Vancouver Art Gallery Celebrates 95 Years

by Rebecca Bollwitt Friday, September 25th, 2026 — 10:51am PDT

The Vancouver Art Gallery is celebrating its 95th anniversary this October, marking nearly a century as an integral part of Vancouver’s cultural life. To mark the occasion, the Gallery will open its doors by donation on Friday, October 2nd.

Vancouver Art Gallery Miss604 Rebecca Bollwitt Photo

Vancouver Art Gallery Celebrates 95 Years

Friday, October 2, 2026 from 10:00am to 4:00pm
- Reserve tickets by donation in advance
Friday, October 2, 2026 from 4:00pm to 8:00pm
- Reserve tickets for Free First Friday entry in advance

Visitors can explore four floors of exhibitions and celebrate 95 years of art, artists and community, within a place where generations have encountered art and artists, exchanged ideas, seen the world from multiple perspectives, and gathered to connect, reflect and find meaning.

The Gallery will launch Notes from the Vault: 95 Years of Collecting, exploring the institution’s history through highlights from its collection and nearly a century of collecting. Copies will be available at the Gallery beginning October 2nd. VAGMA (Vancouver Art Gallery Media Association) Passholders receive 10% off. The Gallery Store will also launch anniversary merchandise featuring archival Vancouver Art Gallery logos, including T-shirts, tote bags and hats.

About the Vancouver Art Gallery

As the largest public art museum in Western Canada, the Gallery features the work of groundbreaking contemporary artists from around the world, presents historical art of international significance, and provides a global platform for British Columbia’s dynamic artistic community, including the work of First Nations artists as well as art of the Asia.

Its growing collection of over 12,000 artworks represents the most comprehensive resource for art in British Columbia and is the principal repository for visual art produced in the region, as well as related works by other notable Canadian and international artists.

April 1931, construction of the first Vancouver Art Gallery building at 1145 W Georgia. City of Vancouver Archives CVA 99-3871, Stuart Thomson.

The first iteration of the Vancouver Art Gallery opened in 1931 at 1145 West Georgia, a property donated by Henry Reifel.

In 1951, the Gallery was expanded to three times its original size in order to accommodate 157 works by Emily Carr, willed by the artist to the province of British Columbia before her death in 1945. Fundraising for the expansion was led by Carr’s close friend, Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris, who was instrumental in raising $300,000 toward the project, a sum matched by the City of Vancouver. Removing the Art Deco façade, architect Ross A. Lort remodelled the Gallery in accordance with the International Style popular in Vancouver at the time. The Gallery remained at this location on West Georgia Street until 1983.

The Vancouver Art Gallery opened in its current location, in the old courthouse building, on October 15, 1983.

In 2013, the site at West Georgia and Cambie was chosen by city council. Ground broke in 2024 for a planned nine-storey, 350,000 square-foot gallery with classrooms, artist studios, an Indigenous community space, a theatre, a number of restaurants and some retail, among its exhibition spaces. It was set for relocation in 2028 but the project was halted in 2025 and scaled back.