Vancouver Art Gallery 80th Anniversary

The Vancouver Art Gallery is marking their 80th anniversary Wednesday, October 5, 2011. It first opened in 1931 at 1145 West Georgia, a few blocks away from its current location in the old courthouse building, where it moved in 1983.

1931 – Vancouver Art Gallery’s original location under construction.
Archives item# Bu P401.1. Photographer: Stuart Thomson

1931 – Vancouver Art Gallery’s original location under construction.
Archives item# Bu P401.3. Photographer: Stuart Thomson

October 5, 1931 – Opening day of the Vancouver Art Gallery at 1145 West Georgia.
Archives item# CVA 99-4061. Photographer: Stuart Thomson

To celebrate this milestone, admission is by donation all day tomorrow and cake will be served at 11:00am. The current exhibitions are:

• The Distance Between You and Me: “The Distance Between You and Me presents the work of three notable contemporary artists from Vancouver, Los Angeles and Guadalajara. Thematically, the exhibition revolves around the ideas of location and dislocation, not only in the geographical sense, but also in terms of psychological location.”
• An Autobiography of Our Collection: “What is a museum collection? How does it reveal the personalities and particulars of an institution? For eighty years, the Vancouver Art Gallery has been acquiring artworks, and drawn exclusively from this permanent collection, An Autobiography of Our Collection considers the fascinating history of collecting at the Vancouver Art Gallery.”

The Vancouver Art Gallery boasts the largest collection of Emily Carr’s works and is the fifth largest gallery in the country. In recent years they have been pushing to relocate downtown. Follow the Vancouver Art Gallery on Twitter or Facebook for exhibit and special event information.