If I could rate this store a -5 stars I would. UNORGANISED and to top it off just plain RUDE RUDE…read moreRUDE. I presently work with an organization that does cultural events for youth in the city. One of my roles is to highlight youth in capacities of the arts and so therefore I am to oversee a huge art show at the Eau Claire market. Our organization is fairly high profile, we partner with the Glenbow Museum, the Public library and the Calgary Transit just to name a few. Our website gets 16,000 hits yearly. I needed around 30 art eisels and wanted to commission a carpenter to build them for me but I cancelled that contract when i found out that I could rent them at Swinton's for 6 dollars an eisel a day. Great deal So I called and booked 30 of them, and even called back two weeks later to confirm. The girl reassured me everything was fine twice,so I was calm about this event.. well .... until.... just a couple of weeks ago when I get a call from another staff member from the store and am told that someone had double booked me. Basically the eisels were not available and they had no idea who had taken my call and who had booked me when it was plain to see in thier calender that the eisels were already spoken for. I said how can a person reassure me twice about a date and a number on two totally different separate occasions and how can you not know which employee did this? A mystery still to this day and the irony is they dont have many employees. Go figure? This employee was very nice and was apologetic and he said he had at least 15 left and that the owner would be willing to cover the difference if I ordered from another store and kindly gave me two contacts. These contacts didn't pan so I told this employee that I would want what he had left and he suggested coming in to see other eisels they had that may compensate for the other ones. So I did today. The owner was not there but the co-owner his wife Donna was and she had no idea what I was talking about and yet again according to her calender I was not booked once again for the 15 eisels for that day. Again not only had they double booked me with the first request they had now overlooked me for the 15. I thought its okay people make mistakes but Donna's tone was so rude and bascially if she didnt know about it then obviously it didnt happen. We finally got her husband on the phone and low and behold he confirmed the negotiation but he was not advised by the second employee about the 15 eisels. At this point I am incredibly upset and I now only have weeks for my upcoming exposition. Donna says to me well "I have 15 do you want them or not?" in the most aggressive tone. I was so taken aback at her snappy tone so I then said, "listen your employees have made the mistake of double booking me and again I see I was overlooked yet a third time. I am irritated with all this , are you not going to help me your client? I also add I dont appreciate your tone right now and you are being incredibly rude". This does not even phase her with more zest she beligerantly carries on and answers " I have 15 take it or leave it" I am so in shock at the whole situation and this response and have never been treated so rudelyby a business ... but yet I say yes I will take them because the kids in the show need them and ask if she could please email me the two other options once again so that I can perhaps retry to find the other 15. It is now 7 hours after this request and I have heard nothing from her. Suprise suprise.... Tomorrow I will cancel the whole order simply out of principal. The staff obviously doesnt communicate to thier employers the follow ups, nor do they admit when they have made mistakes. The owner was trying to remedy this situation but his wife certainly needs to take a customer service seminar and perhaps deal with the public less. I still cant believe that this woman who is the owner of her store would treat a client in this way, doesnt she want business? Shouldn't she make ammends for the mistakes of her staff in a professional way? It still blows me away. I have reviewed over 700 businesses in this city and I have never been treated in such an ill mannered way. My board was not at all impressed with this store and we will never do business with them again plus she really picked the wrong person to lay her power trip on, the arts community certainly is going to hear about this...and needless to say so will the yelp community. So a big minus 5 stars for this woman and her non personal customer style and service. This yelper's favorite art supply store still stands, Mona Lisa's art supplies; educated staff, superb service and very nice owners... and why shouldn't you have friendly experiences and service... THIS is the norm.

Came here using Groupon's art sampler vouchers. I took both acrylic and oil sampler classes. Both…read morewere with Sue the instructor. Sue is GREAT! 5* for Sue! She's great at explaining and teaching, and is so patient! I had an awesome time at both sampler classes, and learned a lot and would recommend these classes to anyone. Are you bored at home with nothing to do? Go take a class!! Normally offered for $40 for 3 hrs and believe me... 3 hrs is definitely needed cuz they start by going over the basics and let you play around, then the real painting begins and you paint something that you end up taking home!! Being a beginner it's definitely a slower process haha. I'm not too familiar with art supplies, etc... but the store seems very big and pretty well stocked (but I really know nothing about supplies so can't really review much on that).

I thought this University is small. Well its actually quite big. Has a few artwork here but not a…read morelot. From what I can see is just 2 items great for picture taking. Not sure about the rating of the school but I am just rating it as a tourist spot. Yes they have a performance of Arts theater or auditorium. The school is basically like a big circle. One way in and out. There are only paid parking here. Nice that they have lots of green here.

Complete second rate trailer park of an institution. They get one star only because there is no…read morezero star option. Theoretically an educational institution with a bizarre unknown registration process with a process and deadlines unknown. Staff and instructors prove incapable of answering basic program questions. Covid provides the perfect cover to hide and be further unreachable. When I went there I liked the small classes but make no mistake... this is now a waste of time. Go to a real institution.

This college is a joke. The program is honestly insulting. So far it has been a complete waste of…read moremy time. The professors involved are incompetent and should not be getting paid to *link me an outdated textbook and link me to a youtube tutorial from some random guy back in 2014* and literally nothing else. They also can't seem to use common sense and provide clear instruction, such as course assignment due dates ANYWHERE- which you would think is the bare minimum a student could ask for. That, and I don't know, any communication in general from the actual professors, most of which have been radio silent and don't even answer help forums/questions from their students. :) Do not waste your money, effort, or time. This might as well be a scam.

LA program: If I could give them ZERO STARS, I would! AWFUL school that charges too much for…read moreprograms that deliver terrible, inadequate, out of date, and inaccurate content. They clearly do not review course content or instruction or assignments. I would NEVER hire anyone who has a certification from this school after experiencing it for myself. They also extort money from students after they withdraw due to terrible instruction and course content not being as advertised, claiming exaggerated hours of instruction and attendance and without providing evidence to that fact. STAY AWAY!!! They also do not allow work experience equivalencies or allow students to challenge program content. No formal means to file complaints about program content or quality of instruction. A formal complaint to the government is being filed as a result. Lawyers are also being involved.

The North Mount Pleasant Arts Centre is where I was first discovered... okay it was me discovering…read moremy own enjoyment of painting. I had just moved to Calgary and was looking for something to wile away the hours, so I signed up for a beginners art class through the city. Lucky for me, The NMPAC (they don't call it that - or maybe they do - but I don't really want to type it out again) just happened to be down the street. It was perfect. This place is called an "Arts Centre" for a reason. They've got the facilities to host a plethora of classes from painting to sculpting to pottery. I quite enjoyed when break time came in my evening class and I got to wander the halls a bit and poke my head in to see what other classes were doing or take a look at the more recent projects hanging on the walls. It almost felt like elementary school in that sense... just as fun, but with a bit more skill. Reminiscing has me wanting to take another class soon... time to peruse the fall/winter schedule.

Gave my daughter some camp options for the summer. She loves arts & crafts so the camps at this…read moreart centre offered for her age group seemed like the perfect fit. Needless to say she was over the moon excited and couldn't wait for summer camp. It was also her first ALL day camp. She loved it. By the end of her camp week the amount of art work she had compiled to bring home was mind boggling. Everyone there was super nice & friendly and she was at ease immediately. Parking and drop off was also easy. I'm pretty confident we will be back here for more summer camps and then some! Really great place!

I took my grade two and three students on a field trip to the Leighton Art Centre and they loved…read moreit! It's quite out of town so when going you have to incorporate that into you time and make it a full day. We arrived and automatically went into the cabin where we would be doing our art. Our tour guide was Emma and she gave each of the students a notebook to keep and take home which they loved. She asked them to look around the room but they had to stay seated and draw an object or thing they could see from their seats. Then after they did it once they had to flip to the next page and find another object in the room and draw it and she gave them a time limit the first time of 5 minutes and only 3 minutes the second time to show how it gets harder. Some students were asking for erasers and she explained that they don't have erasers because they believe that artists don't make mistakes. Then they students started their clay projects making a landscape and they had lots of fun doing this. Then we had lunch in that same room after students cleaned up and then they had play time outside in the snow which the leader explained the boundaries they had to stay in and that all nature things including snow stay on the ground. Then we did a nature walk and then the students got to go through the Leighton house which they really enjoyed especially the room with the parrot and all the trees! Thank you Leighton Art Centre !

My friend's soon to be mother-in-law organized a bridal shower here. I've never been to…read moreMillarville....not gonna lie....didn't even know it even existed. It's a short drive south of Calgary. I used google maps to get me to the Leighton Art Centre. The drive there is beautiful. Lush rolling green hills and beautiful forests. I swear I was transported to an English countryside! If you like scenery, a summer drive in this area is highly recommended. Our art lesson was held in an original little school house, now an historical landmark, built in the 1950s. After our art lesson (which I determined I do not have a talent for lol) our instructor led us on a short nature walk up to the the Leighton House Museum. A beautiful home originally designed by Alfred Crocker Leighton that features much of the home's original furniture and the Leighton's personal belongings. The home also showcases AC Leighton's original artwork as well is now home to many local artists' work where they are displayed and for sale. The house is beautifully situated over looking a breathtaking view. The Leightons were dedicated to art and the art community, and I can see why artists come there to paint, there is so much inspiration all around you. Definitely worth the drive out there for the views alone, but the museum and learning a little bit of local history is a nice bonus too.

I signed up for an Artificial Intelligence (AI) course through the University of Calgary's…read moreContinuing Education department. There are roughly three AI courses that are free, thanks to Microsoft. You will hear a lot about Microsoft Copilot, its AI tool, throughout these courses. I like free courses. I didn't mind learning about Copilot. ChatGPT is the frontrunner these days. It's not my first rodeo (so fitting, as it's Calgary) for me to be a student at an Alberta university. I was with Athabasca University first. I took a couple of undergraduate math courses for interest. I then took a graduate course in program management in IT as my elective for my graduate degree. It's nice to say that I am formally a University of Calgary student. Since this course is free, there isn't a formal grade that you get at the end of it. It's kind of nice to not do assignments, tests, or exams. The course that I took was on AI essentials. It's for anyone who is interested in AI and the tools out there to help you make things easier at work or personally in your life. This course was asynchronous. It meant that we had a three-hour live session through Teams. My session was last Friday. We then had course materials (videos, PowerPoint presentation, and some supplementary materials) to go through at our own pace. I finished everything late Sunday night. I have always loved learning and the course material was fascinating to me. My first time going through graduate school (I was a Master's dropout for a brief period) consisted of declaring AI as my field of specialization for computer science. It's funny how I somehow knew that AI would be a thing, but didn't realize the extent until now. I don't have the same desire to code like I did back then. I do like to see how AI can make my job as a writer better or help me at home. Perhaps AI can fetch a decent recipe for me when I can't think of anything to make or can't be bothered searching for one online. I registered for this course in late January. I chose a date and time to participate in the live online session. The process was straightforward. Within a couple of business days, I got my unique University of Alberta student ID and was asked to create a password after getting a temporary one. Connecting to the Teams session was easy. I used my work Teams account to connect, so I didn't need to install anything. Even if you don't have Teams installed, the link throws you to your browser, so you can technically participate in the chat. One star gets removed for the discrepancy in this online session's start time. The receipt that I got said that this session was at 1 pm Mountain. The syllabus that I got both a week and a day before the live session stated 1:30 pm. I went with the latter. I entered the chat with 177 people. All I saw in the chat were folks debating whether the course started at 1 pm or 1:30 pm. Perhaps it was an oversight of the course instructor and perhaps another person handling the syllabus. It may be the course instructor handling both details and getting them wrong. It's the type of confusion that everyone didn't need on the first and only group session, but got it. Luckily, we didn't miss much. The session was recorded. The course instructor was knowledgeable. However, he had a tendency to say um a lot, which felt like a distraction. Three hours of him talking felt like an eternity. We got five minutes midway through to break, which didn't feel like a break at all. The course materials were great. I liked the videos and sample prompts to feed Copilot and more. I learned a lot. The remaining two AI courses that are free are synchronous in delivery. It means that there are three 3.5-hour sessions to attend live through Teams. I'm not sure whether I feel like attending them. Luckily, I have some time to think about it. I want to check out other courses that this university has to offer. I don't mind taking courses for interest, provided that the tuition is affordable. (96)

My child attended summer bike camp here last summer. This was her 3rd camp at U of C. The other…read morecamps were good. Did not want to go down a steep hill but was told there was no choice. That morning, fell off bike and hit a tree, blood and cuts all over face and body parts. Finger/hand started to turn blue. Cuts all over her palms and they refused to give her more band-aids when the cheap band-aids fell off minutes later. No one called us. We picked up at the end and found our badly injured child. We went to the Children's Hospital for treatment. Stills talks about how horrible it was. Horrible! Horrible! Horrible! I show parents the photos and they gasp.