Audain Art Museum

Located in the Village, this iconic building houses a permanent collection of artworks from British Columbia, and hosts exhibitions from leading museums around the world.

The Museum contains a permanent collection of the province’s most celebrated artists. Highlights include hereditary Haida Chief James Hart’s The Dance Screen (The Scream Too), an exceptional collection of historical and contemporary Indigenous masks, the largest permanent display of paintings by Emily Carr, and key examples of the Vancouver photo conceptualism movement.

Two significant works by nationally recognized artists have recently been acquired by the museum. Emily Carr’s Survival and Lawren Harris’ Mountain Sketch LXXVII (Consolation Lake) are now on display. The collection also includes The Crazy Stair, a painting by Emily Carr which sold at auction for a record-breaking $3.3 million. This price was the highest ever paid for an Emily Carr at auction, the highest for a work by a Canadian female artist and the fourth most expensive work at an art auction in Canada.

Exhibitions

The museum displays up to four temporary exhibitions a year, creating an ever-changing display to delight locals and visitors alike. Including both historical and contemporary art, they produce their own exhibitions and showcase art from leading art institutions around the world to complement their permanent collection.

Current Exhibitions:

Geoffrey Farmer: Phantom Scripts

Date: October 2, 2025 – February 2, 2026

Description: Phantom Scripts revisits three works by Geoffrey Farmer from the Audain Art Museum’s Permanent Collection — Las Crónicas del Vampiro, 22 de noviembre de 1973 (2010 – 2025), La Política de las Apariciones (2012 – 2025), The Good Sweeper (2017 – 2025)— reframing them through newly composed scripts, annotations, and didactic texts authored by the artist. The texts function as interjections — speculative, contextual, poetic — that re-examine and complicate the earlier works. In doing so, Farmer explores how art can be returned to, re-read, and re-situated under shifting historical and ethical awarenesses.

Upcoming Exhibitions:

From Sea to Sky: The Art of British Columbia

Date: November 15, 2025 – May 15, 2026

Description: An extended presentation of the Audain Art Museum’s Permanent Collection, From Sea to Sky celebrates the collection’s evolution from its inception in 2016 to the present. Built on the generous donation of over 200 works by Founders Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa, the AAM’s Acquisition Committee has since guided the holding’s expansion through purchase, commission, and donation, to almost 300 outstanding pieces representing the art of British Columbia. Carving, painting, and photography serve as the pillars of the collection, featuring notable works by artists active from the mid-nineteenth to early twenty-first century. Such a display offers a unique visual evocation of the cultural differences that continue to shape BC’s socio-political identity.

10 Year Anniversary Celebrations

Kicking off in 2026!