Museum of Anthropology: Worth It?
Yes, and the most important fact about it in 2026 is what it isn’t: closed. The Museum of Anthropology at UBC reopened 13 June 2024 after an 18-month seismic upgrade, and it has been open for more than two years since, so any write-up describing it as shut for renovation is out of date. What’s actually inside, Arthur Erickson’s 1976 Great Hall built to hold Northwest Coast First Nations objects at real scale, has no equivalent elsewhere, and the 15-kilometre trip out from downtown is the only real reason visitors skip it.
| Key facts | Museum of Anthropology |
|---|---|
| Admission | Adult CAD 26 ( |
| Hours | 10am-5pm most days, Thursdays to 9pm, closed Mondays in winter season |
| Time needed | 1.5-2.5 hours for the Great Hall and Multiversity Galleries |
| Getting there | Bus 99 or 49 from Broadway-City Hall Station, 40-50 min from downtown |
The Great Hall
The Hall’s defining feature is height and light. Erickson’s design approximates outdoor conditions: a south-facing glass wall opens the space to views of the Strait of Georgia and the mountains of Vancouver Island. Into that light the museum has placed totem poles, mortuary poles, house posts, and carved feast dishes from Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka’wakw, and other First Nations cultures, at the scale the objects were made for and rarely get shown at elsewhere.
Bill Reid and the Multiversity Galleries
Bill Reid, the most significant Haida artist of the 20th century, runs through the collection as a connecting thread, including a large carved cedar chest. His best-known single work, The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, actually lives in the departure hall of Vancouver International Airport rather than here, a contrast worth knowing before you go looking for it on-site. The Multiversity Galleries use visible storage, roughly 15,000 objects in glass-fronted drawers and shelves with touchscreen catalogue information, genuinely rewarding for visitors with the time to browse rather than just walk through.
Is the 40-50 minute trip out to UBC worth it?
Yes, for the Great Hall alone. The distance is the honest reason most first-time visitors skip MOA in favor of downtown attractions, but nothing inside downtown Vancouver’s smaller museums matches this collection’s scale or presentation. Pair the visit with the UBC Botanical Garden and the Nitobe Memorial Garden, both a 10-minute walk away, to make the transit time worth the full afternoon.
Getting there and what’s nearby
Take the 99 or 49 bus from Broadway-City Hall Station on the Expo Line; there’s no direct SkyTrain to campus. Check current hours before you go at moa.ubc.ca , since the museum shifts to shorter winter hours and closes Mondays outside the mid-May to mid-October season. Beyond the two gardens, Pacific Spirit Regional Park’s 763 hectares of second-growth forest wrap the campus, and Wreck Beach sits below the cliffs at UBC’s western edge if you want a longer afternoon out of it.
If you’re building UBC into a longer stay, our 4-day itinerary pairs this museum with Kitsilano Beach on the same day, and the Vancouver overview covers the rest of the city this page deliberately leaves out. Book Vancouver accommodation, not a UBC campus stay, on Booking.com ; the museum works far better as a half-day trip from downtown than as a base.