Communities of Creativity: The Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts 🇨🇦

Artists at work in the studio at the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts

At the heart of Edmonton’s arts community, the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts - known affectionately as The Nina - has spent over two decades cultivating a vibrant creative space for artists with developmental disabilities. What sets The Nina apart is not just its longevity or its striking exhibition space, but its insistence on celebrating artists as artists, rather than through the lens of diagnosis or charity.

Founded in 2003, The Nina grew from a small but radical idea: that people with disabilities deserve a place to develop a serious art practice, supported by professional artists and rooted in community respect. Today, it operates out of a beautiful facility in the 118 Avenue Arts District, complete with dedicated studios, gallery space, and room for workshops and events that center inclusion and visibility.

Artists at The Nina work in painting, drawing, clay, fibre arts, and mixed media, often with a distinct voice and strong personal vision. Staff artists don’t impose direction but serve as collaborators and supporters - fostering a dialogue between materials and the individual, where exploration is key and growth is measured not by output alone, but by confidence, agency, and presence.

Through public exhibitions, studio tours, and art sales, The Nina provides tangible avenues for its artists to share their work with a wide audience. This visibility is central to the studio’s mission: it doesn’t just make space for creativity, it pushes back against isolation and invisibility. In doing so, The Nina contributes to a cultural shift - where artists with disabilities are included not as outsiders, but as essential members of the art world and their local communities.

The Nina also runs Artist of the Month spotlights and hosts regular events, continuing to prove that when we invest in the creative capacity of all people, we don’t just enrich individual lives - we expand what’s possible for entire communities.

🖼️ Find out more at www.thenina.ca