BonnyBoom - The Arts Uncommon
Team Ward 9 recently spent an afternoon touring and learning about BonnyBoom - a multi-disciplinary arts venue right in the heart of the Bonnybrook Industrial Area.
Unofficially being dubbed the Scrap Yard Arts District, owner and founder Doug McKaeg initially started BonnyBoom in order to provide a new home for The Old Trout Puppet Workshop. Post-Covid, the building has welcomed a variety of independent artists, actors, and musicians renting office, studio, and gallery spaces.
With an expansion to a second nearby location in the new year, (a future home and circus school space for The Green Fools. BonnyBoom is trailblazing a new and unique path for the creative sector in Calgary.
Originally created as a sheet metal factory, BonnyBoom is repurposing and reactivating underutilized spaces in the area. And Doug has big plans for the future of BonnyBoom - a vision of hosting community events and bringing more people to the area, introducing a theatre and performance stage to host shows and public events, and encouraging others to invest in community art spaces like he’s done with BonnyBoom. With the future GreenLine LRT just blocks away for their front door, Doug’s vision for a Scrap Yard Arts District and the community-building revitalization potential in Bonnybrook is an achievable reality.
Learn more by watching our video below, or stop by and check out BonnyBoom the next time you’re in the area.
BonnyBoom – The Arts Uncommon
3640 15a St SE
Calgary, AB T2G 3N5
www.bonnyboom.com