In 2021, some downtown Edmonton streets were filthy, with burned out cars and overgrown streets, and staff at the Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) absolutely loved it.
“When The Last of Us was filming here, we passed by the set pretty much every day,” says Michael Goto Magnussen, public programmer for the Art Gallery of Alberta. “I like to make sure that when I’m programming, I’m kind of always shouting out Edmonton and Alberta,” so using The Last of Us as a theme for the gallery’s Halloween party was a zombie-no-brainer. Refinery: The Last of Us happens October 28, and Magnussen shared with us everything you need to know.
“We’re really encouraging people to express themselves and this is the perfect opportunity to dress up in something bizarre and have fun with whatever you want to wear. We think a lot of people are gonna dress up as the characters in The Last of Us — some zombies, some survivors, and probably some Barbies and zombie-Barbies too! We appreciate peoples’ creativity and we love homemade costumes for the costume contest at the end of the night.”
“We have two dance floors — one in our main hall, which is playing pop and Top 40, and then we have more of an EDM dance floor on the lower level, which we nicknamed The Crip. There will be drag performances by Emmonia and burlesque performances by Kiki Quinn. So we have two dance floors, and our exhibitions are open as well.”
“One exhibition is called Second Skin, and it’s about wearable art. We have Between Things: Alberta Ceramics, which is an all ceramic show, and a photography show, A Link With Nature, which is about early botanical photography. And then on our lower level, we have a community gallery exhibition, which is about landscape.”
“We have Elsa Robinson, a local artist who is in the Second Skin exhibition, and she is leading this mask-making project using fabrics for people to make these giant masks, and we have these Drink ‘n’ Draws and doodle stations throughout.”
“We have Murder Scene Donuts, we have Splatter-Brain Poutine, and in the apocalypse, we’re gonna be eating like canned foods, so we have miniature ration cans with roasted red peppers and hummus dip served in a ration can.”
Go be the last of us at the AGA.
