The Audain Art Museum is a 56,000-square-foot private museum located in

Whistler, British Columbia Whistler ( Lillooet/Ucwalmícwts: Cwitima, ; Squamish/Sḵwx̱wú7mesh: Sḵwiḵw, ) is a resort municipality in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mounta ...

, housing the private art collection of

Michael Audain Michael James Audain, (born July 31, 1937) is a Canadian home builder, philanthropist and art collector. He is the Chairman and major shareholder of the privately held Polygon Homes Ltd., one of the largest multi-family builders in British Colu ...

. Designed by

Patkau Architects Patkau Architects is an architecture firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is a full-service firm practicing in Canada and the United States. Its project scope includes, but is not limited to, gallery installations, art galleries, ...

and opened to the public in 2016, it holds a comprehensive permanent collection of British Columbian art.

Design

The site is moderately forested, consisting of mature spruce and cedar trees."New Audain Art Museum Finds a Fitting Forest Setting." The Georgia Straight. March 11, 2016. Accessed April 02, 2021. https://www.straight.com/arts/652236/new-audain-art-museum-finds-fitting-forest-setting. During the initial phase of construction, only one tree was removed in an effort to preserve the site's ecology. The museum's main entrance is accessible by bridge, connecting the site to Blackcomb Way."Architecture." Audain Art Museum. Accessed February 28, 2021. https://audainartmuseum.com/architecture/. The intention of the design was to blend the building into the existing site; Michael Audain explains that the cladding “is an intentionally recessive colour—it recedes into the shadows, and that’s our view of the appropriate relationship between it and the context”. John Patkau, Principal of Patkau Architects, describes the museum's design as being shaped by three prominent factors. Firstly, its function as a gallery, housing both the permanent collection of Michael Audain in juxtaposition with temporary exhibits, changing intermittently. Second, the challenging site, located within the Fitzsimmons Creek floodplain, poses a flood risk on-site. Lastly, the enormous amount of snowfall that Whistler receives annually, which influenced the structure of the museum.

Accolades

*2017 Wood Design Honor Award *2017 AIBC Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Medal in Architecture *2017 Azure AZ Award *2017 Canadian Wood Council Design Award *2018 RIBA Award for International Excellence *2018 Governor General's Medal in Architecture *2018 AIA Award - Architecture

Construction

Timeline

* September 21, 2012: Michael Audain visits Whistler to choose a site. * December 9, 2012: Michael Audain enters an agreement with the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) to build a 25,000-square-foot museum to house a portion of his British Columbia art collection. * April 30, 2013: Michael Audain announces his decision to expand the art museum to 56,000-square-feet. * August, 2013: Construction begins on site at 4350 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, BC. * March 12, 2016: The Audain Art Museum opens to the public.

Structure

The museum, located at the base of the Whistler Mountain, is suspended one full storey above ground in response to site within the Fitzsimmons Creek floodplain. The 145-meter-long, elbow-shaped structure is suspended upon seven piers as its foundation system.Karsh, J.E. & I. Danzig (2017). "The Audain Art Museum in Whistler, BC, Canada." ''Structural Engineering International'' 27:1, 59-62. The primary structure's three-dimensional bridge-like steel frame spans between the piers and is mostly concealed. The floor diaphragms consist primarily of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

supported by a steel deck, while the roof structure consists of pre-fabricated long-span engineered wood panels. The use of a single concrete core, located at the elbow joint, provides lateral load resistance in the longitudinal direction, while a series of transverse steel frames, equipped with high ductility connectors are used for the first time in a real-life application, providing transverse load resistance. The use of these complex hybrid steel/concrete structural systems provide sufficient rigidity for the structure to achieve its long interior spans and dramatic cantilevers.

Permanent collection

The Audain Art Museum displays a Permanent Collection of nearly 200 works of art, visually highlighting a historic journey of art from coastal British Columbia."Collection." Audain Art Museum. Accessed February 28, 2021. https://audainartmuseum.com/collection/#/. The works span from the 18th century to the modern era and present day, containing one of the finest preserved collections of Northwest Coast First Nations masks; a large collection of works by

Emily Carr Emily Carr (or M. Emily Carr as she sometimes signed her work) (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and writer who was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the painters in Canada to ado ...

, encompassing all periods of her artistic career; as well as art by important post-war modernists such as E.J. Hughes,

Gordon Smith Gordon Smith may refer to: In politics *Gordon H. Smith (born 1952), former U.S. Senator from Oregon, and current Area Authority for the LDS Church * Gordon Elsworth Smith (1918–2005), Canadian politician * Gordon Smith (academic) (1927–2009), ...

and

Jack Shadbolt Jack Leonard Shadbolt, (February 4, 1909 November 22, 1998) was a Canadian painter. Early life Born in Shoeburyness, England, Shadbolt came to Canada with his parents in April 1911. He was raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He studied at t ...

. In addition to these historical works, the Collection showcases art by internationally renowned contemporary British Columbia artists including

Jeff Wall Jeffrey Wall, Order of Canada, OC, Royal Society of Canada, RSA (born September 29, 1946) is a Canadian artist best known for his large-scale back-lit Cibachrome photographs and art history writing. Early in his career, he helped define the Van ...

, Dana Claxton,

Marianne Nicolson Marianne Nicolson (‘Tayagila’ogwa; born 1969) is a Dzawada’enuxw visual artist whose work explores the margins at which public access to First Nations artifacts clashes with the preservation of indigenous cultural knowledge. She utilize ...

Rodney Graham William Rodney Graham (January 16, 1949 – October 22, 2022) was a Canadian visual artist and musician. He was closely associated with the Vancouver School. Early life Graham was born in Abbotsford, British Columbia, on January 16, 1949. ...

and

Stan Douglas Stan Douglas (born October 11, 1960) is an artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Douglas' film and video installations, photography and work in television frequently touch on the history of literature, cinema and music, while examining t ...

, among others.

Accessibility

The Audain Art Museum prioritizes the accessibility of art to all, with all public areas being

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

accessible for members of the public with limited mobility, as well as "touch tours" of the collection for members of the public with

visual impairment Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...

Past exhibitions

Since its inception, the Audain Art Museum has hosted numerous temporary exhibitions, displaying a variety of art works. *January 21 – May 22, 2017 ''Fred Herzog: Shadowlands.'' *June 10 – October 16, 2017 ''Edward Burtynsky: The Scarred Earth.'' *March 9 – April 9, 2018 ''Shawn Hunt: Transformation.'' *March 30 – June 11, 2018 ''Beau Dick: Revolutionary Spirit.'' *June 30 – September 17, 2018 ''POP.'' *October 6 – January 28, 2019 ''Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection.'' *February 16 – May 6, 2019 ''Tales of an Empty Cabin: Somebody Nobody Was…'' *May 18 – August 26, 2019 ''Artistry Revealed: Peter Whyte, Catharine Robb Whyte and Their Contemporaries.'' *September 21 – January 20, 2020 ''Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing – French Modernism and the West Coast.'' *February 8 – October 18, 2020 ''The Extended Moment: Fifty Years of Collecting Photographs.'' *June 10 – September 6, 2021 ''Itee Pootoogook: Hymns to the Silence.'' *October 23, 2021 – February 21, 2022 ''Riopelle: The Call of Northern Landscapes and Indigenous Cultures.'' *April 2 – August 14, 2022 ''Wolves: The Art of Dempsey Bob.''Milroy, S. (ed.) (2022). ''Dempsey Bob: In His Own Voice''. Vancouver: Figure 1.

Governance

The Audain Art Museum is incorporated under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, effective October 4, 2012, and is a Registered Charity."Governance." Audain Art Museum. Accessed February 28, 2021. https://audainartmuseum.com/governance/. The Museum's Board of Trustees serves as its governing body.

References

External links

* {{coord, 50.1179, -122.9531, region:CA-BC, display=title Art museums and galleries in British Columbia Buildings and structures in British Columbia Modernist architecture in Canada Whistler, British Columbia