Canada Guide
Manitoba and Saskatchewan
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Address: 300 Memorial Blvd and Portage Ave
Opening time: Tues & Thurs– Sun 11am–5pm, Wed 11am–9pm
Price: $6
Telephone: 204/786-6641
Website: www.wag.mb.ca
The uncompromisingly modern Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG), a wedge-shaped building, is the home of the largest public collection of Inuit art in the world, a decent selection of Gothic and Renaissance paintings and a reasonable assortment of modern European art, including works by Miró, Chagall and Henry Moore. The problem is that little of these collections is on display at any one time: much of the available space is taken up by offices while the main display area, on the third floor, is given over to temporary (and often dire) exhibitions of modern Canadian art. The mezzanine level, and often the third floor galleries, are devoted to the Inuits, each temporary display developing a particular theme – from the symbolic significance of different animals to the role of women sculptors in the isolated communities. The gallery also has an open-air sculpture court and a rooftop restaurant.