Canada Guide
The Maritime Provinces
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Address: 1741 Hollis St
Opening time: Daily 10am–5pm, Thurs till 9pm
Price: $12
Website: www.agns.gov.ns.ca
The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia occupies two adjacent buildings – one a stern Art Deco structure, the other an embellished Victorian edifice that has previously served as a courthouse, police headquarters and post office. The gallery is attractively laid out and although there is some rotation of the exhibits most of the pieces described here should be on view. Pick up a free gallery plan at the entrance in the more southerly of the two buildings, Gallery South.
The ground floor – Floor 1 – of Gallery South contains a delightful section devoted to the Nova Scotian artist Maud Lewis (1903–70). An underground passageway connects the Lower Floor of Gallery South with the Lower Floor of Gallery North. Both the passageway and Gallery North's Lower Floor hold temporary exhibitions of modern sculpture and painting plus a sample of the museum's most recent acquisitions. Upstairs, Gallery North's Level 1 has further temporary displays plus – concentrated in Room 8 – an enjoyable selection of Canadian historical paintings with the Maritimes to the fore. Close by, Room 4 holds several canvases by Cornelius Krieghoff and a small sample of the work of the Group of Seven