Museum of Vancouver

The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) is the city's civic museum, at 1100 Chestnut Street in Vanier Park, Kitsilano, Vancouver, British Columbia. Its collection traces to 1894, and the museum moved into its current Modernist building in 1968. The building is topped by a stainless-steel crab-shaped sculpture, a symbol of the city's links to the Coast Salish peoples and the sea. The museum holds more than 100,000 objects and focuses on the history of Vancouver, from its Indigenous origins through settlement and the 20th century. The permanent collection includes Coast Salish and other Northwest Coast Indigenous belongings, a large collection of 20th-century consumer culture, neon signs, and material about neighbourhood life, protests and migration. The museum presents its material thematically rather than strictly chronologically, in a style that is often playful and draws on contemporary issues. Exhibitions have addressed topics such as the 1960s counterculture and Indigenous knowledge, and the museum has worked with Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh communities on how Indigenous history is shown. Preserving materials in a coastal climate is an ongoing challenge, and the museum has pursued renewals of its galleries and storage. Visitors typically need 90 minutes to two hours, admission is about CAD $20 for adults, and the museum is next to the Vancouver Maritime Museum.