Exhibitions
The museum displays up to three 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
Curve! Women Carvers on the Northwest Coast
Date: November 23, 2024 – May 5, 2025
Description: This exhibition sheds light on a lesser-explored facet of Northwest Coast art—women’s contributions to the rich tradition of carving wood and argillite. Featuring more than 125 works of art including poles, panels, masks, bowls, and other sculptures all intertwined with traditional knowledge, the works are on loan from public and private collections across North America. The exhibition focuses on a selection of carvers active from the 1950s to present, highlighting the pivotal role of women artists within the larger tradition of Indigenous carving along the coast of British Columbia. It seeks to celebrate and elevate the contributions of women in an often traditionally male-dominated field by showcasing the works of influential artists like Ellen Neel and Freda Diesing, alongside the voices of senior, mid-career, and emerging artists.
Upcoming Special Exhibitions
The Coast Mountains: Recent Works by Edward Burtynsky
Date: April 27 – September 15, 2025
Description: Internationally acclaimed, Toronto-based artist Edward Burtynsky presents a selection of large-scale, photo-based works. Over the past 40 years, Burtynsky has focused his camera lens on the impact of human industry around the planet. This display of recent works captures the pristine grandeur of British Columbia’s natural environment, while highlighting the pressing issue of glacier retreat due to global warming. The Museum is honoured to host Edward Burtynsky, as he continues to be a leader in artistic discourse that speaks to a greater social consciousness.
Gathered Leaves: Discoveries from the Drawings Vault
Date: June 14 – October 13, 2025
Description: A landmark exhibition featuring rarely seen drawings from the National Gallery of Canada’s renowned Prints and Drawings collection. Established in 1921 as the first of its kind in Canada, this collection spans the 15th to 20th centuries, showcasing works in graphite, ink, pastel, watercolour, and more. The exhibition highlights masterpieces by Edgar Degas, Gustav Klimt, Edvard Munch, Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, and many other celebrated artists, alongside newly acquired and never-before-displayed works.
Permanent Collection
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.
The most recent acquisition of an exceptional historical watercolour painting by Emily Carr, War Canoes, Alert Bay, circa 1908, was unveiled alongside the iconic oil on canvas from the Museum’s Permanent Collection of the same name. This signifies an extraordinary reunion of two closely-related Carr masterworks, more than one hundred years after they were painted. 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.
Whistler Cultural Pass – $40 per person
The Whistler Cultural Pass provides access to the Audain Art Museum as well as the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre at a reduced price.
Please note that the Audain Art Museum is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre is closed on Mondays. Passes can be used up to 6 days after your reservation date.
Gift Shop
The Audain Art Museum Shop features a wide selection of handmade jewellery, pottery, wood work and homeware from British Columbia artists, as well as artist prints and collector books from the Audain's permanent collection and temporary exhibits.
Where is the Audain Art Museum?
The Audain Art Museum is located at 4350 Blackcomb Way. Parking is available in the day lots.
View Map of Audain Art Museum