Buddy at the Banff Park Zoo

2023–24 Gallery Information

FAB Gallery, 1-1 Fine Arts Building
University of Alberta
(780) 492-2081
gallery@ualberta.ca

Please note: 
FAB Gallery will be closed April 29 - May 14, 2024

Gallery hours effective May 15, 2024:

  • Wednesday to Friday from 11 am - 5 pm
  • Saturday from 12 - 3 pm

Please check specific exhibition start and end dates to ensure the gallery is open when planning your visit.

Admission is free.

Second floor gallery can only be accessed by stairs at this time. We apologize for this significant barrier to access.

Buddy at the Banff Park Zoo

By Daniel Evans, Ludmila Lima De Morais, Lianne McTavish

May 15 - June 1, 2024

First Gallery @ FAB

Reception

University of Alberta faculty, staff, students and invited guests
Thursday May 16, 2024 | 7:30 - 10 pm | FAB Gallery

About the exhibition

This virtual reality artwork allows participants to become a polar bear named Buddy. Buddy was held captive at the Banff Park Zoo in Banff National Park between 1922 and 1937. This artwork recreates Buddy’s experience of his concrete cage, equipped with high iron bars. When visitors to FAB Gallery put on a virtual reality headset and hold the controllers, they can see what Buddy saw, in polar bear vision, and move around his relatively small cage, or take a swim in his plunge pool.

Gallery talk

Join the artists & research team for an informal gallery talk about the creation of the work on Saturday May 18, at 1 pm.

 

Art & Design News

  • Connections art show at RAM brings healing neuroscience and art communities together

    December 17, 2024

    Years in the making pairing U of A’s Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute (NMHI) and the university’s Faculty of Arts is the brain/mind exhibition, "Connections: Bringing Neuroscience and Art Together".

  • Students spin old clothes into synthetic spider silk — and gold

    December 5, 2024

    U of A undergrads from four faculties work together to win medal at the worldwide iGEM competition in Paris.

  • Tanya Klimp & Darcy Fraser Macdonald-on This Show Is Trash

    November 28, 2024

    Tanya Klimp and Darcy Fraser Macdonald chatted with CKUA Radio's Grant Stovel about "This Show is Trash", their shared exhibition that runs in FAB Gallery until December 14.

  • Where neuroscience meets art

    November 21, 2024

    Connections, a new exhibit at the Royal Alberta Museum, brings the scientific and artistic together. Developed by researchers at the University of Alberta's Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, the exhibit highlights the brain through scientific images and works created by artists drawing from their own experiences with mental health disorders and brain diseases.

Past Exhibitions (2023-24)
Past Exhibitions (2022-23)
Plan your Visit
Support Fine Arts
 
Follow us on Social Media!