The Audain Art Museum

Whistlers Mountains’ new jewel, THE AUDAIN ART MUSEUM
Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Whistler Mountain Resort north of Vancouver BC and the newest jewel in their crown, the AUDAIN Art Museum. Michael Audain donated $37 million to build a fantastic structure and then donated his extensive art collection to be housed there permanently. He had scoured the international art world for many of our native art pieces which left Canada over past centuries. It is wonderful to see our native heritage returned here. The large collection of this art is beautifully displayed. I quote from Tourism Whistler’s description of the Audain.

“The Museum contains a permanent collection of the art of British Columbia including an outstanding collection of nineteenth century Northwest Coast masks, one of Canada’s strongest Emily Carr collections, a selection of Vancouver’s celebrated photo-based art plus a gallery devoted to West Coast artist Edward J. Hughes.

The collection includes The Crazy Stair, a painting by Emily Carr which recently 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 woman artist and the fourth most expensive work at an art auction in Canada.”

The Audain Art Museum also has the capability of housing many traveling exhibitions. At this time we were fortunate enough to see the  exhibition of the Beaverbrook collection which houses many Canadian and  international art pieces which was striking.

This beautiful art museum is a wonderful addition to Whistler and will be enjoyed by its many summer tourists as well as the skiing public in the winter.