Sparrow Artspace

🎨 Introducing SPARROW POP-UP — free art, out in the community! 🌳

This summer, Sparrow Arts Society is bringing free, drop-in art-making right to Calgary’s community markets. No experience, no required skills, no cost — just show up, make something, and meet the working artists behind it. Every pop-up is co-designed with our artists-in-residence, so what you create connects to real, living artistic practice.

👋 Meet Sydney, our Pop-Up lead
Sparrow Pop-Up is led by Sydney Poirier, our Community Engagement Coordinator and AUArts Work-Integrated Learning practicum student. Sydney is a BFA student at Alberta University of the Arts whose own painting practice explores how we experience reality in an increasingly digital world.

📅 WHERE TO FIND US

📍 The Downtown Markets — Stephen Avenue (The Downtown Markets) 🗓 Tuesday, June 23 · ⏰ 11am–6pm 📌 Stephen Ave (8 Ave SW), Calgary 🎨 Featured artist: Ellie Ryan 🤝 Sparrow board: Sandra Neill ✨Theme: Sep, Sew Sprawl - sewing fabric apples

📍 Bridgeland Riverside Farmers’ Market 🗓 Thursday, June 25 · ⏰ 3:30–7:30pm 📌 917 Centre Ave NE, Calgary 🎨 Featured artist: Page Cowell 🤝 Sparrow board: Jamie Mason ✨Theme: Sep, Sew Sprawl - sewing fabric apples

📍 Canopy Art Market (Canopy Studios | Art + Wellness) 🗓 Sunday, June 28 · ⏰ 1:30–7pm 📌 Canopy Studios, 1723 9 St SW, Calgary 🎨 Featured artist: TBA 🤝 Sparrow board: Mellissa Fonseca

📍 Canada Cultural Day (City of Calgary) 🗓 Wednesday, July 1 · ⏰ 11am–5pm 📌 Sien Lok Park, Riverfront Ave & 1 St SW, Calgary 🎨 Featured artist: Ezgi Turker 🤝 Sparrow board: Danielle Piper, Dorothea Buchlinski & Sandra Neill ✨ Theme: HOME — Badges & Beads

📍 Bridgeland Riverside Farmers’ Market 🗓 Thursday, July 2 · ⏰ 3:30–7:30pm 📌 917 Centre Ave NE, Calgary 🎨 Featured artist: Jona Redwood 🤝 Sparrow board: TBD

📍 Dalhousie Farmers’ Market 🗓 Thursday, July 9 · ⏰ 3:30–7:30pm 📌 Dalhousie Community Centre, 5432 Dalhart Rd NW, Calgary 🎨 Featured artist: Yu Chen 🤝 Sparrow board: TBD

📍 Heritage Park Market Nights 🗓 Saturday, July 11 · ⏰ 12–6pm 📌 Heritage Park Plaza, 1900 Heritage Dr SW, Calgary 🎨 Featured artist: Kseniia 🤝 Sparrow board: TBD

Artists Trading Cards: Trash!
Wednesday, June 24, 6-8pm

FREE, all ages (accompanied by an adult),
please register

Turn trash into art - create and trade mini artworks made from recycled materials! Bring your own trash or use ours!

Artists Trading Cards are miniature works of art, created by hand and exchanged with others—tiny canvases that spark conversation, connection, and creativity. No prior art experience is needed, and people of all ages and backgrounds are welcome. All supplies
are provided, with a wide range of materials—from paints and markers to collage paper, and, trash of course.

**ATC show here by Lorraine Stratkotter

What Are Artist Trading Cards (ATCs)?Artist Trading Cards are miniature works of art measuring 2.5 x 3.5 inches—the size of a standard playing card. Originating in the 1990s, the ATC movement began in Switzerland with artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann, who envisioned a way for artists to exchange their creations without monetary transactions. The concept quickly gained global popularity, fostering artistic expression and collaboration. Today, ATCs are celebrated as an inclusive
and accessible way to share art and build connections within creative communities.

Repost from Melanie Figueroa
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Very happy with my new hand made apple from the “Seep, Sew, Sprawl” show! Come check ot out at Sparrow Artspace and pick one for yourself! 🍎 Show runs til June 30th.

Artists Reception: Seep, Sew, Sprawl

Friday, June 12, 2026
5:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
Sparrow Artspace
36 4 Street Northeast Calgary, AB

FREE, drop-in

Join artists-in-residency Ellie Ryan & Page Cowell for the reception of SEEP, SEW, SPRAWL: an exhibition investigating the resilience of nature in urban environments through immersive, kinetic installations.

Stitch & B.I.T.C.H (Brave, Inspired, Thriving, Connected, Healing) Circle

Wednesday, June 10, 2026
5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

FREE - please register online, for WOMEN ages 18+

Sitch & B.I.T.C.H Circle (Bold, Inspired, Thriving, Connected, Healing)

Hey ladies! Join us for a cozy, come-as-you-choose space for WOMEN only who crave connection, creativity, and candid conversations. Whether you are stitching, creating, conspiring, or sipping tea and taking it all in, this is the space for you.

Please note that this is a CHILDREN free space

Artist-in-residence Ellie Ryan

Ellie Ryan is a textile and expanded media artist who has worked and exhibited internationally. Equipped with a projector and sewing machine she bridges the gap between traditional and expanded mediums to create layered environments that invite viewers to reflect on loss, transformation and the beauty that can emerge from memory and decay. With a push to create interactive work, Ryan breaks the bounds of typical gallery expectations, encouraging the viewers to get up close and personal with many of her works, inspiring people to shift how they interact with art in the everyday. Utilizing found fabrics and footage Ryan intertwines the mediums into something new and exciting while paying homage to what came before.

Intro to Projection Mapping Workshop
Saturday, June 6, 1-4pm
1:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m.
PWYC ($10+), for adults, please register on our website (link in bio)

Projection mapping uses everyday projectors to transform space and objects into interactive displays and captivating 3D video content. This workshop teaches the very basics of projection mapping, serving as an easy entry point for all levels, from going over
projectors to learning the software (MadMapper). Taught by artist-in-residence
Ellie Ryan.

Intro to Projection Mapping
Saturday, June 6, 1-4pm

PWYC ($10+), for adults, please
register on our website (link in bio)

Projection mapping uses everyday projectors to transform space and objects into interactive displays and captivating 3D video content. This workshop teaches the very basics of projection mapping, serving as an easy entry point for all levels, from going over projectors to learning the software (MadMapper). Taught by artist-in-residence Ellie Ryan

Ellie Ryan is a textile and expanded media artist who has worked and exhibited internationally. Equipped with a projector and sewing machine she bridges the gap between traditional and expanded mediums to create layered environments that invite viewers to reflect on loss,

transformation and the beauty that can emerge from memory and decay. With a push to create interactive work, Ryan breaks the bounds of typical gallery expectations, encouraging the viewers to get up close and personal with many of her works, inspiring people to shift how they interact with art in the everyday. Utilizing found fabrics and footage Ryan intertwines the mediums into something new and exciting while paying homage to what came before.

Artist-in-Residence Page Cowell .cowell

Page Cowell is a multi-disciplinary artist with a sentiment for the quotidian. She aims to illuminate the profound stories that reside within the seemingly commonplace. She finds inspiration in the resilience, tenacity, and quiet dignity of individuals navigating the complexities of their daily lives. Page’s work often tips its hat at the working class. In a world where most spend a third of their lives at work, she is interested in how workspaces impact identity and taste. She recognizes industry’s significant influence on culture and hasbeen taken by creating interactive work that allows people to bond over this.

SEEP SEW SPRAWL: Ellie Ryan & Page Cowell

May 18 to June 30, 2026

Meet the artists Thurs-Sat 11am-6pm!

Through immersive installation and kinetic sculpture, SEEP SEW SPRAWL aims to highlight the resilience of nature within urban environments. Shifting projections, tactile sculptures, and moving machines reveal the persistence of nature as it weaves through and
around industrial spaces that have been recreated within the gallery walls. Interactive elements draw viewers in, making them participants in the dialogue between growth and construction and inviting them to consider their own position within the relationship
between the natural and the industrial. Made from found and repurposed materials, including local industrial waste, the work carries traces of environmental history and human labour which anchor the installation in Calgary’s urban landscape.