Today Alberta cowboys deplore the vanishing landscape as fences and urban expansion deconstruct the prairie grasslands. The same lament was made by the southern Alberta illustrative artist, Edward Frederick [Ted] Hagell [1895-1964], in the mid-20th Century. His work reflected the landscape and the people, including the cowboy, who lived and worked on the land.

Works selected from the Hagell Collection at the Galt Museum & Archives reflecting this concept, include

• ink drawings
• mixed media
• crayon
• oils
• audio and computer interactive stations
• artifact

Adult admission $5.00
ADMISSION Package |
GETAWAY Package

Sat JUN 23 | 1:00-10:00

Cowboy Up Bus Tour

Explore the changing face of ranching in southwestern Alberta with Wendy Aitkens, Curator at the Galt Museum. The tour begins at the Galt with a tour of The Vanishing Landscape, followed by an interpretive bus ride through the prairie landscape to the Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village in Pincher Creek and the Bloomin’ Inn Guest Ranch for steak supper, cowboy poetry and music around the campfire... home by 10!

$80/person [max 40] | registration closes JUN 15 call 403.320-3954 or send an email to info@galtmuseum.com

Museum Free Day

Sun MAY 13 | 10:00-4:30

Free admission all day | special events

2:00 pm Cowboys and Indians: A Different Perspective

[program repeated Tue JUN 12 | 7:00 pm as part of Cafe Galt]

The stereotypical myth of the "Wild West" is that there were Indians and there were Cowboys. The truth is that from the early days of the Spanish missions through the introduction of ranching to southern Alberta to the present, First Nations in the West have been Cowboys.

Blanche Bruised Head will share personal stories and perspective on her family's rodeo and cowboy history in order to help us understand the complex and nuanced history of the First Nations Cowboy. Blanche Bruised Head has been the Galt's Blackfoot interpreter since 2002 when she served as a guide for the Akaitapiiwa/Ancestors exhibit.

HIDDEN ART TREASURES TOURS >>

• Bryan Smith, Cowboy Poet
• Prairie Women film screening
• Cowboys and Indians: A Different Perspective
• Reader's Theatre: The Unmentionable History of the West
• Hagell al fresco
• 100 year history of the flora and fauna of the coulees

Wed MAY 23 | 7:00 - 9:00

Legacy of Landscape in Canadian Art: Josephine Mills

admission fees apply [incl. access to the exhibit] | free to pass holders

details >>

Related Exhibits

Modern perspectives of the vanishing landscapes are presented in Prairie Winds, a multi-media presentation by Ted Hagell's grandson, Ron Hagell Jr., himself an internationally recognized artist.