Audain Art Museum

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 Exhibition

Artistry Revealed: Peter Whyte, Catharine Robb Whyte and Their Contemporaries

Date: May 18 – August 26, 2019
Description: A travelling exhibition that celebrates the legacy of Peter and Catharine Whyte 50 years after the foundation of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. Aspiring career artists from vastly differing backgrounds, Peter Whyte and Catharine Robb Whyte met at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and immersed themselves in the craft of fine art painting. Included along with Peter and Catharine’s work are paintings and drawings by artists who influenced their careers, touched their lives and with whom they painted. Through their art and associations, Peter and Catharine inspired interest in Banff and the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and encouraged a generation of nationally significant artists to paint the Canadian Rockies.

Upcoming Exhibitions

Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing – French Modernism and the West Coast

Date: September 21, 2019 – January 19, 2020
Description: A bold undertaking by the Audain Art Museum uncovers new information about dramatic changes in Emily Carr’s approach to painting over the course of three critical years: 1910 to 1912. The exhibition investigates Carr’s momentous journey to France (1910-1911) that broke the bonds of her conservative art training. Drawn from national and international public, private and corporate collections, it provides a rare opportunity for visitors to view over 50 paintings, watercolours, and drawings by Carr, along with a selection of works by Carr’s instructors whose work directly influenced her artistic development. These include English painter Henry William Phelan Gibb, Scottish painter John Duncan Fergusson and New Zealand watercolourist Frances Hodgkins.

Permanent Collection

The Museum contains a permanent collection of nearly 200 works of art from coastal British Columbia, including an outstanding collection of nineteenth century Northwest Coast masks, one of Canada’s strongest Emily Carr collections, as well as art by notable post-war modernists such as E.J. Hughes, Gordon Smith and Jack Shadbolt.

The collection 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.

When to Visit

Whistler Cultural Pass

The Whistler Cultural Pass provides access to the Audain Art Museum as well as the Squamish Lil' Wat Cultural Centre at a reduced price. Save 15% when you purchase tickets as a pass.

Please note that the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre is closed Mondays and the Audain Art Gallery is closed each Tuesday. Passes are not dated and can be used at any time.