Well Calgary, you just couldn’t get it together, so someone jumped in and did it for you.

There has been a long struggle to get a collecting contemporary art museum in this city. The debates, the flawed deals and the disappointments stretch back for decades. So far, we don’t have much to show for it.

But the next time you’re whizzing through Sunnyside on the C-Train, take a quick look out the window on the hill leading to the Alberta College of Art and Design and you’ll see that we have, well, something: the Contemporary Art Museum.

Nestled on a quiet street across from the tracks, Bree Horel, her dog (the “director of public relations”) and her roommate have turned their home into a mix of personal art, family photos, furniture, accessories and a permanent collection of contemporary work, complete with a hand-drawn catalogue.

It’s not the Vancouver Art Gallery by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a start, right?

“If you can’t get your shit together Calgary, this is what you get,” says Horel.

The one rule about the permanent collection is that the creator of the work has to be a working artist. No hobbyists allowed. But running a gallery, even when it is only in your rental house, brings challenges.

“That’s the thing that always gets me pissed off,” says Horel. “That [as] artists we need to get paid for what we do and we never do because we’re always doing these awesome projects for each other.”

There’s also the stress of what to do about the collection when running the Contemporary Art Museum becomes a lower priority for Horel.

“That’s kind of a big responsibility, too, to have a permanent collection of artworks that I’ve placed some kind of value and importance on by declaring them as part of this permanent collection,” she says. “What happens if I move? All of a sudden I have this sort of responsibility to this collection of artworks and how do I uphold that responsibility?”

Featured in the permanent collection are local artists such as Tyler Los-Jones and Kim Neudorf, as well as international submissions. One entry in the catalogue about a piece by Diane Cluck reads: “Diane is an established folk singer-songwriter from New York. Her music is beautiful.”

Every part of the house is a part of the museum. The kitchen is labelled the “Museum Cafeteria,” the living room is the “Grand Hall” and a secondary room is “Beaver Hall.” Even two of the three bedrooms act as galleries for the collection, messy beds and all.

But with the success of establishing this first in Calgary, dark clouds loom. The Arizona-based landlord isn’t too keen on their quirky ideas, including a sign painted on the suite’s window announcing the museum’s presence. “He is trying to sell the house, so anything weird he is reacting to,” says Horel. “He called us and asked us to take down the sign.”

But the sign remains. For now, at least. And for now, Calgary has a collecting contemporary art museum. Sort of. And the director of public relations? He really likes a good butt rub.

To check out the Contemporary Arts Museum, contact CAMCalgary@yahoo.ca to book a tour.