I see it's potential more in the tradition of the Art Institute of Chicago, which has galleries dedicated to regional fine arts, arms and armor, decorative arts, East Asian art, African art, even some Chicago-specific galleries. The Glenbow obviously can't compare in terms of the quantity or quality the AIC's collection, but it checks several of the same boxes. The Glenbow will never be a draw for tourists, but it would be nice, as a resident of Calgary, to have some place to go an take in some beautiful objects without feeling like I'm being infantilized. I mean, compare the Glenbow's galleries to how similar objects are exhibited at, say, UBC's Museum of Anthropology. There's no comparison.
The "family friendly" city strikes again. There is a role for kitschy stuff, but the Glenbow could easily carve out a more broad general history museum to greater success if it wants to be a better destination museum - we certainly don't need 3 or sometimes 4 meh-quality western-themed family-friendly historical institutions like Glenbow, Fort Calgary, Heritage Park - Stampede (sometimes) all competing for the same limited audience (and the same provincial funding grants).
Food for thought, I skimmed the attendance to see how busy these places are. A bit random list as an attempt to get a sense of scale for how popular different services, facilities and festivals are. All numbers are 2019 or 2018:
Calgary transit annual ridership: 105 million
YYC annual passengers: 17.8 million
Banff NP annual visitors: 4.1 million
New Central Library annual attendance: 1.6 million
Calgarians: 1.28 million
Stampede Park 10 day attendance: 1.275 million
Home attendance for 41 Flames games: ~790,000 (assuming sell outs)
Heritage Park annual attendance: ~500,000
Telus Spark annual attendance: ~430,000
Glenbow annual attendance: 167,770
Folk Fest 4 day attendance: ~50,000
Sled Island 4 day attendance: 40,000+
Fort Calgary annual attendance: 24,928
Calgary Underground Film Fest 7-day attendance: 7,500
