Vancouver Art Gallery

In April 1931, the Vancouver Art Gallery Association was established under the provincial Society Act, in order to establish and maintain a museum for the City of Vancouver. The building was designed by architectural firm Sharp and Johnston, and featured four galleries, one of which included a sculpture hall, a lecture hall, and a library. The cost to construct the building was approximately . Paintings were not damaged while the protesters occupied the building. In 1950, the museum conducted renovations to its building, reshaping the design of the building towards an International Style of architecture; Renovations were also conducted to accommodate the 157 works bequeathed to the museum by Emily Carr, with the building reopened to the public in 1951. In 1983 the museum was relocated to its present location, the former provincial courthouse. Before the re-purposed building was opened to the public, it was renovated by architect Arthur Erickson at a cost of million, as a part of his larger three city-block Robson Square redevelopment. Relocation planning Planning to relocate the museum began as early as 2004, a result from the gallery's need for more exhibition and storage space for its collections. However, Vancouver City Council later reversed its decision in April 2013, opting to approve the original proposed site in Larwill Park. The museum would occupy the building under similar arrangements as the former courthouse, with the museum leasing the property from the City of Vancouver. The museum issued a request for qualifications for a new building design in September 2013. Herzog & de Meuron's bid was selected by the museum in April 2014. The building was originally planned to be completed in 2020, and was named the Chan Centre for the Visual Arts after a major donor. Groundbreaking for the new museum building occurred on 15 September 2023, with construction taking place on the site in March 2024. However, it was later paused in August. On December 3, 2024, the gallery announced it had scrapped its proposed building design after projected costs rose from $400 million to $600 million. Herzog & de Meuron were removed from the project. Select exhibitions since 2006 The Vancouver Art Gallery has organized and hosted a number of temporary, and travelling exhibitions. A select list of exhibitions held at the museum since 2005 include: • Brian Jungen (2006) • Monet to Dali: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art (2007) • KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art (2008) • Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art Masterpieces from The Rijksmuseum (2009) • Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man (2010) • The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art (2011) • Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore (2012) • Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture (2012) • Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life (2013) • Charles Edenshaw (2013) • The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors (2014) • Unscrolled: Reframing Tradition in Chinese Contemporary Art (2014) • Cezanne and the Modern: Masterpieces of European Art from the Pearlman Collection (2015) • How Do I Fit This Ghost in My Mouth? An exhibition by Geoffrey Farmer (2015) • Embracing Canada: Landscapes from Krieghoff to the Group of Seven (2015) • Douglas Coupland: Everywhere Is Anywhere Is Anything Is Everything (2015) • MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture (2016) • Picasso: The Artist and His Muses (2016) • Claude Monet’s Secret Garden (2017) • Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg (2018) • French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850-1950 (2019) • Alberto Giacometti: A Line Through Time (2019) • Cindy Sherman (2020) • Jan Wade: Soul Power (2021–22) • Growing Freedom: The instructions of Yoko Ono / The art of John and Yoko (2022) • Conceptions of White (2023) • J. E. H. MacDonald? A Tangled Garden (2023–24) • Firelei Báez (2024-2025) ==Building==

in 1980. The art museum is in the former provincial courthouse for Vancouver. The neoclassical building was designed by Francis Rattenbury after winning a design competition in 1905. The building was opened as a provincial courthouse in 1911, and operated as such until 1979, with the provincial courts moved to the Law Courts south of the building. The building was designated the Former Vancouver Law Courts National Historic Site of Canada in 1980. Gathering place The front lawn and steps of the building has hosted a number of public gatherings and protests. The building serves as the monthly meeting spot for Vancouver's Critical Mass, as well as flash mobs, the Zombie Walk, pro-marijuana rallies, and numerous environmental demonstrations. The steps on both the Robson Street and Georgia Street sides of the building are popular gathering spots for protest rallies. The Georgia Street side is also a popular place in the summertime for people to relax or socialize. On February 12, 2007, the 2010 Olympic countdown clock was placed in the front lawn of the building. It was open for free for the public to see. The clock has since been disassembled after the games, with one half going to BC Place and the other to Whistler Village. In June 2021, Cheryle Gunargie created a vigil in honour of the unmarked remains of children discovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The vigil consists of 215 pairs of shoes, one for each of the children whose remains were discovered. ==Permanent collection==

As of December 2018, the Vancouver Art Gallery's permanent collection had approximately 12,000 works by Canadian, and international artists. The museum's permanent collection is formally owned by the City of Vancouver, with the museum acting as the custodians for the collection under a lease and license agreement. The museum's collection also features a significant number of works by Emily Carr, dating from 1913 to 1942. The painting Totem Poles, Kitseukla, by Carr, was among the original set of works acquired for the museum's collection prior to opening in 1931. As of 2023, the museum has over 250 works by Carr. The permanent collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, along with the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, hold the largest number of works by Carr of any collection in the world. The museum's also features a collection of indigenous Canadian art from the region, including works from Haida, Heiltsuk, Inuit, Kwakwakaʼwakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Nuxalk, and Tlingit artists. Regular acquisitions of indigenous Canadian works was undertaken by the museum beginning in the 1980s; with the museum's practices prior to the 1980s typically leaving the acquisition of indigenous Canadian works for the collections of ethnographic, or history museums. In 2015, George Gund III bequeathed to the museum 37 First Nations works, including totem poles by Ken Mowatt and Norman Tait, drawings by Bill Reid, and thirteen carved works by Robert Davidson. Other works in the museum's indigenous Canadian collection includes works by Sonny Assu, Rebecca Belmore, Dempsey Bob, Dana Claxton, Joe David, Reg Davidson, Beau Dick, Brian Jungen, Marianne Nicolson, and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. Selected works File:Roelof de Vries, Landscape with Stream and Windmill, unknown date, oil on panel, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery.jpg|Roelof de Vries, Landscape with Stream and Windmill, unknown date. File:Charles Bridgeman.jpg|William Hogarth, Portrait of Mr. Bridgeman, File:Captive - Vancouver.jpg|Joseph Wright of Derby, The Captive from Sterne, 1774 File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 002.jpg|Henry Fuseli, Dream of Belinda, File:Cox - In the Hayfield.jpg|David Cox, In the Hayfield, 1850 File:Path among Pines by Emily Carr, c. 1930.jpg|Emily Carr, Path among Pines, File:Above the Gravel Pit by Emily Carr, 1937, oil on canvas.jpg|Emily Carr, Above the Gravel Pitt, 1937 ==Library and archive==

The Vancouver Art Gallery Library and Archives is a non-circulating library that specializes in modern, contemporary and Canadian art. Its holdings include more than 50,000 books and exhibition catalogues, 30 journal subscriptions, 5,000 files that document various artists, art forms, and works. Access to the museum's library and archives is currently not available to the public. The museum's archives contain the institution's official records since its founding in 1931. In addition to institutional documents, the archives also includes files from B.C. Binning, and the books and serials where Bill Bissett's concrete poetry was published. == Programs ==

The Vancouver Art Gallery offers a wide range of public programs throughout the year, including live performances marketed under the FUSE program, scholar's lectures, artist's talks, as well as dance and musical performances. In its most recent year, the gallery has featured over 60 presenters, including historian Timothy Brook, writer Sarah Milroy, and Emily Carr scholar, Gerta Moray. In May 2015, the gallery welcomed architect Jacques Herzog as he presented his first lecture in Canada on architecture and the new Vancouver Art Gallery building. ==See also==