Rolling through streets this June, the Art Bus 2025 project brings a new fleet of mobile exhibits designed by regional artists. Catch any of the 14 new Art Buses featuring the work of seven artists, circulating from June to November this year.
These regular service Calgary Transit buses are vinyl-wrapped on the exterior with a new original art piece. The interior of each bus features panels with information about the artists and displays reproductions of their existing artworks. This culture-rich addition to our roads includes seven new artist-created designs, each reproduced on two buses.
The Art Bus project is organized by the Calgary Arts Development Authority (CADA), which took over from the city as operator of Calgary’s public art program in 2024. Natasha Jensen and Tiffany Wollman co-lead the project.
“We are creating a public-art program that is engaging, relevant, and accountable,” said Jensen during an information session for Art Bus 2025 artists. “Calgary Arts Development [Authority] has created a strategic framework that supports and nurtures diverse art and artist-led city-building,” Wollman added. “To foster not only a resilient and sustainable arts ecosystem, but also to achieve a truly equitable, inclusive and accessible city where everyone belongs.”
In announcing the Art Bus project, CADA shared that artists were asked to create original artwork for their bus in response to varying themes, including Indigenous stories and perspectives, public transportation as a social space, community stories, and bringing beauty, joy, whimsy, and hope.
Art Bus 2025 provides opportunities for artists of all levels to share their artwork and stories while bringing public art into communities with limited access to it. The initiative celebrates Calgary’s cultures, communities, histories, geography, and diversity while adding beauty to Calgarians’ daily commutes.
It aims to create connections between different areas of our city and change perspectives on what public art can be and how it changes our landscape. All seven new Art Bus exhibits will assemble for a launch celebration on June 11 on Stephen Avenue from 1 St. S.E. to 2 St. S.W. from 11 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.
