Vancouver art museums that are completely free to visit

If an art gallery crawl sounds like your cup of tea, or if you want to discover the work of some new artists this month, there are tons of options in Vancouver. Best of all, these galleries and museums are all free to visit, making the local arts scene that much more accessible.

Situated in Gastown, the Gallery George always has plenty of amazing artists in rotation. Once it reopens on Jan. 7, 2026, you can check out the newest exhibition, which will be on display until Jan. 25, 2026. No info is live yet about participating artists, so you’ll just have to pop by and see for yourself!

The gallery is open from Wednesday to Sunday from noon until 6 p.m.

Where: 140 West Hastings St.

The Pendulum Gallery also showcases some incredible artwork free of charge, including The Lantern City by Jhou Jian-xin, which will be on display from Feb. 2 to 27, 2026.

The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Wednesday, until 9 p.m. from Thursday to Friday, and until 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Where: 885 West Georgia St.

Starting Jan. 9, 2026, The Belkin Gallery will have a new exhibition called The Structure of Smoke by a multitude of contemporary artists. The piece problematizes the poetic, structural and political aspects of fire, featuring contradictions of wildness and domestication, technological progress and social control, colonial conditions, rebirth and death. The exhibition will run until April 12, 2026.

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and from noon to 5 p.m. on weekends.

Where: 1825 Main Mall, UBC

Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery has a ton of exciting exhibits and programming in the works. Visitors can check out Hail the New Puritan by Charles Atlas and Soujourner Truth Parsons by Louise until Feb. 28, 2026.

The gallery is open from noon until 6 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday.

Where: 555 Nelson St.

Want to check out a new exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery? You can visit for free on the first Friday of every month, and there are plenty of current and upcoming exhibits to get excited about. Right now, you can see Enemy Alien by Tamio Wakayama, Jim Lambie’s Zobop (Colour-Chrome) and Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape (until Jan. 19, 2026).

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day of the week except Tuesdays.

Where: 750 Hornby St.

From Jan. 10 to 24, 2026, Equinox Gallery will display international prints and multiples of various works by Marten Elder, Rodney Graham, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Vivian Maier, Edward Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, and many more.

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Tuesday to Saturday.

Where: 3642 Commercial Dr.

At Gallery Jones, visitors can check out the upcoming exhibition, Dreamtime by Pierre Coupey, which will run from Jan. 22 to Feb. 28, 2026.

The gallery is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and from noon until 5 p.m. on Saturdays.

Where: 258 East 1st Ave.

The Charli-Rosso Art Gallery offers a look at original works of art by some of the most well-known modern artists, like Picasso, Dalí, Chagall, Matisse, and more.

The gallery is located at the Pan Pacific Hotel at Canada Place, open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Tuesday to Saturday.

Where: 312-999 Canada Place

At the crux of local art, social action, and community engagement is The Vancouver Biennale, a nonprofit exhibiting public art throughout the city.

The open-air museum includes everything from sculptures and murals to new media, music, and film projected at various locations in Vancouver, all by a range of talented international artists. 

One staple piece that you’ve likely seen hundreds of times is Giants by OSGEMEOS, which transformed the silos on Granville Island into 70-foot murals, now a part of the Ocean Concrete manufacturing and distribution plant.

Where: Public art throughout Vancouver

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