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Museum membership guide
Top 22 places in Canada for Art
byShiry
Live update: Updated February 15, 2022Copy link
Copy link1. Art Gallery of Hamilton
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:
ShiryThe AGH offers one of the most dynamic environments for learning; we are passionately committed to the idea that learning is a lifelong enterprise, that it is best delivered through experiences that are tactile, social, and accessible to all.
2. Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is a long-standing site of excellence and a destination for contemporary art for international tourists and regional citizens.
3. Grimsby Public Art Gallery
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryEstablished in 1975, the GPAG is a non-profit public art gallery, featuring exhibitions of contemporary artwork. We also offer a wide range of art classes and workshops for both children and adults, school tours and workshops, special events, and more. The Gallery Shop offers a large selection of unique, hand-crafted gifts made in Canada.
4. Mercer Union
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryMercer Union, A Centre for Contemporary Art, is an artist-run centre dedicated to the advancement of contemporary art. We support the production and presentation of Canadian and international critical artistic practices, often premiering artists’ work to local and international audiences. Founded by artists in 1979, the production and commissioning of new work is at the core of our program, supporting artists from project inception to realization with substantial support and strong curatorial vision. We enable emerging or established artists to pursue important new directions or ambitions in their work.
5. Norfolk Arts Centre
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryNorfolk Arts Centre is a public art gallery dedicated to the learning, preservation and nurturing of creativity, enjoyment, and appreciation of the arts. We support and promote the arts in Norfolk County through exhibitions, education, special events, and public programs while working with local and surrounding communities and agencies.
6. Art Gallery of Sudbury
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryHoused in a turn of the century mansion, the former residence of lumber baron William Joseph Bell, the gallery has a unique architectural appeal. Local history and contemporary works of art come together in the lush surroundings of the Gallery grounds. Our exciting exhibitions, lecture series, art classes, special events, facility rentals, the opportunity to rent and buy local art and purchase Canadian art from our boutique make the gallery a gathering place for the local community. The Art Gallery is open to the public year round.
7. Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery is a free public art gallery located in downtown Sarnia, Ontario. With more than 250 members, over 1,200 works of Canadian art in the permanent collection, and with the support of a keen volunteer team, the gallery serves an immediate community of 128,000 people across Lambton County.
8. The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryFor more than three decades, Harbourfront Centre has been at the cutting edge of all that is current and creative, bringing together the best in both Canadian culture and the rich mosaic of cultures from across our nation and around the world. Harbourfront Centre works with over 450 community organizations and hosts more than 4,000 events a year. Approximately 12.5 million people visit the site annually, cementing Harbourfront Centre's position as a leading international showcase for theatre, dance, literature, music, film, visual arts, and fine craft.
9. McMichael Canadian Art Collection
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe McMichael Canadian Art Collection stands alone as the only public fine art gallery in the nation that focuses on Canadian art and the Indigenous art of our country, both historical and contemporary. The permanent collection consists of over 6,400 artworks by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, their contemporaries, and First Nations, Métis, Inuit and contemporary artists who have contributed to the development of Canadian art. The McMichael is also the gallery of record for works on paper from the Inuit community of Cape Dorset, as we are the custodians for the Cape Dorset archive, totaling more than 100,000 artworks.
10. Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA)
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryMOCA is motivated by our belief that museums can be culturally and socially useful. We promote exceptional artistic thinking and provide a community space for discourse and creativity. Working across all contemporary art forms, we empower the local Toronto art scene, while informing the international. MOCA is an accessible, welcoming hub rooted and engaged in a culturally rich neighbourhood; it is here, through art, that you can feel the specialness of this invigorating and hyper-diverse city.
11. Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is the largest art museum in Atlantic Canada. Since 1908, the Gallery has been a gateway for the visual arts in Atlantic Canada by engaging people with art. It is committed to this mission as an agency of the Province of Nova Scotia and one of the premier arts institutions in Canada. The Gallery is also responsible for acquiring, preserving and exhibiting works of art, and for providing education in the visual arts. The Gallery’s Permanent Collection currently holds over 18,000 works.
12. Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShirySince its inception Plug In has played a central role in the creation and growth of a living culture in Manitoba, facilitating a mutually beneficial dialogue between art and its wider social context. In addition to its fundamental role as a centre for the exhibition and dissemination of art, Plug In has nurtured the careers of numerous artists, curators, critics, and arts administrators. To address other community needs, Plug In has also been an incubator for arts groups in the province such as Video Pool and MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art).
13. Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryFounded in 1907, the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba is Manitoba’s second largest art gallery. It’s 22,000 sqft facility is located in the heart of downtown Brandon, situated between Regina and Winnipeg. Each year the AGSM receives over 20,000 visitors to experience the best in contemporary art exhibitions, education, and events. The AGSM’s programming places an emphasis on contemporary art by regional, national, and Indigenous artists.
14. MacKenzie Art Gallery
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe MacKenzie Art Gallery is Saskatchewan’s largest public art gallery, offering original exhibitions of contemporary and historical art from Saskatchewan, Canada and around the world.
15. Remai Modern
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryRemai Modern is a new museum of modern and contemporary art opening October 21, 2017 in Saskatoon. Remai Modern aims to be a vibrant, imaginative and prescient museum committed to affirming the powerful role that art and artists play in questioning, interpreting and defining the modern era. The building, by eminent Canadian architects KPMB, overlooks the South Saskatchewan River in downtown Saskatoon. Remai Modern is home to the world’s foremost collection of Picasso linocut prints, and aspires to be a leading centre for contemporary Indigenous art programming.
16. Art Gallery of Alberta
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Art Gallery of Alberta is a museum dedicated to excellent and innovative practice in programming, stewardship, and presentation of visual arts in Western Canada and across the nation.
17. Glenbow Museum
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryGlenbow is a place of confluence. A meeting point for people and communities to join a flow of ideas, knowledge, opinions and experiences. Our exceptional collection of art and historical objects represents the people and ideas that have shaped our region. That collection is complemented and contextualized by travelling exhibitions that explore historical and contemporary art, fashion, design and innovation from around the world.
18. Kelowna Art Gallery
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Kelowna Art Gallery is located in the heart of Kelowna’s Cultural District in downtown Kelowna, British Columbia. We offer visitors the opportunity to explore changing exhibitions of both historical and contemporary Canadian art in our four gallery spaces, including an outdoor courtyard area.
19. Kamloops Art Gallery
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Gallery’s annual attendance has ranged between 30,000 and 35,000 over the last five years. It enjoys a national reputation for its exhibitions and publications, and has developed relationships with national and international artists, curators, critics and scholars. The Gallery is also well respected for its educational and public programs and through activities organized and presented in the community and region involving both contemporary and historical art. Its collection as of December 2019 consists of 3,100+ works that reflect the Gallery’s exhibition history. In 2005, the KAG co-commissioned with the University of British Columbia’s Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Canada’s participation in the 51st Venice Biennale with the work of Rebecca Belmore.
20. The Bateman Foundation Gallery of Nature
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShirySee the world’s largest collection of works by legendary Canadian artist and naturalist Robert Bateman. Explore over 80 originals and experience nature’s most dramatic subjects up close and personal.
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