{"id":658072,"date":"2026-05-09T11:43:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/658072\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T11:43:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:43:28","slug":"look26-gala-raises-more-than-1-million-for-contemporary-calgary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/658072\/","title":{"rendered":"LOOK26 gala raises more than $1 million for Contemporary Calgary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">One of the city\u2019s most prominent fundraisers, the <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.news.yahoo.com\/block-art-group-sevens-l-122839837.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:LOOK26 Gala;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;LOOK26 Gala&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LOOK26 Gala<\/a>, raised $1.2 million for Contemporary Calgary this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cEvery year, the LOOK Gala reminds us what\u2019s possible when a community rallies around art,\u201d said David Leinster, CEO of Contemporary Calgary. \u201cThe generosity from sponsors, artists, gallerists and collectors carries far beyond one evening. It\u2019s what allows us to continue bringing world-class programming to Calgary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Contemporary Calgary is a public art gallery, located in the former Centennial Planetarium at 701 11th Street S.W., that focuses on presenting local, national and international contemporary art in all forms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI\u2019ve attended galas around the world, and every year the LOOK Gala holds its own against any of them,\u201d said Kelly Streit, board of directors co-chair. \u201cThe curation, the talent, the crowd, it\u2019s an evening of pure brilliance that provides the vital funds needed to bring extraordinary art to our city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The event included an art auction, supported by philanthropist Heather Edwards, in which 88 works sold for more than $580,000.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\" Guests gather inside the historic Centennial Planetarium atrium for a series of otherworldly cabaret performances that included TR\/ST, Hermitess and Dan Solo.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cad26e6d52392aca43535845dae066e4.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p> Guests gather inside the historic Centennial Planetarium atrium for a series of otherworldly cabaret performances that included TR\/ST, Hermitess and Dan Solo.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\" LOOK26 Honorary chairs, from left, Mike Shaikh, CM, and Linda Shaikh with Contemporary Calgary CEO David Leinster and the Hon. Lois Mitchell, CM, AOE.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1433927c518b61d8e213390ccb758b70.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p> LOOK26 Honorary chairs, from left, Mike Shaikh, CM, and Linda Shaikh with Contemporary Calgary CEO David Leinster and the Hon. Lois Mitchell, CM, AOE.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\" At the heart of the evening was the LOOK26 art auction, supported by Heather Edwards, which raised a remarkable total of $583,356. The live auction, led by auctioneer Stephen Ranger, was a spectacular white-glove sale of 27 lots.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a43a6764717b6387d287d428c2698eed.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p> At the heart of the evening was the LOOK26 art auction, supported by Heather Edwards, which raised a remarkable total of $583,356. The live auction, led by auctioneer Stephen Ranger, was a spectacular white-glove sale of 27 lots.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\" Inside the Heather Edwards Theatre, Hermitess and her four-piece band perform within \u201cThe Hermits\u2019 Cavern\u201d art activation.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/aaea4f0504fbd3cb5cf59c3684504fb3.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p> Inside the Heather Edwards Theatre, Hermitess and her four-piece band perform within \u201cThe Hermits\u2019 Cavern\u201d art activation.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\" Contemporary Calgary CEO David Leinster, left, Diane Mah-Choy, centre, and Victor Choy, right, president and CEO of Concorde Entertainment Group, which delivered an exquisite dining experience as the culinary art partner for the LOOK26 Gala.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c638177f9fe909bdecd15d510a86e3be.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p> Contemporary Calgary CEO David Leinster, left, Diane Mah-Choy, centre, and Victor Choy, right, president and CEO of Concorde Entertainment Group, which delivered an exquisite dining experience as the culinary art partner for the LOOK26 Gala.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the city\u2019s most prominent fundraisers, the LOOK26 Gala, raised $1.2 million for Contemporary Calgary this year.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48,243531,243532],"class_list":["post-658072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-david-leinster","tag-kelly-streit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}