New Vancouver Art Gallery shares major update & when it should open

After months of radio silence, the Vancouver Art Gallery made a huge announcement today, including a timeline of when it should open! If you didn’t know, the gallery is set to transform over the next few years, with a brand new building coming to the city. Here’s a quick refresher.

Now in the works for the past 5 or so years, the new Vancouver Art Gallery has received significant funding from both the private and public sector. Back in 2018, the Chan Family Foundation donated some $40M, with the new building being named the Chan Centre for Visual Arts in recognition. Then, a few months back, the Audain Foundation announced another $100M in support, marking the single largest cash gift to an art gallery in Canadian history.

And today, the federal government made a significant contribution as well! Through the Infrastructure Canada’s Green and Inclusive Community Buildings program, the new building will receive some $25M, with another $4.3M coming from the country’s Cultural Spaces Fund. That’s a lot of money, and more is needed, so what does the vision actually entail?

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With the help of acclaimed architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, the new building will actually be the first ‘passive house’ art gallery in North America! Adhering to strict standards for efficiency, the passive house designation represents the most progressive building techniques around the world.

The fun doesn’t stop there, though. Alongside the relocation of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the building will also include a “multi-purpose Indigenous Community House, a theatre, public art spaces, and initiatives and programming for marginalized and underserved groups.”

Which gets us to maybe the most exciting part of all of this- a timeline for when it’ll actually open! According to today’s news, the new Vancouver Art Gallery should be open to the public by the year 2027. And considering time is absolutely flying by, we’re not too upset about the wait…

Now, who’s going to move into the old space?