The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

's largest art gallery specializing in the work of contemporary Indigenous artists. It is located on the campus of

Confederation College Confederation College is a provincially funded college of applied arts and technology in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1967, and has campuses in Dryden, Fort Frances, Greenstone, Kenora, Marathon, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake a ...

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is the largest public gallery between Sault Ste. Marie and

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, featuring over 4,000 sq/ft of exhibition space. As a non-profit, public art gallery, the Thunder Bay Art Gallery exhibits, collects, and interprets art with a particular focus on the contemporary artwork of Indigenous and Northwestern Ontario artists. The Gallery advances the relationship between artists, their art, and the public, nurturing a life-long appreciation of contemporary visual arts among visitors to Thunder Bay and community members of all ages. The Thunder Bay Art Gallery opened on Feb 6, 1976 when funds were secured to construct a National Exhibition Centre on the campus of Confederation College. The Gallery was one of 26 newly established national exhibition centres opened in Canadian communities. By 1982, the Thunder Bay National Exhibition Centre and Centre for Indian Art – as the Gallery was called then – had expanded into w three exhibition galleries, a collection storage area, and new capacity for exhibition and acquisition of art. Today, the Thunder Bay Art Gallery has over 1600 works of art in its Permanent Collection. The Permanent Collection includes work by

Norval Morrisseau Norval Morrisseau (March 14, 1932 – December 4, 2007), also known as Copper Thunderbird, was an Indigenous Canadian artist from the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation. Known as the "Picasso of the North", Morrisseau created works depic ...

Carl Beam Carl Beam (May 24, 1943 – July 30, 2005), born Carl Edward Migwans, made Canadian art history as the first artist of Native Ancestry (Ojibwe), to have his work purchased by the National Gallery of Canada as Contemporary Art. A major retrospec ...

, Daphne Odjig,

Robert Houle Robert Houle (born 1947) is a Saulteaux First Nations Canadian artist, curator, critic,"Robert ...

, Joane Cardinal-Schubert,

Shelley Niro Shelley Niro (born 1954) is a Mohawk filmmaker and visual artist from New York and Ontario.

, Bob Boyer, Susan Ross, and

Benjamin Chee Chee Kenneth Thomas Chee Chee (26 March 1944 – 14 March 1977), known as Benjamin Chee Chee, was an Ojibwa Canadian artist born in Temagami, Ontario. Early life Chee Chee's early life was troubled and he lost track of his mother, for whom he spen ...

. The Gallery provides school tours, hosts artistic events or shares our space with community groups. A new 37,500 ft² Thunder Bay Art Gallery, designed by architects Patkau and Brook McIlroy with landscape architecture by Janet Rosenberg & Studio, is currently under construction on the city's waterfront, set to open in 2025.

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* Art museums and galleries in Ontario Museums in Thunder Bay First Nations museums in Canada Art museums established in 1976 1976 establishments in Ontario {{Canada-art-display-stub