Thunder Bay Art Gallery

Presenting art and artists from Northern Ontario. Take a glimpse into the immensely creative past and enjoy the diversity of art that is taking us all into a future of wonder.

The Community of Thunder Bay pushed their love of art in the 70s to form what is now the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. It just shows that with a bit of love and dedication, exceptional things can happen.

The project of opening art up to the community started small as expected. The Thunder Bay area already had a Historical Museum Society, and this would be the new home for the first two years. In the 24-months that followed, the vision expanded, and extra capital funding put into the project helped secure construction of the National Exhibition Centre located in the Confederation College campus.

Six years after the idea of an art gallery sprung, in 1976, Dr. John Augustine and his wife Annette, along with board faculties of the Historical Museum Society opened the 4,000sq ft Centre.

The Thunder Bay National Exhibition Centre and within it the Centre for Native American Art, evolved into the three galleries we have today. We have grown our exhibition to over 1600 pieces of artwork and we have welcomed over 30,000 annual visitors year on year since.

Each day a new school tour takes place, artistic events are held, and we share our space for helpful community groups. We are proud to now be the cultural hub as was our goal from the beginning, providing and sharing the regional art of contemporary indigenous people.

We are a non-profit art gallery open to the public, where you can enjoy the Thunder Bay art exhibits and collections that focuses primarily on the indigenous and Northwestern Ontario artists.

At the Thunder Bay Gallery, we host a number of classes and workshops. For children, we have both indoor and outdoor activities that promote age-appropriate discussions on art and the displays within the gallery. There are also hand-on creative activities to help children of all ages become engaged with art.

For adults, our workshops bring about many versatile opportunities to learn about new crafts within art. Past workshops have included making clay animal pots, needle felting techniques, quillwork and painting to name just a few that have been enjoyed by hundreds of participants.

Book a tour at Thunder Bay and we will guide groups through our gallery and discuss and explore the themes that are connected to the Grade 2-12 school curriculum. This includes science, social studies, the environments and technology.

You can find out more about us through our social media platforms. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. There you will be able to get notifications and updates on events, new exhibitions, store discounts and loads more.

We look forward to your visit and we’ll see you in 2020.

Location:

1080 Keewatin Street

Thunder Bay, ON, Canada P7B 6T7

P.O. Box 10193

Hours:

Tuesday to Thursday: Noon – 8pm

Friday to Sunday: Noon – 5pm

Monday: Closed

Note: There is free parking for all visitors in the carpark across from the Gallery entrance.

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