Image: Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff
Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff, Alberta, will host a free guided tour of Diane Borsato’s exhibition ‘A Clean Place to Swim’ on August 19, led by gallery staff as part of the Banff Centre’s Summer Banff Artist in Residence Open Studios programme. The tour begins at 5:30 p.m. and is open to all.
The exhibition brings together new and past works by Borsato that examine the liberating, intimate and communal possibilities of being in water. According to the Banff Centre, the presentation considers acts of teaching and learning, encounters across different backgrounds, and a shared right to clean, wild environments in which to swim.
The exhibition’s title is drawn from a phrase by Alexander Wilson in ‘The Culture of Nature’. The reference frames the works around ideas of access, environment and collective experience, while the exhibition’s focus on water connects personal activity with broader questions about shared natural spaces. The supplied exhibition material does not identify the full list of works or provide further details about the installation.
An image associated with the exhibition is a still composite from ‘A Clean Place to Swim (Ukrainians)’, a 27-minute video made by Borsato in 2025. The source material identifies the work as part of the exhibition, but does not provide additional information about its subjects, production or presentation format.
The tour coincides with the Summer Banff Artist in Residence Open Studios, which take place at Glyde Hall from 4 to 7 p.m. on August 19. The open studios invite visitors to meet participating visual artists and discuss processes, ideas in development and works in progress following six weeks at Banff Centre. The residency provides mentorship, critical feedback and studio time, and is open to artists working across media and at any stage of their careers.
Banff Centre describes Summer BAiR as a self-directed residency supported by an organised programme and an international community of contemporary artists. The exhibition tour is presented as a complementary visual-arts event rather than as part of the artists’ residency exhibition itself: visitors can attend the open studios at Glyde Hall before joining the gallery tour at Walter Phillips Gallery.
‘A Clean Place to Swim’ remains on view at Walter Phillips Gallery until December 13. The August 19 tour is free, with the gallery listing the event for Wednesday, August 19, 2026, at 5:30 p.m.
