A new cultural landmark for campus: The Kenneth and Sandra Wong Gallery

The 5,000-square-foot gallery will provide a world-class space to publicly exhibit countless artifacts, like these specimens from the E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum. (Photo: John Ulan)

When the Kenneth and Sandra Wong Gallery opens its doors in early 2027, something remarkable will happen on the University of Alberta’s North Campus: millions of objects — fossils, rare books, meteorites, artworks, textiles, coins, scientific specimens and more — will get more opportunities to be viewed and appreciated by the public. And thanks to donors, this long-imagined dream of a North Campus gallery for all of our collections is becoming a reality.

With momentum finally behind this long-envisioned project, the gallery is poised to reshape how people experience the university’s collections. This is where generosity makes powerful things happen — support from our community is unlocking a vibrant public space where curiosity, education and connection can flourish for decades to come.

The new 5,000 square-foot gallery — five times the size of the current Museums exhibition space — is being built in the Telus Centre, right at the gateway into North Campus. Christine Conciatori, director of University of Alberta museums, describes it as a place where anyone can walk in, feel welcome and encounter something they’ve never seen before.

“Engaging with arts and culture has a huge positive impact on our sense of belonging,” she says. “This gallery will create that on campus.”

For decades, the U of A community has imagined a space like this — one that brings the university’s 30 collections together, sparks new discoveries and allows the public to explore up close the cultural and scientific heritage of Alberta and the world. As vice-provost and chief librarian Dale Askey explains, “If you don’t see the collections, they don’t exist. This gallery changes that.”

With more than 10 million objects in its care, the U of A is home to one of the largest and most diverse academic museum systems in the country. Until now, most of those treasures have rarely been seen.

The Wong family’s gift became the momentum builder — the support that helped the project crest the hill and continue all the way to opening day. But the gallery’s long term vision goes even further. We now need to build an endowment that will support exhibitions, public programming, workshops, lectures, family activities and school visits, along with hands-on learning and student employment. It’s here that donors can make the greatest difference: by ensuring the gallery is not simply built, but alive and thriving for generations.

The space is also designed to fuel interdisciplinary learning. A single exhibition might bring together paleontology, art, history, astronomy and Indigenous studies, letting visitors see unexpected connections between fields. Students will be hired as gallery attendants, getting real experience in curation, public engagement, collections care and museum operations. And younger visitors, from kindergarten through grade 12, will get a glimpse of the possibilities waiting for them at university.

Askey says it best: “Museums exist to inspire people — to make them wonder, to make them curious, to help them think about the world differently.”