From the Collection fills the main-floor hallway with artifacts from the museum’s collection. Rotating the items on display every six months helps us share more stories behind these treasured items. Recent Acquisitions are showcased by centering the voices of the donors themselves.

With over 17,000 artifacts in the Galt Museum’s artifact collection, many have powerful connections and relationships attached to them. Taking over the main floor hallway on a permanent basis starting October 24, 2026, From the Collection is a new exhibition focused on bringing more collections items out on display.

The objects in the museum’s collection tell the stories of this region: the Nitsitapii (Blackfoot) people, settlers, and newcomers. Items from many different cultures are part of the museum’s collection, which has a mandate to preserve the human history of Lethbridge and southwestern Alberta.

From The Collection will also continue the museum’s focus on engaging residents with local history. Community Curators are invited to select new objects twice a year to help share individual perspectives and interests.

Dawn Sugimoto (above), Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden Society Board Chair - “The items I chose tell a uniquely southern Alberta story about Japanese Canadians from Alberta’s earliest days through the Second World War and beyond.

Student curators also have ongoing opportunities to build their skills, conducting research and selecting new items to be displayed each semester. In partnership with the University of Lethbridge applies studies program, curatorial interns gain valuable work experience in a real-world setting.

A chair is just a chair, if we don’t know the human connections behind it. Documenting individual relationships to objects makes the museum’s collection more relevant to the community.

Through the database and in exhibitions like From The Collection, the Galt helps shine a spotlight on the stories of our community—one object at a time.