Arts Roundup

Music

• The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra will present a show called Love Letters to Alberta on Feb. 20 at 8pm, featuring the world premiere of Pentimento by St. Albert-born composer Zosha Di Castri, alongside works by other Alberta composers.
• Aretha Tillotson joined CBC's Edmonton AM to talk about her 2025 album Kinda Out West, which was nominated for Jazz Album of the Year at the Juno Awards.
• Cam Hayden, producer of the Edmonton Blues Festival, said a "collision of factors" contributed to the permanent cancellation of the festival, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the closure of the Heritage Amphitheatre as Hawrelak Park was undergoing renovations, and an increase in production costs.
• Leduc-born Carly Reirson will perform on Feb. 27 at the Westbury Theatre in the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns as part of her Diary of a Beating Heart tour. "I've invited a bunch of people, and it feels like a big family reunion," she told the Leduc Rep. "I've invited people from my college days, high school, my family, people from church, and it's really special to bring all those people together."
• Arkells has announced a Western Canada tour featuring three shows in Edmonton — at The Buckingham on May 14, Starlite Room on May 15, and Midway Music Hall on May 16.
• Corb Lund has added two more nights to his Starlite Room takeover in May. He'll be performing Five Dollar Bill and Hair In My Eyes Like A Highland Steer on May 30 and Cabin Fever and Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier! on May 31.
• Pop singer Hilary Duff will perform at Rogers Place on Jan. 27 as part of her first global headlining tour in nearly 20 years.
• Propagandhi announced a Western Canadian tour with a stop at Pawnshop Live on Aug. 29.

Visual arts

• The organizers behind the soon-to-be-destroyed Cupcake mural project at 10507 124 Street NW say they've always known the work was ephemeral and accept its fate, though they recognize it as something special. "The great thing about the 124 Street project is the developer didn't really get involved in the creative process at all," Marcus Coldeway of the Edmonton Mural Festival told Taproot. "They were just happy to have us go have fun and really do something cool. And often when that happens, when you don't do art by committee, and you just let the artist go, you get a lot more creativity. You get something that's a lot more vibrant than normal."
• Living Portraits, an exhibition celebrating Black artists in Edmonton, is on display at City Hall. Curator Darren W. Jordan told CBC's Edmonton AM that he hopes viewers will go beyond preconceived notions and engage with the subjects of the portraits.
• The Royal Alberta Museum hosted an event celebrating the legacy of Caribbean workers who helped build Alberta's oil industry, featuring storytelling, music, and dance, as well as a presentation from historian laureate Donna Coombs-Montrose.
• Dear Future YEG is accepting submissions for Love Letters to YEG, an exhibition of BIPOC artists' work reflecting Edmonton through their eyes, with selected pieces to be displayed at CO*LAB Gallery from March 14 to 28.
• The Edmonton International Airport has unveiled an Indigenous-designed "YEG" installation to welcome delegates of the 2026 International Indigenous Tourism Conference, which is in Edmonton until Feb. 19. The installation, designed by artist Lance Cardinal from the Bigstone Cree Nation, is called "Wâhkôhtowin," which means "kinship" and symbolizes the interconnected nature of relationships, communities, and natural systems.
• The Art Gallery of St. Albert has announced its 2026 season, featuring exhibitions that prominently showcase fibre arts and textiles. The season includes works from Indigenous weaver Speplól Tanya Zilinsky, Quebec artist Sébastien Gaudette, and a collaborative installation by 100-plus students from three local high schools using recycled fabric.

Theatre and dance

• Rainier Pearl-Styles is the next managing producer of Common Ground Arts. "When I first moved to Edmonton, I met the folks at Common Ground Arts almost by accident," Pearl-Styles said. "Since then, their warm welcome has been instrumental in helping me integrate into Edmonton's art scene."
• Playwright Mieko Ouchi told CKUA's Leo Cripps the true story behind her play Burning Mom, which runs at the Citadel Theatre until March 8.
• Director Murray Utas spoke to Liz Nicholls about Countries Shaped Like Stars, playing as part of the Edmonton Fringe's season until Feb. 28.
• Stewart Lemoine's first full-length comedy in seven years, I Meant What I Said, runs at Varscona Theatre until March 8. Lemoine said he wrote the play for five young Teatro Live! ensemble members so they could perform "something that would just be their own, not having to worry about how someone did it before them," he told Liz Nicholls.

Books and publishing

• Edmonton authors such as Conor Kerr, Nisha Patel, Premee Mohamed, Alice Major, and Marty Chan shared their favourite writing spots, ranging from Next Act Pub to Carl's Jr.
• Bad Cree by Jessica Johns was among the top-selling fiction books on the Edmonton bestseller list from the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.

More headlines

• Game Con Canada has announced the North American Game Industry Summit, a B2B-focused event taking place in Edmonton on June 18 to 19. Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, will deliver a keynote. The summit will be followed by Game Con Canada's annual conference.
• The Alberta government is accepting applications for the Alberta Culture Days Grant for non-profit organizations hosting official community celebration sites.
• The Edmonton Arts Council has announced recipients of its Individuals & Collectives Fall 2025 grants, awarding $140,000 to 28 artists in Stream 1 for exploration and experimentation, and $100,256 to 12 artists in Stream 2 for mentorship and professional development, and $1 million to 50 artists in Stream 3 for major projects.

Happenings

Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:

• Feb. 19: Writer in Residence: Blogging to Build Community - A Workshop on Blogging and Social Media starting at 7pm at Strathcona County Library
• Feb. 20: Britt & The Backbeat starting at 7pm at Halo Bar and Bistro
• Feb. 20: Goddess of Slide: The Forgotten Story of Ellen McIlwaine with Musical Guest Rachelle van Zanten starting at 7:30pm at Arden Theatre
• Feb. 21: Pints & Pages: Bridgerton Edition starting at 1pm at PYRO Wood-Fired Kitchen and Bar
• Feb. 21: Anything Can Happen… A Very Cantilon Cabaret starting at 3pm at Westbury Theatre
• Feb. 21: A Blackprint for the Future starting at 6pm at The Royal Palace
• Feb. 22: The Book Nook - A Book Fair starting at 10am at The Creative Hive Event Centre
• Feb. 22: Lunar New Year starting at 12pm at Royal Alberta Museum
• Feb. 23: Audreys Book Club: Counting Bones starting at 7pm at Audreys Books
• Feb. 24: The History of Western Canada's Largest Caribbean Arts Festival starting at 6:30pm at Bison Lodge
• Feb. 25: Felice Open Mic starting at 6pm at Felice Cafe
• Feb. 25: Screams & Shenanigans: Celebrating 10 Years of Social VR starting at 6pm at Edmonton Unlimited

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

• Feb. 27: Insecure: A documentary film screening on food security in Edmonton at Earth's Refillery Coop
• Feb. 28: Black History Month 40th Gospel Concert at Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
• March 1: Light of Paradise, with Quasar Saxophone Quartet at McDougall United Church

Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.