraiture and traditional attire to explore immigrant identity, cultural exchange,
and collaboration. Together, the artists will reflect on how art can hold personal stories, honour cultural meaning, and create space for connection across lived experiences.

This is part of the HOME residency in July/August 2026 and gratefully funded by Calgary Arts Development.

Kseniia Koshmai Kseniia Koshmai 🍁 is a visual artist working in miniature painting and mixed media. She creates detailed...
08/16/2026

Kseniia Koshmai Kseniia Koshmai 🍁 is a visual artist working in miniature painting and mixed media. She creates detailed works on wooden boxes and objects that can be held and used in everyday life. Her practice grows from personal stories, memories, and places that carry meaning. After moving between countries and losing her sense of home, her work became more personal. She explores what the feeling of home means and how it can be carried with you, even without a permanent place. Through repeated moves and the experience of not having a stable home, she reflects on how we hold onto what matters. Her work connects people with their memories and brings warmth and a sense of closeness into everyday life.

08/13/2026

Kseniia Koshmai Kseniia Koshmai 🍁 is a visual artist working in miniature painting and mixed media. She creates detailed works on wooden boxes and objects that can be held and used in everyday life. Her practice grows from personal stories, memories, and places that carry meaning. After moving between countries and losing her sense of home, her work became more personal. She explores what the feeling of home means and how it can be carried with you, even without a permanent place. Through repeated moves and the experience of not having a stable home, she reflects on how we hold onto what matters. Her work connects people with their memories and brings warmth and a sense of closeness into everyday life.

Video by 𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒏 𝑳𝒂𝒖 ｜ ꜰɪʟᴍᴍᴀᴋᴇʀ
Video sponsored by Sparrow Art Films

Game Night: Parallel Play with Shea Iles Shea Iles Friday, August 14, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.Tickets are FREE, please reg...
08/13/2026

Game Night: Parallel Play with Shea Iles Shea Iles
Friday, August 14, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Tickets are FREE, please register on our website (link in bio)

During his performances/workshop/hang session, Shea Iles invites folks from the audience to join him on stage to play a solo card game while he improvises on guitar alongside them. (If you don’t know any solitaire games, that’s okay — Shea will teach everyone
a really easy one at the start so that anyone can have a turn.) This is a kind of collaboration he has come to really enjoy: two people doing their own thing, side by side, connected only by circumstance. Shea will also talk about why he loves games, what
he thinks they can do, and how he’s working to integrate them into his artistic practice.

This is part of the HOME
residency in July/August 2026 and gratefully funded by Calgary Arts Development.

Artist-in-Residence Jona Redwood jona sparvier I am a Calgary-based Indigenous artist and owner of T & T Dreamcatchers T...
08/05/2026

Artist-in-Residence Jona Redwood jona sparvier

I am a Calgary-based Indigenous artist and owner of T & T Dreamcatchers T&T Dreamcatchers My work centers on creating intentional, handcrafted pieces that blend modern materials with natural gemstones and designs that step away from the traditional looks. Each piece is made to support grounding, self expression, and personal connection. Through dreamcatchers, jewelry, and interactive craft experiences, I focus on creating accessible ways for people to engage with meaning and mindfulness in everyday life. My practice is rooted in authenticity, respect, and the belief that art can be beautiful, purposeful and healing while offering not just something to see, but something to feel.

What Do You Carry When Home Changes? Workshop with Jona Redwood

Friday, August 7, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Tickets $0-$25, please register

This hands-on workshop invites participants to explore their personal understanding of home through reflection and making. Guided by prompts and material exploration, participants will create a small, intentional object using fiber, thread, and mixed materials inspired by dreamcatcher techniques. Rather than focusing on traditional forms, the workshop emphasizes personal meaning—what we hold onto, what we release, and how our sense of home evolves over time.

Participants are invited to bring in their own artifact or trinket to represent what home means to them or what they would want to contribute to the idea. We will also have lots of supplies on-hand as well. Participants will have the option to contribute their piece to a collaborative installation within the exhibition or take it home. Taught by artist-in-residence Jona Redwood.

This is part of the HOME residency in July/August 2026 and gratefully funded by Calgary Arts Development.

Home Residency - Artist Talk with Jona Redwood and Yu Chen

Saturday, August 22, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
FREE, please register

Join HOME Residency artists Jona Redwood and Yu Chen for an artist talk exploring identity, belonging, cultural memory, and the personal meanings carried through handcrafted objects and portraiture. Jona will share their practice creatin

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36 4 Street NE
Calgary, AB
T2E3R7

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Thursday 12pm - 6pm
Friday 12pm - 6pm
Saturday 12pm - 6pm

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