The Ultimate Guide to Murals in Calgary's Beltline

Calgary's Beltline neighbourhood has become one of Canada's most remarkable open-air art galleries. What began in 2017 as the Beltline Urban Murals Project, now known as BUMP, has grown into a collection of over 450 artworks that have fundamentally altered the character of the inner city. The Beltline's laneways, parking structures, and building facades now hold large-scale works by local, national, and international artists, all visible freely, at any hour, without a ticket or a gallery membership.

This guide is designed for anyone who wants to experience these murals with intention. Whether you are a visitor to Calgary discovering the neighbourhood for the first time, a resident who walks these streets daily without noticing what is overhead, or a fellow creative studying how public art reshapes urban space, the Beltline rewards attention. We have organised the murals into a walking route that can be completed in a single afternoon, though lingering is encouraged.

The Beltline as Calgary's Living Gallery

The Beltline is Calgary's densest residential neighbourhood, stretching from the CPR tracks south to 17th Avenue SW and bounded by 14th Street to the west and Macleod Trail to the east. Its urban form is defined by a mix of early-twentieth-century low-rises, post-war apartment blocks, and newer mixed-use towers. This architectural heterogeneity gives the neighbourhood its visual texture, and it is precisely this variety that makes it such a compelling canvas for mural art.

BUMP's founding philosophy was straightforward: use art to activate underutilised surfaces and shift public perception of the Beltline from a transitional zone into a cultural destination. Nine years later, that thesis has been proven many times over. The festival now commissions new works annually, hosts guided mural tours, and produces an urban art conference that draws practitioners and policymakers from across the country.

The murals themselves range from photorealistic portraiture to abstract geometric compositions, from Indigenous storytelling to surreal figurative work. There is no single aesthetic. The collection reflects the diversity of voices that BUMP has invited to participate, and the result is a neighbourhood that feels genuinely curated rather than commercially programmed.

Walking Tour: The Essential Beltline Murals

The following route begins at the eastern edge of the Beltline and moves westward along 17th Avenue and its surrounding streets, covering approximately four kilometres. Allow two to three hours if you intend to photograph each stop.

The Corridor of Connection

Begin at the 4th Street SE underpass, where the Corridor of Connection links East Village to the emerging Victoria Park area. This colourful tunnel mural transforms what would otherwise be a grey, utilitarian passage into a vibrant threshold between two of Calgary's most dynamic districts. The scale is immersive. The colours are saturated and bold, and the work functions best when experienced in motion, walking through it rather than standing before it.

DAIM's World's Tallest Mural

Head west toward 10th Avenue SW and look up. The east wall of Hazelview's First on Tenth building at 123 10th Avenue SW holds the world's tallest mural, a 95-metre abstract composition by German graffiti pioneer Mirko Reisser, known internationally as DAIM. Completed during the 2022 BUMP Festival, the mural consumed over 500 cans of spray paint and required three weeks of work by DAIM and three local assistants.

The work is an exercise in three-dimensional illusion, a hallmark of DAIM's practice for over 30 years. Rendered in sweeping gradients of orange, blue, grey, black, and yellow, the forms appear to twist and fold off the building's surface. From certain angles, particularly when viewed from the CPR corridor or the approach to the Calgary Tower, the mural seems to dissolve the building's rectilinear geometry entirely. On clear days, the mural is reportedly visible from aircraft on approach to the Calgary airport.

The 17th Avenue Corridor

Moving south to 17th Avenue SW, the density of murals increases significantly. Seventeen BUMP murals are concentrated between 2nd Street SW and 16th Street SW, making this stretch one of the most art-saturated commercial corridors in western Canada. Key stops include:

• 1022 17th Avenue SW (near Tubby Dog): a Nasarimba mural whose saturated palette and graphic composition make it one of the most photographed works on the avenue
• 1232 17th Avenue SW (17th Avenue Framing): a mural by Kalum Teke Dan that integrates the building's existing architectural features into the composition
• 610 17th Avenue SW: Ola Volo's striking figurative mural depicting a woman on horseback, layered with narrative symbolism drawn from folk tradition
• Jill Stanton's cowboy boots: a colourful, playful mural that has become an unofficial emblem of the avenue's character, frequently tagged on social media

Between these anchor pieces, smaller works appear in laneways, on utility boxes, and along the sides of buildings that face parking lots or secondary streets. The density rewards exploration. Turn into any lane between 17th Avenue and 15th Avenue and you are likely to find something.

The Alley Gallery and Side Streets

Some of the Beltline's most compelling murals are not on prominent facades but in laneways and secondary corridors. The alleys between 1st Street SW and 4th Street SW, running north-south behind the 17th Avenue commercial strip, have been systematically activated by BUMP over successive festival years. These narrow passages, flanked by dumpsters and loading docks, have been transformed into intimate gallery corridors where the art is close enough to touch and the viewing experience is fundamentally different from a wall seen at 50 metres.

BUMP's annual festival, typically held in August, continues to add new works each year. The 2025 festival commissioned over 100 new artworks across the Beltline and surrounding areas, bringing the total body of work to an impressive scale. The organisation's interactive mural map, available on the BUMP website, allows visitors to locate every commissioned work and build a personalised route based on location or artist.

BUMP Festival: When Calgary's Murals Come Alive

While the murals can be visited year-round, the annual BUMP Festival transforms the viewing experience. Held each August, the festival spans nearly 30 days and includes live mural painting sessions, guided walking tours led by BUMP organisers and the artists themselves, an urban art conference, a graffiti jam, alley parties, and outdoor film screenings.

Watching an artist work at scale is an experience fundamentally different from viewing the finished product. The physical demands of the work become apparent: the scaffolding, the heat, the precision required to translate a small-scale design onto a surface that may be 10 or 15 metres tall. BUMP's guided tours during the festival often include access to artists mid-process, which provides context that enriches every subsequent encounter with the completed work.

The festival also serves as a gathering point for Calgary's broader creative community. The urban art conference draws muralists, urban planners, architects, and cultural policymakers into conversation about the role of public art in shaping cities. For anyone involved in commissioning or creating public art in Calgary, attending the conference is well worth the investment of time.

Photography Tips for Calgary's Beltline Murals

The Beltline's murals present specific photographic challenges and opportunities that differ from typical street photography. A few practical considerations will significantly improve the quality of what you capture.

• Time of day matters. Many Beltline murals face east or west, meaning they receive direct sunlight at different times. East-facing walls are best photographed in the morning, when the light is soft and even. West-facing walls come alive in the late afternoon. Avoid midday, when harsh overhead light flattens colour and creates deep shadows under architectural overhangs.
• Use overcast days. Calgary's frequent cloud cover, particularly in spring and autumn, provides the most even, diffused light for mural photography. Colours appear saturated and shadows are minimal.
• Step back. Many Beltline murals are designed to be read from a distance. Move to the opposite side of the street or, for large-scale works like DAIM's, to a vantage point several blocks away. A wide-angle lens (24mm or wider) is useful, but be mindful of perspective distortion at the edges of the frame.
• Include context. The most compelling mural photographs show the artwork in relationship to its environment: the building it occupies, the street it faces, the people who pass beneath it. Avoid isolating the mural as though it were a canvas in a gallery. Its power lies in its integration with the city.
• Explore the alleys. The intimate scale of laneway murals allows for detail-oriented photography. A 50mm or 85mm lens at close range can capture texture, brushstrokes, and colour transitions that are invisible from street level on larger works.
• Respect the work. Do not touch, lean against, or climb on murals for photographs. The paint surface, particularly in Calgary's climate, is more fragile than it appears.

Beyond the Beltline: Calgary's Expanding Mural Landscape

While the Beltline remains the epicentre, Calgary's mural culture is expanding into other neighbourhoods. Bridgeland, Inglewood, the East Village, and the Kensington corridor all hold commissioned works that are worth seeking out. The City of Calgary's public art programme, administered through Calgary Arts Development, continues to fund new works across the city, including Indigenous-led public art initiatives that bring Treaty 7 artists into prominent civic spaces.

For those interested in the broader landscape of public art funding in Calgary, our guide to community mural grants and funding provides a detailed overview of every programme currently available. And if you are a business or property owner considering commissioning a mural of your own, our complete commissioning guide walks through the process from initial consultation to final seal coat.

The Beltline's murals are not static. They are layered, evolving, and responsive to the city's changing identity. Each year, new works are added and old works age, developing the patina that comes with exposure to Calgary's formidable climate. This impermanence is part of the medium's power. A mural is not a monument. It is a conversation between an artist, a building, and a city, held in the open air, available to anyone who looks up.

To explore how we approach public art and mural design at KINN Studios, or to discuss a project of your own, reach out any time.