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Museum membership guide
Top 40 locations in Canada
byShiry
Live update: Updated July 26, 2021Copy link
Copy link1. TIFF
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:
ShiryThe museum website: TIFF.net
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. The Grimsby Museum
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Grimsby Museum is owned and operated by the Town of Grimsby. We are a community history museum with an artefact collection of over 16,000 records relating to Grimsby’s past. We are here to collect, preserve and interpret Grimsby’s stories. The collection is interpreted through various public programmes including: exhibitions, workshops, lectures, school programming and other special events.
8. 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.
9. Craft Ontario
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryCraft Ontario offers the public opportunities to engage with craft through exhibitions, our retail shop, and Studio Magazine, Canada’s only national magazine on craft. We also partner with other art-based organizations, institutions, and trade shows to deliver craft focused content province wide.
10. 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.
11. Mississippi Valley Textile Museum
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryWe interpret the history of the woolen industry in the Mississippi River Valley, and the effects it had on the social, cultural, and industrial development of the region. We also provide exhibits and education on fibre arts and a centre for the study of industrial textiles, while preserving our historic building and artifacts.
12. Norfolk County Archives & Eva Brook Donly Museum
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Norfolk County Archives & Eva Brook Donly Museum is located in the heart of downtown Simcoe. The Eva Brook Donly Museum is located in a beautiful Georgian style home built in 1845. Norfolk County Archives is the municipal archives for Norfolk County and contains the corporate records for the County, including Council meeting minutes, by-laws, assessment rolls, vital statistics and other County administrative records. There is also an extensive archival collection of local genealogical and historical material, including photographs, diaries, wills, legal papers, obituaries, maps and more.
13. 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.
14. Bata Shoe Museum
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryLocated in Toronto, Canada, the Bata Shoe Museum (BSM) regularly displays over a thousand shoes and related artifacts, chosen from a collection of over 13,000 objects, in architect Raymond Moriyama’s iconic, award-winning building. The BSM celebrates the style, development and function of footwear across four impressive galleries, with displays ranging from Chinese bound-foot shoes and ancient Egyptian sandals to chestnut-crushing clogs and glamorous platforms. Over 4,500 years of history are reflected in our permanent exhibition, All About Shoes while our three other galleries feature changing exhibitions – so there’s always something new to see.
15. Delhi Tobacco Museum & Heritage Centre
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShirySituated atop a small hill overlooking Quance Park in Delhi, Ontario, this open-concept museum, built in 1979 as a model of a typical tobacco pack barn, houses a large agricultural collection which includes exhibits on tobacco, ginseng and alternative agriculture grown in Norfolk County.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. Port Dover Harbour Museum
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Port Dover Harbour Museum, located on the banks of the Lynn River, promotes and preserves the community’s commercial fishing heritage and the history of the community. Visit to discover an authentic net shanty, board the wheelhouse of a 1912 Great Lakes freighter, and learn about a time when Port Dover had the world’s largest freshwater fishing fleet. Museum exhibits feature stories of shipwrecks, boat building, heroism, and temporary exhibits highlighting specific aspects of the community’s history.
19. Waterford Heritage & Agricultural Museum
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryLocated in picturesque Waterford, ON, the Waterford Heritage & Agricultural Museum (WHAM) offers a vibrant public space where community members can gather to learn, to create, to discuss, to perform, and to socialize. Through its collection, research, exhibitions, and programming related to the history of Waterford and the geographic area of former Townsend Township, WHAM creates opportunities for connections and participation.
20. Canadian Centre for Architecture
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Canadian Centre for Architecture is an international research institution and museum premised on the belief that architecture is a public concern. We produce exhibitions and publications, develop and share our collection as a resource, advance research, offer public programs, and host a range of other activities driven by a curiosity about how architecture shapes—and might reshape—contemporary life. We invite collaborators and the wider public to engage with our activities, giving new relevance to architectural thinking in light of current disciplinary and cultural issues. Physically anchored in Montréal by our building, park, and sculpture garden, we work within other contexts through our projects, programs, and collaborations that take place elsewhere. This website is also an extension of our activities, where you can encounter our thinking, work, and collection from wherever you are.
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21. 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.
22. Shelburne’s Historic Waterfront
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryShelburne’s Historic Waterfront – Museums by the Sea is a complex which includes three museums and several 18th century buildings. Central to the complex and open year round is the Shelburne County Museum which has changing exhibits and includes permanent exhibits on the Loyalists who arrived in Shelburne at the end of the American Revolution and the shipbuilding history of the area. It also houses the oldest fire pumper in Canada.
23. 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).
24. 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.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. 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.
29. 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.
30. 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.
31. 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.
32. Royal BC Museum
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Royal BC Museum’s mission is to promote an understanding of the living landscapes and cultures of British Columbia and engage people in a dialogue about their future. To achieve this, the museum and archives explores British Columbia’s human history and natural history, advances new knowledge and understanding of BC and provides a dynamic forum for discussion and reflection. Headquartered in its Victoria, BC location, the Royal BC Museum takes a leadership role in research and scholarship and delivers innovative programming and partnerships. Our collections, research and world-class presentations enable us to tell the stories of BC in ways that enlighten, stimulate and inspire.
33. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryWhen it first opened in 1951, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria exhibited art in the historic 1889 mansion that is now adjacent to its seven modern galleries. With almost 20,000 works of art, the Art Gallery has the largest public collection in BC and is a vibrant and active part of Victoria’s artist community.
34. Clark County Historical Museum
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Clark County Historical Society and Museum is committed to responsible collections stewardship, innovative collaboration and inspiring exhibitions and programs that engage the community in an exploration of Clark County’s past, present and future.
35. Calgary Zoo
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Calgary Zoo is home to nearly 1,000 creatures across 119 species, and is one of the city’s favourite family destinations. One third of Calgarians visit every year, and more than 97,000 have annual memberships.
36. Granby Zoo
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Granby Zoo is a zoo in Granby, Quebec and is one of Quebec's major tourist attractions. It was founded in 1953 by the mayor of Granby at the time, Pierre-Horace Boivin. There are currently more than 1000 different animals grouped into 200 species.
37. Toronto Zoo
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryThe Toronto Zoo is a zoo located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Encompassing 287 hectares, the Toronto Zoo is the largest zoo in Canada. It is divided into seven zoogeographic regions: Indo-Malaya, Africa, Americas, Tundra Trek, Australasia, Eurasia, and the Canadian Domain.
38. Assiniboine Park Zoo
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryAssiniboine Park Zoo is an 80-acre zoo that was established in 1904 at the West end of Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is managed by the Assiniboine Park Conservancy and accredited by the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
39. London Regional Children’s Museum
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryRecommended this place!
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40. TELUS Spark
PEOPLE ARE SAYING:ShiryRecommended this place!
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