Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

The Museum of Anthropology at UBC is significantly better than most visitors to Vancouver realise, and the 15 kilometres from downtown is the main reason they don’t make the trip. That’s a mistake. The building alone – Arthur Erickson’s 1976 concrete-and-glass Great Hall, designed to house monumental Northwest Coast First Nations objects at the scale they were made for – is one of the most architecturally coherent museum spaces in North America. And what’s inside it has no real equivalent outside the Northwest Coast.

The Great Hall

The Hall’s defining feature is height and light. Erickson’s design approximates outdoor conditions: the south-facing glass wall opens the space to views of the Strait of Georgia and the mountains of Vancouver Island. Into this space the museum has placed totem poles, mortuary poles, house posts, and carved feast dishes from Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka’wakw, and other First Nations cultures, displayed at a scale that the objects require and rarely receive.

The poles range from 18th-century originals to more recent commissions, and the difference in technique and purpose is worth understanding before you arrive. The interpretive materials in the Hall explain this; spend time with them rather than walking past.

Bill Reid

Bill Reid (1920-1998) was the most significant Haida artist of the 20th century, and his work runs through the MOA’s collection as a connecting thread. The museum holds an important Reid collection, including a massive cedar chest. If you want to see the most well-known single Reid work in Vancouver, it is The Spirit of Haida Gwaii (The Black Canoe), a bronze cast displayed in the departure hall of Vancouver International Airport. The contrast between the airport setting and the museum is worth thinking about.

The Koerner Ceramics Gallery and Multiversity Galleries

The Koerner collection – roughly 600 pieces of European ceramics from 1500-1900 – is a counterintuitive strength of this museum. Delftware, Meissen, and continental pieces of unusual quality assembled by a Vancouver collector. It is not why you come, but it is good.

The Multiversity Galleries use a visible-storage format: around 15,000 objects in glass-fronted drawers and shelves accessible to visitors, with catalogue information on touchscreens. Textiles, tools, vessels, ceremonial objects from around the world. Rewarding for visitors with specific interests and time to browse.

Admission and Hours

Admission in 2026: $26 for adults, $23 for seniors and non-UBC students, $13 for youth (ages 6-18). Indigenous peoples, UBC students and staff, and children under 5 are admitted free. Thursday evenings 5-9pm offer half-price admission. Closed Mondays. Standard hours 10am-5pm, extended to 9pm on Thursdays.

Getting There

UBC is not on the metro; bus routes connect from Broadway-City Hall station (Expo Line). Take the 99 or 49 bus to the UBC campus; the journey from downtown takes 40-50 minutes by public transit, about 25 by car. Parking on campus is charged.

The UBC Campus and Surroundings

Most visitors combine the MOA with the UBC Botanical Garden and the Nitobe Memorial Garden (a traditional Japanese stroll garden), both a 10-minute walk away. The Pacific Spirit Regional Park, 763 hectares of second-growth forest wrapping around the campus, has walking and cycling trails extending to the eastern municipal boundary.

Wreck Beach is below the cliffs at the campus’s western edge, accessible by steep trails from the clifftop. It is one of the larger clothing-optional beaches in North America and has been a local institution since the 1970s.

Where to Eat

Light meals and coffee are available inside the museum. More substantial options are in the UBC campus centre or in Wesbrook Village on the campus’s south side. The half-day excursion pattern – MOA, then botanical garden, then clifftop walk above Wreck Beach – works well as a structured afternoon from downtown Vancouver.