Closet Canuck: VANCOUVER ART GALLERY RECEIVES $100 MILLION GIFT FOR CREATION OF A NEW BUILDING IN DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER

Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG)is the recipient of a $100 million transitional gift to support the creation of a new building in downtown Vancouver. The Audain Foundation's gift is the largest single cash gift to a Canadian art gallery and comes at a time when the VAG is celebrating its 90th anniversary.

The new Vancouver Art Gallery at the Chan Centre for the Visual Arts will be located between Cambie and Beatty streets, with a front entrance on Georgia Street. It will include more than 80,000 sq. ft of exhibition space, more than double the existing space. There will also be visible art storage, a theatre, library/research center, artist studios, accommodation for visiting artist and a visual arts preschool and daycare situated around a 40,000 sq. ft. courtyard. The building will also house the Institute of Asian Art, a new Centre for Art and Communication and a multi-purpose Indigenous Community House. The project is expected to create an estimated 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs in the tourism sector.

Rendering of the wooden exterior of the new Vancouver Art Gallery

The building is being designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron together with Vancouver architects Perkins & Will, in consultation with Coast Salish artists. The collaboration is reflected in the building's design and use of sustainable practices. The new Gallery will be the first Passive House art gallery in North America, a voluntary standard for energy efficient, significantly reducing the building' ecological footprint. With this new facility, the VAG demonstrates its commitment to environmental sustainability and acknowledges its location on the ancestral terries of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

According to Anthony Kiendl, CEO and Direct of VAG, the objective is to raise an additional $160 million from the public and private sectors. The Audain Foundation gift follows a visionary gift of $40 million by the Chan Family Foundation to establish the Chan Centre for the Visual Arts.