The core of downtown Edmonton is also the core of the city’s arts and culture scene. In the area right around Churchill Square, you will find live theatre at the Citadel Theatre, live music at the Winspear Centre, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Royal Alberta Museum and the Stanley A. Milner Library.
City Hall plaza on Klondike parade day in July 1999. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, EA-815-51)
Christmas-time public event in Churchill Square looking north from the Centennial Library, [ca 1975]. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, EA-805-2)
Edmonton Public Library, Stanley A. Milner Branch, and Citadel Theatre (on the left) sometime in 1989. (Image courtesy of Provincial Archives of Alberta, [no reference number] via flickr.com)
Fireworks at Churchill Square, [ca. 1989]. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, EA-819-164)
Citadel Theatre, [ca. 1980]. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, ET-28-1141)
Downtown Edmonton, view from Alberta Hotel roof (south east), [ca. 1983]. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, ET-30-139)
Edmonton Public Library, Stanley A. Milner Branch on April 17 2006. View from the corner of 100 Street and 102 Avenue. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, EA-596-1969)
Edmonton Art Gallery, [ca. 1989]. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, ET-30-38)
Summerfest – Concert in Sir Winston Churchill Square in 1981. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, ET-28-118)
Winston Churchill Square, [ca. 1980]. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, ET-28-1594)
City Hall and Churchill Square, [ca. 1983]. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, ET-30-263)
City Hall plaza on Klondike parade day in July 1999. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, EA-815-52)
“There is just this massive influx of creative energy. And people from all across the world come to Edmonton to experience that.” That is Matt Schuurman’s take on the Arts District. Schuurman is the Artistic Director of Rapid Fire Theatre, which used to run improv shows at the Citadel’s Zeidler Hall.
Churchill Square, which lies between 102nd and 103rd Avenues and 99th and 100th Streets, serves as the hub of the Arts District. It has been home to many annual outdoor festivals and events, including the Taste of Edmonton, the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival, the The Works Art and Design Festival and the Cariwest Festival.
“It’s a gathering space that becomes different at different times of year and there’s an allure to that, there’s a comfort in it, a sense of wonder as well,” says Amber Rooke, the executive director of The Works, described as the world’s largest free, outdoor festival dedicated to visual art.
The Works kicks off Edmonton’s festival season every July, bringing in hundreds of artists, designers, crafters and musicians. Many thousands come to experience large-scale installations, exhibits, multi-disciplinary performances, demonstrations, workshops and holdover exhibits.
“It is the Arts District. We have the gallery, the Winspear, the Citadel… We have festival partners, the museum and visions of future arts activities in that general area as well. It’s also just heartening and exciting to be part of a community that really wants to see that space alive with creativity.”
For The Works, it’s not just Churchill Square itself.
“That sometimes means working with the partner venues in the Arts District and also in spaces that aren’t always actively part of the Arts District,’’ says Rooke. “So we do usually see exhibits in City Hall and the library and nearby hotel lobbies.’’
In a way, “The New Kid on the Block” is Stanley A. Milner Library. Although the library has been on the southern edge of Churchill Square since 1967, at the beginning of 2017 it underwent a massive renovation that kept it closed until September 2020. That “re-imagination” of the building gave it a new exterior, a new front entrance and a revamped interior. The site of the library was originally home to Market Square, Edmonton’s main square and city market from 1900 to 1965.
Along with historic high-rise buildings and hotels, including the Westin and Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, the Arts District is also home to City Hall, with its striking glass pyramid.
The portion of 102A Avenue that once cut Churchill Square off from City Hall is now closed to vehicular traffic as a way to better connect Churchill Square with the fountains and festivities on the plaza at City Hall.
Churchill Square itself has undergone several face-lifts, the most recent, expensive, and most controversial, being completed in 2004, in time for Alberta’s Centennial celebrations. These renovations saw the removal of a large amount of green space, as well as the building of several new structures in the square including an amphitheatre, as well as several structures for retail space. Speaking of retail space, City Centre Mall is right across the street from the square to the west.
So, clearly there is a lot going on in and around the Arts District…music, theatre, art, history and shopping. And the Edmonton Transit System makes it easy to enjoy all of it. Churchill Square is right above Churchill LRT Station, and also near a bus transfer point at CN Tower. And the new Valley Line LRT expands Churchill Station with an above-ground platform on the south end of the square on 102 Avenue.
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