The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up 46,621 square metres , with 12,400 square metres of space used for exhibiting art; making the museum one of the largest art museums in North America by exhibition space.
The institution was established in 1880 at the Second Supreme Court of Canada building, and moved to the Victoria Memorial Museum building in 1911. In 1913, the Government of Canada passed the National Gallery Act, formally outlined the institution's mandate as a national art museum. The museum was moved to the Lorne building in 1960. In 1988, the museum was relocated to its present location. The National Gallery of Canada is presently situated in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The building was designed by Moshe Safdie and opened in 1988.The museum's permanent collection includes over 93,000 works from European, American, and Asian, Canadian, and indigenous Canadian artists. In addition to exhibiting works from its permanent collection, the museum also organizes and hosts a number of travelling exhibitions.
