There are so many ways to spend an afternoon in the city. Recreation is a huge industry no matter where one goes in the world, after all. It doesn’t take a genius level IQ to understand that people need to relax just as much as they need to eat and sleep. There are always movies to go see, plays and concerts being performed, and restaurants to take friends to, among many other examples. The possibilities may not exactly be endless, but there sure are a lot of them. Among those possibilities is one that is largely overlooked, but still very popular with niche audiences and important to a very wide range of people in our city: art galleries.

Now, most other recreational sites that come to mind can easily be slotted into the category of pop culture. They are popular and they are examples of our culture. However, this is not so easy with art galleries, and especially with art galleries in our city. Are galleries still valid as centers of pop culture even if they are quiet? Are they still valid even if they lack the namesake popularity? If they are, is it really possible in Edmonton, a city that is home to so many cultures from around the world, to claim the art exhibits constructed here as our pop culture? I say certainly.

We’re a city of many different cultures, each with its own style, its own subjects, its own media, its own stories that can be told only through its artists. There are some purely modern Canadian artists whose works are undeniably contemporary and seeking to break away from tradition, but there are many who are purely traditional. It all depends on which way the artist is exploring. The majority of it is locally created while at the same time being internationally inspired. Is the art we create here ours? Again, certainly. While the origins of the inspiration may lie in nations halfway around the globe, our city is built on a foundation of many different types of people. So too is our art. That, simply, is what makes it ours. Edmonton’s art is a everyone’s art, every time’s art.

However, the multiculturalism in our city isn’t reflected just in the local art. Because we have so many different cultures, it makes sense to bring art from the countries of origin to here. There are a great many galleries that don’t just construct their exhibits from the local community works, but who import exhibits from the international realm. This brings in a whole new source of inspiration for those who frequent the galleries. Those who are just appreciators learn of new markets to fuel their interest, and those who are artists themselves have their inspiration infused with new ideas from new places. Just as our artistic identity is that of a tossed salad of artists, so too is it a tossed salad of inspirational sources.

So it is that, while art galleries are certainly not the most obvious thing to come to mind when one is trying to decide how to spend an afternoon, they are still incredibly important. Every society under the sun has its share of artists, all creating works both for their own expression and to entertain and inspire others. While not every culture has the resources necessary to create films that the world will discover, and while the power of a nation may not be great enough to encourage its peoples’ writings to be translated for worldwide consumption, every culture has the capability to create art, and all of them do. All of them have been for centuries, at the least. Unlike writing, artistic works need no translation. Art speaks for itself, and it speaks volumes about the creator and the creator’s time, place, and people. It is an expression of the creator’s emotions and philosophies, just as movies and books are, but so much more accessible. All art needs is to be seen.

Even with art being so important to society as a whole, art galleries do remain largely ignored in the urban recreational scene. This is not necessarily a bad thing. While it would be wonderful if art galleries, and in turn, art were more widely celebrated, they exist as a haven for the best examples of the work that we are daily bombarded with in some way, shape, or form. Art really is everywhere. Movies and books are deeply entrenched in the ‘popular’ category, while fine art is more in the “culture” realm, but art is still an integral part of the more widely recognized aspects of pop culture. Indeed, it is an example of pop culture in its own right. Artists create for the purpose of advertising, for city beautification, for the enhancement of books and video games and movies. There is no creative medium that doesn’t have some connection to the visual arts. With such a saturation of it, it’s small wonder why the buildings that house these works in their original form are thought of so little.

Only those who truly notice, understand, and appreciate the images floating around them are going to be fascinated enough to want to explore them where they are displayed as pieces on their own. In essence, art in the wide world of well-recognized pop culture winds up being taken for granted. Suitably, just as there are movie buffs and bibliophiles, there are art aficionados. The general public sees art every day. As visual creatures, we all enjoy the beautiful images presented, but only a handful seek the works out, and of those, an even smaller few seek out the galleries. There are other ways to find and enjoy art, after all. With the advent of the internet, online galleries of works both contemporary and ancient abound, and the vast majority of book stores carry art books that act as galleries that can be taken home. While your average reader picks up a book just like the expert does, and while your average movie audience heads to the theatre just like the film fanatics do, those who simply enjoy art don’t head to the galley on a regular basis. The galleries exist for those who know what they are looking at and know where they can find it in undisturbed glory.

By living the quiet life, art galleries manage to better fulfill their place in society. Where theatres have largely gone from being the display center for the art of film to houses of commercialized corruption where the dollar sign rules all, art galleries remain largely free to view and untouched by all except for the most withdrawn of corporate sponsors.

In our city, art galleries remain the half-buried gemstones of cultural glory. They are wondrous places to wander in, to get lost in your thoughts in, to study and ponder and be inspired in. Let us hope that, while it should never ever be allowed to disappear, art will always have such a peaceful home in our city.