Things to do in Edmonton, Canada: The Best Museums

COVID- 19 hours of operation update: We're open 11 am - 4 pm daily for private viewings by appointment. Established in 1975, the West End Gallery is a second-generation business with second-generation clientele. From the outset, the gallery has striven to showcase the works of leading Canadian artists, including painters and glass artists. The West End Gallery's legacy continues to this day, having built the careers of many of the artists who still line their walls. The gallery has an impressive stable of renowned, contemporary Canadian artists - many internationally recognized and considered important additions to any serious collectors acquisitions. Their artists range from high realism to still-life, figurative to landscape to abstract. West End Gallery plays host to an educated and discerning clientele, hosting two monthly solo exhibitions of artists for veterans and new-comers to the Canadian art scene.

The Royal Alberta Museum is closed, effective March 17, 2020. Welcome to the Royal Alberta Museum (RAM)! Our new museum is more than just a thoughtful, beautifully designed space. It's an authentic reflection of where Alberta is today and will be in the decades to come. It represents the new energy of Alberta, the diversity of our culture and tells our story with a new boldness and confidence. It's a place where you'll find 2.4 million uniquely Albertan stories just waiting to be told. Our gallery spaces include two 30,000 square foot history halls chronicling millions of years of Alberta's natural and cultural history; a 12,000 square foot feature gallery that will play host to touring exhibits from around the world; A 7,000 square foot Children's Gallery where hands-on play is found in every corner; and a 3,000 square foot Bug Gallery where visitors can have close encounters with live invertebrates. Feed your curiosity.

The Muttart Conservatory is unique at first sight. This innovative botanical garden sets the pace for plant science in western Canada and defines Edmonton’s skyline with striking glass pyramids rising from the river valley.

Experience science in our interactive galleries, IMAX Theatre, science stage, planetarium, special exhibitions and much more. The science centre features interactive exhibition galleries for all ages. The planetarium is the largest in Canada and shows are included with science centre admission. The IMAX Theatre has the largest screen in Alberta and plays both documentary films and Hollywood movies. The centre hosts travelling feature exhibitions several times a year, with past blockbuster exhibitions being Harry Potter, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Body Worlds.

For more than 80 years, Edmonton’s Blatchford Field was the center of a bustling aviation community that spurred the growth of the city, the region, and the North. Hundreds of men and women let their dreams take flight from this historic airfield, flying everything from biplanes to bush planes, bombers to jets. The museum, located in the last remaining double-long, double-wide hangar from the World War II era, is committed to keeping that aviation heritage alive by sharing their stories, offering education programs, and providing new and exciting opportunities for families to explore Edmonton’s rich aviation history.

John Walter Museum is a small facility located in the heart of the river valley. The site interprets the life of John Walter and the Strathcona community of Walterdale from 1875 to 1920. We tell the story of a rugged Scot who came from the Orkney Islands to Canada in 1870 to build York boats for the Hudson's Bay Company. Five years later John Walter acquired River Lot 9, located between present day 105th and 107th Street, University Avenue to the North Saksatchewan River. Here he built one of the first permanent residences on the south side on the river. Along side that residence he also built a ferry. Through numerous business ventures (ferry operations, general store, lumber mill a coal mine to name a few) he became one of Edmonton's foremost entrepreneurs and a community, Walterdale, formed around him. Other folks began business and soon Walterdale was home to Pollard Brothers Brick Yard, Bedard Tannery, a brewing company, blacksmith and school.