We are open!

T  he Museum of Vancouver is now open with new protocols and procedures to allow the public to safely enjoy the galleries and exhibitions currently on view.   Please be aware that the museum is now a cashless facility and visitors are required to purchase a ticket online prior to your visit for a designated entry time. Learn More.
Familiar Faces: Getting to know the people behind Museum of Vancouver!
Josh Doherty, Fabrication Manager
 
Josh joined the Museum of Vancouver as Fabrication Manager in 2018 and has been working in museum fabrication for over 14 years. His passion for building and creating sparked at a young age; he was fascinated with taking objects and everyday items apart and putting them back together. His grandfather would always have him with him in his workshop and it was there that he got to explore this passion through different materials and projects. Graduating from Emily Carr University in 2009 he also worked at the Museum of Anthropology.

One project that has been a highlight in his time at MOV is the design and build for MOV's most recent feature exhibition, Acts of Resistance. "The curator gave me a lot of creative freedom and by using unconventional materials, like climbing ropes and sand bags, we were able to come up with an innovative way to display these important banners," says Josh, "it allows us to show that museums are not only a space to reflect on the past but also connect with the present."

 Acts of Resistance is currently on view at MOV. Learn more Here.
Engage with Vancouver’s Neon History
Explore and engage with Neon Vancouver Ugly Vancouver right from home!

Through fun word-searches, community mapping, shape identification, and word jumbles you can learn about the history of Vancouver’s close-knit relationship with Neon. Created by Jane Lougheed, Curator of Learning at MOV, and Anne Laure Paulmont, download the interactive worksheets to start exploring!
Vancouver History Galleries Virtual Tour

MOV Curator of Learning, Jane Lougheed, introduces the Gateway to the Pacific Gallery, the first of 4 permanent history galleries on display at the Museum of Vancouver .
View all 4 of the permanent history galleries intro videos here:

Share your stories of isolation and help us document this period in Vancouver’s history using the hashtag #IsolatingTogetherMOV or join our Facebook Group.⁠
1900s - 1920s: Gateway to the Pacific
On view part of MOV's permanent Vancouver History Galleries

Vancouver became a big city whose busy streets flash by in the 1907 Then and Now film. 
Streetcar lines extended south and east, encouraging new developments.

Substantial communities of Chinese, Japanese, and South Asians made their homes here, in spite of deep prejudice that flared in the Anti-Asian Riot and the Komagata Maru incident. The shadow side of Vancouver’s “golden years” becomes harder to ignore.

Dreams of safe, prosperous homes in a beautiful corner of the British Empire were tested by economic collapse in 1913 and world war in 1914.
Textile Arts of the Pacific Northwest

In 2019 MOV partnered with Google Arts and Culture to create yet another access point to the collection, capturing images of artefacts in the collection using a state of the art camera.

The Google Art Camera is a robotic camera, custom-built to record cultural masterworks in gigapixel images. Comprising more than one billion pixels, the ultra-high resolution of a gigapixel image can bring out details invisible to the naked eye. The Camera took approximately 500 individual images of each artefact, which was then stitched stitched together, creating a high resolution image.

Explore this collection of Textile Arts of the Pacific Northwest, curated by MOV Curator of Indigenous Collections and Engagement, Sharon Fortney,

( Button blanket, by Marion Wilson, Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw  (First half of 1900s) AA 1790)
Upcoming Exhibition...
Satellite exhibition in the Hon Hsing Building - Opening Summer 2020
A Seat at the Table: Chinese Immigration and B.C. will propose a framework for understanding Chinese immigration to this province as a story that is local and global, historical and contemporary. Using food and restaurant culture as narrative entry point and visual platform, the exhibition will address themes of mobility, belonging, racism, agency, resilience and reparation. Learn More.
A Seat at the Table: Clement So

As a former Chinese Canadian journalist and now a professor in Hong Kong for journalism, Clement So shares his immigrant experiences with #ASeatattheTableBC and discusses the media’s role in shaping Chinese Canadian identities here in Vancouver.

⁠In 2018 Tsleil-Waututh artist  O livia George  was commissioned to create a series of designs for  M ount Seymour  2018/2019 Ski passes. All her designs represent animals that can be found on Mt Seymour.

The project was meant to give Mt Seymour a sense of place and recognize the mountain as part of Tsleil-Waututh territory. The Adult pass (H2019.20.5) depicts a wolf and has been catalogued as part of the MOV History Collection.⁠⠀
Lattimer Gallery & Gifts is now 10-30% all in store purchases!*
Stop by on your next visit to MOV.
Applies to in store purchases only*
Museums, forced to act fast, employ rapid response collecting for COVID-era

Its very name is evocative of ancient history, a window into the past. Museum: a place to find dinosaur bones, woolly mammoths, Egyptian tombs.

Museums are also living institutions that are very much engaged with the contemporary: The present that will become the past. And when history is being made, as it is now, museums are alive with plans to reflect that in their collections for future generations of visitors. And for us, too, on the other side of this pandemic – whatever that looks like.
Life and Times of Pauline Johnson Exhibition - curated by James Gibson
T he Old Hastings Mill Store Museum

This new exhibition on the life and times of Canadian poet and performer Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake in Mohawk) is on display on the First City Council Table.

The exhibition is currently on view at the Old Hastings Mill Store Museum and curated by MOV member, James Gibson.
UBC Botanical Garden Reopens to the public!
UBC Botanical Garden - July 3, 2020

Re-connect with nature and plants at UBC Botanical Garden, now re-opening on Friday, July 3, 2020.

New health and safety measures are in place to ensure the well-being of the garden's guests, members, and staff. As a result, entry to UBC Botanical Garden will require booking in advance.
Vancouver Biennale 2020 BIKEnnale/WALKennale
July 26 - August 30, 2020

The 2020 BIKEnnale/WALKennale is here! From July 26th- August 30th, cycle or walk their easy-to–navigate online tours of some of Vancouver’s most iconic public art installations. With a new route announced every Sunday, this is a chance to get out and get social (virtually) by learning, discussing and exploring your own city. With weekly chances to win a multitude of prizes and use exclusive discounts supporting your local businesses.
We acknowledge we are on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.