Portrait Gallery of Canada

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A proposed future home of the Portrait Gallery

The Portrait Gallery of Canada (French: Le Musée du portrait du Canada) is a major Canadian art collection specialising in portraiture located in Ottawa, Ontario. It was established on 23 January 2001 by the federal Government of Canada as a programme of Library and Archives Canada. Since the nineteenth century the Library as gathered an extensive collection of paintings and portraits, almost all of which are in storage in its archives in Gatineau, Quebec. The new gallery would create a public location to display this collection.

Renovations and additions were in progress at 100 Wellington Street, the former location of the American Embassy and across the street from the Parliament Buildings. It was intended that this building would house the gallery's collection upon its completion, projected to take place in 2007, however in 2006, the project was put on hold by the Conservative government, who are considering locating the museum in Calgary and for it to be partially funded by the energy company EnCana.^[1] In particular, there have been discussions with EnCana about including the museum in the company's office tower currently under construction in Calgary.^[2] As of June 2007, construction of additional gallery space has not started ^[3] In late June 2007, the company announced that the gallery won't be moving from Ottawa into EnCana Corporation's new office tower in Calgary. ^[4] However, both Edmonton and Calgary are interested in hosting the facility, despite a montion before the Senate that would make it illegal to move the gallery outside of Ottawa^[5].