Overview      Virtual Tour

Located in Vancouver’s old courthouse in the heart of downtown, the Vancouver Art Gallery offers changing exhibitions of painting, sculpture, graphic arts, photography and video, addressing both historical and contemporary issues. A portion of the permanent collection is always on show, together with paintings and drawings by Canadian artist Emily Carr. 

The courthouse, built in 1911, was designed by Francis Rattenbury, who also designed the Empress Hotel and the Legislative Buildings in Victoria. Its former elegance is still very much in tact with lots of neoclassical columns, entry ways guarded by lions and imposing stone-work. Located in the heart of downtown Vancouver, its lawns frequently host exhibits, film shoots, protests and demonstrations.  The gallery’s rear entrance, steeped in stairs that border fashionable Robson Street, is nicknamed “Biker’s Beach” since it’s a favorite hang-out for bike couriers who are, in themselves, artistic characters to behold!

Inside the building, you’ll see ornate plaster work, marble halls, heavy wooden doors and a glass-topped dome over a majestic rotunda that showers the center of all for floors with natural light.  And among the gallery’s many collections is ‘Charlie’, a resident ghost. Purportedly the spirit of Charles Hopkinson, an immigration officer who was murdered there in 1914, ‘Charlie’ roams the catacombs where the holding cells of the original courthouse were located.  It seems appropriate that “hangings”, albeit of a different genre, are still a major feature of this building.