Destination: Art
The CBC Arts guide to Canadas hidden gems and secret spots
Art lives everywhere.
Its in a farmers field in southern Ontario and a furniture warehouse in the Okanagan, an airport lounge in Newfoundland and a backyard in Edmonton. But unless youre in the know, how would you ever find it?
Thats where this guide comes in. Earlier this summer, CBC Arts set out to uncover the greatest Canadian arts attractions youve probably never heard of. We went hunting for remarkable things in unexpected places: niche museums that are works of art unto themselves; galleries and DIY spaces that are truly one of a kind; architectural marvels big and small; passion projects that have become the stuff of local legend; and works by great artists that are hidden in plain sight.
To find these secret spots, we reached out to insiders across the country artists, curators and cultural workers who shared their tips. Just as we suspected, theres plenty out there to discover, but we narrowed things down to a list of 50 locations: incredible attractions spread across every province and territory.
So let the adventure begin. Are you looking to plan a quick day trip or a cross-country holiday? Or maybe you just feel like exploring your hometown through fresh eyes. Wherever you go, set a course for Destination: Art.
Outdoor Art!
Alberta is famous for its roadside attractions of unusual size, from UFO landing pads and Easter eggs to the worlds largest perogy. Its also home to Calgarys Dale Hodges Park, one of the biggest public artworks in North America and a project thatll completely flip how you think about the form. Public art isnt always an Instagrammable thing, much as were accustomed to sculptures big and small. And in the case of Dale Hodges Park, the artwork per the projects official description is embodied by the waters movement and flow.
The park opened in 2019 and occupies 40 hectares along the banks of the Bow River. This urban oasis, once the site of a gravel pit, now offers trails and scenic views to enjoy. (For a closer look, check out this story from CBC News.) Notably, the park also functions as a natural stormwater treatment system, filtering rainfall and melted snow from eight city neighbourhoods.
So where does the art come in? The parks award-winning design was overseen by artists Charles Blan and Tristan Surtees of Sans faon. To bring the project to life, the city put the duo in dialogue with engineers, landscape architects, biologists and environmental management consultants. According to Shannon Norberg, partner and co-director of Calgary-based gallery Norberg Hall, its destination art the city can be proud of. Its a walk in the park you dont want to miss, and one you should return to throughout the year as each passing season brings a new view and journey, she tells CBC Arts.
Indigenous Art Park: (NW) River Lot 11
Indigenous Art Park: (NW) River Lot 11
10380 Queen Elizabeth Park Rd.
Edmonton, Alberta
If you want the best view of Edmonton, this is the spot. Gaze north toward downtown, and youll be hit with a vista that includes some of the citys greatest hits: the curve of the North Saskatchewan River, rolling parkland, the crisp arch of the Walterdale Bridge and a cluster of skyscrapers rising from the horizon. But beyond the postcard-worthy scene, youll find something even more affirming: an incredible sense of history and place.
(NW) River Lot 11 is a sort of outdoor gallery within Queen Elizabeth Park, and its a relatively recent addition to the citys public art collection, unveiled in September 2018. Located on River Lot 11, a site first settled by Mtis landowner Joseph McDonald, the park features permanent sculptures and installations that reflect on the story of the land and the Indigenous people whove called it home.
The curator on the project was Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation), a writer and researcher who notably curated the Canadian Pavilion of the 58th Venice Biennale. The parks creation was a collaboration between the city, the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, the Mtis Nation of Alberta, the Edmonton Arts Council, and Indigenous artists and community members. Hopkins worked with six Indigenous artists who created the artworks that now reside in the river valley. Youll find original art by Tiffany Shaw-Collinge and Duane Linklater, among others. And if youve seen photos of the place, youre probably already familiar with Amy Malbeufs piece, Iskotew: free-standing steel sculptures of Cree syllabics (, the word for fire) painted in ice-cream colours. The name of the park itself (NW) makes the Cree language strikingly visible within the city. Its meaning? I am of the Earth.
Some of the best art experiences happen when you get lost in the work. And getting lost in the work is practically guaranteed at the BernArt Maze in Blockhouse, N.S., a 15-minute drive from Lunenburg and its famous tall ships. The family-friendly open-air gallery bills itself as Canadas very first art maze, with nearly a kilometre of labyrinthine pathways that hide larger-than-life sculptures, mosaics and murals created by artists from around the world.
The maze is the project of Nicole and Bernd Krebes, artists who emigrated from Germany in 2002 and began a local ceramic tiling business. Since Bernd was a teenager, he dreamed of building a maze. And one day in 2012, he woke up and decided, Im going to build the maze now. Constructed predominantly from found and recycled materials, the BernArt Maze features underwater creatures, mythical beasts, psychedelic scenery and countless other opportunities to get lost in the art.
The maze is typically open from late June through Thanksgiving Monday. Check the website for hours.
Above the Arctic Circle, youll find big skies and big art. And if you ask the folks at the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (ISSF), their N.W.T. headquarters is home to the largest art installation in the entire Canadian North. The ISSF isnt an art gallery, obviously, but a Canadian facility that is home to a Natural Resources Canada antenna, as well as three others from space agencies in France, Germany and Sweden. But in June 2019, the ISSF unveiled a series of five original artworks decals that wrap the 13-metre-wide antennas and a radome (a structure you might mistake for a gargantuan golf ball). Its a splash of colour and culture thats visible to anyone arriving in Inuvik via the Dempster Highway or the local airport.
The ISSF took inspiration from a similar project in Australia and collaborated with Indigenous groups in the region, including artists from the Gwichin, Inuvialuit and Mtis communities. Artist Sheree McLeod created one of the first antenna artworks for the site. It depicts a blanket toss, a traditional practice that doubles as a high-flying sport, and in McLeods scene, a circle of people hold a trampoline made of hide. Above them, a lone jumper is frozen in a searching pose, casting his gaze to the horizon. Its an image that references the antenna itself and its connection to satellites that fly thousands of kilometres beyond our view while depicting a tradition from the artists Inuvialuit culture.
Peggy Jay, a rep for the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, spoke to CBC News when McLeods piece was installed. We always came back to the blanket toss because, to us, satellite connection is to look forward and see far, she said. The meaning of the blanket toss for us was throwing people up in the air to look far, to look for caribou, to look for whales That, to us, was a great connection. In addition to McLeods antenna, the project features original designs by local artists including Ronald English, Ronnie Simon, Anick Jenks and students from the East Three Secondary School art club.
Tucked away in the far southeastern corner of Toronto lies Guild Park and Gardens, a place that looks like something from another time. The park is filled with a treasure trove of Greek columns and classical statues, and visiting feels like stepping into a storybook. Or a history book. Or some kind of book, anyway. Its a place that leaves you scratching your head and saying, Where am I? And how did all these ancient Greek ruins wind up in a city park next to Lake Ontario?
Well, those arent actual Greek ruins. Theyre fragments of neoclassical architecture from the 19th and early 20th century, remnants of Torontos past. And they got there, more or less, because some very determined and wealthy architecture enthusiasts wanted to save them.
The parks main building, the Guild Inn, was originally built in 1914 as the estate of Brig.-Gen. Harold Child Bickford. In 1932, it was bought by businesswoman Rosa Hewetson. She and her husband, Spencer Clark, turned it into a co-operative artists centre called the Guild of All Arts. As people came to see the artists and their work, the building became an inn to house art-curious tourists. (The Guild Inn still exists as an event space. You can have your wedding there.)
In the 1950s and 60s, Toronto was in the middle of a great building boom, tearing down many of its iconic Victorian and Edwardian structures. Hewetson and Clark, passionate about preserving these neoclassical beauties, worked with architects, engineers and a stonemason to relocate them to the Guild Inns grounds.
Today, remnants from more than 60 buildings are part of the park, the best known of which is the Greek Theatre, constructed from the columns of the former Bank of Toronto building, originally built in 1912. Open year-round and free to visit, Guild Park and Gardens offers a one-of-a-kind glimpse into Torontos architectural past.
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Filled with statues and remnants of old buildings, Guild Park has attracted artists like Drake and Mil-Spec.
NAISA North Media Arts Centre and Caf
NAISA North Media Arts Centre and Caf
313 Hwy. 124
South River, Ontario
Halfway between Huntsville and North Bay, in the tiny village of South River, Ont. (population 1,100), outr art lovers will find New Adventures in Sound Arts lively gallery and caf. From its outpost inside a former real estate office near the northwest edge of Algonquin Park, this media arts non-profit, founded in 2001, presents an impressive array of exhibitions, performances, workshops, talks, festivals and other events. Drop in and you may catch a jam on a decomposing piano or a sound art installation that transposes insect hearing for the human ear.
NAISAs home on Highway 124, which opened just last year, is also the broadcast centre for NAISA Radio an internet radio station that streams sound art around the clock (and was named one of The Wires 100 essential online stations).
And if world-class sonic experimentation isnt enough to get you to pull over, the media centres in-house caf offers a $7 artists special so you can have lunch on an artists budget, as the menu states.
The media centre and caf are open Thursday through Monday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Check NAISAs website for programming details.
Reford Gardens (Jardins de Mtis) is a botanical paradise where English gardens meet the French Canadian landscape. Tucked away on a scenic highway that skirts the St. Lawrence River between Quebec City and the Gaspsie Peninsula, these gardens are home to 3,000 plant varieties on an 18-hectare property. The gardens were started in 1926, when Canadian horticulture pioneer Elsie Reford began transforming her uncles fishing camp into one of the northernmost gardens on the continent. The site opened to the public in 1962. Thanks to the unique microclimate created by the meeting of the St. Lawrence and Mitis rivers, many plant species that grow at Reford Gardens cant be found anywhere else in Canada.
Today, Reford Gardens is not only a place to contemplate Mother Nature but also a home to some impressive public art and architecture installations, thanks to its annual International Garden Festival, which typically takes place from late June to early October. Visitors can enjoy large-scale steel sculptures, such as those by local sculptor Jean Brillant, or more interactive installations like the aqua-coloured steel structure conceived by Hum Design, which looks like a funky jungle gym and is meant for climbing. Previous exhibitors have included legends like Atelier Pierre Thibault, a Quebec firm known for its environmentally conscious architecture, and the late Claude Cormier, who was celebrated for his landscape and outdoor space design. Those with a green thumb might also enjoy the Museum of Tools, a collection of gardening implements, both old and new, that are as inspiring as they are beautiful.
More from CBC:
Wild art blooms in one of the continent's northernmost botanical gardens
The Reford Gardens in Grand-Mtis, Que., is a playground for architects, designers and artists.
Located on the shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebecs Gaspsie region, the Centre dArt Marcel Gagnon is a bunch of tourist attractions rolled into one. It has art galleries showcasing work by several generations of the Gagnon family, a restaurant and a hotel. And if you book a room with a view, prepare for a truly eerie wake-up call a scene you might just mistake for a zombie invasion. On the beach outside, artist Marcel Gagnon has arranged more than 100 concrete sculptures: grey, limbless sentinels carved with rough-hewn faces. Its called Le Grand Rassemblement (The Big Gathering).
At low tide, every figure is visible, standing at attention on the sand. As the waters rise, the scene transforms. Figures in wooden rafts appear to set sail, while others are swallowed by the river some with their heads peeking above the waves, and others submerged entirely. If you forgo an overnight stay, visiting the beach is free. According to the art centres website, however, the hours of operation are seasonal, so its best to check ahead.
Artist Krystle Silverfox loves Dawson City for its vibrant cultural scene, she tells CBC Arts, but theres one local arts attraction that she likes best and its a place with no fixed address. When we asked the 2022 Sobey Art Award finalist for her favourite destinations in the Yukon, she sent us a tip about the Willow Gallery, an outdoor exhibition that can be found along the banks of the Yukon River. The path is decorated with artworks made by local artist Jackie Olson and students from the local art school, says Silverfox.
If youre not looking closely enough, you might easily mistake the exhibits for things that are simply growing in the forest. The artworks use naturally sourced materials, harvested from the land, Silverfox explains, and in Olsons course at the Yukon School of Visual Arts (SOVA), students learn to forage for their art supplies. The willow branches they collect might be broken down into fibres, processed to make pulp for paper or woven into sculptures. And the art that springs from the class may eventually find a home in the Willow Gallery.
The gallerys 2024 exhibition debuted in February as part of Dawson Citys (S)hiver Winter Arts Festival, and all these months later, its still technically open, though the art looks substantially different than it would have in winter. That, however, is just part of the projects magic. The work is meant to be curated back by the land, according to Aubyn OGrady, program director and chair at Yukon SOVA. So see it while you can!
Art Hikes!
How did a bunch of boxcars wind up in the woods south of Whistler, B.C.? Locals knew theyd been there since the 1950s, but the origins of the Whistler Train Wreck were something of a mystery until the Whistler Museum got to the bottom of things roughly a decade ago. But Id hazard a guess most visitors to the site arent there for a history lesson. For years, hikers risked fines from CN Police not to mention their lives by following old railway tracks to find the wreck. And a whole bunch of those people must have been packing cans of spray paint because the boxcars are layered with graffiti, colourful tags and murals by folks including B.C. street artists Kris Kupskay and the late Chili Thom. These days, however, the location is hardly a secret, and visitors can access it from a 2.6-kilometre gravel walking trail. In 2016, the Municipality of Whistler built a suspension bridge connecting the Train Wreck to the Sea to Sky Trail, a hike that takes you over the roaring Cheakamus River to this much-Instagrammed ruin in the forest.
CC Image by Pburka
Red Cliff Radar Station
Red Cliff Rd.
Logy Bay-Middle Bay-Outer, Newfoundland and Labrador
Fun fact: one of Canadas most impressive graffiti spots isnt a wall in Montreal or Toronto, but an abandoned radar station in Newfoundland.
In 1951, amid fears of a Soviet missile attack or invasion, the Red Cliff Radar Station was established on the far northeastern tip of the continent. The station was part of a system that would provide an early warning if any unidentified aircraft crossed the Atlantic, allowing fighter jets stationed at nearby Torbay Air Force Base to intercept it.
Unfortunately, by 1961, just eight years after it opened, new technology made Red Cliff obsolete. The base was mothballed, leaving nothing but concrete structures and some old jeeps behind.
But, much like you catch more flies with honey, you catch more graffiti writers with large, abandoned concrete structures. Over the years, the site has become an ever-evolving canvas for spray-can art.
Today, Red Cliff Radar Station is a haunting ruin and a graffiti hotspot in one. Whats not to love? If you plan to visit, parking is available in a lot off nearby Cobbler Crescent.
Once you reach the tiny burg of Burks Falls, keep going. This DIY wonder is hidden on a country road just outside of town, and if youre not sure youre heading in the right direction, just take a look out the passenger window. If youve navigated correctly, youll soon see the faces of concrete ghouls rising from the fields. Theyre the creations of Peter Camani, a retired high school art teacher who has spent decades transforming his rural property into a land of dragons, giants and countless curious tourists. And among those many looky-loos are Toronto day-trippers, adventurous frolfers and, perhaps predictably, plenty of ravers. (Every September, the Harvest festival, Almaguin Highlandss version of Burning Man, descends on the property.)
But keep in mind that Midlothian Castle is technically a private residence. Camani lives in the fortress a farmhouse hes tricked out with gargoyles and turrets so while the house is off-limits, you can still peek at its inventive features through the spiderweb gates.
The rest of the grounds, however, are yours to explore, and you could spend hours tramping through its 125 hectares, traversing fields and forest, and encountering eerie and enormous sculptures, all created and installed by Camani. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride through the hills, and the Primeval Forest Camanis name for a collection of shrieking concrete trees is one of the more recent additions. And then there are the Screaming Heads, the foreboding characters this DIY art park is known for. There are more than 100 of them, and theyre all truly photogenic giants, standing approximately six metres tall and weighing as much as 27 tonnes. Its been said that Camani has arranged the heads in the shape of a dragon, a detail only visible from the sky. But the sculptures are plenty impressive from the ground. In some of the more awe-inspiring sections of the property, they appear to burst through the earths surface, wailing as they reach their hands to the sky.
Shift isnt easy to find. The outdoor sculpture by American artist Richard Serra is located in the middle of a farm field north of Toronto, near King City, Ont. In 1970, art collector Roger Davidson, whose family owned the land, commissioned Serra to create something on the property. Serra and fellow artist Joan Jonas stood at opposite ends of the land, far enough apart that they could barely see one another. Then they walked toward each other, occasionally having to move one way or another to avoid obstacles. The resulting route became the basis of Shift.
Shift consists of six narrow concrete panels, each standing roughly 1.5 metres high and 20 centimetres wide, with lengths varying from 27 to 73 metres. Over the years, the sculpture has been weathered by the elements, and local plants have grown up around it. Despite a lack of maintenance, it has survived.
Its location in the exurbs of Toronto means its also had to survive threats from developers. The property was sold to a land development firm in 1974, and subdivisions have come closer and closer to Shift over the years. Thankfully, in 2013, it was designated a protected cultural landscape under the Ontario Heritage Act, meaning it cant be demolished or altered.
That said, its not exactly open to the public. The best way to get a look at Shift for now is to watch this video.
You cant believe everything you read online, but if youre planning a trip to the Tree Museum, take the websites Info section as gospel. This is a hike in the woods, it states. To see most of the art, you have to climb up rocks. And theyre not fooling. (Be prepared to tramp through mud and overgrown fields, as well.) As for the name, it might befuddle you, but the Tree Museum is not a museum of birches and pines, etc. Rather, its an outdoor gallery one where the art has been built right into the landscape, an 80-hectare slice of wilderness on the southern edge of the Canadian Shield.
If you embark on this self-guided tour, youll be rewarded with an experience like no other. Between 1998 and 2019, the museum (founded by multidisciplinary artist E.J. Lightman) hosted regular exhibitions of original artwork created by more than 80 artists from Canada and abroad. A few of those sculptures and installations have remained on the site permanently or as permanent as anything left to the elements can be. Many of the works only reveal themselves when you look extra closely. Theyre optical illusions, really, that disappear into the landscape. One of the most delightful examples is a piece by John Dickson, a literal outhouse cloaked in mirrors (though not a functional one, please note). Free to visit, the Tree Museum is open to the public between June and October each year.
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If you want to see great art in Muskoka, take a hike
Located outside Gravenhurst, the Tree Museum is a day trip like no other.
Surprising Locations!
Where in Edmonton or anywhere, really would you find a minigolf course entirely designed by artists? Or a volcano made of cement and fun fur? Or a big purple deer that doubles as a swing? These are just a few of the unique items that have sprung up at Lowlands, a DIY gallery run by local artists Steven Teeuwsen and Jill Stanton. The duo launched the space in 2020, opening their front and back yards to the public for an eclectic alfresco exhibition, Castles of Butter, which featured more than a dozen Alberta artists. Outdoor art shows were definitely a thing that year, but Lowlands has kept it up, becoming one of the most exciting spots to see art in the city. And yet, its location is as ordinary as it comes. Lowlands runs out of a pair of neighbouring bungalows that are the artists residence and studio so maybe dont go ringing the doorbell asking for a tour. Curated exhibitions and other events are sporadically scheduled, and the space is taking a break for the summer of 2024. Prospective visitors should keep an eye on Lowlandss website and Instagram for programming announcements.
But past shows have wowed locals, including Lindsey Sharman, curator of the Art Gallery of Alberta, who told CBC Arts that she often discovers fresh talent while enjoying a weekend afternoon on the Lowlands lawn. Calgary art duo Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett also recommend making the trip: We love Lowlands because its artist-run in the most fundamental sense, hearkening to the scrappy DIY spirit that makes artists want to do stuff with their friends and community, they write. Every time weve visited, were left wondering what potential were overlooking in our own living space. Plus, who doesnt want interactive sculptures in their yard? We wish we were their neighbours.
Doris is something of an open secret among Peace Country residents in the know, folks like Jessica Groome, the chief curator at the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, who sent CBC Arts a tip about this contemporary art space a gallery unsuspectingly located in Beaverlodge, a town of roughly 2,500 souls just west of Grande Prairie, Atla. Since the spring of 2023, Doris has been hosting regular exhibitions in a tiny room at the Beaverlodge Art and Culture Centre. The centre is a former hospital building off Highway 43, just across the street from Justin Beaver, the polyurethane and foam rodent that serves as the towns chief roadside attraction. Cars and trucks blow past the centre every day, but theres no sign outside advertising Doris and you could probably spend an afternoon poking around the buildings other galleries, plus its tea room and gift shop, without even realizing Doris exists. But now that youve read this far, youre armed with valuable intel!
To visit the gallery, head to the centres main office and ask to see Doris. The person at the desk might not know what youre going on about (most of the staff are volunteers), but rest assured, Doris is indeed there. Once youve procured a key to the space, head to the second floor and youll find it a humble, white-walled room thats hosted exhibitions by artists from near and far, including Haley Bassett, Laura Marotta, Miruna Drgan and more. Despite its speakeasy vibes, Doris is anything but exclusive. Admission is free, and anyone and everyone is welcome to attend Doris exhibitions and opening parties.
Founded by local art collector Murray Quinn, art handler Maggie Tiesenhausen and the acclaimed artist Peter von Tiesenhausen, Doris has kept a low profile. News about its programming spreads through word of mouth and a cryptic Instagram profile. But according to Groome, the project has built an amazing community in a short time. Visiting Doris inspires my love of grassroots exhibitions and DIY esthetic, something that is often lacking from typical/formalized arts organizations, she says.
More from CBC:
In tiny Beaverlodge, Alta., a DIY gallery in a former hospital draws artists from all over
Everyones welcome at Doris, but the contemporary art space might be the best-kept secret in town.
Cardiff Miller Art Warehouse
The Cardiff Miller Art Warehouse
507 Granville Ave.
Enderby, British Columbia
Its unlike anything youll find in a small Canadian town: a cavernous contemporary art gallery housed in a former furniture store. The project was a career-long dream for Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, an artist couple whove collaborated since the 80s and famously represented Canada at the 2001 Venice Biennale. We always wanted to have a place where we could permanently show our work," Miller told CBC Arts shortly after the Cardiff Miller Art Warehouse (CMAW) opened in the summer of 2023. The North Okanagan venue has become exactly that: a home for their many creations, including multimedia installations that have rarely if ever been shown in Canada due to their enormous scale.
To date, CMAWs exhibitions have been pulled from the artists personal archive. As of this writing, seven works are currently on display, including The Marionette Maker (2014), an eerie fairy-tale scenario involving robotic marionettes and a life-sized sleeping beauty (modelled after Cardiff), all housed in a vintage camping trailer. Whether you plan to make the trip by car or inflatable pineapple (the museum is located near a popular spot for river tubing), be sure to check the website for up-to-date info on hours and admission.
The Chatfield Gallery is like a triumph of artistic maximalism. Showcasing the works of its owner, artist Anthony Nelson, and located in a former pool hall, the Chatfield is like a kaleidoscope of sculptural collage, installation pieces and paintings, all rendered in bold, bright colours.
This place is like landing on another planet, an environment of a colourful mind, says artist Kami Goertz. Seeing this space has inspired me to see what can be possible in terms of what a room can become and how objects can be used to create environment.
Sarah Swan
The Yellowknife Visitor Centre art gallery
5014 49th St.
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
On the lower level of Yellowknifes Centre Square shopping mall, inside the visitor centre where tourists seek advice on catching the northern lights, youll find the citys only non-commercial contemporary art gallery. The place is tiny, about the size of a two-car garage. And, despite being open for almost two years, the gallery still doesnt have a name. Nevertheless, it has become vital to the local creative community, providing a much-needed space in N.W.T.s capital city for sharing and discussing art.
Far from the trends of larger cosmopolitan art scenes, programming at the visitor centre gallery is eclectic and inclusive. An exhibition by a Sobey Award winner might be followed by a show featuring the art of high school students. Curator Sarah Swan interviews artists at openings using a hairbrush as a microphone, a playful gesture that dispels any whiff of pretension.
For Yellowknifes art lovers, the road to having a dedicated space has been long and bumpy, and some had to drive the cause quite literally. In 2019, lacking a permanent gallery, a group of passionate art advocates, including Swan, converted a cargo trailer into a mobile gallery, which they hauled around the city and to nearby communities. They cheekily and perhaps a bit wishfully named their museum on wheels the Art Gallery of N.W.T.
Now, with its small-but-mighty exhibition space tucked inside the visitor centre (open daily year-round), Yellowknife finally has an art gallery, giving a community that had to claw out space for itself a true home.
More from CBC:
We turned a trailer into an art gallery and drove it around the N.W.T.
Curator Sarah Swan reflects on the long, bumpy road to a dedicated exhibition space in Yellowknife.
They are the Gauds of Durham Region, the Chevals of Sunderland, Ont. Better yet, they are the Tinkls one-of-a-kind, visionary and magical. With an abundance of cement, scrap material, time and imagination, the artist couple of Viktor and Judith Tinkl have transformed their family home, located an hour and a half northeast of Toronto, into a fantasyland unparalleled in Canadian art, or anywhere else for that matter.
It began in 1965 when Viktor bought a 100-year-old schoolhouse in need of some TLC. He made the first gargoyle with cement left over from repair work and mounted it atop one of the buildings buttresses. Judith didnt mind it, so more creatures came to live on the exterior of the building. Nearly 60 years on, the couples residence and 1.2-hectare property have become home to an incredible menagerie of stone animals, beasts, critters, nymphs, imps and other mythical beings. The grounds are lush with concrete trees and crisscrossed by sculptural aqueducts feeding cisterns for the Tinkls extensive gardens. A battalion of cement and steel soldiers, four dozen strong, guards the property from the rear.
Tinkls Gallery is a testament to what is possible when you serve the muse of creativity with passion and dedication. Visits are by appointment in the summer, or during the Uxbridge Studio Tour, which typically runs in September.
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In Sunderland, Ont., a fantasyland made of cement, scrap, imagination and time
The Tinkls are an artist couple who live inside their sprawling masterpiece.
Curious Collections!
Some museums collect art; some are works of art themselves. And there are few better examples than the Museum of Fear and Wonder. Founded in 2017 by sculptor Jude Griebel and his brother Brendan Griebel, an Arctic anthropologist, its a unique addition to Albertas superlative bounty of tiny museums.
The Griebels were raised in Saskatchewan, and they grew up loving the roadside attractions of the Prairies, such as the World Famous Gopher Hole Museum (also on this list) and Canadas largest public collection of antique oil lamps a special favourite of Judes, he tells CBC Arts. (The collection is located at the Donalda & District Museum in Alberta consider it a bonus example of destination art.)
At the Museum of Fear and Wonder, the brothers play with ideas and themes that inform their professional practices, curating exhibits from their collection of wax mannequins, medical models and other handmade curiosities of mysterious provenance. [Theyre] objects that have a sense of story and narrative to them, Jude told CBC Arts in 2018 when our filmmakers visited the museum. Added Brendan: We kind of see ourselves building a collection of stories based around these objects through the process of engaging people. (Watch the video tour!)
For those who dream of visiting IRL, the trip requires some planning, making it a true pilgrimage for seasoned Prairie road trippers. Located on a country road off Albertas Cowboy Trail, about 100 kilometres northwest of Calgary, the museum occupies an unassuming building that was once an army barracks. Admission is free, but visitors must reserve their spot in advance (which you can do here). Bookings for the 2024 season are already closed, but the museum is typically open between June 1 and Aug. 30 each year.
CBC/World Famous Gopher Hole Museum
World Famous Gopher Hole Museum
208 1 St. S.W.
Torrington, Alberta
As of the 2021 census, Torrington, Alta., had a population of 306. Thats 105 more residents than it had in 2016, the year CBC aired this short documentary about the World Famous Gopher Hole Museum. Even so, when you live in a place that small Torrington is a sleepy community between Red Deer and Calgary its easy to imagine how human residents could feel wildly outnumbered by a certain local species, the hearty Richardsons ground squirrel (also called a gopher), and how they might develop a dark sense of humour about it.
The museum is home to 77 taxidermied specimens arranged in 44 dioramas jokey scenes that depict life in the hamlet circa 1996, the year this candidate for Canadas quirkiest attraction opened its doors. Gophers check out library books, shoot pool at the Torrington Hotel and sling puns at the local diner (Oh boy, am I ever stuffed, reads a speech balloon). And theyre all nestled in a one-room schoolhouse, stacked in identical display cases that glow in the dark like old tube TVs.
While researching Destination: Art, the CBC Arts team asked contacts from across the country for tips, and this was the spot we heard the most about. Kyler Zeleny, an Albertan photographer and author of Bury Me in the Back Forty, calls the museum a must-see because its unique, its kitsch, its macabre and its prairie as can be. Tammy Salzl, an Edmonton-based artist whos devoted years of her practice to creating dioramic exhibitions of miniature sculpture, describes it as a weird and wondrous place thats directly inspired her work. Theres real passion and tenderness crafted into each intricately detailed diorama, she tells CBC Arts. Theres also a strange fragility about them. They represent a rural heritage, romanticized and removed from our contemporary lives. It reminds me of visiting my farm families and growing up on the Prairies.
Jim Shockey has a CV that would make Ron Swanson jealous. Called modern huntings most influential celebrity by Outdoor Life magazine, the B.C. man has been a champion swimmer, wildlife photographer, antique dealer and long-time reality TV host. In 2018, Shockey added museum founder to his resum, filling a former elementary school on Vancouver Island with a lifetime of unusual stuff. He dubbed it the Hand of Man Museum, a title meant to reflect the nature of the items found within, all gathered or conceived through human intervention.
In a video tour posted on the attractions website, every surface of the 15,000-square-foot space appears to be lined with souvenirs from Shockeys world travels. There are taxidermied beasts, guitars and paintings, a wedding blanket from Siberia, a signed copy of High Adventure by Sir Edmund Hillary, plus fossils and skeletons galore, including a complete woolly mammoth surrounded by antlers of mysterious origin. I guess you could call me a hoarder, Shockey told one travel journalist, describing the endeavour as his OCD on display. Rather than keep the trove to himself, he opted to share it with anyone curious enough to visit, and its open to the public 365 days a year.
When naturalist, taxidermist and educator Sam Waller retired from teaching in 1958, he purchased two bunkhouses from the local lumber company in The Pas, Man., joined them together and opened his Little Northern Museum inside the makeshift gallery, where he lived and served as curator.
A lifelong collector, Waller jokingly referred to his showcase of artifacts, oddities and other items related to the regions history as the cluttertorium. In the Victorian tradition of cabinets of curiosities, his collection also included quirkier holdings more tenuously connected to the regions history such as a two-headed calf or five pairs of fleas dressed in tiny outfits.
Before Wallers passing in 1978, he gifted his museum a hit with both locals and visitors to the Town of The Pas. And, in 1991, the Sam Waller Museum was opened in a purpose-designed, climate-controlled space in the towns old courthouse.
Today, the museum has expanded its founders incredible collection to over 70,000 objects, with a focus on the natural and human history of northern Manitoba. Still, it stays true to Wallers eclectic vision, demonstrating how both the ordinary and the extraordinary help tell our stories. Homemade curling rocks? A Remington typewriter with Cree syllabics? The tailbone of a giant aquatic reptile from the late Cretaceous period when Manitoba was covered by an inland sea? You can find it all at the Sam Waller Museum, open daily (except holidays) from 1 to 5 p.m.
This might be the only place in Canada where you can find one of Chers Bob Mackie getups, a wedding dress from the 1880s and a pair of the prime ministers old socks. Granted, those items wont necessarily all be displayed at the same time. But this tiny, non-profit museum, which presents regular exhibitions inside a decommissioned post office, boasts a collection of about 9,000 garments and accessories, a trove that started as the personal archive of the Fashion History Museums co-founder, Jonathan Walford. A fashion historian, Walford was the original curator at Torontos Bata Shoe Museum, and though the FHM has been staging travelling exhibitions in Ontario and abroad for more than a decade, it didnt officially open its current brick-and-mortar home until 2016.
As for how it landed in a relatively sleepy small town, if you know anything about the history of the Cambridge region, theres a relevant connection. Once upon a time, the area was bustling with textile and clothing factories, and by the 1920s and 30s, a woollen mill in Hespeler (the neighbourhood where youll find the FHM) was said to be the largest in the British Empire. A permanent exhibit about textile manufacturing leads visitors into the FHMs main exhibition floor a tight space of approximately 2,000 square feet that lets you get close enough to the clothes to see the stitching. Previous exhibitions have focused on subjects ranging from the House of Dior to the history of teen togs (Frock On!). The museum is open Wednesdays through Sundays, and as of this writing, the main exhibit is a 300-year survey of Western fashion. (Also appearing is a show paying tribute to an essential summertime accessory, with a title thats too cheeky not to mention: Only Fans.)
Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press
Montreal Signs Project
Concordia University, Communication Studies and Journalism Building, 7141 Sherbrooke St. W.
Montreal, Quebec
In 2016, Concordia University professor Matt Soar spoke with CBC News about a vintage sign hed recently rescued from the Silver Dragon Chinese restaurant in Montreal. For 60 years, it had illuminated the same street corner, its green dragon breathing neon fire at the intersection of De L'glise and Laurendeau streets. When Soar took it into his possession, he discovered the sign was full of dead pigeons and birds nests and broken neon and peeling paint. Still, it would make a valuable addition to the Montreal Signs Project.
Like everything in the projects ever-growing collection, the sign had been a familiar presence in countless lives an artifact of local nostalgia. I think it has some amazing stories to tell, Soar told CBC News. Since 2010, when the professor founded the Montreal Signs Project, the initiative has been dedicated to the rescue and preservation of the citys most iconic signs. Its collection boasts more than 50 items, 13 of which were recently donated to the Centre des mmoires montralaises (MEM) in the Quartier des Spectacles, the citys cultural district. The MEM now displays those signs in its lobby, and the installation which includes a CBC sign from the pre-Maison de Radio-Canada era is visible from the street, especially at night when all the bulbs are aglow.
Most of the collection, however, can be found at Concordias Loyola Campus on the west side of Montreal, with signs hanging throughout the universitys Communication Studies and Journalism Building. While theres something to be found on every floor including signs for gone-but-not-forgotten greasy spoons like the Rapido diner and Monsieur Hotdog youd be advised to announce your visit in advance. The buildings not a museum, after all. (Shh! Students and researchers at work!) To arrange a tour, contact the Montreal Signs Project through its website.
The Urban Unknown!
Immortalized in the Canadian cult comedy Waydowntown, Calgarys Plus 15 is a 16-kilometre network of elevated bridges and pathways roughly 15 feet above street level, connecting some 130 buildings in the citys downtown core. The busiest sections of the network are used by more than 20,000 people a day; its a great way to duck out of rain or winter weather when travelling between points A and B downtown. But few who use the worlds most extensive pedestrian skywalk system would likely recognize that it also doubles as a giant, free indoor art gallery.
With corporate collections decorating lobby spaces and a robust municipal public art program, Plus 15 visitors with a keen eye will find a wealth of artistic treasures. The network showcases galleries of community artwork, paintings by famous Canadian talents like Jean-Paul Riopelle, Jack Bush and Marcelle Ferron, and pieces by international superstars such as glassmaker Dale Chihuly. Another highlight is American conceptual artist Dennis Oppenheims aptly named sculpture Pathways to Everywhere, which snakes across the ceiling of Jamieson Places lobby and bursts right out the door.
Calgary-based artist Julya Hajnoczky, who recommended Plus 15 to CBC Arts, says you can easily spend a whole day lobby-hopping in search of great art. You can do quite a big tour without ever having to go outside. Hours vary so its best to check the website.
More from CBC:
A gigantic free art gallery waits above the bustling streets of downtown Calgary
The Plus 15 pedestrian skyway is an intersection of city life and public art.
If youre familiar with the art of Brendan Tang, youll get why he stans for Toy Traders. The Vancouver-based artist (and judge on The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down) creates sci-fi ceramic forms that riff on manga and anime and could have sprung from an episode of Robotech. Most folks know I am pretty nerdy, says Tang, who gave us this fantastically offbeat tip for Destination: Art a 17,000-square-foot toy store in Burnaby, B.C. But Toy Traders doesnt use all that space for selling Funko Pops. The shop is stuffed with hundreds of displays, including sprawling original dioramas dedicated to Star Wars, G.I. Joe and a multi-universe Superhero City, scenes that Tang simply describes as amazing.
The installations are made using action figures that have been liberated from their blister packs, but none of them are for sale. This is geek art for geek arts sake! There are plenty of custom-made elements, too, like a Death Star that looms over the Star Wars tableau. For all the fanboys and girls, Toy Traders has packed the dioramas with Easter eggs, and one of the proud nerds who loves spending hours gawking at the displays is director Kevin Smith, whos gone live on Facebook more than once to do gushing video tours of the shop. If you love dioramas, most B.C. travel guides might point you in the direction of a classically kitsch attraction like Miniature World in Victoria. Toy Traders is decidedly more of an obscure pick, but a visit wont cost you a thing though you probably wont leave empty-handed.
Tyson Koschik/CBC News
Portage and Main Circus relief
Portage Avenue and Main Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba
The downtown Winnipeg intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street has been called the Crossroads of Canada as its close to the countrys longitudinal centre. It was the citys first commercial hub and, since 1979, has been inaccessible to pedestrians.
Thanks to a 1979 deal between the city and a land developer who agreed to redevelop the then-down-at-the-heels corner on the condition that pedestrians would be funnelled to an underground mall it is illegal for pedestrians to cross Portage and Main at street level. Instead, you have to use a circular underground concourse known as the Portage and Main Circus.
While the decision to close the intersection upset urbanists, it did give the city, and indeed Canada, one of its better pieces of public art. The inner circle is covered in a concrete relief by Winnipeg artist Bruce Head. With a circumference of over 120 metres, its the largest concrete work in Canada.
Winnipeg city council voted to reopen Portage and Main to pedestrians starting next summer, throwing the future of the concourse and the relief into question. So, see this one while you can.
CC Image by Shhewitt
The Veiled Virgin
Presentation Motherhouse, 180 Military Rd.
St. Johns, Newfoundland and Labrador
On Dec. 4, 1856, Bishop John Thomas Mullock noted in his diary the arrival of The Veiled Virgin from Rome to St. Johns, calling it a perfect gem of art. This marble sculpture, crafted by the renowned Italian artist Giovanni Strazza (1818-1875), depicts the Virgin Mary with an intricately carved veil that looks almost translucent draped over the delicate features of her face.
The sculpture was housed in the Episcopal Palace beside the Roman Catholic cathedral in St. John's until 1862, when Mullock presented it to Mother Mary Magdalene OShaughnessy, Superior of the Presentation Convent, where it has been ever since.
The Veiled Virgin is a striking example of mid-19th-century Italian artistry. The details are astounding, from the braids of Marys hair to the soft, flowing folds of the veil. Similar works by Strazza and his contemporaries can be found in the Vatican Museum and throughout Italy, so to have an opportunity to view such a masterpiece in Newfoundland is a rare treat thats well worth the trip, whether youre an art history lover or not.
The bust can be viewed by the public Monday to Sunday, from 10 to 11:45 a.m. and 1 to 3:45 p.m., according to their website.
Philip Beesleys Meander, sprawling across 5,000 square feet of the Cambridge, Ont., event space known as Tapestry Hall, is said to be the worlds largest living architecture sculpture. Suspended from the vaulted ceiling of this former foundry building, Meander looks like a cavern dripping with crystals, a floating chunk of coral reef, or perhaps even an alien organism. The entity is both beautiful and mysterious. It glows and bristles as you draw near.
Inspired by the nearby Grand River, Meander is imagined as a sort of artificial ecosystem. The sculpture incorporates roughly 100 embedded motion sensors that detect the presence and movement of visitors, sending waves of light, motion and sound across the environment in response.
Beesley, the artworks designer, is an internationally renowned architect and a professor at the University of Waterloo, specializing in smart buildings. At the opening of Meander in 2020, he told CBC, Architecture, rather than being the idea of something thats static walls and closed volumes, could actually be something thats alive and sensitive and contributing to our world.
There are people who will travel thousands of kilometres, crossing borders and perhaps even trekking through the Andean foothills, to experience the work of James Turrell, the American artist and leading figure in the California Light and Space movement of the 1960s. But what if we told you that one of Turrells mesmerizing installations is hidden in plain sight, inside a building you might pass every day? (Its appeared in oodles of TV shows, to boot.) And its free to visit in downtown Toronto!
Turrells Straight Flush is a light installation that was commissioned for Torontos Bay Adelaide Centre in 2009, and when local artist Carrie Perreault sent us a tip about the piece, this writer left the CBC office ASAP, making the pilgrimage of a whole six blocks to see it up close. Visible from the street, Straight Flush is comprised of five tall panels that cycle through five vibrant colour sequences. If you linger too long while contemplating the lights subtle pulsation, you may attract the attention of security, but dont let their watching eyes faze you.
My work has no object, no image and no focus, Turrell has said of his art. With no object, no image and no focus, what are you looking at? You are looking at you looking. What is important to me is to create an experience of wordless thought.
Perreault, who says she often wanders downtown among the skyscrapers, told CBC Arts, The buildings are wondrous, if you ask me, and full of surprises artistically both in the art collections they house in their lobbies and in the design of the structures themselves. This Turrell in the financial district just happens to be one of her favourites. Picking up a little pastry from Sud Forno down the street and standing there mesmerized by the changing of the lights is one heck of a way to spend 30 minutes!
More from CBC:
Toronto's best-kept secrets: these incredible artworks are free to see
Field trip ideas for your lunch break ... or your next big trip to the city.
Theres something great about putting money in a machine and not knowing what youll get. Its hard not to love the low-stakes thrill and sense of surprise. The Biblio-Mat brings that excitement to the world of literature.
Located inside the Monkeys Paw, a store specializing in 20th-century printed matter, the Biblio-Mat randomly dispenses used books. Drop a $5 token in the slot, and youll hear the machines mechanical whirring, followed by an old-timey telephone ring, and then your book be it a vintage copy of The Edible Woman or a history of the Crimean War arrives with a satisfying thunk.
Created by visual artist Craig Small based on an idea from Monkeys Paw owner Stephen Fowler the machine was designed to be in keeping with the stores vintage esthetic, and the metal was salvaged from an old office storage locker and painted in its current green and ivory colours. The Biblio-Mat is powered by a microprocessor that selects books from one of three stacks inside.
The machine, accessible during regular store hours, has been used for at least two marriage proposals and counts author Margaret Atwood among its fans.
Canadian Centre for Architecture
Canadian Centre for Architecture Garden
Ernest Cormier Esplanade on Ren-Lvesque Blvd. W.
Montreal, Quebec
The Canadian Centre for Architectures garden sits across an eight-lane roadway from the museums main buildings, hemmed in by two highway access ramps and an escarpment. So, youd be forgiven for missing the remarkable if a little hidden sculpture garden, but its a space worth seeking out.
The garden features an arcade wall modelled after the facade of the 19th-century mansion that sits across the street. Once you walk past it, youll encounter a series of curious monuments. These are the Allegorical Columns of artist-architect Melvin Charney, which overlook the Ville-Marie Expressway and the neighbourhoods of Saint-Henri and Verdun. Charney was the visionary behind the garden as well as all the artworks found there. His columns which remix built forms in a medley of styles and materials survey the history of architecture and seem to contemplate the nature of city-building itself. Perched on the edge of the plateau, the sculptures of this strange little oasis invite visitors to see the citys skyline just beyond as a living, evolving sculpture, too.
Aloysius Wong/CBC
Twilight Sculpture Garden (Jardin du Crpuscule)
135 Av. Van Horne
Montreal, Quebec
Most tourists visit Montreals Mile End neighbourhood for its hip coffee shops, delicious eateries and good people-watching, but theres also a hidden gem that has quietly been a feature of this area for almost 25 years a secret sculpture garden.
Glen LeMesurier, a self-taught artist, has transformed scrap metal into lively characters to create his Twilight Sculpture Garden. Located just down the street from his workshop, this public garden is filled with dozens of sculptures, peppered throughout the tall grasses and popping up like magical figures in an urban landscape. These objects, made out of decommissioned elevator sprockets and other discarded metal, bring new life to the post-industrial landscape that characterizes much of Mile End.
In a city and country where public art often intersects with issues of waste, the climate crisis and gentrification, LeMesuriers approach to recycling feels relevant. And if youre lucky, as you wander through the Twilight Sculpture Garden, you might even run into the artist himself, who is always willing to chat about his latest creation.
Awesome Architecture!
The Patricia Theatre in Powell River, B.C., is more than the towns only movie theatre its a piece of history, and its been entertaining residents since before the invention of talkies. Founded in 1913, when this small city on the Sunshine Coast was a one-company mill town, the Patricia is the longest-running cinema in the entire country, and its current home, erected in 1928, is an architectural time capsule you wont easily find the likes of in Canada. Spanish Revival movie houses were rarely built in this country, and among the old-timey cinemas that have survived, few are examples of atmospheric theatres, film palaces designed to transport the audience to another realm before the lights go down. Inside the Patricia, the walls have been decorated with sylvan landscapes painted on panels, which were recently restored by artist Whitney La Fortune. Guided tours are offered regularly. (Email to reserve a spot.)
In 2021, the qathet film society, a local non-profit, took ownership of the Patricia, which had been the home of the towns annual film festival since 2012. While preserving the cinema is a priority, their mandate includes more than building maintenance, though theyve made some recent strides in that area. Earlier this summer, they gave the theatre a refresh by updating the screen and seats and adding air conditioning.
This was an important place for the community, said the Patricias theatre manager, Laura Wilson, speaking with CBC News earlier this year. And yet, the theatre has a long history of segregation, a fact the organization doesnt shy away from. Until about 1970, members of the Tla'amin Nation, the local Indigenous community, were barred from the Patricias main auditorium and relegated to a 25-seat balcony only accessible via a separate entrance. The theatre is now reckoning with that history, engaging in reconciliation efforts with the Tla'amin Nation, whove been generous with their time and information throughout the years, said Wilson. The film society consults with the Tla'amin community on topics including theatre programming. We try to just stay connected and follow the lead of the nation, she said.
This is obviously a place for the community in many ways, said Wilson. Throughout the year, we get people stopping in saying theyve heard of us and some people even say this is why they came to Powell River.
More from CBC:
Canada's longest-running movie theatre has been restored to its former glory
Modernizing the Patricia Theatre in Powell River, B.C., means building renovations and upgrades galore but it also means confronting the community's dark past.
The white and black exterior of Sainte-Ccile Church might seem unremarkable to visitors as they approach the quaint Roman Catholic place of worship in Petite-Rivire-de-l'Ile, N.B. But as they step inside, theyll be greeted by a whimsical candy-like interior, with rows of white pews beneath Romanesque arches and pillars, all painted in pastel blues, greens, yellows and pinks, inspiring the nickname, the Candy Church.
Of course, it didnt always look like this. Named after Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, the building was constructed in 1913 by local architect Ludger Duguay. The churchs original colour palette matched its traditional Roman-inspired architecture. It wasnt until 1969, when the finish began to darken, that Reverend Grard d'Astous took it upon himself to brighten up the space, apparently giving himself some artistic liberties with its new design.
Visitors to the Candy Church should definitely pay close attention to all the colourful details and iconography on display, from birthday cakes and balloons to stars, crosses and trees. And in a nod to Saint Cecilia, bells and musical notes can be seen under the choir loft. The church is open daily in the summer, and tours can be arranged during the off-season by calling the office.
Gander International Airport
Gander International Airport Departures Lounge
1000 James Blvd.
Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador
Widely considered the most important modernist room in Canada, the Gander International Airport Departures Lounge is an astonishing time capsule of mid-century art and design. Built during the early days of commercial aviation, the Gander airport was once known as the crossroads of the world, having established itself as a crucial refuelling stop for transatlantic flights. The lounge, which opened in 1959, was part of a nationwide series of airport renovations aimed at showcasing Canada to people at home and abroad as a dynamic and cosmopolitan country.
The room features a bold geometric terrazzo floor, furniture by some of the eras leading designers and, perhaps most notably, a 22-metre mural by renowned Canadian modernist Kenneth Lochhead, depicting various interpretations of flight.
In recent decades, the lounge was mothballed as larger jets with greater fuel capacities diminished Ganders importance for transatlantic travel. However, it was restored and reopened to the public in 2022 after a community campaign successfully rallied for its preservation and the Broadway hit Come From Away brought waves of international travellers to Gander. Today, you can fly back in time no boarding pass required and relax once again at the crossroads of the world. The lounge is open to the public seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
More from CBC:
How did this gem of art and architecture land in Gander, N.L.?
The airport's international departures lounge has been called the 'most important modernist room in Canada.'
Artist Peter Cullen has been making sculptures out of metal objects on his property for about a decade. He often finds his shiny things at the dump, although sometimes theyre gifted to him.
But heres the fun part: his sculptures arent actually held together by anything. No welding, no bonding, no glue just balance. He is constantly arranging and rearranging his work.
Metallurgy fascinates me, he says The human species has an amazing ability to manipulate metal into all manner of things. Quite beautiful really. An impressive variety of things and shapes are available in metal. Putting together my art pieces is like a Meccano set of the imagination.
I love to visit as the installation is always evolving and reflecting its current state, says artist Laura Hodgins. [The sculptures are] covered in snow for five to six months of the year and reveal themselves again each April.
Cullens sculpture, and his home, is located in a part of Yellowknifes Old Town known as The Woodyard.
Artist and former Woodyard resident Alison McCreesh describes it as, a little community of about 10 shacks, lots of them connected by a network of boardwalks it is kind of in a swamp, and adds that many of the houses have artwork affixed to their exteriors, including the Dragon Shack, covered in an enormous dragon mosaic.
How cool is this? Every March, Yellowknife throws a month-long party called the Snowkings Winter Festival, and the centrepiece of the event its HQ, really is an architectural wonder made entirely of snow and ice: a citadel that rises over Yellowknife Bay on the shores of Great Slave Lake. Its called the Snow Castle, and like any castle, its presided over by a benevolent ruler. Thats Anthony Foliot, a.k.a. the Snowking, who started the tradition nearly 30 years ago by building a deluxe snow fort for his kids. It was such a hit that his majesty decreed he would keep doing it every year, making his Snow Castle bigger and better until it became one of the most spectacular tourist attractions in the North if only until it melts.
Like any snow fort, the castle is built for play its known for epic ice slides and other attractions that could convince any kid to zip up their snow pants and spend an entire subzero day outside. If youve outgrown the playground, the castle also hosts concerts, theatre, dance parties, snow sculpture competitions and art shows, too. The building itself is a rustic work of art, created by an expert team that spends two months pouring ice and snow like concrete. (For its 24th edition, CBC Arts was on the ground to watch it all come together.) The walls typically feature elaborate carvings, and the icy windows are as eye-catching as any cathedrals, but the design is never the same twice. The 2024 edition, for example, was inspired by Spanish architect Antoni Gaud and included a network of Habitrail-esque tunnels for the kids!
Even though its a bit bigger every year, I love how it maintains a DIY spirit, says illustrator Alison McCreesh, whos been living in Yellowknife since 2009. She told CBC Arts that the Snow Castle was an absolute must for this list. I just love it.
In an interview with Nuvo magazine, Little Prince owner Leigh Cooney admitted he never meant to own a cinema he just got carried away. Originally, Cooney thought it would be cool to have a small screening room in the back of his gift shop. But the whole endeavour gradually spiralled out of control, and he wound up with a fully-fledged movie theatre, dripping with Golden Age of Cinema nostalgia.
The Little Prince boasts a popcorn machine, tiered seating (by which we mean three rows of four seats) and red velvet curtains which is pretty impressive for a space that only seats 12 people, making it the official Guinness World Record holder for the worlds smallest purpose-built cinema. The cinema shows short films for free during the day and classic films at night (check movie listings here), and can be booked for private parties.
La Pulperie de Chicoutimi/Muse rgional
Arthur Villeneuve House at La Pulperie de Chicoutimi
300 Rue Dubuc
Chicoutimi, Quebec
Perhaps the most well-known object in the collection of La Pulperie de Chicoutimi an old pulp mill turned museum dedicated to the culture of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region is the house of a local barber. In 1994, this modest two-storey home was lifted from its foundation just a few streets away and transported whole to the museum, where it now stands as a permanent exhibit.
But why? you might ask. What makes this house so special? Look a bit closer and youll understand why it belongs in a museum. The Arthur Villeneuve House is no ordinary home its insides and large parts of its exterior have been covered with the unique paintings of its former owner, like a Qubcois folk art version of the Sistine Chapel.
Arthur Villeneuve, a Chicoutimi barber, had a revelation during a Sunday mass when the priest quoted a letter from the pope, calling on the faithful to make the most of their talents. Though hed never expressed any artistic interests before, Villeneuve suddenly became obsessed with making art.
From 1957 to 1959, he worked feverishly, covering nearly every surface of his home with frescoes. When he finished, he opened his family home as a museum, which he operated until his death in 1990. The painter-barbers incredible story was immortalized in a National Film Board documentary. Now, at La Pulperie, Villeneuves masterpiece can be appreciated by generations to come. The museums opening hours vary throughout the year, so be sure to check the website before you go.
Drive northwest along Route 138 on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and youll reach Baie-Comeau, a community of just over 20,000 people. Here, youll find Sainte-Amlie Church, home to one of the most remarkable murals by Guido Nincheri, often referred to as the Michelangelo of Montreal.
Nincheri (1885-1973) was an Italian-born painter and designer who emigrated to Quebec in 1914 after studying art in Florence. Best known for his stained glass and fresco paintings, he produced works in over 100 churches in Canada and the United States. While many of his most-recognized works are in Montreal, it is in the far reaches of Quebec where youll find one of his most iconic pieces.
Although the exterior of Sainte-Amlie Church resembles many of the imposing granite buildings built by the Catholic Church in Quebec during the 20th century, inside, the fresco Nincheri painted between 1940 and 1945 is one of the largest of its kind in North America, nearly covering the churchs entire ceiling. His use of brightly coloured mineral pigments on fresh plaster creates an ethereal effect in the paintings, adding a transcendent quality to the already spiritual architecture.
Infamously, Nincheris work on the mural was interrupted in 1940 when he was arrested by the RCMP and interned for three months at Petawawa, Ont., along with other Italian Canadians who were considered a threat during the Second World War.
Today, the finished fresco stands as a monument in this small Qubcois village, rivalling the great church paintings of European masters like Titian and Raphael. Tours are available during the summer months but must be booked ahead on the churchs website.
Watrous-Manitou Beach Heritage Centre/Submitted to CBC
Danceland
511 Lake Ave.
Manitou Beach, Saskatchewan
On the shore of Saskatchewans Little Manitou Lake known as the Dead Sea of Canada for its high salinity, buoyancy and reputed healing powers stands a colossal ballroom that rises from the ground like a mirage. Its iconic rainbow signage proudly declares the name of this pleasure dome: Danceland.
Built in 1928, the Manitou Beach dance hall has been a hub of fun and merriment for generations. The ballroom boasts a 5,000-square-foot dance floor, which almost feels like its floating underfoot thanks to its famous horsehair spring bed. (Thats right: Dancelands builder brought in several train cars full of horse tail and mane hair to create a cushion beneath the hardwood.)
For nearly a century, Danceland has been a home to all sorts of music and music lovers from big band, swing and jazz to polka, country and rock. The dance floor is still busy year-round, with dances held most Fridays and Saturdays (always preceded by a buffet dinner) and Toonie Tuesday events throughout the summer. Its also open mornings for walkers, who can exercise and enjoy a cup of coffee inside the historic hall.
Danceland was immortalized in a painting by Saskatchewan artist David Thauberger, capturing the excitement and magic that the beloved hall represents for so many in this beach town.
Visit Dancelands website for the full schedule of events.
Roadside Attractions!
At 21 metres tall, the Pyramide des Ha! Ha! cant compete with the ones in Egypt, but this roadside attraction is nevertheless a wonder like no other. Named after the nearby Ha! Ha! River, this landmark was built to commemorate the Saguenay flood of 1996, a disaster that flattened the town of La Baie (now a borough of Saguenay) where the pyramid now stands. Ten people died, and nearly 16,000 residents were displaced.
But for all the devastation it suffered, Saguenays spirit and sense of humour couldnt be squashed. As the community began to rebuild, the idea for an art project was pitched. Local artist Jean-Jules Soucy provided the concept of a towering pyramid covered in yield signs 3,000 in total. In French, the phrase saider to help each other sounds the same as the word for yield (cder). And the creation of the pyramid became a means of moving through the shared trauma of the summer of 1996.
The pyramid is open to visitors during the summer months. Inside, memorials honour the families affected by the flood, and a staircase leads to an observation deck with views of the surrounding river valley.
This isnt the only bottle house youll find in Canada, never mind this list. Back in the day, these attractions examples of upcycled architecture, if you will sprang up across North America, from California (Knotts Berry Farm) to Prince Edward Island (the Bottle Houses of Cap-Egmont). But the Glass House in B.C. boasts a macabre quirk in its construction, one thats slightly less surprising if you know a bit about its creator, a man named David H. Brown.
In 1952, Brown was newly retired and determined to build his dream home on Kootenay Lake. Hed worked in the funeral business for 35 years, long enough to go through an alarming amount of embalming fluid perhaps enough to fill a three-room house. During that era, the liquid was packaged in flat-sided bottles that were roughly the same shape as ordinary bricks. And those are what he used to realize his vision.
The Glass House is built from 600,000 empties bottles from Browns personal stash plus contributions he received from colleagues around Western Canada. And its not just the house thats made out of translucent trash. On the lakefront property, with its garden riddled with vintage lawn gnomes, youll also find a bottle bridge and a bottle tower that overlooks the water.
According to the attractions current management, Brown never intended to turn the Glass House into a roadside stop, but soon after he and his wife moved in, public curiosity convinced the couple to open the property to visitors, at least during the warmer months. And you can still tour the Glass House today. It welcomes twee-seekers daily from May through the Thanksgiving long weekend each year. While it doesnt have an official website, hours of operation are available if you call the number listed on the Kootenay Rockies Tourism website.
In 1979, Rjeanne Arsenault sent her father, douard, a postcard of a glass castle in Duncan, B.C., made entirely from bottles. His response was, If they can do it there, I should be able to do it here. And so, on the opposite end of the country, the retired fisherman began his own project.
The first of his magical constructions opened to the public in 1981, and he continued expanding his glass village until his passing in 1984. Using more than 25,000 recycled bottles collected from local restaurants, dance halls, neighbours, family and friends, douard built a six-gabled house, a chapel and a tavern.
Standing inside these buildings, with sunlight filtering through the glass bricks, visitors experience what has been described as a symphony of colour and light and a kaleidoscopic wonderland. The enchanting structures have even inspired others, like Hannahs Bottle Village on the southeastern part of the island.
While the Duncan castle was demolished in the 90s for highway expansion, douards bottle houses surrounded by elaborate flower gardens have delighted visitors to P.E.I.s Evangeline region for more than 40 years. The Bottle Houses and Gardens are open seven days a week during the summer months, but be sure to check the website before your visit.
For a small town of just over 6,000, Sackville punches above its weight in terms of its art scene: its home to the fabulous Owens Art Gallery, the artist-run Struts Gallery, and the beloved independent music festival Sappyfest. Its produced so many artists, writers and performers that the town has its own artist hall of fame, the Sackville Arts Wall, which features the likes of painter Alex Colville, poet and author Sir Charles G.D. Roberts and indie rocker Julie Doiron.
It also has the Cube: a white, windowless 14-storey structure that looms at the edge of town, dominating the otherwise quaint, low-rise skyline. Its not technically a cube its a rectangular prism but nonetheless, it sits there, lurking, like something out of the sci-fi podcast Welcome to Night Vale or a temple from a lost civilization.
Despite its imposing presence, the Cubes purpose is actually quite mundane: its a silo for frozen berries though its official name is the still slightly ominous-sounding Atlantic AutoCold.
But, in a place like Sackville, something as intriguing as the Cube is guaranteed to spark peoples imaginations. And in 2020, when the pandemic put art, and life, as we knew it on hold, the Cube found its true purpose as a giant video projection screen. That August, the towns arts organizations came together to present the Cube Show, a mix of film, video art and live performances projected onto the wall of the massive structure.
Today, the Cube is still inspiring people: it has its own Instagram tribute page, poems have been written about it, and it still looks like the cover of a sci-fi novel.
In Nunavut, muskox easily outnumber the territorys human residents, with more than 60,000 of these woolly creatures roaming the tundra. But only one has achieved icon status: the metal muskox of Cambridge Bay, a life-sized sculpture that presides over Itqaumavik Park, greeting locals and cruise-ship tourists alike. Wrought from recycled materials colourful scraps largely reclaimed from the community dump the piece was unveiled in the summer of 2017; its the product of a local mentorship program that gives local youth the opportunity to learn a trade (welding) while simultaneously pursuing the arts. In 2019, the group won $100,000 through the Arctic Inspiration Prize, which went toward establishing a permanent workshop. By 2021, they had moved into Red Fish Arts Studio, a community hub where the projects young artists create and sell their work.
In 2019, Up Here magazine called the muskox one of the most gorgeous pieces of artistic expression in the Canadian North, but its not the only landmark to spring from Red Fish Arts. Using things like old oil drums and ship parts, the studios young artists have created a fish-themed sign for the Cambridge Bay Airport, a crane and bear for the hamlets municipal office, and a nearly four-metre-wide ulu believed to be the worlds largest which you can find outside their studio. In 2022, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon was so enchanted by their wire-maned sculpture of Sedna, the Inuit guardian of the sea, that she arranged to have the goddess shipped to Rideau Hall.
If it werent for one mans foot injury, Yukons Sign Post Forest might never have existed.
In 1942, an American GI named Carl Kenneth Lindley was working on the Alaska Highway which connects Delta Junction, Alaska, with Dawson Creek, B.C. as part of the Army Corp of Engineers. While working on the roads southern stretch, a truck ran over his foot, and he was sent to the armys aid station at Watson Lake. While recuperating, he was given light-duty tasks, such as repairing a signpost that had been damaged by a bulldozer. Feeling homesick, Lindley added a sign to the post, one that pointed in the general direction of his hometown and read Danville, Illinois, 2,835 miles. Other GIs started following his lead, putting up signs pointing toward their own hometowns.
After the war, people passing through town kept up the tradition, adding street signs, Welcome to signs and municipal ordinance signs. By the time the forest turned 75 in 2017, it was home to over 80,000 signs. The sheer density and variety of signs is really something to behold. If you think you can imagine what that many signs crammed into 8,000 square metres looks like, you probably cant. Its information overload in the best possible way.
The forest is open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and its still accepting new signs.
Produced by: Leah Collins, Chris Hampton and Michelle Villagracia | Editing: Jen Lauriault, Marcia Chen and Reiko Milley | Illustrations and Design: Jill Stanton | Web Design and Development: Jeff Hume | With contributions from: Leah Collins, Chris Dart, Chris Hampton, Didier Morelli and Michelle Villagracia | Social media: Shuli Grosman-Gray | Project Management: Michelle Villagracia | Senior Producer, CBC Arts: Aaron Leaf
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