Arts Roundup
May 7, 2026
When OddBird Art and Craft Fair returns to the Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre from May 8 to 10, first-time vendor Quinton Hylton will be among the flock. Known as nutfreegallery on social media, Hylton is one of about a dozen artists making their OddBird debut. "OddBird just kind of felt like a natural fit because they celebrate work that's kind of unconventional, and also kind of weird," Hylton told Taproot. "I feel like that's the perfect fit for me because I feel like my art is pretty weird."
Hylton is a collage artist, with many of his works having vintage, apocalyptic, and sci-fi motifs. "It really was something that I started doing during the lockdowns," Hylton said. "Originally, I was making book covers and just graphic design kind of things, and then I just stumbled into the world of digital collages." Hylton pointed to a particular piece as being reflective of making art during the pandemic. "It's a robot, and he's painting a beautiful, beautiful scenery, but the background is actually the apocalypse," said Hylton. "It really felt applicable to the times when I was making it, and also, even now, it could be still pretty applicable."
While OddBird is his first fair, Hylton hopes it won't be his last. "This is kind of like me testing the waters," he said. "We'll see how it goes." He'll find himself selling his work alongside two fellow collage artists who he considers inspirations: Zeph Mind and Paper Moon Collage. The spring fair will also feature ceramics, jewelry, apparel, books, beverages, fibre arts, and much more, as the robust vendor roster shows.
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Music
- Down by the River released the lineup for its Sept. 18 to 20 festival, featuring headliners Goldie Boutilier, The Rural Alberta Advantage, and Vincent Neil Emerson. Jed and the Valentine, The Denim Daddies, The Nico Tobias Band, and Tayler Grace are among the local acts in the lineup.
- Ty Dolla $ign, Down with Webster, and Mother Mother are among the artists headlining KDays Music Fest this July, with concerts included with grounds admission. KDays runs July 17 to 26.
- Experimental rock duo Angine de Poitrine has added an Edmonton show to their summer itinerary, playing the ICE District Fan Park on July 8. Tickets go on sale May 8. The mysterious Canadian band blew up after a viral in-studio set for KEXP.
- Kappella Kyrie Slavic Chamber Choir of Edmonton will present Among Women, a concert honouring women in music on May 8.
- CKUA raised $1,001,987 during its spring fundraiser, with 2,619 donors making 2,836 donations over 10 days.
- Jazz musician Mark Segger spoke to CKUA about winning the 2025 Edmonton Artists' Trust Fund award, presented by the Edmonton Arts Council and the Edmonton Community Foundation. His work focuses on jazz, improvisation, and contemporary classical music.
- The Well Endowed Podcast from the Edmonton Community Foundation explored the Emerging Artist Program at Pro Coro Canada, which offers professional-level training in choral music for singers, conductors, and composers who fall between school and a professional career.
- The Alberta government launched the Alberta Music Action Plan — described as the first strategy of its kind in Canada — to strengthen a sector supporting more than 23,000 jobs and nearly $5 billion in annual economic output. The province said the plan was developed with input from artists, producers, promoters, and venues, and includes the creation of a music commissioner modelled after the province's film commission. CBC's Edmonton AM spoke to Tanya Fir, Minister of Arts, Culture and Status of Women about the strategy.
Visual arts
- Trina Johnson from the Art Gallery of Alberta joined Global News Morning to discuss Art on the Block, the organization's June 5 fundraising gala. This year's theme is "It's Time for Magic."
- The Strathcona Community League is seeking an artist or artist team to design a medium-scale indoor mural for its newly renovated community hall. The deadline to apply is May 15.
- St. Albert sculptor Joanne Guthrie, who spent two decades as a journeyman B-pressure welder before turning to art, was featured at the Messer Canada Expo in Edmonton, which highlighted the convergence of skilled trades and artistic practice. "It was hard at the beginning, because there was a lot of, 'We don't hire women,' or 'We don't have facilities for women,'" Guthrie previously told Taproot. "I found a really great company to work for, and they apprenticed me, and then I just went from there." Today, she works with salvaged steel, foraged pigments, handmade paper, and charcoal.
- Fashion designer Hinauri Nehua-Jackson spoke to CBC Edmonton's Radio Active about celebrating her heritage through her designs as Asian Heritage Month got started. "This is my way of giving back to my community," she said. "This is how I give back to my Asian elders who fought so hard and so resiliently for us to even be sitting here."
Closer than you think.
In Siegfried, a young hero faces the unknown — and himself. This epic story of identity and courage is brought into an intimate space where every breath and every moment feels immediate, personal, and impossible to look away from.
Monday & Friday are going quickly · May 25, 27, 29 & 31 · Maclab Theatre at the Citadel
Theatre and dance
- Northern Light Theatre's 50th anniversary season finale, Request Programme, is a wordless one-woman show featuring 16 Edmonton actors, one per night through May 16. Liz Nicholls called the show "a devastating study of chronic loneliness," while Justin Bell with Postmedia described it as heart-wrenching.
- Alberta Ballet will close its season with Notre-Dame de Paris on May 8 and 9, telling the classic love story of Esmeralda and Quasimodo.
- Common Ground Arts has announced its 2026-27 season, which includes the RISER New Works Festival and the Found Festival, as well as Tiny Bear Jaws' I Don't Even Miss You and We Quit Theatre's i am your spaniel as part of its Prairie Mainstage Series.
- Free weekly Latin dance lessons will return to Churchill Square Wednesday evenings this spring, with classes in salsa, merengue, bachata, and cumbia presented by ETOWN SALSA and the Edmonton Arts Council.
- Dancer Savanah Hamelin is offering free Métis jigging lessons to kids in Devon. She told CBC Edmonton's Radio Active it means a lot to help young people connect to their heritage. "Being connected with your community, first of all, that's a big part of our Métis culture. Secondly, it's just knowing and listening to that fiddle vibe, that's what we're about," Hamelin said.
Books and publishing
- Palestinian-Canadian author Zeina Sleiman will discuss her debut novel, Where the Jasmine Blooms, at St. Albert Public Library's STARFest. Sleiman, whose grandparents fled Palestine in 1948, said she wrote the novel because she could not find stories reflecting her Arab background.
- Teren Hazzard discussed his new narrative poetry collection, Penguins Fly: A Queer Tale, which follows a university student on the Canadian prairies coming out as transgender. The collection was the top-selling poetry book on the Edmonton bestseller list from the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.
Screen industries
- The FascinAsian Film Festival will return to Edmonton from May 12 to 16. The Edmonton Arts Council published a Q and A with filmmaker Gabby Moukhaiber, the festival's programming lead, who helped co-found it to amplify Pan-Asian voices in Edmonton. "As a filmmaker, I have submitted to various festivals — and won some awards, which is great — but I never felt like we had a festival that particularly celebrated pan-Asian or pan-Asian-Canadian filmmakers," he said. "When we came together last year, it was like building the ship as it was sailing."
- Milo Productions was highlighted as a success story out of the federal government's Creative Export Strategy program. The Edmonton-based company, co-founded by Michael Milo and Flordeliza Dayrit, produces children's programming for a global Muslim audience and used federal funding to expand its content library to 900 episodes.
More headlines
- The Edmonton Arts Council distributed $100,000 for the Edmonton Arts Prizes on May 4. Rapper ARDN won the City of Edmonton Music Prize for his album Keep Your Eye on The Sparrow; multidisciplinary artist Elsa Robinson received the Eldon + Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize for her art installation The Garden; filmmaker Adam Scorgie of ScoreG Productions was awarded the City of Edmonton Film Prize for his film Tootoo; and author Jennifer Bowering Delisle was the winner of the Robert Kroetsch – City of Edmonton Book Prize for Stock. Next year's ceremony will include a fifth prize — the Edmonton Dance Prize, made possible through a collaboration between the Edmonton Arts Council and the Dancer Transition Resource Centre.
- Pe Metawe Games, an Indigenous-owned board game store at 118 Avenue and 94 Street, celebrated five years in business with an open house. Owner David Plamondon named the store for the Cree phrase meaning "come and play," with a goal of making everyone feel welcome.
- Arts Habitat Edmonton has created the Edmonton Cultural Infrastructure Plan, the city's first comprehensive plan to guide the development of cultural spaces across Edmonton over the next decade. The plan was developed in partnership with the City of Edmonton, Edmonton Arts Council, and Edmonton Heritage Council.
- The Queer in Alberta podcast featured two episodes with CallMeKeeks and Lucian LaPearl from the Haus of Ebonii, Alberta's first all-Black drag and performance collective, discussing the group's origins and the history of Ballroom culture.
- The TELUS World of Science - Edmonton has launched Dogs! A Science Tail, an interactive exhibition exploring how dogs perceive the world.
Happenings
Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:
- May 7: NAIT Student Film Festival starting at 7pm at Edmonton Public Library (Stanley A. Milner)
- May 8: The Redactor's Studio starting at 7pm at Rapid Fire Exchange
- May 8: Paganini and Friends starting at 7:30pm at First Presbyterian Church
- May 8-9: Notre Dame de Paris at Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
- May 8-10: Lumen at Allard Hall
- May 9: The Animators Town Hall starting at 11am at The Orange Hall
- May 9: Pale Blue Dot starting at 2:30pm at Northeast River Valley Park
- May 9: Opening Reception - Where We Came From (and where we go from here): A Vietnamese Art & Heritage Exhibit starting at 6pm at ArtsHub Creative Studios
- May 10: Real.Funny.Women starting at 3pm at Trinity Lutheran Church
- May 12: A Night With Libby Ward & Honest Motherhood starting at 7pm at Daisy Chain Book Co. (High Street)
- May 12-16: FascinAsian Film Festival
And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:
- May 17: The Sinners Cabaret – Half Way to Halloween Celebration at Starlite Room
- May 19-24: From Cradle to Stage at Walterdale Theatre
- May 20: An Evening with Louise Penny & Mellissa Fung at Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.
This roundup was sponsored by ATB.
Uplifting the legacies and livelihoods of our clients and the communities where we serve and live, is what gets ATB's team members out of bed in the morning. And after 80-plus years worth of mornings, they're still pursuing that mission with a brand of enthusiasm and authenticity you can only experience with ATB.