Museum of Vancouver

Gain a deeper understanding of our city through stories, objects, and shared experiences at Museum of Vancouver (MOV). Learn about Vancouver's past from 1900 to 1970 by visiting MOV's History Galleries.

Featured Exhibitions:

Dressed for History: Why Costume Collections Matter - Clothing is the most personal of artefacts. It reveals so much about who we are, what we do and what we value. Clothing conveys information about occupation, social and economic status, gender and cultural identity and political and religious affiliation. Clothing not only expresses aspects of a wearer’s identity, it also reveals much about the larger context of production. As products of available raw materials, textile technologies, designs and styles, what we wear connects us to local and global stories of resource extraction, trade, labour and technology. Four remarkable local collectors have recognized the importance of preserving costumes to document the past and inspire our present and future. Ivan Sayers, Claus Jahnke, Melanie Talkington and the members of the BC Society for the Museum of Original Costume (SMOC) are fashion historians with significant collections that feature some of the rarest garments and fabrics in the world. 

All We Want Is More: The Tobias Wong Project - In the early 2000s, Tobias Wong (1974–2010) took the design world by storm. Born and raised in Vancouver, Wong was a brilliant and prolific artist whose career was all too short. Defying easy categorization, his work was wide ranging, pushing and dissolving disciplinary boundaries between conceptual art, performance and product design. This exhibition is an invitation to revisit Wong’s artistic contribution with fresh eyes. Recent social, environmental and technological events have transformed the way we see the world and inevitably the way we see Tobias Wong’s work.

That Which Sustains Us - is a long-term exhibition that explores the convergence of different knowledge traditions in the Vancouver area through an examination of people’s interactions with forests and their natural environment. It does so by showcasing traditional ecological knowledge related to forests; consequences of the deforestation and urbanization of Vancouver; and the possibility of returning to sustainable land use practices in the Greater Vancouver area. The thread that connects these narratives is the idea that culture ultimately shapes how people choose to interact with the natural world.

Visit our website for more information on current exhibitions!