Vancouver Art Gallery

The Vancouver Art Gallery is the largest art museum in western Canada, housing a permanent collection of over 12,000 works with a defining emphasis on Canadian and Indigenous art, including one of the world's most significant holdings of paintings by British Columbia artist Emily Carr. The building itself has a notable history: it was originally constructed in 1906 as the provincial courthouse, designed in neoclassical style by Francis Rattenbury — the same architect behind the nearby Empress Hotel in Victoria — before being converted into the gallery in 1931. Today the VAG mounts ambitious rotating international exhibitions alongside its permanent collection, and keeps Friday hours until 20:00, making it a natural destination for an evening cultural visit in downtown Vancouver.