Welcome to the National Gallery of Canada.

As the Director, I am honoured to invite you to this exciting place, its gorgeous sky-lit galleries, its stellar collections, and its vibrant exhibition programs. It is my sincere wish that you visit, use and enjoy this Gallery, your Gallery—which happens to be the preeminent art institution in the country—and feel enriched by every venture through these rooms.

Whether you are keen to view an original Tom Thomson wilderness sketch, to explore inventive Inuit sculpture or major works by the old European masters, or to experience arresting works in every medium by internationally renowned contemporary artists—Canadian or otherwise—you are sure to find something here that will engage, surprise, challenge and affect you.

The National Gallery of Canada is proud to be the permanent home of the world’s most comprehensive collection of Canadian art. Our growing collection of Indigenous Art features wonderful works by Canadian icons such as Norval Morrisseau, Daphne Odjig, Rebecca Bellmore, Carl Beam and Brian Jungen. Our entire collection consists of nearly 40,000 works of art. It features international collections of the highest caliber, including strong holdings in International Art, with paintings, sculptures and decorative arts from the Middle Ages to the present. Our Prints and Drawings collection is particularly impressive, made up of about 13,300 Canadian and European prints and 8,450 drawings that are available for research and viewing. Our Photographs Collection ranks among the top photography collections in the world. International in scope, with close to 19,000 photographs, it includes many important historical photography by the medium’s pioneers from its medium’s inception in the early part of the 19th Century and right up to the present day. 

Unusual among national galleries in collecting the art of today, the Contemporary Collection is the beating heart of the National Gallery of Canada. Engaging with living artists from around the world, the contemporary collection numbering over 3,000 works of art represents recent and cutting-edge trends on the Canadian and international scenes.

The acquisition of works of art for the collection by purchase and by gift averages over 300 per year, including the addition of masterpieces such as Louise Bourgeois’ monumental sculpture Maman, an instant favorite landmark in the heart of the nation’s capital.

Even when you can’t be here at the Gallery, you can freely tour our collections through our dynamic, comprehensive web site. Simply click on the online floor plan to design your own walk-through the galleries and see what is currently on display.

We also create a diverse program of travelling exhibitions every year in order to bring our collections to audiences across Canada. In collaboration with great museums around the world, we have mounted major retrospectives of Degas, Klimt, Daumier, as well as Karsh, Renoir, Picasso, Edward Burtynsky and Betty Goodwin, to name a few. We have sent vastly popular installations such as Janet Cardiff’s Forty-Part Motet on extensive North American tours. Click here for a list of current and upcoming traveling exhibitions.  Be sure not to miss the exhibitions and works from the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography currently housed at the Gallery.

Our recently revamped education programs are second to none, incorporating creative, hands-on, interactive tours and activities geared to school groups of all ages, as well as to teachers, families, children, youth, general visitors and visitors with special needs. The Gallery’s active teen council mounts annual events, and the evening ArtsSparks series bring a unique artistic nightlife to the nation’s capital. Through the generosity of The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation we have developed a roster of programming geared to visitors with special needs, including tactile tours for the visually impaired and master workshops for adults living with mental illnesses. From the creation of multilingual Bell audio guides to special lecture series, we are engaged in ongoing enrichment of every visitor’s experience, with the generous support of private sector partners such as Bell Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, the RBC Foundation and the The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.

To visit the Gallery, to enter the doors past Louise Bourgeois’ stunning bronze spider Maman on our front plaza, is to immerse yourself in the ever-evolving history of art and the continuum of artistic endeavor, and to surround yourself with art, the most remarkable results of a fundamental human activity from long ago to the present. Visit soon, and visit often. Our permanent galleries are updated regularly. There is always a new portrait with which to engage, a favorite landscape to revisit, an unexpected installation in which to briefly lose yourself.

Marc Mayer
Director, National Gallery of Canada