If you haven’t already, this month is the time to catch an auburn autumn stroll at the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre (KOAC). The paths at this contemporary sculpture park loop through a 20-acre property of foothills grassland and birch forest on the outskirts of Calgary, and there is a dream alive on this land that may not be immediately apparent.
Beloved Canadian sculptor Katie Ohe, and her late husband, the renowned painter Harry Kiyooka, planned to transform their longtime home and studios into the KOAC, “a year-round, sustainable, art-in-nature destination dedicated to research, exhibition, education and documentation of contemporary visual arts.”
Located a short distance west of the ring road, the KOAC features an extensive art collection, an art gallery, studio spaces for emerging artists, a research library, and a publicly accessible grassland botanical sculpture park.
According to KOAC, “Harry Kiyooka and Katie Ohe’s belief in giving back to the community at large and the friends and family who supported their careers is what prompted them to establish the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre.”
Ohe was born in 1937. She ushered in a modern approach to abstract sculpture in Alberta and continues to make exciting work. She says of the Centre, “…we envision here, that people can come and mingle with art…” Harry Kiyooka, who passed away in 2022, noted that the wooded area is intended to be maintained “as a sanctuary.”
A trip to this art centre allows you to share these extraordinary artists’ legacy on the land they loved. Although many of the artists represented in the sculpture park and in the collection of art housed indoors are internationally recognized in their own rights, the thread that brings their work together is that they also have been students, friends, or colleagues of Ohe and Kiyooka.
This unique place embodies the success and resilience of a Calgary-based home-grown arts community and continues to offer opportunities for future emerging artists.
KOAC resident artists are typically allotted approximately two-month intervals. Recent artist-in-residence Vivianne Smith produced seven sculptures and several prints during her time working in the studio.
Kiyooka taught at the University of Calgary and Ohe at the Alberta University of the Arts (AUArts). Edmonton sculptor Brian Brennan wrote about Ohe, “Art isn’t something that Katie does, it’s who she is. Her teaching is like her art; it comes from the heart.”
During the decades that she taught, she also produced many major sculptures for public spaces in Calgary, including the fountain on Prince’s Island, Cracked Pot Foundations; Nimmons Park Cairn in Bankview, Janet’s Crown outside AUArts and the Zipper at the University of Calgary.
Many of her students have become well-known contemporary Canadian artists, and several have works of public art in Calgary. A steel sculpture by Isla Burns is on display in a downtown Plus-15. Christian Eckart’s grand dichroic glass Hat Trick brightens up Centennial Place. Alex Caldwell’s Anomaly catches your eye across from Sheldon Chumir Health Centre and Robin Arseneault recently installed her new sculptures, Balancing Act at BLVD Beltline on McLeod Trail. And this month, Ohe herself unveils a brand-new street-level artwork commissioned by Hines.
Her legacy is evident throughout our city, and to understand it more deeply, visit KOAC for an outdoor art experience with a stroll through big-sky space and leafy forest, home to stone, chrome and steel and sometimes temporary sculptures.
On September 7, KOAC hosts its annual fundraising event. There will be a silent auction, music and park tours. The event features a first-time-seen-side-by-side exhibition of founders Katie Ohe and Harry Kiyooka’s artworks. Ohe plans to speak to the gathered audience.
Donors and volunteers continue to enable growth and foster the hopeful vision of this venue and organization. Much work by contributing members over the past years has built the foundation and secured the KOAC place as a cultural promoter with deep roots.
This year, guided tours take place on the weekends starting at 10 a.m. To join, see bookings at koartscentre.org.
Self-guided tours are encouraged Thursday Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; donations are accepted.
