Join Walter Phillips Gallery for a tour of the exhibition, Cheryl L’Hirondelle: where the voice touches (((acts, utterances, transmissions for freedom))), taking place concurrently to the Open Studios for the Visual Arts residency program, Early Career Banff Artist in Residence.

Co-curated by Tarah Hogue and Jacqueline Bell, the exhibition is the first career survey organized on the celebrated multidisciplinary artist and singer/songwriter’s expansive multi-decade practice, foregrounding ideas of echolocation and nēhiyawin (Cree worldview) understanding of freedom, where one’s self-responsibility moves in tandem with self-determination.

The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Government of Canada and Government of Alberta.

Walter Phillips Gallery is grateful to the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (AGNES) and Vulnerable Media Lab at Queen’s University, who as part of the Emulator Library for Media Art (ELMA) project have revived three works by Cheryl L’Hirondelle in the exhibition. AGNES recognizes the Canada Council for the Arts for funding the ELMA project. Walter Phillips Gallery also acknowledges Vulnerable Media Lab’s restoration of the work, nikamon ohci askiy (songs because of the land), 2008 with support from the artist's nephew, Callum Beckford, funded by Queen's University and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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yāhkaskwan mīhkiwap (aka light tipi) (2014-ongoing) is a performance-based artwork and event by celebrated multidisciplinary artist and singer/songwriter, Cheryl L’Hirondelle (Cree/Halfbreed; German/Polish). The work gathers artists and storytellers, participants and audience around a virtual tipi generated by beams of light cast into the night sky and made visible through the drifting smoke of burning sage bundles.

We welcome all to join to experience knowledge sharing in the form of storytelling and song, and an invitation to both learn and embody tipi pole teachings in this participatory event. An ongoing work by L’Hirondelle that has taken place in different cities and communities since 2014, yāhkaskwan mīhkiwap (aka light tipi) will be co-hosted with performer Anders Hunter (Îyârhe Nakoda) and invite participation from artists in residence and faculty in Banff Centre’s Toga da wôhnagabi: Music Creation Residency 2026.

yāhkaskwan mīhkiwap (aka light tipi) is free and all are welcome. As the event will take place outdoors, please note it will be weather-dependent and warm clothing and suitable footwear are encouraged. At its conclusion, please join us for warm drinks and conversation at Îethka Mâkochî Ahogi Chi Pa Bi Ti: Îethka Territory House of Respect.

yāhkaskwan mīhkiwap (aka light tipi) is presented by Walter Phillips Gallery and Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre in conjunction with the exhibition, Cheryl L’Hirondelle: where the voice touches (((acts, utterances, transmissions for freedom))) at Walter Phillips Gallery, co-curated by Tarah Hogue and Jacqueline Bell, and the Toga da wôhnagabi: Music Creation Residency 2026, organized by Janine Windolph.
 

Visit the studios of the Early Career Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR) 2026 participants and see how they pushed creative boundaries during their five weeks at Banff Centre.

Early Career BAiR is a transformative five-week residency that provides mentorship, critical feedback, and studio time to visual artists in the early stages of their careers.

Open to visual artists working across mediums, BAiR combines the artistic freedom of a self-directed residency with the supportive benefits of an organized program. As well as having the space to create, research, and experiment, participants are part of a community of artists committed to developing and expanding their practice.

This is an exciting opportunity for the artists to share their work, and for the public to ask them about their processes. Artists, art appreciators, and curious first-time viewers alike are encouraged to attend.

Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Visit the studios of the Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR) Winter 2026 participants and see how they pushed creative boundaries during their five weeks at Banff Centre.

BAiR is a transformative five-week residency that provides mentorship, critical feedback, and studio time to visual artists at any stage in their careers.

Open to visual artists working across mediums, BAiR combines the artistic freedom of a self-directed residency with the supportive benefits of an organized program. As well as having the space to create, research, and experiment, participants are part of a community of artists committed to developing and expanding their practice.

This is an exciting opportunity for the artists to share their work, and for the public to ask them about their processes. Artists, art appreciators, and curious first-time viewers alike are encouraged to attend.

Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Join us for an afternoon presentation with Independent Curator Andria Hickey.

In this talk, Hickey reflects on her ongoing curatorial inquiry into the formal language of artworks emerging from research-based practices. She examines how contemporary artists use minimalist and abstract vocabularies to distill complex social, political, and material conditions into objects of revelation and resistance.

Through examples from two past exhibitions, Hickey will explore how formal reduction can amplify conceptual complexity, and how opacity can function as a strategy for critical engagement. From a curatorial perspective, the talk considers exhibition-making and artistic research as parallel processes, each operating as both method and material.

This presentation offers insight into contemporary curatorial thinking and considers how abstraction can serve as a tool for inquiry, resistance, and meaning-making for artists, curators, and audiences.

Hickey is a faculty member for the Winter 2026 Banff Artist in Residence program, a transformative five-week residency that provides mentorship, critical feedback, and studio time to visual artists and curators at any stage of their career.

This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Join us for an afternoon talk with visual artist Jordan Bennett. Bennett is L’nu (Mi’kmaq), from Stephenville Crossing, Newfoundland (Ktaqmkuk), and is based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, NS). His talk will focus on how exploration, collaboration, sharing, and mentorship have become central pillars of his artistic and community-based work. Reflecting on play, family, and ancestral community belongings, Bennett will discuss how land is at the root of his non-disciplinary practice.

Bennett is a faculty member for the Winter 2026 Banff Artist in Residence program, a transformative five-week residency that provides mentorship, critical feedback, and studio time to visual artists at any stage of their career.

This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Join us for an afternoon talk with Amy Malbeuf, a Métis visual artist from Rich Lake, Alberta (Treaty 6 territory). 

In this presentation, Malbeuf discusses her performance work, wearable artworks, and other aspects of her artistic practice as they relate to ideas of the body. She also reflects on her return to Banff Centre, where she began to delve deeply into performance practice in 2011. Revisiting the same lands and questions that informed her early work, Malbeuf considers the ongoing interrelatedness of Indigenous feminism, identity, ecology, and embodied performance.

Malbeuf is a faculty member for the Winter 2026 Banff Artist in Residence program, a transformative five-week residency that provides mentorship, critical feedback, and studio time to visual artists and curators at any stage of their career.

This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Join us for the Opening Reception of the exhibition, Cheryl L’Hirondelle: where the voice touches (((acts, utterances, transmissions for freedom))), co-curated by Tarah Hogue and Jacqueline Bell. 

The exhibition is the first career survey organized on the celebrated multidisciplinary artist and singer/songwriter’s expansive multi-decade practice, foregrounding ideas of echolocation and nēhiyawin (Cree worldview) understanding of freedom, where one’s self-responsibility moves in tandem with self-determination.

The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Government of Canada and Government of Alberta.

Walter Phillips Gallery is grateful to the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (AGNES) and Vulnerable Media Lab at Queen’s University, who as part of the Emulator Library for Media Art (ELMA) project have revived three works by Cheryl L’Hirondelle in the exhibition. AGNES recognizes the Canada Council for the Arts for funding the ELMA project. Walter Phillips Gallery also acknowledges Vulnerable Media Lab’s restoration of the work, nikamon ohci askiy (songs because of the land), 2008 with support from the artist's nephew, Callum Beckford, funded by Queen's University and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 
 

Supported by