‘The arts is everywhere in our lives, it’s not just a specific performance on a stage . . . it needs to be about people first, as a tool of learning for life’
With a renewed commitment to education and inclusivity, Calgary’s arts community is celebrating a historic $75-million donation from Dave Werklund and family, helping transform Arts Commons and Olympic Plaza into a more welcoming, people-friendly learning space.
The milestone marks the largest known philanthropic donation to the performing arts sector in Canadian history, Arts Commons officials said, bringing the project’s funding to $498.5 million of its $660 million goal.
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“The arts is everywhere in our lives, it’s not just a specific performance on a stage . . . it needs to be about people first, as a tool of learning for life,” said Werklund, who turned his success as an oil and gas entrepreneur into educational opportunities for youth from the Werklund Foundation for development and training to the University of Calgary’s Werklund School of Education.
“I love inspiring people and moving them in the right direction. I would have never imagined that I’d make such a large donation to one facility.
“But I really think this new centre will transcend the way people think about the arts. It will be inclusive, and it will be about family, values and principles I’m a strong believer of.”
Arts Commons president and CEO Alex Sarian said Werklund’s historic gift will allow the centre to move forward with a new vision that focuses on family and community connection.
“It’s because of this realignment we have with Dave — around his commitment to families and to people — that we can elevate the project, where we look to design spaces where people can gather, whether or not they actually bought a ticket.”
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That means Olympic Plaza’s outdoor spaces will offer more public experiences, free of charge, Sarian said, including yoga classes and cultural festivals, or buskers and live music.
Inside Arts Commons, Sarian added the renovation and rebuild will mean more public gathering spaces outside of performance halls, such as coffee shops and restaurants by day, and bars and pubs at night.
“Arts organizations need to be less precious, need to be less of a luxury good, and something that is for everybody.”
The new centre will also have a strong focus on education, with dedicated learning spaces inside Arts Commons, including more training and development in arts-related fields, Sarian said.
But there will also be opportunities to learn at the new Olympic Plaza, through special events, school field trips or cultural festivals, he added.
“We will still be an arts centre, but we will unapologetically be looking at things like education, social impact and civic discourse through the lens of the arts.
“It’s not about diluting who it is and what we are, it’s about putting the arts in service to something greater.”
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Sarian added that the role of the arts has become particularly relevant since the pandemic, in terms of creating more social cohesion to promote mental health.
“It’s about sharing spaces together, learning about empathy,” he said.
“We know there is plenty of research showing there is a strong connection between cultural engagement and emotional health and well-being.
“So we can be incredibly intentional about this, and put arts in service to a greater purpose.”
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The project will occur in three stages, the first breaking ground late this year with construction of two new performance venues.
Both will wrap around the existing Teatro Restaurant at the 200 block of 8th Avenue S.E., adding up to 300 new seats as well as multiple public gathering spaces with food and drinks.
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The second phase will be a rebuild of the historic Olympic Plaza, originally built across from city hall for the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, bringing Calgarians together for evening medal ceremonies and pin-trading.
Arts Commons staff are now combing through public survey data to construct Calgary’s vision of what the new outdoor plaza will look like.
The final phase will be renovations to the existing performing and visual arts centre, also looking to add more public gathering and learning spaces, looking toward a 2027 completion date.
Werklund’s gift adds to previously announced government funding, including $103 million from the Government of Alberta and $315.5 million from the City of Calgary and Calgary Municipal Land Corp.’s Community Revitalization Levy.
Arts Commons will invest the $75-million gift toward construction costs, create the Dave Werklund Education Wing, as well as establish four funds to support the project’s institutional priorities, as well as an ongoing endowment to rename Arts Commons as Werklund Centre in perpetuity, starting in the 2025-26 season.
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“Principle-centred leadership is at the core of everything I do, in business and in my personal life,” Werklund said.
“Integrity, building trust and being a force for positive change is at the core of who I am. Those are the values that my family aspires to and that inspired us to make this contribution.
“Family, yours and mine, are the heart of every community. It is my sincere hope that Werklund Centre will be run with these principles in mind, and through its innovative programs be a force for positive change, bringing families across all sectors of our communities together.”
Born in 1945 and raised on a farm near Valleyview, Werklund turned the skills he learned working the land into a successful entrepreneurial career in oil and gas, recognizing the urgent need to resolve environmental and waste management issues.
As founder and CEO of Canadian Crude Separators, Werklund earned the Ernst & Young Canadian Entrepreneur Of The Year award in 2005.
A year later, he established the Werklund Foundation to provide youth leadership opportunities.
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His work as an environmental steward in the oil and gas services industry lives on in his new company, Pure Environmental.
Werklund is also a Calgary Business Hall of Fame inductee, a Member of the Alberta Order of Excellence, a Member of the Order of Canada, and recipient of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal.
In 2013, his $25-million gift to the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Education created the Werklund School of Education, and in 2017, he made the largest-ever personal donation to an Alberta college or technical institution of $16 million, creating the Werklund Agriculture Institute at Olds College.
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