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Opening this Fall, SFU’s first art museum will offer instructors a unique new setting to engage students in dialogue, inquiry, and critical reflection.

The Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum, located adjacent to Burnaby campus’ main transit hub and across from the new First People’s Gathering House, will offer guided tours of its visual art exhibitions to classes, and includes an art studio where instructors can engage classes in art-making sessions led by an artist-in-residence or the Gibson’s team. The museum’s learning team is also available to collaborate with instructors to design custom experiences related to their course topics, and the museum will pull works from the SFU Art Collection vault to support specific research inquiries.

According to Gibson Art Museum director Kimberly Phillips, the museum aims to be a dynamic learning space that leverages art as tool for inquiry.

“The creation of this art museum is rooted in the vision of the late Edward Gibson—one of SFU’s charter faculty members and director of SFU Gallery from 1986 to 1997—and reflects his belief that visual art can break down disciplinary silos. Regardless of whether students are studying biology, history or otherwise, art ignites critical thinking and dialogue. It encourages the exploration of topics from multiple perspectives and helps learners uncover deeper, more integrated insights.”

The museum represents a consolidation of SFU Galleries’ three galleries previously spread out across SFU’s Burnaby and Vancouver campuses and was made possible through a generous donation from the Gibson family.

Education professor Lynn Fels says the award-winning design of the space will inspire students’ curiosity and creativity. 

“Art is inquiry and so having a dedicated space for students to create art is thrilling from a learning and teaching perspective. What makes this facility especially unique is the opportunity to engage in a learning space beyond the conventional classroom. That shift alone can open up new ways of thinking, engaging and knowing. Even the angles of the room are unexpected—it’s not four square walls with desks and a podium. The space itself invites inquiry and disruption, offering endless possibilities limited only by our imaginations.”

The museum’s inagural exhibition, which opens to the public Saturday, September 20, 2025, will expore the concept of “edge effects,” a term used by ecologists to describe the conditions created when two adjacent ecological communities meet.

Instructors who are interested in integrating an experience at the Gibson Art Museum into their courses can sign up to museum’s Educators’ Newsletter, where they will be alerted about upcoming projects and programs by emailing thegibson@sfu.ca. To learn more about the Gibson Art Museum visit .  

More about the SFU Art Collection can be found here.