300 public artworks and counting
October 23, 2025
Edmonton has always been an arts city, and always will be.
Although the roots of the collection can be traced to 1957, the adoption of the first Public Art Policy in 1991 led to the creation of the official City of Edmonton Public Art Collection. Today, the Public Art Collection boasts 300 artworks by local, regional, national, and international artists. More than 60% of the over 300 artists represented in the collection are from right here in Edmonton.
Throughout October, the EAC has marked 30 years of the Edmonton Arts Council and the addition of the 300th public artwork to the City of Edmonton Public Art Collection with public art tours, the 300th artwork unveiling, a poetry reading in collaboration with LitFest, giveaways and more. Explore the journey to 300 artworks below or visit City Hall for a display on the history of the collection (on until October 31).
The Migrants by Lionel J. Thomas // City Hall
The Migrants by Lionel J. Thomas depicts a flock of nine abstract Canada Geese symbolizing Edmonton as a destination for progress, and as the aviation gateway to the North. The sculpture also pays homage to the immigrants who played a role in building the city to what it is today.
A direct response to the arrival of the International Style of Architecture in Edmonton, the artwork was unveiled in 1957 in front of the City Hall building. The sculpture was met with controversy when it was first unveiled, but when it was incorporated into the new building, the infamy surrounding the sculpture was largely forgotten. The only hint of its troubled past is the lingering nickname that it received from a radio station after it became the subject of a spoof song called “The Spaghetti Tree.”
Art at City Hall
Paintings, sculptures, photography, print-making, textiles, and other art forms can be found in the Public Art Collection inside and around City Hall. While a few pieces have been in the collection for an extended period, many of the pieces that comprise the current collection were commissions or direct purchases for the opening of City Hall under the City’s Percent for Art Policy that was established in 1991 (since revised). Fifty-two of the original artworks were chosen from submissions, and eight sites throughout City Hall were selected to receive custom-designed art.
Several new additions to the City Hall collection have been acquired since 1991, including four artworks by local Indigenous artists in honour of the City’s Indigenous Framework, unveiled in 2023.
Immense Mode by Dawn Detarando and Brian McArthur // Southgate Transit Centre
Immense Mode (2009) is an immediately recognizable work. Made from 42,000 pounds of brick and mortar, the sculpture is an expression of whimsy, which, at 20 feet tall, demands your attention.
Red Deer-based artists Dawn Detarando and Brian McArthur imagined the legs to represent the thousands of real, human legs that will use the Southgate transit centre by standing and waiting for a bus or a train, or walking to and from the shopping centre. Because of its size, the piece is as much a work of engineering as it is art, with the entire structure supported by a welded metal superstructure. The artists built the sculptural form around the engineered framework from specially fired, hand-carved bricks made at their Red Deer studio.
Talus Dome by Ball Nogues Studio
Before the Quesnell bridge was constructed, talus slopes of earth occurred naturally along the river’s edge. The artists behind Talus Dome (2012), Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues, wanted to remind us of the local landscape that has been altered by the bridge. Composed of nearly 1,000 stainless-steel spheres, the artwork reflects the sky, the weather, the river of cars that pass by, and numerous daily visitors on the nearby river valley trails.
In 2023, the artwork made international headlines when a local man scaled the sculpture, climbed inside, and got stuck, requiring Edmonton Fire Rescue to extract him. Thankfully, the Edmonton Arts Council’s collections team swooped in to repair the damage and seal off access, earning the appreciation of art lovers across the city.
Vaulted Willow and Agent Crystalline by Marc Fornes and THEVERYMANY
Vaulted Willow (2014) by Marc Fornes and THEVERYMANY is a celebration of artistic, architectural, and mathematic disciplines. The artist describes the sculpture as an “architectural folly,” evoking the decorative, but generally non-practical structures that adorned the great estates of Europe in the 18th & 19th centuries. The artwork’s colour, shape and tracery of light and shadow invite the passerby to stop, explore and play within.
In 2015, Vaulted Willow was recognized with an Edmonton Urban Design Award of Excellence for Urban Fragments and an Americans for the Arts Public Art Network Year in Review award.
In 2019, Marc Fornes and THEVERYMANY was commissioned to create an artwork for the Edmonton Police Service Northwest Campus. That artwork, Agent Crystalline, received a 2021 international CODAaward.
The Circle of Life and Tsa Tsa Ke K’e by Alex Janvier
Edmonton’s Public Art Collection contains two works by internationally renowned, award-winning, Cold Lake First Nations artist, Alex Janvier.
The Circle of Life (1976) winds around all four walls of the Muttart Conservatory’s main rotunda. Beginning at the south wall, the work is meant to represent the cycle of life, from the energy of the sun, to the growth of plant, animal, and human from generation to birth, maturity.
Tsa Tsa Ke K’e (2016) is a 1,500 square foot mosaic gracing Ford Hall in Rogers Place Arena. The artwork is made up of close to a million smalti tiles, and pays respect to the land area where Edmonton is located, highlighting the colours of beautiful sky, the stories of the area, and the four seasons. In 2017, Tsa Tsa Ke K’e received a Creative City Network of Canada Public Art Award.
All roads lead to the area, Edmonton, as it is a central destiny for all who came before, and who came after. – Alex Janvıer, February 25, 2015.
ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞ Edmonton’s Indigenous Art Park
ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW), pronounced (EE-NU) is a Cree word meaning “I am of the Earth.” The Art Park is situated on ancestral lands of the Indigenous peoples whose descendants entered into Treaty with the British Crown resulting in the territory opening for settlement. River Lot 11 acknowledges the historic river lot originally home to Métis landowner Joseph McDonald.
Opened in 2018, the park features work by local and national Indigenous artists: Amy Malbeuf (Rich Lake, Alberta), Tiffany Shaw (Edmonton, Alberta), Duane Linklater (Moose Cree First Nation, Ontario), Jerry Whitehead (James Smith First Nation, Saskatchewan), Mary Anne Barkhouse (Nimpkish Band, Kwakiutl First Nation), and Marianne Nicolson (Dzawada’enuxw Nation).
In 2019, ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞ was recognized by the Americans for the Arts Public Art Network Year in Review and in 2021, it was the only Canadian artwork included in Destination Art (Art Essentials) by Amy Dempsey, Thames & Hudson.
UGO & Mischief of Could-be(s) Erin Pankratz and Christian Pérès Gibaut (Red Knot Studio)
A Mischief of Could-be(s) (2023) and UGO (2024) are a pair of whimsical child-friendly public art pieces in two locations in the Civic Precinct by local artists Erin Pankratz and Christian Pérès Gibaut (Red Knot Studio).
The artists held a series of workshops with children and found that children highly valued the qualities of imagination and weirdness. These findings directed the artists to create a work that was abstract rather than representational. Through the City’s research, the Child Friendly initiative also prioritized play to be an important value for a child-friendly artwork. The artists wanted to invite different types of play including active, passive, sensory, and imaginative.
A Mischief of Could-be(s) was unveiled in the summer of 2023, and on busy days in the heart of downtown Edmonton, multiple children can be seen climbing, dangling, swinging and otherwise engaging with the artwork. UGO was installed behind the Stanley Milner Library in 2024 and has been similarly well received.
In October 2025, the artworks were recognized with a national Creative City Network of Canada Public Art Legacy Award.
Piney’s Playground by AJA Louden // Balwin Park
“What if in the future, we grew playgrounds from seeds?”
Edmonton’s first artist-designed playground is also the 300th artwork in the City of Edmonton Public Art Collection. For Piney’s Playground (2025) at Balwin Park, artist AJA Louden was inspired by nature and science fiction. It is a place to play, to grow together and to imagine the future. Piney P, a playful pineapple character created by the artist, is the protector of the playground as he stands tall at the centre of it all.
After exploring many concepts, AJA Louden found that he was drawn to the idea of a strange seed landing from another place and time to make its home here on the Prairies and ultimately growing into a fun playground for kids. Along with nature, AJA took inspiration from his Jamaican-Canadian roots and those of Indigenous cultures who place importance on drumming. Looking at creating a social experience, AJA integrated a drumming circle into the design of the playground to encourage kids to drum together.
Explore the collection
To continue exploring Edmonton’s diverse public art, you can build your own public art tour or visit the City of Edmonton Public Art Collection Online Gallery.
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