Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Art museum in Victoria, Canada.
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria occupies the historic Spencer Mansion and adjoining exhibition spaces to display its collections. The rooms feature works by Canadian, Indigenous, and international artists in regularly rotating presentations.
The institution started in 1946 as the Little Centre in downtown Victoria. It moved to the Spencer Mansion in 1951 after Sarah Spencer donated the building to the gallery.
The collection spans Canadian, Indigenous Canadian and Pacific Rim artists, about 20,000 works in all. The museum also organizes and hosts travelling exhibitions, so the displays change beyond the permanent holdings. The first two fireproof galleries, opened in 1958 and 1959, were named the Centennial Galleries for the centennial of the Colony of British Columbia.
The complex combines the 1889 Spencer Mansion with a seven-gallery modernist wing, so allow time for both. The first floor of the mansion holds the gift shop and art rental and sales office, while offices, the library and archives occupy the upper floors and attic. A planned expansion adding 1,000 square metres of exhibition space, a cafe and a lecture hall was approved in 2015 but postponed after construction costs rose; the museum intends to close during building work and show its collection at off-site locations around Victoria.
The Spencer Mansion was built in 1889 for the Green family, who named it Gyppeswyk, the Old English name for Ipswich. After Cary Castle, the original Government House, burned in 1903, Gyppeswyk briefly served as the residence of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Sarah Spencer donated the house to the gallery in 1951.
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