Founded in 1931 and located on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəýəm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səĺilwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations, the Vancouver Art Gallery is Western Canada’s largest public art museum. Our mission is to create—through art—paths to share perspectives, build and engage communities and shape our collective future together. This is expressed through exhibitions showcasing historical and contemporary art from BC and around the world; education programs that encourage dialogue and understanding; and publications that advance scholarship on a wide range of artistic subjects.
The Vancouver Art Gallery was originally designed by local architects Sharp and Thompson and constructed in 1931 on a small lot donated by the City of Vancouver at 1145 Georgia Street, several blocks west of where the Gallery now stands. Its façade incorporated a frieze on which the names of great painters were carved and the entrance was flanked by the busts of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
The Gallery remained at this location on West Georgia Street until 1983, when it moved to its present location bound by Georgia, Howe, Hornby and Robson Streets. As part of a land exchange between the Province of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver in 1974, the City acquired a 99- year lease of the 1906 neo-classical courthouse building. The monumental structure was designed by Victoria architect Sir Francis Mawson Rattenbury (1867-1935), a colourful figure originally from Yorkshire, England who moved to Canada in 1892 and established himself as the major institutional architect in British Columbia, also designing Victoria’s Legislative Assembly buildings and the city’s landmark Empress Hotel.
The Gallery commissioned Vancouver-based Arthur Erickson Architects to renovate the courthouse, which was part of the three-block development became known as Robson Square, one of Erickson’s largest and most renowned projects. Construction began on the $20 million redesign of the courthouse in December 1981 and the new Vancouver Art Gallery opened
