ENVIRON: CRAFT AT THE EDGES OF CHANGE

Exhibition Dates: Edmonton June 13 – October 17, 2026 | Calgary Fall of 2027
Deadline to Apply: February 27, 2026, 5:00pm MST

Alberta Craft invites submissions for ENVIRON, a curated exhibition exploring how craft artists reveal the environments—ecological, industrial, digital, cultural, and lived—that shape their materials, processes, and meaning.

Craft materials carry histories: extraction, chemistry, labour, land use, technological intervention, cultural memory. ENVIRON examines these material ecologies and the systems that influence them, foregrounding technical skill, thoughtful making, and process-driven inquiry.

This exhibition will feature artists who demonstrate a strong, intentional relationship between material choice, craft technique, and the environmental systems their work references.

This call is open to Alberta Craft artists, you do not need to be a member to apply. Please note that all works must in this exhibition must be for sale.

THEME GUIDANCE FOR ARTISTS

We encourage submissions that engage with one or more of the following:

1. Material Ecologies

How materials carry environmental histories (e.g., geology, chemistry, extraction, land use, agroecosystems, contamination, scarcity, industrial transformation).

2. Constructed Environments

How built systems shape craft (e.g., agriculture, industry, digital tools, infrastructure, resource supply chains, bureaucratic processes, agronomy, technological interventions).

3. Lived Environments

How memory, culture, place, identity, or lived experience inform material decisions and forms (e.g., rural and urban environments, disability and sensory processing needs, Indigenous land-based practices and seasonal knowledge, migration experiences, settler histories, ecological grief, intergenerational craft knowledge, and community-rooted making).

Note: For this exhibition works must move beyond “found object” accumulation to articulate a meaningful, technically competent material inquiry.

WHAT TO SUBMIT 

Please include: 

1. Upload 1–3 images for each artwork you plan to submit.
High-quality images showing craft technique, surface detail, and material qualities. 

2. A short statement (150–250 words) 
Describe: 

  • the materials you work with, 

  • the processes or techniques you use, and 

  • the environment(s) your work engages. 
    Please be specific about how your material and process connect to the theme. 

3. Tell us about your artist practice

Exhibitions, training, relevant experience. 

4. Optional: Process documentation 

Sketches, glaze tests, technical notes, studio images, or other material evidence are welcome and help the jury understand your practice. 

SELECTION CRITERIA

Work will be selected based on:

  1. Material Integrity & Craftsmanship: Strong technique, thoughtful process, and an understanding of material behaviour.

  2. Clarity of Material–Environment Connection: How convincingly the work engages with environmental systems, histories, or conditions.

  3. Conceptual Depth: Work that moves beyond surface aesthetics to consider the systems shaping materials and meaning.

  4. Diversity of Perspective: Inclusion of artists from varied geographic, cultural, and lived environments.

  5. Suitability for the exhibition space: Scale, installation needs, and coherence within the overall narrative.

HOW TO APPLY

Apply Here

Deadline: Friday, February 28, 2026 at 5:00 pm MST.

QUESTIONS? 

For inquiries about theme alignment or submission requirements, please contact Erin McDonald, Curator at erin@albertacraft.ab.ca