I’m always saying that I want to do more cultural things in Calgary. The truth is, I just usually don’t know about the happenings. Calgary was named Culture Capital of Canada in 2012, so undoubtedly there are lots of things to do. I need to start doing these things.

Yesterday I met up with my friend Adriane and she says to me she says: “I have something really cool we can go to!” Then she sends me the link for “Wreck City: An Epilogue for 809″. Hmm… I was intrigued. (http://wreckcityproject.wordpress.com/)

Taken from the website, Wreck City is a community-based art experiment transforming nine Sunnyside houses, three garages, and a greenhouse scheduled for demolition into temporary art, installation, and performance spaces. Sounded cool to me! I also read that the 809 Gallery was one of Calgary’s influential garage galleries (though I don’t claim to know what that truly means). It’s sad to see the demolition of old character houses, especially in a city like Calgary with constant construction and expansive urban sprawl. So the event is a send-off, and a way to commemorate the history of the artsy neighbourhood. After dinner and drinks at the Kensington Pub, Adriane and I made our way over to the houses for a walkthrough.

I’ve never been great at interpreting art. I acknowledge that there’s a level of subjectivity to art, but I remember walking through the Tate Modern in London and pretending to really ponder the meaning and influence of the many art pieces. Usually I came up with nothing.

So I was happy to discover that this event was not like that. Instead, the houses were complete canvases for artists and every room revealed something quite different, interesting, shocking, eerie, or hilarious. The awesome thing about it was that the crowd was large and diverse- many came out to see incredible creativity and just enjoy what was presented. And let me say… there is something for everyone. I even hope to visit it a second time in the coming week. Wreck City runs until April 27th and should not be missed!