Legacy Art Galleries

featureBrowse collection 
detail of "Girl In Blue Flowered Nightgown", Jack Wilkinson. An oil painting of a girl in a night gown lying on a bed reading a book.

On Now - Life Stories

Art shapes our life stories, our sense of self and our relationships, as we journey through the life stages. Life Stories brings to light a provocative array of visual and material culture from the University of Victoria Art Collections that engages with life stages and related rituals.

Life Stories
Artist Connie Morey walks with her back turned to the viewer. She is walking on gravel and behind her is a red brick wall. There is a sculptural object on her back comprising of images of vacant spaces.

Hearing Voices: Performance by Connie Morey

While the exhibition Life Stories gives space to the objects and associated memories that inhabit our lives, Connie Morey’s (UVic Alumni, MEd ’07, Phd ‘17) performed sculpture Hearing Voices explores the voices and stories of life in seemingly uninhabited spaces. What is the voice of a decomposing building, of the overgrowth of nature on concrete walls, of the layered processes of graffiti on unkept structures? What are the life stories of the spaces we don’t often see?

Upcoming Programming

Life Stories Online Exhibition

Explore Life Stories from home! Check out the online exhibition for 360° exhibition photos, video interviews, object biographies, and more. 

Life Stories

Life Stories Soundscapes

University of Victoria Anthropology of Sound students found inspiration in Life Stories for their final projects. Each student created an original soundscape or a sonic composition to accompany an object from the exhibition. Experience the soundscapes in our Broad Street window from 4:30pm until 10pm Tuesday to Saturday.

Life Stories Soundscapes
A cropped image of the exterior of Legacy Gallery Downtown with a blue hue and the text "Legacy Downtown Safety Plan"

Read our Safety Plan

We are dedicated to ensuring a safe experience for gallery visitors. Review our safety plan before your visit to learn how we are working to keep Legacy Downtown a safe cultural site to enjoy and learn from art exhibitions. 

Legacy's Safety Plan
Claire Aitken places an Ikat textile from Indonesia. In background: Bride’s Coat, Qing Dynasty (early 20th century); in foreground: beaded slippers from Malaysia (21st century). Photo: Leon Fei

Textiles in focus at Legacy’s interrupted exhibition

The textile exhibition, Woven, Embroidered and Stitched in Tradition: Women’s Textile Labour in 20th Century Asia, opened Feb. 8 at Legacy Maltwood and was intended to run through the first week of May.

Read more

Legacy Art Galleries

black line illustration of Legacy's downtown locationUniversity of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries is the university’s art museum.

We reach across disciplines, within and beyond the university, to engage visitors in learning and dialogue about issues that matter.

Our two main goals are:

  • To develop engagement opportunities that grow and enhance links between UVic and the wider community.
  • To provide learning opportunities through exhibitions, public programs, publications and community-based research projects related to UVic's collection of Canadian, Indigenous and international historic and contemporary art.

We acknowledge with respect the Lekwungen peoples on whose traditional territory the University of Victoria stands, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.