| The Museum of Anthropology was founded in 1949 to collect, preserve, research, and display archaeological and ethnographic material from British Columbia and the rest of the world. Today, it is Canada's largest teaching museum and one of its most popular public museums. Winner of the 1989 Canadian Tourism Commission's 'tourist Attraction of the Year' - Canada Award, MOA annually attracts over 170,000 local and international visitors. The Museum houses one of the world's finest collections of Northwest Coast First Peoples' art in a spectacular building overlooking mountains and sea. Designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erlckson and opened in 1976, this award-winning concrete and glass structure is based on the post-and-beam structures of northern Northwest Coast First Nations. MOA's Great Hall displays huge totem poles, feast dishes, and canoes from the Kwakwaka'wakw, Nisga'a, Giutsan, Halda, and Coast Salish peoples, while smaller pieces in gold, silver, argillite, wood and other materials are exhibited elsewhere in the galleries.The outdoor sculpture complex includes two Haida Houses and ten poles, and features the work of some of the finest contemporary First Nations artists of the Northwest Coast. The Museum also has the world's largest collection of works by Halda artist Bill Reid, including Reid's famous sculpture in cedar, The Raven and the First Men. The Koemer Ceramics Gallery displays a collection of European wares unique to North America. This award-winning exhibit features a 600-piece collection of 15th to 19th century European ceramics, as well as specially commissioned ceramics and textiles by contemporary Vancouver artists. The Museum's extensive Visible Storage Galleries make more than 13,000 objects from the collections accessible to the public. Arranged according to culture and use, these galleries invite individual exploration, comparison, and contrast of objects from cultures all over the world. |
