UBC Museum of Anthropology Vancouver

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Museum of Anthropology at UBC  (MAP)

The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia is world-renowned for its collections, research, teaching, public programs, and community connections. It is also acclaimed for its spectacular architecture and unique setting on the cliffs of Point Grey.

Vancouver's Museum of Anthropology was founded more than fifty years ago in the basement of the Main Library at the University of British Columbia. Today, Canada's largest teaching museum is located in a spectacular building overlooking mountains and sea - its collections, exhibitions and programs renowned for giving access and insight into the cultures of indigenous peoples around the world.

The Museum houses some 535,000 ethnographic and archaeological objects, many of which originate from the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. Massive totem poles, carved boxes, bowls, and feast dishes are featured in the Museum's Great Hall, while smaller (but no less magnificent) pieces in gold, silver, argillite, wood, ceramic, and other materials are exhibited elsewhere in the galleries.

The Museum's extensive Visible Storage system provides public access to approximately 13,000 objects from around the world for comparison and study, as well as for community-based research by artists, elders, students, and others. The Museum is thus uniquely placed both to share and to gain knowledge through public participation and exchange. Training in Museum Anthropology is offered at the BA, MA, and Ph.D levels.

The Museum of Anthropology building was designed by renowned Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, who based his award-winning design on traditional northern Northwest Coast post and beam structures. Within the walls are 5,465.6 m2 (58,833 sq. feet) of usable space: 1494.9 m2 (16,092 sq. feet) for academic functions (classrooms, labs, archival storage, and offices), and 3612.8 m2 (38,889 sq. feet) available to the public (exhibition and performance spaces, Visible Storage galleries, shop, and rental facilities). In 1990, a new wing was opened, including a resource library, teaching laboratory, office, and exhibition gallery featuring 600 European ceramic pieces collected and donated by the late Dr. Walter Koerner. (Figures quoted above include the new wing.)

Highlights of the building include the massive doors at the main entrance, carved in 1976 by four master Gitxsan artists, Walter Harris, Earl Muldoe, Art Sterritt, and Vernon Stephens; the 15-metre glass walls of the Great Hall, beneath which stand towering totem poles from the Haida, Gitxsan, Nisga'a, Oweekeno and other First Nations; the Rotunda, where Bill Reid's massive sculpture, "The Raven and the First Men" is displayed; and the Koerner Ceramics Gallery, home to six hundred pieces of 15-19th c. pottery.

The Museum also features an extensive system of Visible Storage, which allows public access to more than 13,000 objects from around the world for comparison and study. The objects are arranged according to culture area, and information on each item is available in databooks nearby.

The Museum grounds, designed by landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander, feature indigenous plants and grasses amongst two outdoor Haida Houses and ten full-scale totem poles (one inside the larger of the two Haida Houses), two carved house-posts, and two contemporary Welcome Figures, one by Nuu-chah-nulth artist Joe David, and the other by Musqueam artist Susan Point.