Glenbow is one of Canada’s leading art museums — a nationally recognized innovator in arts, culture, and education, with a deep commitment to reconciliation and decolonizing museum practices. For nearly 60 years, Glenbow has played a vital role in Calgary’s arts and culture landscape. The museum’s diverse and expansive collection of over 250,000 works of art, objects, and cultural belongings — including the largest public art collection in Western Canada — sets it apart from other museums and galleries in the country.
Since 2021, Glenbow has been closed to the public as it undergoes a complete renovation, reimagining its 1970s building in downtown Calgary to create an open, accessible, and dynamic community hub. This transformation marks an exciting new chapter for the museum, driven by a mandate for radical accessibility. Thanks to a $35 million donation from Shaw Family Foundation, Glenbow will become the first major museum in Canada to offer free general admission — permanently removing financial barriers to access. In recognition of this transformative support, the building will be renamed the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture.
Beyond free general admission, Glenbow is committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment by prioritizing accessibility across its physical space, operations, and programming — and aims to do the same across digital channels, too. To support this new chapter and prepare for reopening, Glenbow is seeking a partner to help plan, design, develop, and launch a new website for the museum. This work should reflect Glenbow’s mission, vision, and values while prioritizing an exceptional user experience that reflects the new museum experience. Project Description Glenbow’s website is an essential part of the user journey for the museum, and a key driver for engagement and visitation.
As Glenbow moves to reopening and operating once more, our website will be the most vital public-facing digital resource for people throughout all phases of their decision-making journey. Glenbow’s website needs to be a content hub — a central place for information that is as accessible as possible and offers resources and tools to expand engagement. The user experience should add value for users (website visitors and those planning to visit in person), reflect Glenbow’s values, be a gateway to the transformed museum experience, and offer ways for users to connect with the experience and information being offered.
This project is grounded in core principles, aligned with Glenbow’s values:
• Be radically accessible. Reflecting one of Glenbow’s core values, we aim to create an equally accessible digital experience that goes beyond baseline accessibility principles.
• Be easy to use. The website should focus on meeting users where they’re at, on their preferred devices, and creating a seamless online experience across mobile, desktop, TV, and other devices of choice.
• Add value for users. Design, content, and other website elements should amplify the visitor experience and show the diversity of what Glenbow has to offer.
• Bring Glenbow’s vision to life. Glenbow aims to be a museum where everyone can make meaning and feel they belong — the website should do the same.
• Be playful. A museum visit is a fun activity; we want the website to reflect this friendly, open, and welcoming experience.
The new website needs to be adaptable and practical. It should seamlessly allow for growth and changes as new programs, exhibitions, stories, events, and other experiences are added — clearly reflecting the museum experience in a digital space.
While the website will act as a primary point of contact for many users, it must also function as a key engagement tool – connecting seamlessly with other platforms and tools to support participation, deepen relationships, and facilitate action. These include:
• Booking system(s) for tickets to exhibitions and/or events, event rentals, programs (in person and online), etc.
• Online museum shop
• Email marketing system
• Online giving system
• Digital collections access
• Job posting/recruiting platform
• Others to be confirmed
Note that the work on each of the above systems is out of scope of this website project. With many interdependencies with these and other projects and systems, we hope to understand these integrations through the requirements gathering and discovery first phase of the project.
This RFP invites proposals from qualified organizations to support Glenbow in planning, developing, and implementing a new website to draw in users, enhance their experiences, and drive attendance, revenue, conversions, and engagement. As a non-profit organization and registered charity (Charitable Registration No. 10743 5695 RR001), Glenbow will follow a traditional competitive process to select a firm that best meets the project’s objectives.
Statement of Work
Glenbow is seeking to partner with an organization to deliver a new website by September 2026. The scope of work is broken into key phases:
1. Requirements Gathering & Discovery
o Internal engagement to affirm goals and needs of new website. Note: Some of this work was started previously by internal teams; that work will provide an initial foundation for this phase.
2. User Experience Plan & Site Architecture
o Develop a user experience plan to deliver on content and user needs across devices. This plan should include selection of a content management system Glenbow’s team can easily update and manage independently.
o Plan a site architecture that is as accessible as possible, delivers on content that adds value for users and the museum, and is easy to understand and navigate across diverse devices.
3. Website Design, Development & Testing
o Design the user interface for the new website, in alignment with Glenbow’s updated brand architecture and guidelines.
o Build the website — in a system staff can manage independently.
o Integrate key systems. Note: Selection of most other systems is out of scope of this work; if any are in scope, they will be identified during requirements gathering. Other system selection will prioritize streamlined integration with the selected CMS for this website.
o Test the built website with users — including internal stakeholders and external audiences, where possible.
4. Launch & Refinement
o Launch new website ahead of Glenbow’s reopening.
o Refine any fixes, minor changes, or user experience pinch points. Further development or major changes will become part of a future project.
This new website will ensure Glenbow can meet user needs and support new museum exhibitions, operations, programs, and more — reflecting the incredible new building and physical experiences in a digital space. This website should also demonstrate Glenbow’s commitment to radical accessibility and inclusion.
