Whyte Museum

Spend an evening celebrating art, culture, and community in the heart of Banff! Join us this Friday, May 1 at 7 p.m. for the public opening of our summer exhibitions, Thick as Thieves and When our eyes touch. Together, these exhibitions invite visitors into layered conversations about connection, influence, portraiture, community, and the stories that shape how we see one another. Free and open to all. We look forward to welcoming you! Thick as Thieves is organized and circulated by The MacKenzie Art Gallery and is curated by Crystal Mowry. @mackenzie.art.gallery @crystalmowry 📍The Whyte, 111 Bear Street, Banff 🗓 Friday, May 1 🕖 7 p.m. Learn more about these exhibitions at whyte.org/exhibitions Support for the Banff iteration comes from Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Bowstrings Heritage Foundation, and Rimrock Banff, Emblems Collection.

Save the date ✨ Join us on Friday, September 25, 2026 for Night at The Whyte, an unforgettable evening of art, culture, and community in the heart of Banff. Enjoy an elegant dinner, experience our summer exhibition Thick as Thieves in an intimate setting, take part in an exciting reverse raffle, and enjoy a special musical performance. Proceeds support The Whyte’s exhibitions, programming, and preservation efforts. Tickets available soon. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. Learn more at whyte.org/fundraiser #NightAtTheWhyte #WhyteMuseum #Banff #ArtsAndCulture #Fundraiser #SupportTheArts

The latest edition of The Cairn is now live ✨ In this issue 👉 Explore winter exhibition photos from An Alpine Trilogy and Second Take, get a first look at our upcoming summer exhibition Thick as Thieves, revisit Chic Scott’s final Fireside Chat, and see highlights from the inaugural Night at The Whyte fundraiser in photos. Plus, discover new stories and features from The Whyte! Read now at the link in bio 🔗

At a time when the world feels increasingly divided, museums remain spaces where dialogue, understanding, and connection can take root. This year’s International Museum Day theme, “Museums Uniting a Divided World,” speaks to the role museums play as bridges—bringing together diverse stories, voices, and perspectives to foster empathy and shared understanding. At the Whyte Museum, we are committed to being part of that conversation, using art, history, and place to create space for reflection, learning, and connection across communities.

Every painting, every artifact, every historic building has a story—and now, you can hear them all. Guided tours of our Art exhibition, Heritage Gallery and Historic Homes are running daily. From bold works of art to treasured heritage pieces to the stories hidden inside our Historic Homes, each tour offers a chance to see our spaces in a whole new way. If you’ve ever wondered what lies behind the gallery walls—or what secrets historic homes hold—now’s your chance to find out. Whether you’re a longtime local or a first time visitor, there’s something waiting. Heritage Gallery Tour: 10:30AM, 1:00PM, 3:00PM Art Gallery Tour: 11:00AM, 12:00PM, 2:00PM, 4:00PM Historic Homes Tour: 11:30AM, 1:30PM, 2:30PM, 3:30PM

You don’t need to look for a sign to find us in this town! We will show you the way. Come check out our Summer Exhibition here at The Whyte. 111 Bear Street, right next to Central Park!

Join us for the Banff launch of "No Place Like Home: Enemy Alien Internment in Canada during the Great War" by historian Bohdan S. Kordan. Drawing on local and national records, this talk with historian Bohdan S. Kordan examines the internment and forced labour of Ukrainian and Austro-Hungarian immigrants during the Great War, with a strong local focus on the Castle Mountain internment camp and its lasting connection to the Bow Valley. The event starts at 7:00pm on Thursday May 28th, 2026. This sponsored event is free to attend, with a suggested museum donation. Registration required. This stop on the national speaking tour is made possible through the generous support of the Shevchenko Foundation, the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund, and McGill-Queen's University Press.

We opened our Summer Exhibitions “Thick as Thieves” and “When our eyes touch” this past week! These exhibitions will be running all summer long so be sure to make us apart of your plans when visiting Banff this summer. These shows are a must see! Check us out at Whyte.org for our tour times if you want a more in depth experience when visiting the galleries.

This week we introduce another artist in the Indigenous Artist Mentorship Program! Have a read below to learn more about Brandon. My name is Brandon Atkinson; I am a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, I now live in Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement. I am a full-time artist. I’ve always had my own unique style of drawing that I’ve been able to transfer over from medium to medium. I am a father of six beautiful children. I also play guitar and sing, liking it just as much as creating art. I’ve always lived life knowing I am Métis, coming from a long line of Métis ancestors and their bloodline. From growing up in Edmonton, to moving out to the country, I’ve been able to learn more about settlement life and have been able to appreciate the land and air a lot more over the years. More about the IAM Project: Last fall, 13 Indigenous artists from across nations, generations, and career stages came together for the Indigenous Artist Mentorship Project — guided by mentors AJA Louden and Joseph Sanchez and now they’re creating brand new works to show in our Winter 2026 exhibition! We’ve officially moved from concept development into preparation — and trust me, this show is going to be incredible. Showing a range of artistic works, from painting to installation, traditional arts to animation — it’s going to be unforgettable. Generously supported by TD, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Calgary Foundation

Students in the Through the Lens program were thrilled to see their printed photographs at the @banffcentre this week. Over the past few months, they've been photographing and developing pictures to tell their own unique stories through 35 mm film. We're very proud to support Through the Lens and its comeback to the Bow Valley. Originally started in 1997 at the @whytemuseum , the program worked with high school students from across the Bow Valley until 2017. Last year, it was revived by alumni Nic Latulippe and Soloman Chiniquay 📷 An exhibit with the photos will open at the Whyte Museum in June.

Thick as Thieves opens TONIGHT - Friday, May 1st at 7 pm! Join us for the celebration of our summer exhibitions - open and welcome to all. Together, Thick as Thieves and When our eyes touch invite visitors into layered conversations about connection, influence, portraiture, community, and the stories that shape how we see one another. We look forward to welcoming you! Thick as Thieves is organized and circulated by The MacKenzie Art Gallery and is curated by Crystal Mowry.

Join The Whyte this Saturday, May 2nd, for a Curator's Talk on our summer exhibition, Thick as Thieves. Thick as Thieves is an exhibition full of intrigue, layered meaning, and subtle connections. Come and hear from the exhibition Curator, Crystal Mowry, as she describes her motivations and influences when developing the exhibition. Crystal’s presentation will be followed by a Q&A led by The Whyte’s Curator and COO, Christina Cuthbertson. This event is free with museum admission - learn more at whyte.org/events Crystal Mowry (she/her) is the Director of Programs at the MacKenzie Art Gallery. She previously held the position of Senior Curator at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery where she oversaw the gallery’s exhibitions, collections, and publishing activities. Her curatorial work includes group exhibitions such as I’ll be your Mirror, The Perennials, What the Bat Knows, and Romancing the Anthropocene, one of three zones commissioned by the City of Toronto for its annual Nuit Blanche event. Her solo projects with artists Deanna Bowen, Maggie Groat, and Ernest Daetwyler have received Exhibition of the Year Awards from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries (now Galleries Ontario Galeries). In 2020 she was a recipient of a Waterloo Region Arts Award and in 2024 was shortlisted for the Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Curatorial Excellence. She regularly participates on industry juries and advisories, most notably for the Sobey Art Award (2015), the Scotiabank Photography Award (2021), and the Canadian pavilion for the 2026 Venice Biennale. Crystal was born in Tkaronto (Toronto) where she completed undergraduate studies in sculpture and installation at the Ontario College of Art and Design University before earning a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in (Kjipuktuk) Halifax. Thick as Thieves is organized and circulated by MacKenzie Art Gallery and curated by Crystal Mowry. Support for the Banff iteration comes from Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Bowstrings Heritage Foundation, and Rimrock Banff, Emblems Collection.