Vancouver Art Gallery receives $100M donation from Audain family for new building
CBC
Vancouver's Audain family has donated $100 million toward the construction of the Vancouver Art Gallery's new building, a gift that's billed as the largest ever given to a gallery in Canada.
Michael Audain, the chairman of Polygon Homes Ltd., one of the largest multi-family home builders in B.C., announced his family foundation's donation on Thursday.
"This building will hopefully ensure that Vancouver is second-to-none in honouring the talent of our internationally respected arts community," Audain said during a news conference.
The Vancouver Art Gallery has been raising money for an ambitious new $400-million building project in Larwill Park in downtown Vancouver for more than a decade, featuring a 300,000-square foot building designed by Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron.
Staff have long said its current building, which was once the city's main courthouse, is too small and poorly suited for art collections.
If the gallery can raise the final $160 million in funding and finish developing the building, construction could begin in 2022.
"If all goes as planned, we can break ground a year from now," said gallery CEO Anthony Kendall.
The budget for the new building was initially set in 2013 at $350 million, but that cost has grown to $400 million.
The original plan for funding the site was to raise $150 million from private donors and convince the B.C. and federal governments to provide $100 million each.
With the Audain family's donation, the project has exceeded its goal for private funding — but government funding has proven more difficult to secure.
As of 2019, the province had promised $50 million and the federal government had promised nothing.
Gallery CEO
On Thursday, Audain called on Ottawa to provide a portion of the funding.
The City of Vancouver has donated the land at Larwill Park for the project. Mayor Kennedy Stewart said Thursday the donation was "breathtaking."
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