Have you ever wanted to make your own book? Now you can in this hands-on workshop using the equipment in our Tiny Press Studio.

Participants will have the chance to make a blank notebook or bind their own printed materials. If you want to bind your own writing or art, please bring two printed copies to the workshop. 

This workshop is open to ages 12+. The majority of the bookbinding process requires standing. Accommodations can be made. This workshop is $15 for general attendees and $10.00 for SAAG members. Space is limited so registration is encouraged. You can register at the front desk or by emailing hkehoe@saag.ca If you have any questions about the printing process, how to print your materials, or more please contact Heather Kehoe, Program & Event Coordinator.

Tiny Press at SAAG is a handmade bookmaking studio at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin, in Lethbridge, Alberta. Tiny Press prints, binds, and distributes books by hand, creating original work with writers and artists of the region, about topics that are important to us. Tiny Press is a community resource, and social gathering place for those interested in learning about publication, and connecting with others through a DIY mentality.

Join us for Bletcher Hour, the Gallery’s bimonthly critical reading group. Readings explore key themes of the exhibitions and current events, with the intent to deepen our understanding of the artworks and their context within our community. 

For our first Bletcher Hour of the year we will be reading selections of In the Dream House: a Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado. In the Dreamhouse is heralded as an engrossing and innovative memoir looking back on Machado’s experience in an abusive relationship. Manchado unpacks symbolism, narrative tropes, and cultural representations of abuse, while also reflecting on her religious upbringing and utopian expectations of queer relationships. In the Dream House was recommended by exhibiting artists Paul Maheke and Lan “Florence” Yee.

This program is free to attend. Please contact Heather Kehoe, Program & Event Coordinator, to register. Readings are sent as PDFs in advance of the event. If you cannot make it in person, online attendance options are available.

Seniors (65+) are welcome at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for a free guided tour, art activity, and refreshments.

Join artist Lan “Florence” Yee for the first of our 2025 Artist Workshop series. This workshop invites participants to explore their relationship to text and textile imagery together through hand embroidery. As seemingly mundane images and words flood our everyday lives (through signage, templates, media, and more), artists can parse out their deeply affective nature by taking away the veneer of neutrality. Text and textile imagery function as mutual interventions into each other’s spheres of influence.

Participants are asked to bring both text (eg. words, notes, lists, signs, conversations stuck in your head, etc.) and fabrics that may be significant or yet-to-be fully known to you (eg. a handkerchief, t-shirt, patterned cloth, etc.). This workshop will include creative text prompts to respond to your objects. We will combine the text and textile through two basic hand-embroidery techniques that Lan will demonstrate, the satin stitch and the brick stitch. Embroidery hoops, markers, needles, and various thread colours will be provided.

There are limited spots available and registration is required. This program is $10 for Gallery members, or $15 for general attendees.If program cost presents a barrier, accommodations can be made. To register, please contact Heather Kehoe, Program & Events Coordinator, hkehoe@saag.ca.

Lan “Florence” Yee is a visual artist and cultural worker based in Tkaronto/Toronto & Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal. They collect text in underappreciated places and ferment it until it is too suspicious to ignore. Lan’s work has been exhibited at the Textile Museum of Canada (2023-24), Darling Foundry (2022), the Toronto Museum of Contemporary Art (2021), and the Gardiner Museum (2019), among others. They obtained a BFA from Concordia University and an MFA from OCAD U as a Joseph- Armand Bombardier SSHRC scholar. They are a recipient of the William and Meredith Saunderson Prizes for Emerging Artists (2023). Lan is a member of JIA Foundation as curator of the Chinatown House MTL..

Lan’s artwork is represented by Zalucky Contemporary.

Explore the creativity and talent of the southern Alberta arts community at the 5 Stop Gallery Hop on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. This exciting collaboration between five downtown Lethbridge art galleries featuring 25 artists offers a memorable evening of art, connection, and celebration.

Event Schedule:

4 - 6 p.m. – Trianon Gallery (104 – 5 Street S)
5 - 7 p.m. – L.A. Gallery (302 – 5 Street S)
6 - 8 p.m. – Southern Alberta Art Gallery (601 – 3 Avenue S)
7 - 9 p.m. – The Gallery at Casa (230 – 8 Street S)
8 - 10 p.m. – Legend Gallery (519 – 7 Street S)

This event is free to attend and open to all, providing a unique opportunity to connect with local artists and celebrate the diversity of Lethbridge’s vibrant art scene. Guests are encouraged to pick up a punch card at the Trianon or L.A. Gallery and collect stamps at each location. Fully stamped cards can be entered for a prize at the final stop.

Gallery hop poster art by Amy Gaulin.

Join artists Paul Maheke, Lan “Florence” Yee, and katie marie bruce for a free talk and tours of their new exhibitions In spite of my own desire to see you disappear, Do Weeds Still Grow in Heaven? and tandem inadequacies. 

The Articulations Art Lecture Series offers presentations from contemporary practicing artists and arts professionals. Local and international artists, curators, critics, art historians, theorists, and filmmakers share their practice and engage with the audience in open, critical discussion.

Seniors (65+) are welcome at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for a free guided tour, art activity, and refreshments.

For more information, contact Bariyaa Ipaa, Outreach Coordinator, at bipaa@saag.ca.

Youth aged 14-18 are invited to join us at the Gallery for a special edition of our free drop-in Youth Art Club featuring guest artist Eric Dyck, cartoonist and creator of Slaughterhouse Slough.

Bring your own art to work on or make something here while also taking in a tour of the current exhibitions.  Supplies are provided and snacks and refreshments will be available.

For more information, contact Bariyaa Ipaa, Outreach Coordinator, at bipaa@saag.ca.

Eligibility: High School age students (14-18)

Join us for Bletcher Hour, the Gallery’s monthly critical reading group. Readings explore key themes of the exhibitions and current events, with the intent to deepen our understanding of the artworks and their context within our community. 

This month we will be reading the introduction and first chapter of “Plastic Matter” by Heather Davis. In this book, Davis traces plastic’s haunting colonial legacies, proliferating environmental violences, and queer futurities, showing how plastic represents both the dreams and the horrors of Western modernity. This book is recommended by Dana Buzzee, who's exhibition Incidental Omens is on display in our Lower Gallery until Jan. 11, 2025.

This program is free to attend. Please contact Heather Kehoe, Program & Event Coordinator, to register. Readings are sent as PDFs in advance of the event. If you cannot make it in person, online attendance options are available.

Seniors (65+) are welcome at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for a free guided tour, art activity, and refreshments. In this week’s workshop, guest artist Laurel Scott will demonstrate how to create ink and dye from locally foraged and cultivated plants. Explore methods of painting with these natural materials and unleash your creativity!

Laurel Scott (she/her) was born and raised in Mohkinstsis (Calgary) on the traditional lands of the Niitsítapi, Tsuut’ina, and Iyarhe Nakoda. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts with great distinction majoring in Art Studio at the University of Lethbridge in Sikokotoki (Lethbridge). Upon completing her degree, Scott moved to the west coast where she also completed the Documentary Filmmaking Program at Capilano University, within the unceded territories of the Xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔt (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Upon moving back to southern Alberta, she has been working at Áísínai’pi/ Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park & UNESCO World Heritage Site, while focusing her practice to make art with the land and what it provides.

For more information, contact Bariyaa Ipaa, Outreach Coordinator, at bipaa@saag.ca.

Looking for a fun and family-friendly activity on a Saturday afternoon? Visit the Gallery for Crafternoon, a self-directed art activity in our Creativity Centre. This month we’ve partnered with Trap\door Artist Run Centre for a cyanotype workshop! This project is inspired by Tania Willard’s exhibition Practices of Suffusion in our Upper Gallery. This program is free with admission. All supplies are provided.

Trap\door is a non-profit artist-run centre founded in 2004. Dedicated to the promotion of contemporary visual art which is challenging and critical, the purpose of Trap\door is to encourage experimentation by artists whose work explores creative production outside of an institutional framework. https://trapdoorarc.org/

The Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin invites you to join us for an artist statement writing workshop led by acclaimed writer and art historian Aruna D’Souza. Participants will learn the essentials of artist statements and writing about their work. Participants are encouraged to bring their own writing for review and edits. This tour is free for members. For non-members regular admission applies. If program cost presents a barrier, please contact Heather Kehoe, Program & Events Coordinator, hkehoe@saag.ca 

There are a limited number of seats available for this workshop. We encourage you to register in advance to reserve your spot.

Aruna D'Souza writes about modern and contemporary art, intersectional feminisms, and diasporic aesthetics.  Her work appears regularly in 4Columns, The New York Times, and in numerous artist’s monographs and exhibition catalogues. Whitewalling: Art, Race, and Protest in 3 Acts was named one of the best art books of 2018 by the New York Times. Recent editorial projects include Linda Nochlin’s Making It Modern: Essays on the Art of the Now and Lorraine O’Grady’s Writing in Space 1973-2018; she co-curated the retrospective “Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And” at the Brooklyn Museum in 2021. She is the recipient of the 2021 Rabkin Prize for art journalism and a 2019 Andy Warhol Foundation Art Writers Grant. She was appointed the Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor at the National Gallery of Art in 2022, and the W.W. Corcoran Professor of Social Engagement at the Corcoran School of Art, George Washington University, in 2022-2023. Her most recent book, Imperfect Solidarities was published in 2024.

Join Associate Curator Adam Whitford for a tour of the Gallery’s current exhibitions  Incidental Omens by Dana Buzzee, Practices of Suffusion by Tania Willard, and Hole Tech by Migueltzina Solís. This tour is free for members. For non-members regular admission applies.