Vancouver Art Gallery

The Vancouver Art Gallery was founded in 1931 and opened to the public that October on West Georgia Street. Since 1983 it has occupied the former provincial courthouse on Hornby Street, a neoclassical building by Francis Rattenbury that opened in 1911. Arthur Erickson converted it into a gallery as part of his redevelopment of Robson Square, and the building is a National Historic Site. A passage under Robson Street links it to the rest of the square.

The collection runs to about 12,000 works, with a focus on art from the Lower Mainland, First Nations art and Asian art. Its greatest strength is Emily Carr, the painter of British Columbia's forests and coastal villages. The gallery received 157 of her works by bequest in 1950 and now holds more than 250, the largest collection anywhere. The current featured exhibition, That Green Ideal: Emily Carr and the Idea of Nature, puts her work at the centre, and other shows change through the year.

The gallery is open daily except Tuesday, from 10am to 5pm, with a late opening until 8pm on Fridays. Admission is free on the first Friday of each month from 4pm to 8pm; you can reserve ahead or try for walk-in tickets. Entry is also free for children 12 and under, young people aged 13 to 18, Indigenous Peoples, caregivers and members, and BC residents pay a lower rate than other visitors. Groups of ten or more should book at least three days ahead. The gallery is cashless and takes debit and credit cards.

Plan on about two hours for the main floors. Self-serve lockers are free for ticket holders and members, which is useful if you have a rucksack or wet coat. The building is wheelchair accessible, with street-level entrances on Hornby and Robson Streets, and wheelchairs can be reserved by phone. Service animals are welcome in all public areas.

The gallery fills the block between Robson, Hornby, Howe and West Georgia Streets, right in the centre of downtown. The 1931 Gallery Bistro is on site, and the Gallery Store sells books and design objects. Plans for a new building at Larwill Park were put on hold in December 2024 when the design was dropped over rising costs, so the courthouse remains the home of the collection for now. The Bill Reid Gallery is a few minutes' walk away on Hornby Street.